Another Heartwarming Kindle CS Story

[joanie]

My colleague at work purchased a Kindle Touch Wi-Fi (Special Offers) within the past month. She was really excited about it, and I was happy to have sold another Kindle for Amazon . Two nights ago, she was out in the city and someone stole the Kindle from her bag at a coffee place. The next day, she deregistered the Kindle from her account, and I suggested she call Kindle CS to see if there was anything they could do (not being too hopeful about it). Turns out, they gave her a $50 credit toward the purchase of a new one because it's the "holidays."

Is this common? I remember some tech articles a few years ago flaming Amazon for having nothing in place to help people whose Kindles were stolen, although I thought it was kind of silly. If you lose your cell phone or your iPad, who is going to just give you a brand new one unless you have some kind of great warranty on it?

Anyhow, I'm impressed by Kindle CS once again.

[Holly]

What a wonderful story!  Hope she didn't have too many books charged to her account overnight.  If she did, can they be cancelled as well?

[joanie]

What a wonderful story!  Hope she didn't have too many books charged to her account overnight.  If she did, can they be cancelled as well?

Thankfully they didn't buy anything - that's one of the worries I had for her, too. From what I've read in the past, Amazon will usually refund books purchased after you lost your Kindle and someone went on a shopping spree with it.

[Ann in Arlington]

That's good to hear! 

I have always thought Amazon was a stand-up company and generally act, as they are able, in their customer's best interest. 

Initially, (as in 4 years ago when the Kindle was released) if a kindle was stolen, the answer was, 'sorry, nothing we can do without a police report'.  Which is not un-reasonable -- it's not really their responsibility.    But there was some outcry -- people wanted to be able to find out who 'took' it, or folks finding a 'lost' one wanted to be able to return it directly to the original owner.

Now, while they still won't release customers names at all, they will take a report from the person who loses it and deregister it and 'black list' it so that the finder/thief can't use it on Amazon at all.  Of course, the thief can't do anything but buy books on it, and as long as you know it's gone missing within 7 days, it's quite easy, now, to return all those purchases on MYK so you're not out the money.

And if you find a Kindle and contact Amazon, I understand they have a procedure by which you can send it to them and they will get it reunited with it's original owner.

[Hadou]

Considering what happened (total Kindle loss), that's great of Amazon to do. 

[Rita]

Amazon's CS is one of the best I've ever dealt with. I recently ordered a Touch with a lighted cover and when it was delivered some how I was sent a double order, but only charged once. I know a lot of people might have said lucky me and just kept it, but I didn't feel right about that so I contacted CS and explained what had happened. I wasn't expecting anything but a thank you, but the rep said because of my honesty and how it was appreciated he gave me a $15 credit on my account. I don't know of any other store that would have gone that extra mile to give a credit for honesty. Just one more reason why I love Amazon!