Amazon said I ‘violated’ policy but I’m innocent

I relocated to England from New Zealand on 16 May to take up a teaching position in September. Around that date, I opened an Amazon UK account, as my previous Amazon account was attached to a disconnected New Zealand phone number.

On 29 May, I ordered a neck pillow since I had left mine behind. The order was processed, and I was informed of a delivery date. On 1 June, I received a notification from my bank stating that Amazon had refunded the money. About an hour later, I received an email from Amazon saying that it had restricted my account to digital purchases only. It would automatically cancel all non-digital orders placed on Amazon.co.uk and if I had been charged, a refund would be processed.

This was because I had apparently “violated” Amazon’s returns and refunds policy repeatedly. If I wanted to appeal this decision I had to reply to the email to reach an account specialist. The normal customer service team could not reverse the decision.

I did this, pointing out that I have never returned anything to Amazon, let alone violated its policy. I have had two previous Amazon accounts attached to different email addresses, and suggested that those might have been hacked.

Amazon replied: “We closely examined your account and we did not find unauthorised activity on it.” I wasn’t sure how to take this, so tried to order a book. The order was processed, a delivery date was scheduled, and then the email arrived: my order had been cancelled and the money refunded because I had violated Amazon’s refund T&Cs. Can you please help?

I asked Amazon to double check and reinstate your account if it found you were innocent of the alleged violations. Amazon never explains what has caused a problem with a customer’s account, but a day later it emailed you to say: “After further consideration, we have reinstated your Amazon.co.uk account. We are sorry for the inconvenience... while your account was unavailable. We would appreciate your input about anything we can do to help prevent such issues in the future. We want you to have a rewarding experience shopping at our store.” I bet.

Email your problems to Jill Insley at your.problems@observer.co.uk