List of victims (who recently spoke up)
Instructions to submit your case can be found below the table.| AMZ | Date | Solved in | Account | Order value | Document type | Issuer (lang) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ? | 2023-05 | few days, see note | Diamond | $~50 | - | American Express |
DiamondDepth_YT tried using a $50 American Express gift card on their Amazon account. No, no, no, that's absolutely unacceptable. Account suspended. Update: Amazon got back to them.. shortly after posting on Reddit and being added to this list. It takes little detective work to figure out DiamondDepth_YT has 3K followers on YouTube. There's probably enough information in the Reddit post for Amazon to find the account, so I wonder if Amazon got scared. | ||||||
| US | 2023-05 | few days, see note | Sensitive_ | $200 | Two billing statements, receipt of gift card | ING, Visa (German) |
After ordering $200 worth of gift cards Potato's account was suspended. Their billing statement was declined because Amazon's account "specialists" are incapable of reading documents that aren't annotated with Comic Sans. Potato got their account back after annotating a billing statement and encircling all requested information. Because that's what it takes. | ||||||
| ? | 2023-04 | ? | Relenel (Reddit) | ? | Billing statement, scans of government-issued ID and physical credit card | ? |
Accidentally ordering two copies of the same book and cancelling that order was their crime. After sending Amazon more info than they ever should have needed, Amazon asked for a "bank routing number" which isn't used by banks in Relenel's country. That's absolutely unacceptable, so Amazon closed their account. | ||||||
| US | 2023-04 | ? | Iraymur (Reddit) | $~50 | Screenshots of online banking | ? (PL) |
Iraymur got locked out of their account due to "unusual payment activity". Despite receiving three mails mentioning payment failure, the card was charged and the item delivered. Iraymur tried to provide proof that it's their card and talked to customer service but no dice. | ||||||
| ? | 2023-04 | ? | Quirky | ? | - | - |
Quirky | ||||||
| US | 2023-04 | ? | Nate | $~114 | Photos of physical gift cards | Amazon (EN) |
Nate | ||||||
| ? | 2023-04 | ? | Sadhbh | ? | none | - |
SadhbhTheCowardly's account is on hold for using a gift card. They are asked for billing information, but.. they used a gift card. | ||||||
| DE | 2023-04 | >1 month | merr1k (Reddit) | €330 | Billing statement (PDF), screenshots of chat with TBC, photo of card | VISA, TBC |
merr1k had to pay $6 for a billing statement from their bank(!) only for Amazon to decline it because of course they did. Amazon asked for a photo of their card, after providing it Amazon blocked merr1k. In a PM with Nocarder merr1k stated "the worst is that the cause is probably a faulty 3d secure on amazon.de. it doesn't work and suspends accounts automatically. you are not even prompted for a code, but since code is not received - ban" | ||||||
| US? | 2023-04 | ? | AlexIn | ? | Billing statement | Bank of America (EN) |
According to AlexInThePalace, the billing statements from Bank of America only state the bank account number, not the credit card number, and are thus rejected by Amazon. | ||||||
| US | 2023-03 | - (closed, will no longer pursue) | (closed) | $~50 | Billing statement, scan | ING (NL) |
Family member offered to use their card if I reimbursed them. Tried a small gift. I didn't need to imburse them. | ||||||
| US | 2023-03 | 6 weeks | (resolved) | $~2500 | Billing statement, digital | Rabobank (NL) |
Billing statement only included the last three, not four, numbers of the card. | ||||||
| ? | 2023-02 | ? | giantt2 (Reddit) | ? | - | ? |
After ordering a laptop giantt2's account was suspended. After it was reactivated, they tried to order the laptop again - and their account was suspended.. again. | ||||||
| ? | 2023-02 | ? | dinis553 (Reddit) | ? | - | ? |
Had their account repeatedly suspended and finally locked as they tried to order. | ||||||
| ? | 2023-02 | ? | ninuzzo28 (Reddit) | ? | Billing statement, certificate of possession | Bitsa |
According to ninuzzo28, Bitsa virtual credit cards and billing statements carry no name or credit card number. They obtained a certificate of possession from Bitsa, but Amazon didn't care. | ||||||
| ? | 2023-02 | ? | BeanC0unt3r (Reddit) | ? | - | - |
BeanC0unt3r tried to order something using the Amazon account of their dad, but their own debit card. Amazon suspended the account and dad can no longer access his Kindle library. show | ||||||
| ? | 2023-01 | 1 week | Dazzling-Judge-1816 (Reddit) | $250 | Visa gift card receipt, card photos | Visa, issuer unknown (ES) |
D-J-1816 bought five $50 Visa gift cards and was locked out after putting the money in their Amazon account. They stated in a PM with Nocarder that it took "like a week" to resolve this and they "just kept calling over and over". Sounds like fun.
