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Amazon cancels my account after exposing account lockout for “racist doorbell” [video]

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Re: Amazon cancels my account after exposing account lockout for “racist doorbell” [video]

#151

Post by alfredbez »

mda wrote: post #146
coldtea wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The reason given was that purchases made through his links were for personal use or made by friends and family, which he denies He has 1.8 million subscribers and talks about gear. There's no way his affiliate purchases were done by "friends and family" in any significant number above 0.1% to even matter. It's just Amazon payback BS.

Hm if he has 1.8 million subscribers, I wonder how small is " small amount of revenue from his affiliate links" for him.

> "This account makes me a few hundert dollars a month"

source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kcohq313q00&t=268s

Re: Amazon cancels my account after exposing account lockout for “racist doorbell” [video]

#152

Post by zyx321 »

mda wrote: post #146
coldtea wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The reason given was that purchases made through his links were for personal use or made by friends and family, which he denies He has 1.8 million subscribers and talks about gear. There's no way his affiliate purchases were done by "friends and family" in any significant number above 0.1% to even matter. It's just Amazon payback BS.

Hm if he has 1.8 million subscribers, I wonder how small is " small amount of revenue from his affiliate links" for him.

It's in the video. Several hundred dollars per month.

Not a lot of money compared to what he makes off his youtube channel, or off his for Macbook repair business with six employees.

He's mad that he got banned for an obviously fake reason, not because of the money.

Re: Amazon cancels my account after exposing account lockout for “racist doorbell” [video]

#153

Post by phpisthebest »

smcl wrote: post #123
unreal37 wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you attempt to use a credit card that you haven't used in years, the bank will similarly ask you to verify your identity. I don't think it's weird that unused valuable accounts need re-identification when you start to use them again. I don't mind anti-spam measures in cases which are common spam techniques. Hijacking unused accounts is common enough to warrant an approach like this.

Wait so if you have a "backup" card in case of emergency, the chances are it'll fail anyway? I kinda hate this stuff where we have to guess at how some company's internal mystery processes work to actually use their service :-/

I have this problem all the time with the HSA card (or did until i changed providers)

I would rarely use it, but then I would try to pay for something with it and it would be declined, when I called they always said it was "suspended due to inactivity"

Re: Amazon cancels my account after exposing account lockout for “racist doorbell” [video]

#154

Post by iso1631 »

Etrnl_President wrote: post #106
midasuni wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because that’s not how society works

Worked for thousands of years, but perhaps now it is time to rely on the people bribed by big corporations?

Participating in society requires you to use the tools that 90% of people use. In the past you could live by being paid in cash, buying things locally, etc.

You still had issues, if the local butcher decided to ban you then you were going to be vegetarian. If the church said you were awful (perhaps in retaliation to you seeing the priest doing something) then you'd basically have to move, you could no longer participate in society.

Society has reconfigured itself away from that. The problem now is you can't even move. If a couple of big corporations ban you, you're screwed. You will struggle to sell your services when 95% of people want to buy your products on amazon and pay by credit card.

The solution here is to have due process and appeals. The impact of amazon or whatsapp blocking you is far more on you than on them, just like the butcher banning you in the past. There's just less comeback, you can't even talk to a person on the phone, let alone face to face. You can't appeal to the rest of the village (well you can, people post on HN or Twitter and get bans overturned, but that's a minority workflow and is far less successful than in the past)

Re: Amazon cancels my account after exposing account lockout for “racist doorbell” [video]

#155

Post by nonethewiser »

norman784 wrote: post #149
mda wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hm if he has 1.8 million subscribers, I wonder how small is " small amount of revenue from his affiliate links" for him.

He says in the video an approximate amount, I don't remember exactly the number, but he said that his energy bill is 4x the amount he gets from the affiliate program.

Apparently he also said its a few hundred per month. So his energy bill is over $800?

