Wednesday 6 March 2024

Help! I'm being erased.

It has been a very distressing 7 months. I had received an email from the publishing arm of Amazon , now called Kindle Direct Publishing, to say my US/IRS tax documents for my book published in 2014 would soon be out of date and that I must renew them. OK, it's not that simple understanding these tax forms which are renewed every three years, but I've done it several times in the past. However, this platform for authors is proving to be a thoughtless horror.

Things worked well for a few years when it was originally Createspace. Then they changed it to KDP. I found the security clunky and things got worse once they insisted on two-step verification. I can see the logic but when the technology doesn't work and the huge corporate is based in the US - it's a recipe for major stress. It is also a salutory warning of how technology can destroy lives and those lives can do NOTHING about it - beware AI, I am thinking, even if you do nothing wrong you cannot argue with a powerful corporate that does not care. 

I think we can all agree that Facebook doesn't really give a shit about us - our timelines are clogged with stuff we absolutely don't want and not the activities of our friends. It is just a channel for push marketing and it just gets worse.

We can also agree (if you have a lot of exerience like me) that the dating sites don't give a shit either. They don't work and they don't care.

I did, however, hope that Amazon KDP might care a bit because they get a commission whenever the site sells one of my books, though it is a rare occurence these days. I pop onto the KDP site to update my tax docs, amend my author page, see if I have sold anything.

Seven months ago I tried to get into the back end of my KDP account to update my tax docs. If I don't do that I will get very little commission in future as the IRS will keep most of it. So I was pretty motivated to sort things out when I noticed mysef in a security loop to nowhere. I tried to explain this to them:

"I have a serious problem with Amazon &  KDP. For almost 5 months both have given me the copy paste and run-around. I am an author and need to access my KDP account. I can use username and password but to access and update my tax docs for the IRS I need to get into the deep parts of my account. It wants to send me a code but now it doesn’t even send it to my phone, only my email account, and when I enter it it then wants my phone number, which I try to enter and it says internal error. 

I have wasted weeks of my life trying to get someone at AmazonKDP to fix this bug. They said they would take off the two-step verification so I would need to send official ID to them. This I have done three times. They say it is disactivated but it isn’t. I get the same bad errors. Any phone number I have been given does not work/go through. Whenever I request a callback the screen usually tells me the service is not available. As a result of all this I no longer get the royalties I am owed and will never be able to publish another book. I despair. Can anyone advise me (I am currently in NZ)?"

All I got was standard/stock replies which never did anything because they expect the user to solve the IT problem instead of the IT supplier fixing their own mistakes. Literally for months I would go on Chat with either Amazon or Amazon KDP and each tried to off-load me to the other. It was clear from the standard of English that the customer service chats were not native speakers. IF you can find a customer service contact number (see end of post) you are offered two choices: a Chat or a Phonecall. Most of the time a phonecall service was not available and when it was I got shunted from pillar to post, constantly repeating my issues, waiting to be fobbed off and eventually told a technical team would get back to me within 24 hours. They stopped even bothering with that much.

Yes, I was reminded of stuff I could try myself but none of that could work because there was a bug/internal error on my two-step verification. Eventually things deteriorated and the OTP codes no longer came through on my phone but just a copy via email. Trouble was, the very last step never worked and I was stuck with an error.

Hours and hours of frustration every week, every month ensued for me. A software writer tried to reason with Amazon by phone but got fobbed off too. No one is accountable, no one actually fixes anything. What is a customer to do? I don't think I'd succeed in getting a call through to Jeff Bezos's successor Andy Jassy.

Now 7 months since I first tried to update my tax documents I am still locked out of the back end on my account. Oh, I can still log in to buy stuff from Amazon if I wanted to but I can't do the security stuff with my account. I can never publish another book and I can never get the royalities owed for any copies of my book I may sell. After the huge amount of work that went into writing, formatting, marketing etc my book Follow My Heart it seems very hard to accept. Maybe I could delete my entire account, which was a last resort suggested to me, and start again, but the IT stuff involved the first time in trying to get a book published on KDP was hideous and I would lose all my reviews etc. Beware: deleting any Amazon retail account deletes all other accounts too but retail seems to be the main account. I feel pretty depressed about this but more was to come.

