Amazon restricted my account and will not refund gift card balance of £200. Totally blindsided. Any advice??

[PunishmentRoundupWithJoon]

My account has been restricted by Amazon. Because I violated their returns and refunds policy. I'm gobsmacked (sorry to those who hate that word).

I am only allowed to make digital purchases.

Have been with Amazon for over 20 years and there's never been any issues with my account.

Of late, yes, I have returned several items, for various reasons (faulty, etc) and several packages have gone missing as, despite my explicit instructions on my account, the Amazon delivery people continued to leave my parcels in an unsafe place. Mainly, the public entrance foyer of my block of flats. They are still doing this with parcels for other residents.

I have a gift card balance on the account of over £200 and I have been told that they will not be refunding this money to me. WTF?

This is made worse by the fact that I recently placed an order and applied the gift cards to that order, and it certainly looked as if the purchase had gone through, with the gift cards as payment. However, when I received my credit card statement, the payment had been taken from my credit card. So, I am now £170 out of pocket and have have a huge gift card balance that I can't use.

Please, can anyone offer any advice here? Is there ANYONE that I can appeal to at Amazon? Is it even legal for them to keep my money like this??

Thank you in advance. I'm totally blindsided by this.I cannot emphasise strongly enough that I am not a dodgy customer. There has never been ANY issues with my account up till now.

Films, TV series, Kindle books, Audible etc.

Intangible items you can't return essentially....

Ah right, that makes sense.

@Balloonhearts - yes, that's exactly it.

They left a number of parcels in a ridiculously public place, so, in the instructions on my account about where to leave/not leave parcels, I was SO CLEAR about not leaving in the public foyer. It happened again so I shifted to lockers and collection points.

This was literally the entrance to the block. The place where all tenants visitors, workmen, staff, etc, enter and head to the lifts. There is even a notice on the place where they leave parcels from the management saying "do not leave parcels here". And yet it continues. They don't even bother to ring the intercom.

So the first I know about a parcel is when I check my account to see where it is and I see that it says "delivered". I then have to hare down to the first floor, desperately hoping it's there and not been stolen.

The absolute best one was two weeks ago when I found a parcel actually outside the main gate, and it fell in as I opened the gate! I took it the relevant flat, but seriously, it was literally outside in full view of everyone passing.

@anniegun - they haven't actually closed my account, just restricted it to digital purchases.

Something similar happened to me but I had a warning when I was returning parcels, for about six months, telling me that either the return was legit or they might close my account.
I spend thousands each couple of months on Amazon so obviously my returns might also be high. I guess the system flagged that up.
I think your problem is that you look like a thief but I wonder whether you are not telling it all and had that message flagged up as well when you were buying/returning?

@Ithurtstoomuch - yes, actually, I did get a similar warning email a while ago, and it worried me at the time as it came out of the blue. I contacted customer service in a right panic and they seemed to think it was nothing to be concerned about and as I later had to return an item that went through with no issues, I just presumed it was nothing of note. The customer service person actually looked at my account and said he couldn't see anything of concern.

I certainly didn't have any message come up when I was buying or returning. Everything was just as usual.

Hey ho. We live and learn.

Ensure that your purchases are sent to lockers or local shops where you can collect them. Once you've shown Amazon that you're a responsible buyer, it'll change your restriction

Same here, we unfortunately have to order almost everything due to my chronic illness and we have quite a lot of parcels arriving.

I think we’ve had two go missing in the past two years? Neither from Amazon.

I sympathise with you OP. Unfortunately you’re paying the price for those awful thieves.

Google says
Subject: Appeal Request: Account Restriction and Gift Card Balance Recovery - [Your Amazon Account Email]
Dear Account Specialist,
I am writing to formally appeal the digital-only restriction placed on my Amazon UK account.
My account currently holds a legitimate gift card balance that was provided to me directly by my employer as a workplace benefit/reward. I have attached the official proof of this gift card issue from my employer to this email to confirm its validity.
Because this balance consists of earned, legitimate funds, I request that you either fully reinstate my physical purchasing privileges or process a manual refund of the remaining balance back to my employer or via an alternative method.
Please review my account history and the attached documentation. I look forward to your prompt response and resolution.
Sincerely,
[Your Name]
[Your Phone Number Linked to Amazon]

@MarthaLovesLaughing - I can't do that though, as I'm literally not allowed to purchase anything other than digital stuff. So, nothing that can be posted to me.

@Isabelle70 - thank you for that, it's really helpful! 🤗

It also said
Account Specialist who sent it (often [email protected] or [email protected]).
Not to use the usual chat function

DD ordered something recently and got a message to say it had been delivered. She lives in flats where there are 8 flats to each entrance. The courier hadn't rung the bell or put it inside, just propped it up outside the door to the block. When she looked it wasn't outside the door. Then a closer look at the photo showed it wasn't even the right door. They had left it outside someone else's entrance. By the time she figured out which door they had left it by it had gone. Useless.