Amazon Ironically Pulls a 1984 with 1984 I received an email yesterday from Amazon letting me know they were crediting my account for my purchase of the book 1984, by George Orwell. Sure enough, when I turned on my Kindle 1984 was no longer there. Here's the original email I received:

Hello from Amazon.com.

We're writing to confirm that we have processed your refund for $0.99 for the above-referenced order.

The total refund amount will be credited to your credit card in 3-5 business days.

For more information about this refund, please visit

Your Account (http://www.amazon.com/ to view the above-referenced order.

The following is the breakdown of your refund: ---------------------------------------------------------------

Item(s) Returned:

Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984) by George Orwell. Published by MobileReference (mobi)

Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.

Item Refund $ 0.99

Item Tax Refund $ 0.00

Refund Total: $ 0.99 ---------------------------------------------------------------

Amazon has been taking heat for this. People are outraged that they have paid for a book, it's on their Kindle, but at any time Amazon can remove content you purchased. Very 1984-ish.

I just received the following email:

Subject: Amazon.com Order Update

Hello, We have recently refunded your purchase of Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984) by George Orwell. This book was added to our catalog using our self-service platform by a third-party who did not have the rights to the books. When we were notified of this by the rights holder, we removed the illegal copies from our systems and refunded previous customers. We are working with the authorized rights holder to make this title available in our store very soon. We apologize for the inconvenience. Sincerely, Customer Service Department Amazon.com Please note: this e-mail was sent from a notification-only address that cannot accept incoming e-mail. Please do not reply to this message.

Labels: amazon, kindle

  ¶ posted by Jimmie Geddes, Editor @ 7/18/2009 02:34:00 AM