| ||||||
| ? | 2023-01 | ? | FaultOut (Reddit) | ? | ? | ? |
Locked out of their account, FaultOut was unable to figure out what documentation Amazon wanted for their Visa gift card. | ||||||
| ? | 2023-01 | ? | Smooth_ | $500+ | ID, billing statements, proof of gift card purchase, rent bill, utility bills | ? |
After adding $500+ worth of gift cards to their account from wedding gifts, their account was suspended. Then, Amazon customer service ghosted them. | ||||||
| ? | 2023-01 | ? | bakanisan (Reddit) | ? | - | ? |
Amazon wanted a statement for their one-time virtual card, but as Amazon cancelled the order no statement was available. | ||||||
| ? | 2023-01 | ? | ResidentGuard | ? | - | ? |
The order was eventually shipped despite both the account and order being cancelled. The account remained cancelled, preventing ResidentGuard6855 from adjusting or cancelling the order. show | ||||||
| ? | 2022-12 | ? | KinaKrimson (Reddit) | $~1700 | - | ? |
After phone verification the order was eventually shipped despite both the account and order being cancelled. The account remained cancelled, preventing Kina from adjusting or cancelling the order. They had already bought the items elsewhere. show | ||||||
| ? | 2021-?? | 3 weeks | Familiar | ? | - | ? |
(this older case is included as it was posted recently) Amazon suspended their account after sending her sister some gifts for her new baby. It took three weeks to unlock the account. F-L stated "it worked for me after a lot of convincing and fighting. Tbh after that experience I just wanted to leave Amazon 🤦🏽♀️" show | ||||||
So if Amazon suspended or locked your account as well and doesn't like your billing statement, what can you do? Not much. You can submit your case for me to add to the list. Maybe someday Amazon realizes they have something to apologize for. Until that day, you'll have to shop elsewhere. If you submit your case (link below), please forward the first "account on hold" mail from Amazon and, if you can, some or all of the information from the following list.
This additional information would be valued, but if you'd rather not share you can skip (parts of) it.
- The mail address of your Amazon account, either in full or partially blanked. I will never publish your full mail address, but will censor it enough to still allow Amazon to find your account in their systems. (e.g. "ali*********@outlook.com" (common domain), "m****@algartelecom.com.br" (less common domain), "jane@d*****.com" (if you have your own domain)
- The name of your credit card issuer
- Document type you submitted (billing statement, utility bill, ID) or the reason why you couldn't submit a document
- Language of submitted document
- Whether the document was a scan or originally digital
- Whatever reason Amazon gave for declining it (rarely anything useful..)
- Order value
- Any suspicion you might have as to why Amazon declined your document
Submit your case! (it will be added above, publicly, unless you instruct otherwise!)
Let me know if you want me to delete your mail after processing - though if you request this and Amazon would one day ask me for more information to review your account, I won't be able to give it to them. Also let me know if you'd prefer some details (like order value) not to be published.
I will use your information to (1) populate the table and (2) attempt to get an idea (and maybe some basic statistics) on which factors trip Amazon up and (3) if they ever ask, to help Amazon identify victims. If this happens, I will double-check to only send information to an @amazon.com mail address. I won't use or share your information for any other purpose.