{"id":41831,"date":"2019-08-16T16:27:20","date_gmt":"2019-08-16T23:27:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/?p=41831"},"modified":"2019-08-16T21:14:21","modified_gmt":"2019-08-17T04:14:21","slug":"i-think-my-favorite-part-is-warmest-regards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/2019\/08\/16\/i-think-my-favorite-part-is-warmest-regards\/","title":{"rendered":"I think my favorite part is “Warmest Regards”"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you’ve been using my Amazon links, I thank you for your support of this blog. Unfortunately, you should stop now.<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

Received from Amazon this morning:<\/p>\n

\nHello, <\/p>\n

Effective today, Amazon is terminating your Associates account as well as the Operating Agreement that governs it (link below).<\/p>\n

Why?
\nWe reviewed your account as part of our ongoing monitoring of the Amazon Associates Program. During our review, we determined that you are not in compliance with the Operating Agreement, found here: . The violations include the following:<\/p>\n

-We have found violations in one or more of the Bounty Statements from your Site.
\n-You are encouraging customers to bookmark your Special Links. All Special Links must be accessed directly from your Site. <\/p>\n

An example of the above violation can be found here: https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/2011\/01\/19\/itty-bitty-questions-about-quirks-of-human-nature\/<\/p>\n

What\u2019s next?
\nYou must stop using the Content and Amazon Marks and promptly remove all links to the Amazon site.<\/p>\n

Because you are not in compliance with the Operating Agreement, Amazon will not pay you any outstanding advertising fees. Please be aware that any other related accounts may be closed without payment of any fees. Amazon reserves all other rights and claims.<\/p>\n

In limited cases this closure may be appealable. See Appeals help for more information, found here: .<\/p>\n

Amazon.com<\/p>\n

Warmest Regards,<\/p>\n

Amazon.com
\nhttp:\/\/www.amazon.com\/associates\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is typical Amazon — no warning, no chance to shape up. Just SLAM! And oh BTW, we’re keeping the money already credited to you.<\/p>\n

I’m not going to appeal. Two reasons. First, even if you’re innocent, if you’re a vendor or an associate you might as well appeal to the Borg. (Amazon is good to its customers, nasty to its subordinates.) Second, I’m not innocent; I did indeed ask people to use the links as they say. As to the accusation about bounty statements, I don’t even know what a bounty statement is<\/em>, let alone how I might have violated one. But there it is.<\/p>\n

Amazon blog links are over<\/em>. I’ve removed the one in the sidebar. I couldn’t possibly ferret out every associates link from years of blogging, as they demand. I may try later. But for today I’m simply saying thank you and asking you never to use one of those old Amazon links again.<\/p>\n

Beyond that, I don’t know where things will go from here. For now, I’ve halted all house projects, stopped buying “treat” groceries, and am looking at other places to cut the budget. I already eliminated Netflix and home Internet earlier this year.<\/p>\n

Three angels have provided 3\/4 of the recent non-Amazon support for the blog (bless you D3, SF, and RW). Others have sent surprise donations or stuck with me via Patreon even as Patreon went to the dark side. I could name a lot of others who deserve my eternal thanks. GL, AE, KK, BM, DA, MJ, JM, V, DB, FM, AG, ABCDE … so many more I’m neglecting to mention, but to whom I owe everything for years of support. I remain one lucky writer.<\/p>\n

But while it lasted it was wonderful to have a means for potentially hundreds of people to support the blog simply by making purchases at Amazon with no extra cost to themselves. No other affiliate program has such power. <\/p>\n

That’s over now, though. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you’ve been using my Amazon links, I thank you for your support of this blog. Unfortunately, you should stop now. Received from Amazon this morning: Hello, Effective today, Amazon is terminating your Associates account as well as the Operating Agreement that governs it (link below). Why? We reviewed your account as part of our ongoing monitoring of the Amazon Associates Program. During our review, we determined that you are not in compliance with the Operating Agreement, found here: . The violations include the following: -We have found violations in one or more of the Bounty Statements from your Site.…<\/p>\n

Continue readingI think my favorite part is “Warmest Regards”<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-money","ratio-natural","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41831"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41831\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41846,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41831\/revisions\/41846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}