Has Amazon Kindle Lost The Plot?

Publishing
Avatar of Derek HainesBy Derek Haines
3

Amazon Kindle

Over the past few weeks, Amazon Kindle has been making news for two particularly onerous actions they have taken.

Amazon Kindle

Firstly there was the ‘wiped’ Kindle episode involving a Norwegian Kindle owner, who had all her purchased Kindle ebooks mysteriously deleted from her device by Amazon, and then just as mysteriously, after the news went viral, they were reloaded.

All of this of course was accompanied by Amazon’s infamous ‘Cone of Silence‘ attitude by issuing no explanation at all. Well, they did, but as usual, it was in ‘Amazon Speak‘, which always seems to avoid any mention of the actual issue.

‘Account status should not affect any customer’s ability to access their library,” Amazon’s Kinley Pearsall wrote. “If any customer has trouble accessing their content, he or she should contact customer service for help.’

Not very open and consumer-friendly, and of course not addressing the issue at all.

The second fiasco has been Amazon’s decision to delete reviews from books. The reasons given by Amazon for this seemingly random yet widespread campaign have once again been about as clear as a CIA annual report.

‘We do not allow reviews on behalf of a person or company with a financial interest in the product or a directly competing product. This includes authors, artists, publishers, manufacturers, or third-party merchants selling the product. As a result, we’ve removed your reviews for this title. Any further violations of our posted Guidelines may result in the removal of this item from our website.’

Now that’s really clear in disqualifying just about anyone with an interest in reading books and in particular anyone who publishes on the KDP platform. ‘Biting the hand that feeds you‘, comes immediately to mind.

The last line of the statement gives another nasty warning that not only will reviews be deleted, but that the book could possibly be deleted as well. Is this going to be the third step in Amazon’s ‘Delete, Delete, Delete‘ campaign?

Oh dear that does sound like an upset Dalek now, doesn’t it?

Unfortunately, I think Amazon’s recent actions are somewhat akin to a Dalek having a very bad day, and that their communication and PR skills are about as open and friendly as a peeved little robot. Then again, I suppose it’s a really tough job being a monopolistic seeker of global domination. So what’s next in line in Amazon’s grumpy ‘exterminate, exterminate, exterminate‘ campaign?

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Avatar of Derek Haines
Derek Haines

Derek Haines is an author of quite a number of books, however, he spends most of his time blogging and making technology go horribly wrong.

Born in Australia, but now living in Switzerland with his wife and his black Cocker Spaniel, he passes many hours, trying to make technology work again, after inadvertently breaking it. It's a painful process, yet it’s such an effective self-study method in acquiring new technological skills.

As I’m a writer – I can change adroitly from the third person into the first person, and say that I love what I do and where I live, and also, that I am a Douglas Adams fanatic, bordering on a tragic. So much so, that by some spooky coincidence, my street address is 42. That’s so much more impressive than simply owning a towel and having ready access to peanuts and beer.

However, peanuts and beer are extremely important, as they provide essential sustenance during my bouts of obsessive writing, which although rare, usually take place in a horizontal position. I should mention here that I am very fond of acronyms, anagrams, allegories, and alliteration, also.

In addition, I quite like commas. The Oxford type, or otherwise. However, quite perversely, I am not enamoured by quotation marks. I use them, singularly if possible, but even then, only under sufferance. As for semicolons; who really knows how to use them?

Aside from my never-ending punctuation conundrums, I enjoy life, good food, wine, beer, and I take each day as it comes – thankfully.

3 Comments
  1. Avatar of Jack Eason
    Jack Eason says

    Finding a human being within Amazon, let alone getting anything other than a prepared replied, which bares no resemblance to your question, I’m afraid to say is sadly all any of us get Derek. 🙂

    Reply
  2. Avatar of Robert Politz
    Robert Politz says

    Not sure about the books disappearing from the Kindle but the reviews being deleted is another story altogether. This is a subject of discussion in a few LinkedIn groups with many members complaining about having good reviews disappear and negative ones staying on the page. One can only imagine the reasons why this happens.

    Reply
  3. Avatar of Elizabeth Lang
    Elizabeth Lang says

    LOL! Thanks for this article. Love it.

    I’ve been trying to warn people about Amazon all along because of all the things I’ve read about them and how they treat people once they get them into their power.

    I’ve been waiting for the other shoe to drop and it has been. Unfortunately, I only expect this Amazon news to get worse.

    Reply
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