If any of you could do me a favor and just buy from something other than Amazon the next time that you have the opportunity, I'd super appreciate that.
They just inconvenienced me with the typical paternalistic "for your own protection" global account hold because I was trying to buy a gift for a friend in the UK.
This would've been fine if the issue was resolved quickly, but it's now hours after I submitted the required documentation, and it's looking like they won't get to it until tomorrow. By the time this is resolved, the item will have been delayed by a day or more. And in the meantime, I cannot make any Amazon purchases in the US either.
Ridiculous that any of these companies feel like it's remotely acceptable to block your transactions and yet not have a 24/7 team ready to verify documents for account holds.
Customer support lines are of course completely useless. Both the US and the UK lines you have to fight the IVR to force a human escalation. The US at least had someone -- I escalated one supervisor up, if I had time maybe I'd keep trying to escalate, but as is I just got them to record my complaint. The UK line just dropped me with "our phone lines are currently closed" once I forced the human fallback.
Obviously the only way a business improves things is if it feels enough cost for its misbehavior. This is my little contribution in this case. I'll do more when I have time. And if you feel as I feel, if you have the time and the drive, maybe also let them know. For example:
"I am buying from another vendor instead of Amazon today because someone I know had a worse outcome thanks to Amazon UK not reviewing their account hold verification documentation in a timely manner."
And hey, hit me up if you did this. I'll return the favor if a company wrongs you some day. I am willing and able to get on customer support calls and push. Maybe we can even get some kind of long-term collective group going.












