old,not bold
23rd Nov 2020, 12:24
I bought a Fire Stick several years ago, created a new Amazon account and registered it to that account. No problem, always worked a treat, plugged into an ageing Panasonic TV and Zen wifi.
Until last Friday evening; switched on for another Crown episode or two, and was invited to sign in, which has never ever happened before. Went right through the very laborious process twice, only to be told, right at the end of it all "Your Account has been Closed. Contact Customer Service".
Not closed by me, it wasn't. Now the fun begins, find a contact number for Amazon Customer Service. The Amazon website refuses to disclose it, no matter how deeply I trawl the site; I guess it's there somewhere but very carefully concealed.
I try Google for suggestions on How to speak to Amazon Customer service. Ah, should have done that first, near the top of the list is https://www.wikihow.com/Contact-Amazon-UK. This tells you exacly what you need to know, which I am passing on to PPRuNers as a public service. You're welcome.
Following those instructions, I get to the bit where you can ask for a call back. I do that, and within 60 seconds I am talking to a human being somewhere in India.
From that moment on, it did not go too well; after 30 minutes of no progress the call dropped out and I had to start again. One of the problems was that the advisers insisted that the account I registered the Fire stick to did not exist and had never existed. But I could not sign in with another Amazon account because the Fire Stick was registered to the Closed account that has never existed. And we can't see why that account was closed, because it has never existed. I know, but that was pretty much exactly what he said.
I won't bore you with the details. The second gem, for any Fire stick users, is how it ended after another fruitless 45 minutes. I said "It seems to me that I'll have to go out and buy another Fire stick". Whereupon the adviser said, "No, you can just do a Factory Settings reset." He tells me how to do it, it takes 10 minutes to complete, I register the Fire Stick on my other Amazon account, and all is back to normal.
My joy is tempered by the fact that I had to spend 75 minutes talking to India before this fairly obvious solution was suggested. There is nothing about it in the user instructions that came with the Fire stick.
Anyway, there's the second tip. If your Fire stick account dies, just do a Factory Settings Reset and re-register to a different Amazon account. Press the Back button and right-hand side of navigation circle simultaneously, hold for 10 seconds or until Reset screen appears and follow instructions. This does not affect, of course, other subscription accounts like Netflix.
Until last Friday evening; switched on for another Crown episode or two, and was invited to sign in, which has never ever happened before. Went right through the very laborious process twice, only to be told, right at the end of it all "Your Account has been Closed. Contact Customer Service".
Not closed by me, it wasn't. Now the fun begins, find a contact number for Amazon Customer Service. The Amazon website refuses to disclose it, no matter how deeply I trawl the site; I guess it's there somewhere but very carefully concealed.
I try Google for suggestions on How to speak to Amazon Customer service. Ah, should have done that first, near the top of the list is https://www.wikihow.com/Contact-Amazon-UK. This tells you exacly what you need to know, which I am passing on to PPRuNers as a public service. You're welcome.
Following those instructions, I get to the bit where you can ask for a call back. I do that, and within 60 seconds I am talking to a human being somewhere in India.
From that moment on, it did not go too well; after 30 minutes of no progress the call dropped out and I had to start again. One of the problems was that the advisers insisted that the account I registered the Fire stick to did not exist and had never existed. But I could not sign in with another Amazon account because the Fire Stick was registered to the Closed account that has never existed. And we can't see why that account was closed, because it has never existed. I know, but that was pretty much exactly what he said.
I won't bore you with the details. The second gem, for any Fire stick users, is how it ended after another fruitless 45 minutes. I said "It seems to me that I'll have to go out and buy another Fire stick". Whereupon the adviser said, "No, you can just do a Factory Settings reset." He tells me how to do it, it takes 10 minutes to complete, I register the Fire Stick on my other Amazon account, and all is back to normal.
My joy is tempered by the fact that I had to spend 75 minutes talking to India before this fairly obvious solution was suggested. There is nothing about it in the user instructions that came with the Fire stick.
Anyway, there's the second tip. If your Fire stick account dies, just do a Factory Settings Reset and re-register to a different Amazon account. Press the Back button and right-hand side of navigation circle simultaneously, hold for 10 seconds or until Reset screen appears and follow instructions. This does not affect, of course, other subscription accounts like Netflix.