When I launched my book in 2014 NZ publishers and marketers showed zero interest, probably because I was not currently in NZ so getting my book into stores and libraries was difficult. However, a few years ago I discovered a copy in the Lincoln library. It proved to be the only copy in Selwyn District. A few weeks ago, at the Rolleston (Selwyn) Library (the one that refuses to have the word Library on the outside) I could find no record of my book in the catalogue for the district. I enquired of the librarian and she confirmed it had been 'retired'. Why? I asked and she said it was more than 3 years old so they had no room for it. "Then how come I have a stack of books I'm taking out where most are nearly 10 years old?" I said. She had no explanation but was able to tell me my book had become available to borrow in 2016 and had been borrowed 37 times - while not a lot of borrowing it was reasonable, she said. I suggested that a bit more support for a local author would be nice and that I could supply a fresh copy. The librarian said the person who makes the decisions would call me. Of course, she never did!

It's an awful feeling - being erased. 

Amazon chat no longer bothers to speak to me/get back to me/ lie to me even. I am simply a boring problem to be non existent. A personal memoir/something that mattered, that had taken a huge effort, that had been well received by readers and also borrowed a bit was blocked from being borrowed or providing any recompense to the author.

In all cases no one gives a damn to make it right when it is their own systems at fault. What will AI and other systems do to our identities and lives once they start making mistakes about US?

For those of you who might wonder how Amazon and KDP interact on these issues or if you too need some 'help' to resolve a simple thing read the detailed blah blah below which is only part of the BS solutions that in many cases were just plain unworkable that I had to endure.

1. Thank you for contacting us about the Two-Step Verification on your Amazon account.
We have confirmed that the Two-Step Verification has been deactivated and your account access has been restored using the documents you provided. You should be able to sign in to your Amazon account.
You can manage Two-Step Verification and reactivate this setting. To do so, go to "Your Account" and click "Login & security."

2. Thank you for your patience while we work to solve this problem for you.
In this case, I was able to talk with the technical team, and they advised me to explain to you that you need to contact the Account Recovery team so they can help you disable the OTP on your account. Try signing in through a registered backup method or from a trusted device.
If you still can't sign in, kindly visit this link and follow the instructions provided:

US: https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=hp_left_v4_sib?ie=UTF8&nodeId=202073840
BR: https://www.amazon.com.br/gp/help/customer/display.html/?&nodeId=202073840
DE: https://www.amazon.de/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=hp_left_v4_sib?ie=UTF8&nodeId=202073840

You can try using the first link, and if the first one does not work, you can try using the other ones I provide you.
If you need more assistance, please don't hesitate and contact us again.http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/contact-us/general-questions.html
You may call us If you need additional assistance or have further questions.
We've provided the link below which will take you directly to our help pages:
We can be reached by phone 24 hours a day, seven days a week using the following link:

Contacting us through the website allows you to verify security before a call is placed and ensures we have your account information ready when we call you.

To contact us, visit https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/contact-us and follow the prompts.
To request a call from our customer service department, please follow the steps below:

1. Visit http://www.amazon.com/help
2. Click the "Contact Us" button in the Customer Service box on the right side of the page.
3. Click the "Skip sign in" button.
4. Click the "Phone" tab and enter your phone number in the window that pops up.
5. Choose a time frame ("Right Now" or "In 5 minutes") and click "Submit."
We'll call you right back!

3. Thank you for your inquiry about Kindle Direct Publishing. With Kindle Direct Publishing, you can self-publish Kindle and paperback books on Amazon.
You can find more information about getting started at:
https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/help
If you need assistance with an existing account or have questions, go to the following link, login, then click contact us at the bottom of the page:

https://kdp.amazon.com/contact-us

4. I am very sorry that you are so desperate and seem to find no solution to login to your account. I would like to mention that this is a global problem and many authors can not get their OTP or when they do, they get the internal error message
Our last option in this type of cases is to suggest to our publishers to create a new account and afterwards, report back to us, so we can merge the old and new one.
I am sorry you have to go through it, but currently is our last measurement as well,

Blogger Warning: Note that one cannot just create a new account becuase they will pick up on the fact that your phone number or email are the same as the old account so you will be blocked from setting up another account. 

