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Amazon review: they closed my account and no refund 136

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Author of the review
6:47 pm EDT
Verified customer This complaint was posted by a verified customer. Learn more
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This review was chosen algorithmically as the most valued customer feedback.

Here's what I received from them via email.

Hello from amazon.com.

A careful review of your account indicates you've experienced an extraordinary number of incidents with your orders and corresponding shipments.

In the normal course of business, the occasional problem is inevitable. the rate at which such problems have occurred on your account is extraordinary, however, and cannot continue. effective immediately, your amazon.com account is closed and you are no longer able to shop in our store. I am very sorry for any disappointment this may cause.

Please know that any accounts related to yours have also been closed. if you were to open a new account, the same will result and it will also be closed.in the event that you attempt to do so, we will not accept the return of any additional orders, nor will we issue further refunds in connection with any future orders. we appreciate your cooperation in refraining from using our web site.

If you require additional assistance, or have any concerns, feel free to contact us directly at [protected]@amazon.com.

Please do not contact regular customer service again, as they will no longer be able to assist you.

Regards,

Account specialist
Amazon.com
Http://www.amazon.com

I tried to return a damaged item to them due to their poor packaging which isn't the first time already. now they decided to close my account. I sent them an email to find out what's going but no reply. I called their customer service and they refused to assist me. I can't return my item to them and it costs me $250, they are just simply don't want to deal with me and blacklisted me. amazon.com is a rip-off and horrible.

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136 comments
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MrBook
St. Louis, US
Jul 13, 2016 1:52 am EDT

Not for nothing here Alan, but you are not giving us any information at all. You say Amazon is criminal and unethical, but you give no details or incidents to back up your states. I have bought and sold on Amazon for years and have never witnessed any of the things you say are happening. Please give us more information so we can know what you are talking about.

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Shannon36535
Foley, US
Jan 20, 2011 7:19 pm EST

Ive ordered plenty of items through amazon and had great experiences. of course i order from amazon itself and not from other people selling on amazon. that may be the difference in our experiences.

TrashyTrucker
TrashyTrucker
Fresno, US
Jan 20, 2011 7:04 pm EST
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

Wow, do you know what you are doing/saying? LOL
Amazon is pretty much a venue for OTHER people to sell, as well as a store selling products themselves. Did your item go through a separate vendor, or through Amazon? I have NEVER had a problem using Amazon, but then again, I pay attention... ;)

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nothappy
oxon, GB
Oct 07, 2010 2:36 am EDT
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

I had a Amazon acount for 9 years and was a seller we grossed around £10, 000.00 a month on there. They kept freezing large sums of money claiming "suspicious activity?". they kept on doing it time and time again and when we complained about the service on the last e-mail, days later they sent us a rude e-mail stating they were shutting our account down and will never deal with us again, and to not contact them again as they will not re-open acount.

We had perfect feedback, Perfect credit rating(not that it matters) and excelent feedback.

Trading standards and the OFT are a complete waste of time showing absolute no interest to investigate

Amazon will continue time and time again to rip inocent people off in attempt to hold your money which is used to make large sums of interest and no one will ever stop this.

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Dmana
Mary Esther, US
Sep 07, 2010 10:10 pm EDT

I have the same problem here. They reserve my funds for up to 30 days while they are reviewing my account. When I called them, they send me an email stating that I need to email them all the tracking numbers and order numbers. I did, and they emailed me again stating that they weren't verified and needed more information from me. However, I will wait up to 30 days to ensure that the items were delivered to the right customers. And if Amazon suspend my account and doesn't release my money, I will take Amazon to the Court by contacting my Attorney General in Florida where I lives. I will have all the back up information from Amazon and I'm printing out all their evidence. Amazon, beware.

ScamBusters96
ScamBusters96
San Bernardino, US
Jun 03, 2016 8:20 am EDT
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

How were you ignored? Did you call Amazon?

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NAKEDHOMBRE
Los Angeles, US
Feb 07, 2010 6:57 am EST

CAVEAT EMPTOR BABY! YOU GOTTA DO YR OWN HOMEWORK, NO?

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Vidivo
, US
Dec 26, 2009 2:57 am EST
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

Visit http://www.amazonstealth.com/ for a complete guide on how to get back on Amazon after getting suspended. Guaranteed new account with their eBook!

