So I got this email from Amazon:
I guess by law they’re required to send me this notice that they’re going to just keep the, what, dollar? 30 cents? in that account.
But: It offers me no way to log in, and if I try, it indicates the account is closed. So I can’t log in and say, hey, I want my two dimes.
As you might recall, gentle reader, I made some money (not a lot; maybe a meal’s worth in 2006 dollars) from the Amazon Associates program when it first started, but they booted me when Missouri started wanting online retailers to collect tax, which Amazon resisted until it was ready and such a requirement worked against its competitors. Years later, I joined again when revamping this blog–one year, I went through all the archives imported from Blogspot/Blogger and updated the internal links to point to this blog instead of that one. At the same time, I updated all the affiliate links, hoping that some of the traffic to the old book reports might click through, but Amazon kicked me out again because the cost of administering my account by keeping it in a database somewhere was too expensive. So not only did they kick me out, but they’re keeping the last pennies I have in the account instead of turning them over to the state as unclaimed property, where I can roll them up in a claim sometime.
You know I’m on a bit of an Amazon tweehad, and this just reinforces it. If I need new record sleeves after my most recent record purchase or the next, I’ll go to Stick It In Your Ear Records. I will drive downtown and pay more (probably) just so I don’t order from Amazon.
