More Questions For Amazon.

As an author with several books for sale on Amazon, I find myself writing to Amazon often (writing because in Canada we aren’t allowed to call them) with questions such as:

Question: Why did my paperback description suddenly change format to be all a jumbled mess of words with no paragraphs. And at the same time, why did my book cover change to a previous version?

Amazon answer: Paperback descriptions are now in HTML text.

Okay, but why wasn’t I informed? I only happened upon this while viewing a new review for the paperback book. I had to learn HTML text in a hurry and, after several tries, got the book description back up in proper format. Amazon didn’t even bother to comment on why the book covered changed back to a previous version. I also had to upload the new book cover again, which Amazon had up for many months but took down, and now is rejecting the new cover due to size errors (the old cover and new cover are the exact same size, the new cover just has an award seal on the front)–yeah, I’m still working on getting the new cover up again.

Question: My book, xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, currently has 93 reviews. In the last few weeks, the book now lists 97 ratings and 93 reviews. Where are the other 4 ratings and reviews listed, and how does a book get ratings with no review attached?

Amazon answer: For your book, xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, we include ratings that are Amazon Verified Purchases in the overall star rating. We do not consider ratings without an Amazon Verified Purchase status in the overall star rating until a customer also adds more details like text, image or video. If you’d like to learn more information about the Amazon Verified Purchase program, please visit our help page (https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=202076110). Thank you for reaching out to us.

After reading their answer several times, I’m still not sure I understand. Are they telling me that 4 customers rated the book but didn’t add content (which I didn’t think was possible, and is very strange)? Or are they telling me these 4 customer didn’t actually purchase the book? If it’s the latter, this is a new policy with Amazon as in the past I’ve done many book reviews for books I had gifted to me instead of purchasing through Amazon. Hmmmmm.

Question: Why am I unable to download an ebook that was gifted to me through Amazon.com?

Amazon answer: Thank you for writing to us. It would be easier to help you over the phone or via chat.

Ummm, I’m Canadian, we’re not allowed to phone you or chat with you. We can only email you, and even then we don’t always get an acceptable answer.

Is it just me, or do you love Amazon too?