- Also there is more things that Amazon tracks besides cookies on your computer.

Find out more by reading the Amazon Stealth eBook! Plus you can even get it for free on their site!

Ginger Kid
Ginger Kid
, US
Dec 15, 2009 3:09 am EST

This is confusing. And, with the caps lock, totally annoying. Also, run-on sentences make it harder for your readers to follow the intent of your message. In addition, watch your spelling, grammar, and subject-verb agreement.

For example:

"...ALL PAYMENTS HAVE WENT THOUGH SUCESSFULLY..."

The subject of this portion is the world all. "All", despite the fact that, by definition, it encapsulates many things, is still a singular. Therefore, the sentence should have read "all payments have gone through successfully."

Having said that, did a charge from Amazon.com show up in your bank account? If so, what was the amount?

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RJ Haskins
Brattleboro, US
Nov 22, 2009 7:30 pm EST

Amazon advertises deals that they do not honor. They obfuscate and deceive customers by offering 'now you see it, now you don't' deals and then impose huge restocking fees after they lure you into purchasing what was presented as an offer with special financing and then reneging.
Buy local.
Deal with human beings, not automatons.
And file complaints with your State's Attorney's office and the Better Business Bureau if you have a legitimate complaint.

Q: What's the difference between Walmart and Amazon ?
A: You can hand deliver your return to Walmart and get an immediate refund.
Try doing that with Amazon.

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acollector
Norwell, US
Nov 07, 2009 9:28 pm EST

this is some funny stuff-
you have

1. people who return many items, which is totally acceptabe to stop you from buying. its online purchasing, not a walmart returns desk.
2. most of you "sellers" are selling unlicensed produtcs which is illegal in the US. Like firedsoul who cant understand why he cant have multiple accounts from multiple computers. lol
this is some funny stuff. im laughing so hard. Like the idiot who tried to sue amazon for impounding thousands of fake handbags he was trying to sell on amazon. Or the unlicensed sports team shirts person, or the home crafter selling homemade earings that looked like helo kitty, whoops!
lol what a laugh.

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kay_us
San Diego, US
Nov 02, 2009 1:08 am EST

I had also had similar problem twice this year and their response was "We are sorry for the inconvenience and will give you some credit for next purchase". The rep actually agreed that since they were making changes to shopping cart they were having some issues (bugs in software terms). When I talked with manager the response was even more annoying and angering. He said that he will put a ticket for it and they will fix it when they will have any maintenance issues.

I highly doubt they are doing it purposely but what I think they don't care about time and anxiety they are causing to their customers. I would have appreciated if they even said that they gonna fix it immediately.

For you guys I have given a picture of the email and this should never happen and it just should trigger a flurry of phone calls to tech support and IT teams but it did not. I worked for several corporation and few fortune 500 and they would ask their team to immediately pounce on issues like this.

As the corporation becomes bigger they really don't care for small guys.

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firedsoul
, NP
Oct 04, 2009 3:08 pm EDT

Amazon is ###ing son of beach ### they will digest your money if you use more then one account from one computer.Their ###ing those mother###er system is to suck people blood and money they suck my nearly 800 dollars from three accounts ...the don't have any kind of good service the way they treat people is ### ...The ###ing amazon is ### son of beach ..why don't all amazon team come with gun to rob people in the street. Is that the way to rub people online like saying different things ...Please somebody make a case against them ...they are blood sucker ...### you amazon and your staff ...### you

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wyomingjohn
Casper, US
Aug 19, 2009 6:22 pm EDT

I am in the same situation, I opened a Seller account on 7/7/09 and sold $1000 of inventory my first week, 1 day before my funds were to be disbursed i got put on a 30 day review as I was a new seller and blah-blah-blah.Then on 08/19/09 1 day before the end of my review I got another email saying the review was extended by 14 days. of the items iv sold I canceled 1 order due to the item not working when i went to ship it out, Ive had no returns and no negative feedback. It has been 15 days since the last item I sold was delivered and I had to zero out my inventory because I cant even afford to ship anything if anyone buys it.I had been looking for a way to sell other than EBAY as the fees are a little ridiculous at htis point. Granted Amazon fees arent cheap either but I figured with the higher price i would get it was worth it, now I wished I had just listed on EBAY instead, PAYPAL may be a pain in the rear but at least when they hold funds once you prove delivery they generally release funds within a day or two. If anyone hears of Class Action against Amazon let me know at wyominghacker at gmail.com.

