Targeted Feedback to Amazon

I went looking for an email address to send Amazon a message regarding their recent policy change intended to force people to use their publishing company, BookSurge. I could only find snail mail addresses, which is absurd for a business that exists on the Internet.

Then Shiloh Walker posted an email address for Amazon's customer service department on Dear Author. However, when I used that address I got back a message that it does not accept incoming messages.

The email I received however included the following:

If you need to contact us about a different issue, please visit http://www.amazon.com/contact-us to send e-mail to customer service. Please be sure to use the e-mail address associated with your Amazon.com account when you contact us.

I went to that page and discovered a "contact us" button on the right hand side.

Apparently Amazon prefers to receive email from their own customers because they wanted me to sign in. I was happy to do so because I've ordered a jillion books from them over the years.

Please go here and send your own message to Amazon. Feel free to copy, customize and send the following:

Gentlemen:

I am a long-time customer of Amazon's. You can check my account to see the number of books I have ordered over the past eight years.

EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY, I AM SWITCHING TO http://www.bn.com

I was appalled by the news that you are trying to force publishers to use BookSurge.

If I understand the situation correctly, not content with the fee you already collect from publishers for listing their books on your site, you now want them to use your proprietary publishing arm to guarantee you set-up and printing fees as well.

This is corporate greed gone amok.

To me, this is about protecting the small presses, which provide a level of innovation not usually seen in the larger presses.

Jeff Bezos once said the customer was the person to whom corporations needed to pay the most attention. This is one customer who is sending you a clear message. Shape up or lose my business.

As an aside, I was not happy that it took 30 minutes to track down an email address to send "feedback" to a corporation that does business online. This does not speak well for your customer service approach.

Sincerely,