playa

Amazon sucks big time!!! I signed up for those MCi deals a while ago, and they didn't come through till the beginning of january. By that time it was too late to use the $50 off $200 coupon. So I was waiting for another sale. I bought $150 worth of stuff on one account by using my cousin's GC. Half of it didn't work. I sent one back requesting a refund and one requesting an exchange. The second time I requested a refund (and printed the label again), they sent me a replacement item 2nd day air. I still didn't send the original back. But I have sent back the other item whcih I wanted a refund for.

Then I wanted to buy some stuff for my other cousin, so I put a bunch of stuff in my cart and tried to check out.. It told me that the offer was limited to one per customer (It wouldn't let me use another MCI/Amazon GC on the same account) So I created another account and ordered the stuff from there. Before the order shipped though, both of my accounts got cancelled and the order got cancelled. After I called amazon and spoke to their CSR they transferred me to the Account Specialist who told me that someone would contact me as soon as possible. Then I got an e-mail saying that my accounts have been closed for GC abuse. What's up with that? Those are totally legit GC's. And I tried making another account and using that GC, it said it was used already.

I called MCI, they told me that once I get the GC, it out of their hands. I called amazon and was told again that someone would contact me. Still no response. What should I do?

Joshua

Suck it up my friend. You got as much as you could. As soon as you start creating multiple accounts, they'll use that as a reason not to honor your request.

Hate to say it, but I don't think you've got much room to maneuver.

Sorry man.

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playa

Dude, those aren't my GC's. I'm ordering that stuff for my cousin's. They don't have a CC. I was also ordering stuff for myself as well so we use up the whole gc. The total was like $250 - $150 GC. So I was going to pay $100 real money as well. I just think amazon is dumb for losing business like that. Plus my cousins had to pay MCI bills for 2 months because they didn't want to cancel MCI before they got the offer. So they're actually in a hole by like $10-$20.

welfareloser

best you can do is to tell them that you are very sorry, but you did not know that the gc's were non-transferrable. what you need to impress upon them is that you did not sign up for the MCI deal twice; your cousin signed up for it, and then gave you his gc as a GIFT. explain that you signed up for the second amazon account only because of the "glitch" in the first one, and that you did not mean to do anything wrong. they may not care, they may show mercy. good luck.

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welfareloser

just read your response - DEFINITELY explain that your cousin has no cc, and that's waht you were doing, and there was absolutely no fraud of any kind involved.

Joshua

I agree with welfare loser. I just saw your response.
Give 'em a call and explain the situation nicely. If they basically tell you to bite it, then get mad, ask for a supervisor, and tell them that you'll file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau (www.bbb.org) and your state Attorney General (who handles things like this).

One way or another, they should honor the GC's and reinstate your account. Don't stop until they do.

Believe it or not, if you're persistant and you call them like ten times a day, you WILL eventually get someone who will either help you out nicely, Hate you so much that they'll do it just to get you off their case, or they're just too dumb to know that they're not allowed to for whatever reason.

Good luck.

playa

The problem is you can't really talk to anyone who has any influence. The people who make the decisions are probly sitting at home driking coffee in their underwear, checking their e-mail. The only way you can reach them is e-mail. (And the second account I created, I can't send e-mail from, I can only receive e-mail.) I guess I'll try calling them every 10 minutes, we'll see what happens.

NiceMann

That $150 GC was for companys anyways. Not to mention the $50 coupon code was a limited time promo. Heck be happy you were able to use 1 GC. I am getting sick and tired of people whining about things like this. You wanted $200 of stuff for switching phone carriers. Oh and on top of that you wanted another $200 for your cousin.

There is only so much money a company can lose before it goes under. I agree with Amazon on killing the accounts for you (or your cousin) using a big promo like that more then once. Oh and in their eyes it doesn't matter if one was for you and the other was for your cousin.

~NiceMann

playa

I run a company. http://www.x-deals.com
And my cousin works for me. Since it's a home based business,then both our numbers are business numbers. Therefore I was eligible for both of those GC's. And it's not like amazon just shelled out those GC's. MCI probly paid they a good part of it.

NiceMann

Running a website (especially a small one like that) is not what they consider a business. The line is your house is used for personal reasons not for business. Thats kind of like saying my kid sells lemonade in front of the house so if I put a line in his room I can call it a business line.

~NiceMann

playa

Why can't that be considered a business? I file the tax forms as a business. (Well I havent' really made any money with this site yet, cause it's not operational.) but when I work as a consultant, I file like I have my own business (I am my own business).

And if a kid makes enough money selling the lemonade, he's required to pay taxes too. And he will file as a small business owner. (Although I'm not too sure about kids having to pay taxes)

NiceMann

Oh and I hope you and techbargains.com are partners because you are using the same buttons and I see the same referral codes (if you are copying the website I would change the codes). Just strange that its totally different admins on different coasts of the US.

~NiceMann

playa

Well I borrowed a little design I'm borrowing the codes. The site is still under construction :-). I have a module that lets me add the codes myself, and I have another module which gets them off techbargains. I will write code to replace the affiliate codes later.