5. Please use your KDP credentials to log into amazon, follow the steps below to change the phone number or enable an authenticator app

An authenticator app is a software application that generates a one-time password (OTP), which you can use for two-step verification. You can download authenticator apps from the app store on your smartphone or mobile device (tablet, iPad). On desktop computers, you can download an authenticator as a browser extension (add-on).
There are many third-party authenticator apps, such as Google Authenticator and Microsoft Authenticator. You can use any app you want. These apps don’t have access to your Amazon account information.

To download an authenticator app:
1. Search for an authenticator app:
- Smartphones or mobile devices: Go to the app store and search for "authenticator app." Search results will show third-party apps such as Google Authenticator and Microsoft Authenticator. You can use any app.
- Desktop computers: Use a search engine to find an authenticator extension (add-on) that works with your browser. For example, if you use Firefox, search for "Firefox authenticator."
2. Download the authenticator app or extension of your choice.
3. Go to your Amazon customer account on Amazon.com.
4. Under "Account & Lists," click "Your Account"
5. Choose "Login & Security."
6. Click "Edit" next to "Two-Step Verification (2SV) Settings."
7. In the "Enrolled 2SV Authenticators" section, click "Add new phone or Authenticator App."
8. Enter the OTP number to proceed signing in
9. Choose "Authenticator App" and follow the instructions that appear.
To learn more about authenticator apps, check Help: https://kdp.amazon.com/help/topic/G6HTFZJLJ7AJQ56R

6. I understand the authenticator didn't work, but were you not able to update the phone number?
step 7 allows you to add an authenticator app or a new phone number, you do this at the amazon level and it will also affect the KDP level.:
7. In the "Enrolled 2SV Authenticators" section, click "Add new phone or Authenticator App."
Once verification is enabled you will be able to receive your OTP also for your KDP login
Thanks for using Amazon KDP,

7.Can I ask yo please to attach an image of your identity document or drivers license so we can open a case to temporarily de-activate your account security 

8. Thank you for bringing this to our attention.
We need a little time to look into the problem with your two step verification
We’ll reply and send you more information within 2-3 business days. Thanks for your patience.
Thanks for using Amazon KDP,

9. We recommend you work with the Amazon Retail Customer Service department, as they are best equipped to help you with this issue.
You can contact the Amazon Retail Customer Service department directly at:

https://www.amazon.com.au/gp/help/contact-us/general-questions.html

10. We understand you wish to close your account and delete your data.
Protecting your privacy and the security of your data is and has always been a top priority for us. The most secure and straight-forward way to submit the request is to follow these steps:

1. Go to Close Your Amazon Account: https://www.amazon.com/privacy/data-deletion

2. Sign into the account you want to close.

3. Review the products and services associated with your account.

4. If you still wish to proceed, select a reason in the drop-down menu. Tick the box next to "Yes, I want to permanently close my Amazon account and delete its data" and select "Close My Account."

Please note that the closure is permanent and afterwards the account will no longer be available to you. We will not be able to restore the account.

If you decide later that you want to start ordering from us again, or if you would like to use products and services that require an account, you will need to create a new account.

By requesting the closure of your Amazon account on any Amazon site, you'll also lose access to all the products and services offered across all Amazon sites globally where you use the same login credentials (email, mobile phone number, and password).This includes, among others, international Amazon sites (for example amazon.ca, amazon.fr, amazon.com.mx), and Audible, etc.

If you have multiple accounts, follow the provided steps for each of them to ensure that we have the correct authority to take action on each account you wish to close. A confirmation notification will be sent to the email address associated to your account or via text message. You'll need to reply within 5 days to verify your request. If you are experiencing issues with logging into the account you wish to close, visit the following Help page: https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=GAM5QWMWMTFCHEQT




Saturday 3 February 2024

Lots to see at Arrowtown


If you are staying at Queenstown and the person you are with can't or won't do bungy-jumping, the gondola, jet boating, rafting or water fun on the lake what can you do to pass the time?

Head off to Arrowtown, it's not far and is certainly worth the effort. Regardless of the time of year you visit there are some must-dos. I didn't get to do most of these as my international guest was too preoccupied with the excellent souvenir shops, so we ran out of time to see much else.

