So amazon banned me. What are my options here if any...

I promoted amazon offers on pinterest and earned about 20k+, amazon banned my account before payout and refused to release funds. Do I have a shot at suing them and actually winning or should I forget about it and move on?

Sorry if this is in the wrong section.

 

What did you do to get banned? Tell us more about what happened to help in reply.

 

Basically I was told I broke pinterest tos, so I broke amazons tos.

Also I was told that I was direct linking from pinterest or something to that effect.

People clicked the picture>went to amazon, but in my posts I made it fully aware they were going to amazon, and I even talked to an amazon rep who checked my links and said there was nothing wrong with it as they didn't see the difference between this and doing it from twitter or facebook.

 

if you have money i would consider to sue them.
especeally if you can prove that a amazon rep said this linking is ok.

i think this big players just treat you like shit because nobody fight back.
i would see a lawer and consider the risk .... hoe much does it cost ect ....at least i would write him a letter asking for compensation. you brought the leads you should be paid. the can ban you but they have to pay for the work done.

 

I recommend to sue them...

Thats big amount of money already..

 

Do you got the reps name and any other kind of proof that a court would accept? Otherwise - no chance and I would go on.

 

I wouldn't waste my time - ask friends family to create new accounts for you, don;t send the traffic directly to Amazon, and all should be good. At least some of the accounts should survive for a while

 

Dont bother to sue. You will end up paying more to lawyers than your revenue. Take this as part of a business loss and avoid doing business with Amazon again. If your strategy is working well, you can use it to promote other Companies product. Don't waste with Amazon, there is no well you can win them in lawsuit given the amount of money these big corporations have set aside for corporate lawsuit. Corporate law is not about right or wrong, rather it is about who is smarter and richer. Cheer up, hope you can make back your losses soon.

 

SH!T, I din't even heard before that Amazon bans ppl because they bring them leads :S
Where is the difference how the lead came??? They are not buying without knowing it, you are not scamming them...
BOH still can't believe it :S

 

If you've got a 20k per month profit model its worth trying to salvage it.

Search BHW and Google reasons people get banned from Amazon, and figure out how to adjust your plan so it doesn't happen again. From the sounds of it, instead of going pinterest > amazon, you'll go pinterest > money site > amazon. Also Google what steps you need to safely make a second account and getting away with it, obviously if you log in from your home computer your 2nd account will probably be toast. You'll need to start a business, use that business name to sign up, use a new website as you sign up (make sure that website isn't in your banned name), and use a VPS to log into that account so they don't make the connection between the new and banned account.

You won't get as many sales, because that extra hop will result in less people going directly to amazon ... but even if you lose a quarter it's still 15 grand a month.

 

Well as I pretty much guessed it, most of you guys are saying the same thing I said when this happened to me, that im dead in the water. Thats pretty much the only reason ive delayed actually trying to get my money out of amazon but after friends and family encouraged I try, so I came here to ask the question.

I still think im going to talk to my friends lawyer about it and see what my options are. If I make a company hundreds of thousands of dollars and they decide to not pay because I broke a TOS that nobody reads I think thats complete BS. They can ban my account/ban me forever I really don't care but I expect pay if they got paid (which they did).

You guys think emailing the big shots at amazon would do anything for me or trying to get into contact with them?

 

If you broke their ToS, which you agreed to when creating your account, I'm pretty sure you have no legal recourse. It's not their fault you didn't read it. Even if the Amazon rep told you it was okay, I still don't think you've got a leg to stand on legally if it broke their ToS.

And they've probably got a clause in there that says even if something isn't specifically against their ToS, if it breaks the ToS of the site you're posting the link on then that is by default against their ToS even though it wasn't explicitly stated.

That's what it sounds like happened to me, it's something that wasn't explicitly against Amazon's ToS, so the rep didn't see a problem with it, but then it broke Pinterest's ToS which automatically breaks Amazon's ToS. Keep in mind, I haven't use that as a traffic source, so I haven't read Pinterest's ToS and I'm not as up to date on the applicable parts of Amazon's ToS since they don't apply to me. So this is all speculation based on what you've stated in this thread. If I'm right though, I think you're out of luck and legally they would be completely off the hook because you weren't playing by "the rules."

Not trying to say that's right or wrong or that it doesn't suck to not get paid... just what I would infer out of the situation from a legal perspective.

 

Thanks for the reply amazonian,

but do you really think ToS would hold much weight in a court of law? Ive read that these agreements don't mean anything in the court, and even though I broke the ToS they still got paid and I should get my cut. If it was a couple hundred bucks they owed me I could see it not ever making it to court, but we are talking about a lot of money to some people and maybe the court would side with me in that regard...

 

I have absolutley no idea if a TOS is going to stand up in court. But my gut feeling is that if you dont have proof of the rep saying its ok. Its basically your word against theirs, and their TOS (legally binding or not, you agreed to it).

That being said, fuck amazon - i hope you get your money dude.

 

Think about this like being just a kick in the butt and move on. If you earned 20k once you can do it again. Suing them would be a big waste of time and money.

 

let this be a lesson man...spread ur earnings on many accounts...good luck!

 

Sign up for another account and use that same method but direct that traffic to your own blog or redirect it through your own domain.

 

The thing with amazon is that a lot of people are going against their tos which is why they are banning people.
The sad fact is that if you are breaking their tos, you are hurting someone's income or business.
Amazon is banning a lot of people using redirects. It is because way too many people are cookie stuffing and using freaking shady blackhat methods.
Honest Internet Marketers like me are getting screwed.


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Anyway, use your traffic and send it to your money site. This site will have Amazon links.
Next, if you make around 10k a month or 5k a month, get a business licence and get another account.

 

One thing to remember in this problem and for future is that it is standard in contracts to have a clause to the effect that the agreement cannot be amended (changed) without the written consent of the entity writing the contract (Amazon). So nobody that you can talk to at Amazon has the power to change the contract orally, and Amazon is not bound by what they say. That is why it is really important to learn to read contracts, TOS, and understand what they say. If $20K is at stake, it does not make sense to rely on someone you talk to at Amazon, and find out there is a problem later.