Widowhood 101 - dealing with Amazon

 

Lawrie and I

It's been two years, six months and fifteen days since Lawrie passed away, and I honestly thought I had come to the end of the stressful paperwork associated with losing my partner, my best friend. 

But no, it continues.

Today's frustration isn't one of the difficult things like seeing 'cancelled' stamped across the face of his new passport, or straightening out our joint bank accounts, or advising the government that he won't be filing income tax, ever again, it's about access to over 4000 titles of e-books that Lawrie and I have purchased via Amazon Kindle e-books since 2008.

When Lawrie passed away in September 2018, I continued to buy e-books on the account because it was easier than trying to sort out yet another problem. I read on average three or four books a week; it's a method to fill the hours and keep from thinking about him.

I recently purchased another Kindle to replace my aging and finicky reader. As I have done many times before, I logged in to connect my new reader to the account. I haven't logged in for quite awhile and the site wanted me to input a code that had been sent to his cellphone. That cellphone doesn't exist anymore.

So, I called the Amazon help line for assistance - big mistake!

Now that they know he has passed away, they have locked his account and I have lost access to all of the books including the one that I am half-way through reading. It's Amazon's policy that the e-books are not transferable - even to the surviving spouse. 

I'm frustrated and angry. I'm the only person who has been ordering and paying for the e-books since Lawrie passed away, but I am not allowed to access them or any of the previous titles.

I asked for a supervisor's contact information and was told, "We don't have supervisors. We are the last line." 

Great, just great.

This is another emotional kick in the teeth for surviving spouses. 

Lynda

UPDATE: three full days of chatting on the help line with a variety of agents, two phone calls, and several emails later, it looks like I have a solution to the problem. Fingers-crossed. 

Cheers Lynda