 The Lakes District Museum & info centre:

This building used to be the town bank. It is a wee gem; far more interesting than you might suppose. The exhibits on life in a goldrush town are in good condition, well laid out with great information. 

The first section you come to looks at gold mining and gold panning. Everything is clean and tidy and well explained with Shotover gold nuggets on display.Some information on gold exchange and the ancient banking system was of interest. Getting hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of gold to the bank was fraught with danger.

I was particularly surprised to see an exhibit on music and how settlers used to amuse themselves at home. Truly old musical instruments were on display and even photos showing them being used in
those times. Nowhere else have I seen that sort of exhibit. Instruments most certainly do change form and technology as the centuries advance.

A lot of effort has been put into showing various work activities such as sawmilling, blacksmithing, food production. I especially enjoyed getting up close and wandering around and inside these exhibits. The strangest one was a door one was encouraged to open to a very small room. If you opened the door you found yourself looking at someone on the toilet and a shriek went up. Very disconcerting but amusing. The person was an animated mannequin.

I couldn't help but be struck by the hardships and physical struggles men and women had 150 years ago. Just how far we have come with technology and also education for women.

I could also see how those with some education and entrepreneurial urges could really make a new and comfortable life. Because pretty much everything was needed and there wasn't a lot of competition. Got what it takes to be a teacher? Just start your own school. So little red tape. Nowdays you are actively discouraged from doing what you are good at.

If you are an early to mid 'boomer' you'll remember learning the old British Imperial system of weights and measures and money. In the display school room they had a sheet showing shillings, pounds and guineas. And hey, the old times tables up to 12. 

Most kids these days have no idea of their times tables, even up to 10. All I have of the old money is one precious sixpence my Gran used to put in her Christmas Plum Puddings, and the odd shilling and penny. No paper money. Still, I do have one coin from each of the British monarchs from Queen Victoria onwards. What stories those old coins might tell.

We are ephemeral creatures. We don't live all that long and once our children have gone it is as if we never existed. Objects link us to history and to the ordinary lives of thoses long gone, not too dissimmilar to our own ordinary lives. What will we leave behind? With digital devices and their too-soon obsolete technologies there won't be much left to see.

An HP printer compared to the wonderful old printing press on display in this museum. I've seen old presses at other museums but this one seemed extra special. You can spend a good hour and a half at this museum. It costs about $10 per person entry.

At ground level there's a very good bookshop with souvenirs too. It features NZ travel, culture and history.


Beyond the museum there is the main street to explore. The souvenir shops are numerous and of excellent quality and they contain plenty of merchandise you won't see anywhere else. It could be such a picturesque street if only they would ban cars from parking there. I found it impossible to take photos of the beautiful fronts of the buildings due to cars in the way. What a shame! There are other streets where cars are less evident but those buildings are of lesser interest.

There is a little shop that was quite a surprise and a delight, located on Buckingham St. It is a lolly shop, the

Remarkable Sweet Shop. But what a lolly shop. Sweets that reminded my of my childhood, sweets from other cultures, sweets unknown, chocolates made a la maison. I left without buying anything. There was too much that was yummy to choose so it was better for me not to.

Other things to do for which I didn't have time: 

There's a specialist wine store The Winery which looked really interesting and had a good selection of NZ wine but they don't post to Europe. Only Asia. Lost me there. Plenty of Asian tourists but few from elsewhere. I really think we've turned off other visitors to these shores.

Gibbston Valley Winery which hosts the annual rock festival in the Gibbston Valley is only a little further along from Arrowtown, as is Lake Hayes - spectacular in autumn.

Nature walk along the Arrow River

There are two walks: a 60min one and a 10 min stroll with different views.

The Chinese Settlement

Most 19th century Chinese miners were poor and not very welcome. They came to to strick it rich enough to send money back to their families. They had their own separate town by the river, which included their own stores. The settlement on vue today is restored AND recreated. I hope I'll be back one day to see it.








Art Galleries:

I did visit one. There were a couple of large and good quality pieces supervised by a French lady. Again, too expensive.

Golf Courses:

There are three courses with fantastic scenery - Millbrook, the Hills, and the Arrowtown Golf Club, rated in the NZ top 20.

Arrowtown is worth a visit at any time of the year.