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meandmy2gurlz
Oak Hills, US
Aug 12, 2009 1:30 pm EDT

I Agree! Amazon did the same to me. I started selling on Amazon 7/18/09 was told that my funds were on a 14 day reserve because I am a new seller, my funds were scheduled to be release 8/1/09 the 7/30/09 I received a email from Amazon that my account is in review and that my funds are on hold for up to 30 days but I am still able to sell, just all my money will be reserved until completion of review. Also I am to fulfill all orders that were pending.

On 7/31/09 I received another email from Amazon that now my account is suspended. All listings have been cancelled and money is in reserves up to 30 days pending outcome of review.

Now not only am I out of pocket of the product that I sold. I had to pay out of pocket for shipping and I have a bunch of inventory that I just have to sit on til they review my account.

I sent all requested info, tracking numbers on every item that I sold. Answered all their questions.

I am very fustrated they are holding 4, 600 of my money. Their reason is I did very well selling on Amazon and they juat want to make sure all buyers are getting their money.

Okay, I understand that but How do they expect people to get their items. What if the seller is not able to come out of pocket on shipping. They could have released the shipping portion of the money. They have assured me that I did nothing wrong. So why are they punishing me by holding my money?

I am a single mom with 3 kids. I am trying to support my family here. They are making things very hard and there is no way to contact seller-performance directly. I sent an email to "jeff" and received a generic reply stating they are not able to answer any questions until my review is over.

I think a class action suit is great. I would like to be involved if someone does start one.

meandmy2gurlz@hotmail.com

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Doomsday
Acme, US
Jul 27, 2009 12:10 am EDT

"Amazon.com Inc is trying to survive the economic crisis".

It looks like not only major financial companies are trying prevent themselves from going down while financial crisis is showing its power, but also Amazon.com looks like showing all the signs that deep recession or may be early depression is on its way.

Sellers on Amazon.com are frustrated because every action leads to suspension of their accounts on Amazon. And what’s even worth, sellers find out that their money are reserved by Amazon for 90 days without any right to get them back for that period of time. Every Amazon policy is written in the way that leads to suspension of your account without any serious reason. Amazon blocks sellers accounts and reserves thousands or may be millions of dollars for 90 days without any valid reason. For example, a statement like: "You have 5% of your orders cancelled or refunded, and we suspend your account because of your low selling performance", looks suspicious to me. Don’t the buyers have the right to cancel the order? Or we cannot cancel or refund the order just because Amazon doesn’t want it? Or maybe it wants us to do so in order to block our accounts and hold the money?

It looks like a good way for the company like Amazon to loan money without any interest in this tough economic situation. Do you think Amazon is trying to boost up its bottom line by reserving people's money? Good strategy but looks quite fraudulent.

The government really needs to check Amazon's activities. Companies have no right to reserve people's money for such a long period of time (90 days) or have no right at all. According to Amazon the reason why they reserve your money on their account is that in case if there are any claims from the buyers they will give their money back. Don’t they have 30 day return policy? So what about the rest 60 days?

The rest 60 days is enough for Amazon to invest your funds and make money or probably just cover their losses. Can you imagine what they can do with your money during 90 day period? They can invest many times in inventory or many other things and make it look like a healthy company. But there is no place on their financial statements that shows that this or that amount of money is the actual amount that was reserved (taken) from the sellers without their permission. I think they should be forced to have a section on their 10-K reports showing the amount of money (cash) that is a reserve amount that belongs to sellers on Amazon. Otherwise it makes their financials look good and their potential stock buyers are fooled.

I think their shareholders have the right to know what is going on inside the company. They just cannot continue boosting their earnings by taking people's money without any permission.

Amazon’s “service” that allows others to sell on their website have to be terminated or BLOCKED, like they call it. Because what they are doing it is far from being ethical. I think this company is doomed to be exposed one day like any other company with practices like that.