Re: Amazon cancels my account after exposing account lockout for “racist doorbell” [video]

#156

Post by phpisthebest »

sfjailbird wrote: post #143
Yeri wrote: post #28

Summary: The YouTuber had his Amazon affiliate account canceled after 7 years without warning or evidence of wrongdoing. The reason given was that purchases made through his links were for personal use or made by friends and family, which he denies. He finds the timing suspicious as it came a week after he made a video criticizing Amazon for canceling a customer's account for a racist doorbell claim. He argues that t…

Thanks for the summary but you're burying the lede - what the hell is a racist door bell?

Amazon suspended a persons account because a Amazon delivery driver thought they heard a racist comment come from a video doorbell...

in reality it was a standard automated response that the customer happen record from another camera but they had to prove to amazon there was no racist comment made, and it took 1 or 2 weeks for them to unsuspend the account

During that time all of their Amazon Devices (echo, alexa automation, etc) were also non-functional

Re: Amazon cancels my account after exposing account lockout for “racist doorbell” [video]

#157

Post by _v7gu »

coldtea wrote: post #107
Yeri wrote: post #28

Summary: The YouTuber had his Amazon affiliate account canceled after 7 years without warning or evidence of wrongdoing. The reason given was that purchases made through his links were for personal use or made by friends and family, which he denies. He finds the timing suspicious as it came a week after he made a video criticizing Amazon for canceling a customer's account for a racist doorbell claim. He argues that t…

> The reason given was that purchases made through his links were for personal use or made by friends and family, which he denies He has 1.8 million subscribers and talks about gear. There's no way his affiliate purchases were done by "friends and family" in any significant number above 0.1% to even matter. It's just Amazon payback BS.

Maybe he considers his subscribers as family :^) Man, I’m really happy I have cancelled my prime and have non-amazon options for online shopping.

Re: Amazon cancels my account after exposing account lockout for “racist doorbell” [video]

#158

Post by nonethewiser »

phpisthebest wrote: post #156
sfjailbird wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the summary but you're burying the lede - what the hell is a racist door bell?

Amazon suspended a persons account because a Amazon delivery driver thought they heard a racist comment come from a video doorbell... in reality it was a standard automated response that the customer happen record from another camera but they had to prove to amazon there was no racist comment made, and it took 1 or 2 weeks for them to unsuspend the account During that time all of their Amazon Devices (echo, alexa aut…

I don’t even care if it was a racist doorbell - shitty move by Amazon.

Re: Amazon cancels my account after exposing account lockout for “racist doorbell” [video]

#159

Post by rany_ »

nonethewiser wrote: post #155
norman784 wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He says in the video an approximate amount, I don't remember exactly the number, but he said that his energy bill is 4x the amount he gets from the affiliate program.

Apparently he also said its a few hundred per month. So his energy bill is over $800?

He operates a business, so that's not surprising.

Re: Amazon cancels my account after exposing account lockout for “racist doorbell” [video]

#160

Post by permo-w »

Yeri wrote: post #28

Summary: The YouTuber had his Amazon affiliate account canceled after 7 years without warning or evidence of wrongdoing. The reason given was that purchases made through his links were for personal use or made by friends and family, which he denies. He finds the timing suspicious as it came a week after he made a video criticizing Amazon for canceling a customer's account for a racist doorbell claim. He argues that t…

similarly, a few days ago I was working on a project with a couple of people and I had our meeting notes in a Google Doc. I went to share the doc with the people and was told that it wouldn't be possible due to "inappropriate content". after a quick scan of the text I realised that it was because the notes contained the word "imagery" - in relation to a logo. once removed, the problem went away, but it's disgusting to me that not only has Google given themselves the right to scan your documents for information, not only have they appointed themselves as moral arbiters of your work, they haven't even done it very fucking well. I'm guessing their filters have some kind of reference to "pornographic imagery" or something similar, and this has somehow meant that just the word "imagery" flags up as inappropriate

luckily I found the issue quite quickly, and the meeting wasn't held up, but how likely is it now that there's a flag against my account? what if it happens again? this just makes me want to use any alternative possible to Google's ecosystem

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