I had a bit of a scare tonight. All of my Amazon history was gone. Everything. No more subscribe and save, no software freebie downloads, or public domain Kindle books that I, well got for free. Paying amazon good actual money for bits is a waste of time. Always buy the physical good to which you have a right to resell. Anyway, enough preaching. I wanted to buy a hardcover book after watching the author on Moyers and Company this week.
I had a bit of a struggle trying to figure out if my account was closed, dead, shut-off, or what. My S3 was still turned on and accessible remotely along with a CloudFront pwdhash mirror. I signed in with working credentials using Cyberduck, and felt some reassurance that my account was still active somewhere.
My only interesting visual clue to me being my name was lower case on the broken account at the greeting locations, and proper capitalization on the good one. Once I figured out how to get into my good account, and that Firefox was using an older password in the keychain which Amazon created an account at one time for and had stored, I felt somewhat better figuring this out myself. So I wanted to resolve the multiple accounts and made my way to the support. Tried searching, for account removal using Amazon, got nowhere, used Google, and at least ended up with the right chat support.
Here is my chat transcript with the fine Amazon Customer Support rep “Charu.”
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You are now connected to Charu from Amazon.com.
Me:some how i managed to get two amazon accounts under one email address. i managed to login to this one tonight. it has no history. I would like to remove it if possible that it will not effect my other working account with history and subscriptions.
Charu:Hello, my name is Charu. I’ll be happy to help you today.
Me:Hi Charu
Charu:Okay.
I have sent you an email to reset the password, please check if you received it?
Me:nothing yet.
it was really weird, because one this “broken” account my name is all lowercase. and on the working one my name is capitalized properly.
just got it
Charu:Now first reset it and then log out of the amazon account.
Me:the broken one right?
how can i be sure which one i am resetting?
Charu:I have sent you a specific one.
Me:since the email is the same token for both accounts.
Charu:I have sent you a specific one.
Me:Are you sure?
Charu:Yes, we do this everyday.
Me:I didnt meant to insinuate otherwise.
ok. i changed it.
Charu:I can understand, I was just trying to build confidence in you.
Now did you logout of the amazon account?
Me:yep
had to check for open tabs
Charu:Now you need to login with the new password you just reset to.
Me:so, you merged the two accounts?
Charu:No.
Me:i see my good history
Charu:We will close the extra one later.
Yes, this is the right account now.
Me:oh ok
So now what happens?
Charu:Now we can close the extra account via the link below, once you fill in the details within 24hrs.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/rsvp/rsvp-mi.html?q=acc1
Me:ok. how do I signify which account? since again, it’s only asking for my email.
Charu:Your are right.
Me:*phew*
Charu:Let me give you the link for account 2.
Its very simple, on the above link the number has to be made 2 instead of one like this below:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/rsvp/rsvp-mi.html?q=acc2
Me:OK I see
Charu:Is there anything else I can do for you today?
Me:I think I am good.
I really freaked out when I couldnt figure out what happened earlier, and realized you allow multiple accounts on one email token.
its not published anywhere i found
Charu:Yes it happens if accidentally you select that you are a new customer instead of an existing customer.
What’s not published?
Me:The amazon.com allows multiple accounts on a single email address.
I almost thought it was a boss-key feature
like encryption offers dual passwords, amazon offers dual passwords. for history and etc.
Charu:Okay, got it.
Me:Anyway, thanks Charu
Charu:You’re welcome.
Thanks for visiting Amazon.com. We hope to see you again soon!
Charu from Amazon.com has left the conversation.
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Charu from Amazon.com is no longer connected Secure Connection.
Not bad for 24 minutes, but I will be damned if this problem doesn’t effect more people & there should be an easier way to solve it. Have fun Amazon. Love Rob.
Or if you are interested in having multiple amazon accounts under one email address using multiple password you can do that too. Just create a new account instead of signing in, as Charu said creates this test case which allows it to happen.
UPDATE: another amazon representative got back to me via email, and it appears I have three accounts. The third account hasn’t been used since 2001. Oi vey.
UPDATE 2012.06.27: They removed the extra accounts after a few more volleys over email. Allowing creating of multiple Amazon accounts based on a single email token and only distinguished by password makes things difficult.
Hello,
As you requested, your accounts#2 and #3 have been closed, and they’re no longer accessible to you or anyone else.
If you have any problems accessing your open account#1, you may need to update your password. To reset your password, go here:
http://www.amazon.com/password?tag=px-20