My recommendations for Amazon stockholders: SELL, SELL, SELL. And to potential buyers: DON’T BUY. Avoid risk as this company doesn’t pay for the risk associated with its actions.

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FBA Amazon Fraud
York, US
Jul 01, 2009 8:03 am EDT

I totally agree. I sent over 100.00 of inventory to Amazon Fulfillment Center. Then they blocked my selling account. Kept making up lies about my company. They have over 10, 000 of my money and over 100, 000.00 inventory in Amazon Warehouse. They get you to send your inventory. Then they block you. Your options is to pay extremely high fee's for them to return your own items. They will not even sell through the FBA items. PLEASE BEWARE do not use FBA! Class action suit. Sounds fair. They have been ruthless and criminal. and laughing all the way!

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umwhatever
, US
Jun 27, 2009 6:55 pm EDT

ehhhh... that's business. it's the risk you take when your product is running alongside the host's own inventory.

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NDA231
Mechanicsville, US
May 13, 2009 12:54 pm EDT

Amazon Payments does not disburse customers funds. They let you create the account, then they collect funds from your customers and then they KEEP YOUR CUSTOMERS MONEY. They do not let you withdraw funds. All of your customers money WILL be kept by Amazon. If you are sceptical, please research this service online before opening an account. They took me for $1500+. If anyone is considering a class-action law suit please contact me at nda231@aol.com.

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Amazon Class Action
San Diego, US
May 05, 2009 6:27 pm EDT

We had a 93 % Seller Performance rating we sold close to 800 units since we started March 17, 2009 we had only 19 returns and they suspended us then the next day terminated us without any cause. They are holding
$11, 000 of our money and they will not even pick up the phone or e-mail me back back, please anyone call me I am going to start a class action law suite against Amazon and I plan to sue Jeff Bezos personaly on violation of the Sherman Anti Trust Act as well has on other violations. Please call me at [protected] or e-mail me rones@mac.com

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oakca
Madera, US
Apr 30, 2009 1:24 am EDT

If you contacted the seller and notified of this, your account would have been credited. Amazon does credit the buyers account for purchases not recieved.

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Queso
, US
Feb 26, 2009 3:01 am EST

You probably had numerous returned items with the same reason. Amazon.com will replace or refund an order if necessary at their own cost, but if a customer becomes abusive, Amazon.com reserve the rights not to continue accepting any future orders from you.

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lisali
London, GB
Feb 20, 2009 6:38 am EST
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

Amazon should be ashamed of themselves. They create a policy to attract customers - but if you use that policy, you get banned. Terrible!

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Nov 12, 2008 8:36 pm EST

Same Letter. Same story. Same result!

It seems that since Jeff went on Oprah talking about Amazon &his kindle he doesn't need us as customers any more!
He is too big for his britches now!

We should compile a list of other places to shop with similar prices & GOOD customer service!

I hope someone does file a class action lawsuit!
He is too big for his britches now!

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Georgi Beloev
,
Sep 30, 2008 12:06 am EDT

Same thing happened to me. I documented my email exchange with amazon here:

http://www.beloev.net/amazon.html

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aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
lorain, US
Sep 21, 2008 12:05 pm EDT

What happened to http://amazonaccountclosed.blogspot.com ?

Says the blog at amazonaccountclosed.blogspot.com has been removed.

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Bran
,
Sep 06, 2008 2:19 pm EDT

This issue made the news!
On KETV channel 7 Omaha Fri September 6, 2008

http://www.ketv.com/video/17405717/index.html

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Oleg R
,
Sep 04, 2008 1:57 pm EDT

Amazon removed the account closing thread ..

http://www.amazon.com/gp/forum/cd/discussion.html?ie=UTF8&cdForum=Fx20DX5GEB7TUX8&cdThread=Tx2RTK5F1QN15X2

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sam ha
,
Aug 08, 2016 5:00 am EDT

amazon has the worst customer service and support. I bought a watch and they ship only the box without the watch. Call their support and it's useless. Those incompetent people simply does not acknoledge teh issue and offer any help. they don't even want to ship a replacment. it's a big trouble.

