OMG!

I have now been with Amazon for 10 years, started out buying, now buy and sell both for me and for our local library.

Amazon has, recently, decided they needed to update their security.  So, beginning last month, 11/1/2017,  when I try to log into either account, I have to wait for a phone call and enter a security code.  All well and good.

I have to say that the response time is excellent.  I seldom have to wait more than a few moments for the initial phone call to come through.  I enter the code and am logged in.  This part has been accomplished with little or no problems.  Yeah!

Now, when I log in, it is to my buyer’s account.  I understand that and prefer it..  I click on “account” and click on “seller account” to switch.  This has, regrettably added another trip to the phone for another security code to get into the seller account of the account I am already logged into.  I see this as redundant, but understandable.  For me, it only takes a few seconds – who cares?

All and good – in a perfect world.  However, in this world, when the computer accepts my switch to the buyer account and gives me the screen for the code – often it is a screen asking me which way I wish the code sent – phone, cell phone, test…still ok, just a bit troublesome.

Following this, there is, very often, no place to type in the code and/or the code does not get sent.  This then requires me to keep reclicking on the screen and/or start over with the entire login process.  Okay, this is getting a bit ridiculous.

Now, this process has required me to do the entire process over on one occasion – two times.  This has meant logging in 3 times.

To make matters worse, this is for just one account.  I run two accounts and have to go through this for both of them, often.

So, it still being only a few minutes and I have never NOT been able to get into my account, I have not worried.

Today, I decided to put in a trouble report just so someone would take a look at it as this is about the 4-6 week (counting practice) that this has been going on.  I logged in, went to “contact us” and logged a suggestion/complaint.

I received an answer back in email about 10-20 minutes later.  Pretty quick.  The email was from the help desk consultant or whatever they choose to title that person as and  said that (paraprase) “my understanding is that you wish to be reinstated as a seller and have …” .  It went on to tell me that their records show I had been inactive for some time and that often credit card info was asked to be reentered to get the account going.  Then I was given instructions on how to do this.

This all came under the heading of  – problem: secondary login trouble – nothing said about needing to be reinstated.  In fact, nothing in my entire report to them even hinted of this issue.  I responded back on their grading/question response sheet with 1s and 2s for all the questions and a comment declaring that the help person did not ever read my problem report.

Now, all that being said – I love Amazon.  I am not blaming them for this particularly.  I run into this sort of thing a lot from different people. Normally, I simply stop buying from the company.  But I am not going to stop buying/selling on Amazon. I enjoy both and love helping our library raise money for new books.  My anger is simply that this has been the most blatant experience of “we don’t really have time to bother with you, so here is a kinda answer to your problem, maybe.”

My understanding is that many US companies are using oversea personnel to handle phone and write-in problems because it is cheaper to pay them and, often, their day hours are out night ones. I don’t mind this, UNLESS, I cannot understand the person on the other end of the phone or they can’t obviously read my English email to help me with my problem.

This is not a race issue.  This is simply an issue with companies wasting money trying to save it.  This amounts to the same thing as I was told once when the method of building security in a place I was went from 2 detailed walk-thrus a shifton 2nd/3rd to a quick spot check every hour (from 4 checks to 16 per night)  Hitting the Detex stamp clocks became the way insurance companies decided how good your security was.  And having a guard walk the rounds 8 times instead of thoroughly checking 2x was much better on insurance rates.  The company would actually save enough that the occasional robbery would not be such a long with all they would save on insurance.

Okay, this has gone and digressed.  I will stop here.  Just irked me that it happened and that all my “suggestion” work is doubtfully doing to accomplish anything.  – maybe I am just tired-

Namaste,

Scott