Amazon Killing Mobile Apps That Use Its Data

[thajeztah]

Just to inform you, I received a reply on my message posted on Amazon.co.uk (took them 10 days to respond.., but at least I got a response, I wasn't expecting one)

Dear Mr. Sebastiaan

Thank you for contacting Amazon.co.uk
I apologise for the delay in responding to your e-mail message.
Please be assured that all of us here are working very hard to provide a thorough, personal reply to each of our customers as quickly as possible.
We are investigating your concern with regard to the "TOS policies for mobile devices" with high priority and will contact you again by July 31, 2009 with an update.
Thank you for your patience and for bringing this matter to our attention.

Vimal
Amazon.co.uk
We're Building Earth's Most Customer-Centric Company

I'm very curious what's with July 31, as the email is very specific on that date. New policy? Amazon iPhone App?

[gryphyn]

Another complaint logged!

~Sarah

[Conor]

The specific date is very interesting, hoping for good news on July 31st.

[thajeztah]

The specific date is very interesting, hoping for good news on July 31st.

Me too. Keeping my fingers crossed!

Did anyone from Amazon contact you regarding the open letter Conor wrote?

[Nora]

Not a peep...

[witchkitten]

I have just sent an email to Amazon regarding this issue. It really makes me angry that they would do something like this. I have taken myself off auto-renewal for their Prime Membership (I can't cancel it since I've made purchases through them since the last time it renewed) and have deleted any Amazon owned iphone apps on my phone (in my case it was Stanza, the ebook reader.) I hope that they do listen to customer complaints. Has someone started a Twitter campaign yet? This seemed to help when they started blocking certain literature from their rankings for objectionable content.

Also, could someone please explain how this is going to help them? I would not use any application made by Amazon (until this issues is resolved) but even if I were willing to, without the ability to sync to the Pedias, another application would be completely useless to me. It would take months to re-enter everything into another iphone app and any time I made a change to my collection in the Pedias I would have to also remember to change it on my iphone which wouldn't work out. Even if I could use one of the export files from the Pedias , I would hate to keep doing this every so often just to make sure the iphone app was up to date. Not to mention that it would take forever to upload all of those images each time (I know because I had to upload my collections twice and it took over an hour each time.) I hope Amazon realizes that having more applications link to products on their site will actually benefit them more than the few dollars they would lose if someone didn't purchase their app which is free for the time being anyway.

[thajeztah]

Has someone started a Twitter campaign yet?

I'm fairly new on Twitter and wouldn't know how to start a campaign, but if you start one, I am happy to join in (@thaJeztah)

[witchkitten]

Has someone started a Twitter campaign yet?

I'm fairly new on Twitter and wouldn't know how to start a campaign, but if you start one, I am happy to join in (@thaJeztah)

Actually, I have no idea how to start one. I don't even have a Twitter Account but I know that it was really popular the last time Amazon screwed up. I would sign up for an account for this though since I know there isn't as much outrage as there was to the censorship issue.

[thajeztah]

Just discovered something: 'Twibbons'. You can add a Twibbon to your Twitter avatar to express things like what political party you support, or campaing for something:
http://twibbon.com/

Might be just the right thing for this. Will need to find out (and make time) how to make one

[Nsgirl71]

When I first heard this was happening, I couldn't understand what possible motive they could have, as a list of my personal property does not compete with their store. Then I started to wonder, why only mobile apps? What does a mobile app do for you that the desktop version doesn't? For one thing, it makes it easier for you to make purchases in actual bookstores. If you don't have access to that data in the store, you may not make the purchase right away, you need to go home and check your database, and since your already there, well, you may as well just order it online.

I don't think amazon cares about competition for their mobile app, I think their trying to get rid of their brick and mortar competition.

[ltcarter47]

When I first heard this was happening, I couldn't understand what possible motive they could have, as a list of my personal property does not compete with their store. Then I started to wonder, why only mobile apps? What does a mobile app do for you that the desktop version doesn't? For one thing, it makes it easier for you to make purchases in actual bookstores. If you don't have access to that data in the store, you may not make the purchase right away, you need to go home and check your database, and since your already there, well, you may as well just order it online.

I don't think amazon cares about competition for their mobile app, I think their trying to get rid of their brick and mortar competition.

That's interesting, I actually felt like it was the other way around. Being able to find info about a book, reviews, other books in a series or by the same author is very useful on the go, but what I've experienced myself is that I would see Amazon's price was almost always lower than Barnes or Boarders and end up buying it right there on my iPhone in the store. The exception would be at a used book store. Without the additional information I am less likely to buy more books there. I would go home, research and possibly buy online like you stated.

[ltcarter47]

So did anyone hear from Amazon today, since we had that July 31st date floating around?

[thajeztah]

So did anyone hear from Amazon today, since we had that July 31st date floating around?

Nope, haven't heard anything since. Will wait one more day, then file another complaint on this. Or, at least, try to. I hate it to be unable to actually 'get in touch' with companies..

[thajeztah]

Decided to submit a complaint on the non-follow up of my question (as was promised by Amazon)

On 18/07/2009 I submitted a question regarding the removal of PocketPedia from the iTunes APP Store on demand of Amazon.

After 10 days(!), I received a response, telling me that I would be contacted on 31 july 2009 with more information on this issue.

So far I haven't had any response..

Your original response:
"We are investigating your concern with regard to the "TOS policies for mobile devices" with high priority and will contact you again by July 31, 2009 with an update."


I am quite dissapointed in the level of 'customer service' of Amazon. If it's possible to order, pack AND ship a book within 24 hours, why does following up a customer's question 240 hours?

again, keeping my fingers crossed..

[thajeztah]

They seem to have gained some speed

Dear Customer,

Thank you for contacting Amazon.co.uk.
I’ve checked your account, and I can verify that this issue is still being looked into by my colleague.
I have notified my colleague that you have enquired again about this issue and he will get back to you by August 05, 2009 .
Please accept my apologies for the inconvenience; we want to be sure to address this matter as thoroughly as possible.
If you don't hear back from us by August 05, 2009, please contact us again using the following link: (link removed)