As Columbia Falls family fights cancer, Amazon closes their account

Sophia Moss is happy to have her Kindle back.

For almost three weeks, the 3 year old – who is battling leukemia – was forced to go to her chemotherapy sessions without her favorite distraction after Amazon shut down the family’s account with only a vague explanation.

The ordeal began July 1 when Sophia’s mother, Jamie Lee Moss, went online to order medical supplies, only to find that she was unable to sign into her account. After checking her email, Jamie learned that Amazon had shut down her account. The reason? According to the email, she had violated the site’s “conditions of use” by returning too many items.

The problem: Amazon’s return policy doesn’t tell customers that returning too many items can get them kicked out, but its conditions of use say the company reserves the right to terminate accounts at its discretion. That means the corporate giant can, at any time and for any reason, shut down a customer’s account for whatever cause they see fit.

Jamie, and her husband Zeramy, were shocked by the company’s decision, having only returned 25 items out of hundreds ordered over the past four years.

“If you buy items online, you are not really sure what you are getting until it arrives. To penalize people for making returns under that kind of system seems ridiculous,” Zeramy said. “Who runs their business that way?”

To make matters worse, the family found that the profiles and accounts on their Kindle devices had also been terminated, leaving them without access to the hundreds of dollars worth of movies, games and music they had purchased, mostly for the kids.

So, the email and phone campaign began to have their account reinstated.

Every day for nearly three weeks, Jamie called and sent emails to Amazon, attempting to find out exactly what she and her family had done wrong and what could be done to bring the account back online, all to no avail.

The account was briefly reactivated July 4, but was shut down again before any purchases could be completed. Zeramy went so far as to open a new account under his name, but the account was flagged and shut down as soon as it was opened.

And, so the battle continued. Email after email was answered with the same response: Amazon would not be reinstating the account. What appeared to be the final email was received by Jamie Friday.

“While I know you’re disappointed with our stance on this matter, I want to assure you the information you received is correct. The decision to close your account is a final one, and we aren’t able to consider further requests to reinstate it or issue anymore refunds,” the email said.

The email went on to say that Amazon might not respond to any further inquires on the matter.

When contacted by the Hungry Horse News for comment and clarification on the matter, Amazon representative Shannon Midgley declined to answer any questions, but said she would “look into the matter.” Less than 48 hours after the Hungry Horse News request was made, and less that 24 hours after the Moss family was told the decision to terminate the account was final, the account was reactivated with little or no explanation.

Amazon’s latest email simply stated “After further consideration, we have decided to reinstate your Amazon.com account. We would appreciate your input about anything we can do to help prevent such issues in the future. We want your experience shopping at our store to be a rewarding one.”

While the situation was resolved for the Moss family, the same cannot be said for many of the numerous other Amazon customers who have had their accounts suspended.

Since May, The New York Post, CNet and Wall Street Journal have all published articles highlighting Amazon’s recent rash of account terminations, each with Amazon unwilling to explain the sudden change in their return policy.

As for the Moss family, they are elated to have their account back, but are wary of making future purchases.

“It’s great to have our account back, but what’s to keep Amazon from shutting our account down again?” Jamie asked. “We never should have had to go through this in the first place.”

The Amazon battle aside, life has been tough for the Moss family ever since Sophia was diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia in July, 2017.

Taken completely by surprise, the family scrambled to deal with normal day-to-day issues while also preparing Sophia for intense chemotherapy treatments. All this while Jamie was weeks away from giving birth to the family’s fourth child, Sadie Mae.

“You don’t really think about it until it happens to you. It was a real eye-opener for me,” Zeramy said. “Then all you can do is think about what the outcome will be. Will it end well or badly, you don’t really know. There is a lot of worry and it can be overwhelming.”

Zeramy admits that he was lucky that his employer, Central Heating and Cooling in Kalispell, let him have time off while Sophia was undergoing her initial chemo treatments, which lasted until November of last year. Now, Sophia is getting chemo at home twice a day, but must also go in for additional treatments once a month and more intense treatments every three months.

“You just have to stay strong and it is OK to ask for help. We thought, at first, that we could handle all of this ourselves, but we found out quickly how impossible that is,” Zeramy said. “There is a lot that has to be done and taken care of and it can really take a toll.”

After repeated requests by family and friends as to how they could help, Jamie and Zeramy finally created accounts on online funding sites.

“Everyone we know was in shock and hurting as much as we were when we first found out, but my parents have been a huge help,” Jamie said. “We’re a one-income family with four kids in diapers. We don’t like to make our problems public, but everyone kept asking us to open a Go Fund Me page, so we eventually did.”

The battle continues for Sophia and the Moss family, but Jamie and Zeramy say Sophia remains in good spirit and will continue to fight.

For more information in how to help, visit www.gofundme.com/sofias-angels or www.youcaring.com/sofiamoss-871282.