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Amazon Cancels Subscription Due To Frequent Returns

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DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) — Amazon is king when it comes to online shopping, but depending on how you shop, you could get exiled from the kingdom.

Paul Seletsky found that out the hard way when he had to furnish an entire home after he went through a divorce, had surgery and suffered a broken wrist.

He turned to Amazon for help. "I needed a TV, pots and pans. I needed everything," Seletsky told CBS.

But shopping exclusively online made it harder for him to decide which styles or brands he preferred.

"So typically I would order, let's say three sets of pots and I would select one that I wanted and I would return the two. And I have Amazon Prime so I thought there's no problem,"
said Seletsky. "I have 30 days to return whatever it is and that's what I did. And I was able to comparison shop."

Just when he thought everything was going well, in the midst of his shopping he was locked out of his account. "Totally, totally locked out," said Seletsky. He learned via email that Amazon canceled his subscription for making too many returns. Amazon wouldn't speak with him by phone, so in an email, he explained the reasons for his excessive returns.

"And I wrote to them, okay I've been a bad boy but I've had this situation, I wasn't ambulatory and I was, you know had all these injuries," said Seletsky. Amazon sent the following response via email, "after a careful consideration, we've determined that our business relationship must end."

Seletsky also couldn't access any of the electronic books he purchased with his new iPad. When he contacted Amazon, the retailor wrote, "…you will only be able access the digital content with the device, which has already been registered to your account."

Disappointed that Amazon had shut him out, Paul reached out to CBS for help. After we reached out to Amazon, Paul got an unexpected email from the company letting him know they reinstated his Amazon account.

(©2016 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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