Amazon is Holding my Kindle Hostage!

My wife and I recently returned from a vacation out of the country. After we returned we did what I would hope any responsible couple would do and started going through our credit card statement to be sure all our charges were, in fact, our charges. Imagine our surprise when we saw several charges on our statement that did not match the amounts listed in Amazon's Order summary pages. Totals did not match, dates of orders did not match charge dates, etc. So we did what any rational and responsible couple should do and contacted our credit card company because we thought there was a possibility that someone had gotten access to our credit card information. At first it was just a couple of charges that were recent and seemed potentially fraudulent but then we went through all of our charges for the past several months to be sure. We found additional charge amounts that did not match directly to orders made in our Amazon account so we added those to the case as well.

Had those been actual fraudulent transactions we would never have heard from Amazon at all and we would not be in this situation. However, we did hear from Amazon. NOTE: When I say that we did hear from Amazon that is being generous. There was never an attempt by Amazon to call or initiate a conversation about the situation. I received emails from Amazon stating that my account was on hold until payment was received and then additional emails regarding each of the disputed amounts.

For anyone that is unaware of what the impact of their Amazon account being placed on hold can be let me outline that a little:

• Anything you use your Amazon account for is no longer available in any way including
• Kindle devices (including no longer being able to read any books that you purchased and had downloaded to the devices you supposedly owned.)
• Echo Devices (Internet access is essentially disabled so the device can no longer be used for anything at all and can't be reconfigured until your Amazon account is back in good standing.)
• Fire TV devices (Same as the two previous, the device is no longer useable at all for any applications)
• Account information (This includes Order History that might be slightly useful when attempting to resolve a dispute...)

All we were attempting to do was protect ourselves by having our credit card issuer dispute potential fraudulent charges. The amount of charges in dispute were just over $600. The cost of the devices we lost access to and continue to no longer have access to and the books, movies, applications, etc. that we purchased and no longer had access to because of a little lack of communication and attempt to work with us was well in excess of $1500. That does nothing to include the inconvenience and irritation this situation was also costing us.

After we reviewed the emails that were sent and attempted to match those orders to the charges that were in dispute it because apparent that several things were happening and, while I understand now what the underlying issue is, I find this to be Amazon's biggest flaw in how they handle their order management and processing.

First; If you collect several items into your cart with an expectation that you want to order it all together be aware that the order you place will likely not coincide with the charges on your credit card. 

The reason for that is that Amazon submits the charges to the credit card company based on the packaging and delivery time/date rather than on the order itself. If the items are all available within the same distribution center and can be packaged together then you get it all in one charge. However, if the products are all at different distribution centers and have different time zones, employee availability, etc. you could be looking at your charges for that same order being split up multiple times and could be several days between the actual transactions if you are ordering from external vendors and they are not selling under the Amazon Prime agreement.

Second; What you see as the charge in your order history does not always include the coupon discounts, taxes, shipping, or additional fees and/or discounts that may have been applied at the cart during purchase.

So, when you are attempting to be a good, financially responsible, member of society and check all of your charges against orders be extra careful to open every single invoice to see the details because it is very likely that your orders and your credit card charges will not match up.

Over the course of the entire time we have been faithful customers of Amazon we have spent many thousands of dollars on products and convenience including being a faithful Amazon Prime member during all that time.

Because of this situation and the lack of communication from Amazon we have reconsidered our shopping medium quite a bit. I expect we will still shop periodically from Amazon due to the convenience but I also expect we will be discontinuing the Amazon Prime annual membership and we will be seriously reducing any future purchases with Amazon. Included in this will be a review of our continued desire to keep and maintain the Amazon Echo devices we have purchased but no longer reliably expect to be able to use.

Finally, while I can understand that Amazon wants to play hardball and protect their marketplace, I find that the inability to access any of our purchased devices any longer has soured my desire to continue the relationship with the company in the future and I will speak with my legal counsel about options for how best to deal with this situation not just for us but for all Amazon customers that may be similarly diligent in protecting their finances and ending up on the wrong side of Amazon's ill-considered policies.