Amazon Associates has found a way not to pay to its affiliates? An affiliate scam from Amazon?

Several months ago Amazon Associates decided to deactivate all its Californian affiliates. Since I left California for Russia, I changed my address before the deadline. But despite my address change, Amazon Associates has deactivated my account. It took me about a week and several messages to the support to reactivate my account. I was surprised that Amazon hadn't apologized for their mistake and didn't compensate me the losses I got from the deactivation.

Nevertheless I continued to participate in the Amazon affiliate program. About a month later I was warned that I would need to provide the proof of my Russian residence. It was OK with me. They have posted the list of documents that could verify my account:

Acceptable Documents for Address Verification

To confirm your eligibility to participate in the Amazon Associates Program, we may ask that you submit documentation to verify your residence and eligibility. If you receive such a request from us, please submit any one of the following documents in accordance with the verification instructions we provided:

• Utility bill, not more than two months old, addressed to you at your residence (examples include gas, electric, sewer, water, cable or phone bill). Cellular phone and pager bills are not accepted
• Receipt for personal property taxes or real estate taxes paid within the last year and addressed to you at your residence
• Current automobile or life insurance bill (cards or policies are not accepted) addressed to you at your residence
• Certified copy of school records/transcript from a school in which you are currently enrolled, issued by a school accredited by a U.S. state, jurisdiction, or territory (report cards are not accepted)
• Voter registration card displaying your current address
• Driver's license, learner's permit or DMV-issued photo ID cards displaying your current address
• Current homeowners insurance policy or bill for your residence
• Deed, mortgage, monthly mortgage statement, or residential rental/lease agreement for your residence
• U.S. Postal Service change of address confirmation form or postmarked U.S. mail with forwarding address label (must display the applicant’s full name and current address)

If your Associates account is in the name of a corporation, limited liability company, partnership or other business entity, you may submit one of the following documents in accordance with the verification instructions we provided:

• Business license addressed to your business entity at the address used in your Associates account
• IRS Resale Certificate for Sales Tax addressed to your business entity at the address used in your Associates account
• IRS Federal Employer Identification Number confirmation letter, W-9, 990-EZ or other Federal Tax form, in each case addressed to your business entity at the address used in your Associates account
• Utility bill, not more than two months old, addressed to your business entity at the address used in your Associates account (examples include gas, electric, sewer, water, cable or phone bill). Cellular phone and pager bills are not accepted.
• Receipt for property taxes or real estate taxes paid within the last year for the property at the address associated with your Associates account and addressed to your business entity
• Current automobile or liability insurance bill in the name of your business entity and listing the address used in your Associates account (cards or policies are not accepted)
• Deed, mortgage, monthly mortgage statement, or rental/lease agreement, not more than two months old, in the name of your business entity and listing the address used in your Associates account
• U.S. Postal Service change of address confirmation form or postmarked U.S. mail with forwarding address label, in each case displaying the name of your business entity and the address used in your Associates account

Please do not send us any documents showing your social security, bank account, or credit card number. Also, we ask that you render any account numbers (e.g., utility account or insurance policy number) unreadable using a dark marker before sending the document to us in accordance with the instructions you were provided. This documentation will be used for no other purpose than to verify your residency at your stated address and eligibility for the program.

Please provide this documentation only in accordance with the instructions included in any request you receive from us.

I thought a utility bill would work fine for them. I have sent it to Amazon. Got no reply for a long time. Then they told me that the document I provided couldn't be accepted. It was weird. I reviewed the list of documents again and submitted my landline phone bill. It wasn't accepted either. I just got a warning that my account would be deactivated again.

I was impressed that they didn't explain the reasons why my documents were not accepted. They were just copy-pasting messages and sending me to the same list of documents. I had to contact them again and again to find out that they didn't accept any documents in languages other than English or using letters other than roman latters. And eventually my account was deactivated again.



It was easy for Amazon to solve my problem. For example, since I have provided my landline phone bill, they could have just call me. Or they could just verify my account by comparing figures with the ones mentioned in my Amazon account. Amazon could have offered any other solution. I wonder why they didn't even try to help.

I can create a fake document if Photoshop in less than 30 minutes. Or I can just create a new account with them and replace old IDs in the links. But why would I work with a company that doesn't try to solve any problems therefore is not deserving to be trusted anymore?

Update (2011/09/23)

More than 10 messages to Amazon Associates support. Still get the same copy-pasted messages. They don't even try to solve the problem.

Haven't received any reply on Amazon Askville about the problem.

Asked the same question in the Amazon Sellers community. Was recommended to use a forwarding service. I still use and plan to use Shipito. And even if I start using their address in Oregon or Las Vegas, it won't help me to prove my Russian residency.

Posted my message on Facebook, but Amazon deleted my message almost immediately.

Really tired of this situation. Don't want to contact this distrusted company anymore.

Update (2011/10/04)

So Amazon "is pleased" to invite all California Associates back:

As you may have heard, California Governor Jerry Brown has signed legislation repealing the law that had forced us to terminate our California Associates. We are pleased to invite all California Associates whose accounts were closed due to the prior legislation to re-enroll in the Associates Program.

If you haven't already re-enrolled, please click here:

https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/gp/associates/reinstatement/main.html

When asked to sign in, please use the same email address and password that were previously associated with your Associates account. To make your return to the Program as seamless as possible, when you re-enroll, your account settings (login, Associates ID, payment information, etc.) will be the same as they were previously. Traffic you referred while your account was closed won't be eligible for advertising fees.

But there are two obnoxious things about it:

1. Traffic you referred while your account was closed won't be eligible for advertising fees.


2. Amazon hasn't reinstated accounts automatically.

If you click the link and get a message that your account can't be reinstated:

Reactivate Your Associates Accounts

Your records do not show any accounts eligible for reinstatement associated with this email address. Perhaps your closed Amazon Associates account was established with a different email address. To find out, sign out and log in with a different email address.

Make sure to use a primary e-mail address used for your Amazon Associates account