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Nathalie Choueiri
,
Sep 03, 2008 6:53 am EDT

It shows a lack of professionalism when you systematically terminate the accounts of hundreds of customers without proper warning or explanation. I believe they owe every customer a proper explanation and should ensure that this policy is clearly stated in their rules and regulations.

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yuexiang
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Sep 03, 2008 12:12 am EDT

http://amazonaccountclosed.blogspot.com/ is the new web address for the group.

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Victor C.
,
Sep 02, 2008 7:26 pm EDT

http://www.epinions.com/content_442900319876

Read my review of Amazon above.

Amazon is the MOST unprofessional online store I have EVER puchased from.

I will NEVER buy from them again.

Please WARN your family and friends!

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Oleg R
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Sep 02, 2008 7:08 pm EDT

Same happened to me, the email came on 8/27/08. I have been a loyal customer for about 9 years and have spent thousands of dollars at the site and signed up to Prime. I order a ton of stuff from them and I have been returning some things lately, but I have never seen a policy or warning against that. Amazon has been expanding their selection to clothes, shoes and etc and these are things that have to be tried on or seen — I would imagine there would be many returns. Why not impose a limit or simply charge a restocking fee. They make the return process automated and simple, but then penalize you for it. When you sell just about everything, expect some returns. Many products are not described well either. The email was very rude and unprofessional. Customer Service told me they can't access my account and appeals dept is not replying to my emails. Disgusting. Will not shop there again.

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Jack
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Aug 29, 2008 4:15 pm EDT

Amazon.com is the most insensitive and arrogant company ever I have come across! This company has outsourced its customer service who are a. thoroughly unaware of the word courtesy b. not prompt in helping and c. arrogant to the core.

How can they block access to one's orders placed in last 30 days when they are supposed to provide customer service for orders they got paid for.

I am sure, if somebody slaps a law suit, this company will bite the dust. Because what their employees are doing is blatantly illegal.

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amanda
,
Aug 29, 2008 2:04 am EDT

I received the same exact email Aug. 28th, 2008 telling me my account has been closed, but I haven't returned anything to Amazon, nor bought anything/sold anything on there for a long time, so this comes as a total shock to me. There is no reason why my account should be closed. I called customer support but didn't really get any answers.

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Apratim
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Aug 28, 2008 11:34 pm EDT

Same thing happened to me yesterday. I have made purchases from Amazon for the last 6 years, and spent thousands of dollars there. In January a shipment arrived one month late, and they sent another copy by that time. But even after that I have quite a few purchases from their website without any problem; and even now I have 2 pending orders which I can not track any more. They should at least warn you if they do not like you contacting their customer service.

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yuexiang
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Aug 28, 2008 9:16 pm EDT

Like the person with the Kindle, I can't access the contents of my digital locker either. I paid for this content but it's being held hostage. How terrible. You can't trust Amazon anymore if you ever did. I remember years ago, in 2002 or 2003, I noticed a glitch on their website and reported it. They gave me a $20 gift certificate in appreciation. Years later and hundreds of purchases later, they cut me off so abruptly! That account cancellation email they sent me was dehumanizing and cruel. I'm only going to purchase my items online at the smaller stores. I hope you guys do the same. Let's Boycott Amazon over this. I feel so disempowered as a consumer.

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Thomas
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Aug 28, 2008 4:45 pm EDT

08/27 I received exactly the same. I delt with Amazon for quite few years and bought a lot of thing from them. I was returning items which I did not like in original condition as I do with any other store. They have now millions of customers, so they started to treat people like a piece of garbage.

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H.
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Aug 28, 2008 4:25 pm EDT

I received the same email yesterday too. I have been a very long-time and loyal Amazon customer. I even bought a Kindle when they released it plus many e-books for it. Guess my Kindle is now an expensive, useless paperweight. I knew it was a risk being an early adopter for the Kindle but never imagined it would be because Amazon itself would close my account, and cut off my support for the device by banning me from their website.

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Brandon
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Aug 28, 2008 4:19 pm EDT

They shut me down yesterday as well Loyal customer for 4-5 years with few returns and only returned if items were damaged in shipping or defective. Looks like a class action suit! I have pending orders that I can no longer track! I can not look up my purchase history to print off invoices or reciepts for rebates ect... This was very wrong of them.