I had a different issue with them. I sold someone a CD and about a month later the seller filed an A-to-Z claim under the category, “Item damaged or not as described”, claiming the CD was scratched. This struck me as odd since I am very careful with these things and double-check everything that I send out. I emailed the buyer asking whether they would prefer a refund or replacement. They stated that they would prefer replacement. I sent a replacement. A day later, Amazon took it upon themselves to decide to REFUND the buyer, debiting my account. To make matters even worse, Amazon claims that the buyer does not have to return the item!

I attempted to reason with them that you either send a refund OR a replacement, but NOT both. That’s just standard business practice. If you complain to Walmart that something was defective you don’t expect to keep the item AND get a refund do you? But that’s what Amazon’s policy allows you to do!

Attempting to reason with Amazon was completely futile. You might as well be talking to the robot Hal in the movie 2001. Apparently they have some policy saying the customer does not have to return an item you send them if they grant a refund under their A to Z policy. Again, their sole discretion, bla, bla, bla.

Okay, so I only lost a few dollars, and that much is no big deal, right? But it’s unbelievable to think that they really have a policy like this that potentially gives an unscrupulous buyer a license to steal your goods. (Is that even legal?) I read a blog entry from someone else who sent out a $600 video camera later had the funds debited from his account under A-to-Z. –> http://www.complaints.com/2008/june/9/amazon.com_steals_money__173384.htm

The same behavior they exhibited towards you is the same I experienced, and many other people as well. They do not care at all about sellers or people who make them money by referring people to their site. You might say well, that’s just business, but honestly you will get better treatment from any bricks-and-mortar company any day of the week.

they sent me this

“We are writing to inform you that incorrect balances were displayed in your May earnings report on Associates Central. This was caused by a system error that resulted in an inaccurate display of additional referral fees. The error has been fixed and your earnings summary now shows accurate referral fees. ”

I checked my earnings and half my sales were deleted. They did not explain ‘their mistake” and when I wrote to them I got an inane response about a different month’s earnings.

I’m in the same place you are. Should I loose these ‘thieves’ or suck it up for the measly income I get? This just happened this morning, so I have to cool down before I decide.

The question to me now is, should I keep trying to promote the Kindle for someone with policies like this?

I guess you might say that I should keep promoting it if I believe in it. Maybe and I probably will. I think even this post shows I love my Kindle. But my time is valuable and all the stuff I did added value to them. I don’t think there is anything wrong with being compensated for adding value.

I also think the idea that someone making money as an affiliate will turn the internet into “…a giant morass of affiliate link bait, spam farms, and SEO marketing blogs..” is a bit extreme. You should blame amazon for the problem then, because they created the biggest affiliate program in the world. With out it the Internet would not be sinking in to the morass.

I hope you aren’t offended by my frank response. I mean it in no way as a personal attack, I’m just trying to present it how I see it without beating around the bush. I’m actually very interested in your opinion and experience with the Kindle, but somehow the experience feels a bit dirty or sullied when there’s an affiliate link. Not just in your case, but with all affiliate programs. It’s admittedly a very difficult line to define.. obviously, spamming your comments with my own Associates links (I have one, so I can’t be too opposed to the concept) would be blatantly wrong. So is writing a blog where you do nothing but insincerely promote products through affiliate links. Where does it stop being obviously wrong and start being just a bit slimy? And what’s the difference between slimy and legitimate? I can’t define it, but I usually know when I see it. And unfortunately, having a fairly typical “I got caught and now I’m all upset about it” post is something that generally subtracts rather than adds to the feeling of legitimacy.