In December I came home and, as usual, shouted to Alexa to turn on the lights but was surprised when she responded that there was “no Amazon account associated with this device”. Frustrated and in the dark, I tried to log in, only for the app to confirm there was no account associated with my email.
I have a disability that means I cannot make phone calls, so my husband used his account to seek help. Eventually, someone called us back but confirmed there was no account and told me to set up a new one.
But I have had my account since 2007 and don’t want to lose my downloads and order history. I had 30-40 Kindle ebooks, as well as music and films, plus about £30 credit.
I tried to contact Amazon via the Resolver website but keep receiving the response that I need to “log into my account”, which is impossible. Surely a paper trail of me exists somewhere?
SM, Dunblane
It was a shock to lose access to your Amazon account and media bought over more than a decade.
The retailer was more helpful when I got in touch, and it turns out the problem stemmed from the fact you closed your account on Amazon.com in October when you were notified of a security breach.
However, when you closed your account on this marketplace, which had a different login, shutting an account on one marketplace closes the same account globally.
There had been a time lag between the two events, so you had been able to continue placing orders on the site.
Unfortunately, Amazon was unable to restore your account and the data associated with it. But to get you up and running again, it has sent you a £100 gift card plus an extra £25 to replace the credit on your old account.
You have learned the hard way about what it means to “own” book and music downloads, and will use the cash to buy the real thing.
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