NiceMann

So you are "borrowing" (cough cough stealing) their buttons, content, etc... ???

playa

Well like I said the site is still in development phase. I did most of the design myself. I borrowed their buttons, but I'm probly gonna replace t hem by the time the site goes live. And as far as content, come on... It's not like they create these coupons. They get them off other sites just like the rest of us. Well some coupons come to them in e-mail, and some from merchant partners. But a lot of them come from other sites.

NiceMann

Ya but that is still cheesey going to another site (especially another deal site) and stealing their buttons and content. I mean at least be a little creative. I am sure you wouldn't want someone stealing your content if you actually did the work yourself.

~NiceMann

playa

Hey come one gimme a break... I'm only one man. I'm a programmer, I know little about design. They have a whole team of people working for them. I'm not an artist and I needed a site to be up quick. so I borrowed some design stuff. Come on, no1 really creates stuff from scratch now. You always borrow some1's work.

Jeffbx

Whoah - give me a break here. I don't have that much money, and that store has loads of stuff inside of it. They don't need all of it.

They won't even notice if I take some stuff. Give me a break - I shouldn't have to pay for this stuff - the guy who owns the store already paid for it, so why should I pay him?

No one pays for their own stuff anymore. You just take what you need. Sheesh.

playa

Hey, you know it's not the same. It's the same argument with napster. They compare it to stealing stuff from people. Well if I go into your house and I take your vcr, you're going to be mad not because I took your vcr, but because you don't have a vcr anymore. If I came and made a copy of your vcr, and left you with the original, I don't think you would be mad. It's the same thing here. With napster, you're making a copy and not taking stuff away from people. And I didn't take the stuff from their site, not letting them use it anymore. I just made a copy and modified it to fit my needs. So your store analogy doesn't work.

NiceMann

Humm if I spent my time making the buttons for my website and a guy trying to make money the same way takes my buttons off my website and puts it on his....that would kind of piss me off. Humm wonder if anyone would agree with me?

~NiceMann

playa

Well yea it would probly piss you off... Assuming you created the buttons from scratch to begin with. But if you got it from some other site, you probly got what you deserve.

Plus some people are happy when their material gets used. If I write a script, I'd be happy when other people are using it. It would make me feel good that I wrote something usefull. So it all depends on the person.

Jeffbx

Justify it however you want. You're still stealing copywrighted material. Perhaps you overlooked the little disclaimer at the bottom of the site:

© Copyright 1999-2001 techbargains.com, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

You think they didn't pay to have that site designed? Why do you think that if they paid, you shouldn't have to? Sure, if you wrote a script and released it to public domain, you'd probably be happy that people are using it. However, if you design websites for a living and people are stealing your designs, I doubt you'd be OK with that.

Let's clear this all up - why don't you drop Techbargains a line and tell them they should be flattered that you're copying their site, and see what they say.

playa

Well what's stopping me from putting my own copyright notice and then you go ahead and try proving who stole who's content. What does that copyright notice mean if anything? It's not like you go through some central authority to get the stuff copyrighted. You just put that copyright notice on there and pretend it's copyrighted? I never really understood that.

NiceMann

Humm lets see your site was registered on 12-09-2000 on a free website hoster and techbargains was registered on 10-28-1999 with a host they actually pay for. If I was you I would just shut up now before you dig yourself in deaper.

~NiceMann

styleee

um, yes you do



maybe this page will help clear things up for you

http://www.loc.gov/copyright/

__________________
i'd rather be down the shore
OH SNAP! guess where I am?

I was living down the jersey shore before Jersey Shore.

How does anyone even watch that show???

pennypinch

I swear, there must be a factory for these guys. Tell me, did you also try depositing $1 checks in ATM's, key them in as $1000, then spend the difference?

Hey, why don't you ask us to paypal you what Amazon "screwed" you for? That goes over really, really well here.

And while you're at it, maybe we can find other really cool sites for you to rip copyrighted material from. We'd be happy to be of service.

NiceMann

And here I thought I was the only one getting tired of it.

~NiceMann

playa

I don't know what you guys are so upset about. Why don't you come back to me after you stop ripping those E-commerce sites for with those "Bargains". I mean there's a reason all those sites have been going down the tubes, and you're all a big part of it. And let me ask all of you, you don't use napster, right? Cause ur a nice counciencious citizen, right? Stealing mp3's is BAD. All those poor record companies are going to go broke.

Well I dunno which one of you guys e-mailed techbargains, but they called me and asked me to take the material down. And I'm guessing they called my hosting company too, which would be really dumb, since how can I make changes to the website if its down?

NiceMann

Damn I wonder who emailed them.

~NiceMann

playa

Well there you go Mr. Scary Techbargains Man (I'm gonna sic my laywers on you. I took all techbargains content out of my site. Maybe I'll stop using the site too, and put a big notice on my site telling noone to use it. Guess that makes into less profits for you. )