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Rick Monro Feb 4, 2023

Discovered during the week I was unable to access a Kindle book purchased in 2013. Reason? The order was “too old”, and refund issued to buy again. Which was pointless as the book is now more expensive than when I bought it.

Subsequently discovered 66(!!) other ebooks no longer available for download.

Currently 40 minutes in to a support chat with Amazon.

About to learn, I think, whether we purchase ebooks, or rent them…

[Edit: documenting progress in this thread https://mastodon.online/@monro/109812445178130161]

Rick Monro (@[email protected])

Attached: 1 image The problem first appeared last week, when I attempted to open a book on my Kindle. The book cover appeared in my Library as normal. When I tapped on it, the following message appeared:

Mastodon

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Rick Monro Feb 4, 2023

Outcome after 1 hour: I need to repurchase each book, then reclaim from Amazon.

Tech. Nol. O. Gy.

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Jason Burnett Feb 4, 2023

@monro What do you mean by "reclaim from Amazon"? Do you mean that after you repurchase it, they'll refund your money? Or something else?

After reading of your experience, I just checked my Kindle books. My oldest books, purchased back in 2009, are still there, but I have no idea how many in between now and then might have gone missing...

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Rick Monro Feb 4, 2023

@jason_burnett That’s it - I’ve been asked to repurchase and notify Amazon for each missing book, then a refund

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pcbeard

@monro @jason_burnett I recently had an order for a $20 item get lost in shipment, so after waiting a couple of weeks I called Amazon customer service and they shipped me another item within 2 days, without charging me again. They accounted for the new item as if it was a gift card purchase. Surely they could do that with your eBook purchases.

This is one argument for why removing DRM from eBook purchases should be protected as fair-use.