Comments on: Amazon may be blocking non-US customers from buying Kindle books

By: bigdosh12

bigdosh12 — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 01:50:17 +0000

Amazon seems to have worked out the problems for US kindle users buying books abroad, and my friend in Canada also just got a book online. Hopefully this means that it works for everyone else too.

By: David

David — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 15:00:41 +0000

Elisabet, if you even once had something outside of the US on your account, it’s tarnish and won’t work.
I set a new account, with a valid US postal address and a .com email address that is not registered in the US.
Using gift certificates from another Amazon.com account, but that on does have UK credit card (I couldn’t redeem a cert sent from the UK – go figure?).

Up until I tried yesterday, this all worked. As of yesterday, I needed to pull the VPN trick (using Hotspot shield on a mac).
Today I get asked if I want to change my country, but that was with using hotspot.
I don’t trust the process yet and will try hotspot again this evening.
Use up all the credit and then try switching accounts etc.

By: David

David — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 14:55:08 +0000

Amazon have just announced you can buy in UK, via .com site and download via USB – looks like a deal for GSM is close.
They are osaying to buy the DX
I’ll try with my VPN method again this evening, since I have $50 in a gift cert to use.

I won’t switch country until I hear others have that working.

By: Elisabet

Elisabet — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 12:03:39 +0000

I’m from Norway and I am experiencing the same thing here today. So I don’t think the problem is solved…. I have removed every trace connected to my Norwegian adress/VISA in my account (using giftcards to purcase books), but it dosen’t seem to work. I totaly agree with Koala from Australia – this is very irritating indeed….

By: Koala

Koala — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 07:32:57 +0000

I’m in Australia and am having the same problem today. I’m not getting the “geographical restrictions” message, mine says that I’m attempting to purchase a book in a country outside the country set in my account. I’ve tried with US and with Australia and neither option works. It’s very irritating …

By: bigdosh12

bigdosh12 — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 04:20:20 +0000

Andrys,
I have valid US addresses for my cc, billing, and purchase addresses, but still no luck. Amazon CS have been responding, politely, but essentially uselessly to my daily requests for assisstance with the standard boilerplate

‘I’m sorry for the trouble you had when purchasing Kindle content. I’ve reported this to our technical team, and they’re working on taking care of it.
Please try again over the next few days. Errors like this are usually corrected shortly after they’re reported.’
As they have now sent me five variations of this response I am starting to doubt their sincerity…Does anyone know what the problem really is?

By: Andrys

Andrys — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 03:59:12 +0000

bigdosh12
You need to stay on top of Customer Service on this, daily. You have a valid 1-click info situation (meaning, a U.S. credit card, normallly).

The other parameter is that your main address with Amazon (under My Account) must be a valid U.S. address on the account using gift certificates.

There are several circumstances under which that is done but it must be a valid U.S. address.

Check that. And make sure you have enough gift certificates to cover an e-books purchase you make as that’s another factor…

Good luck!

By: bigdosh12

bigdosh12 — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 03:01:57 +0000

I live in China but have a US registered kindle and valid 1-click info, but still have been unable to buy books. The Chinese government blocks most sites like hotspot and ultrasurf, so does anyone have any other ideas how I might be able to buy book, or even better, if amazon is going to fix this anytime soon?

By: David

David — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 00:06:37 +0000

ok, hotspot shield lets me do this
interesting, I consider myself pretty good with IT, but I can’t figure out how to turn it back off without killing the process (hotspot shield runs in the background)

Claude, looks like you used this successfully, how did you turn it off?

By: David Ferrington

David Ferrington — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 23:08:18 +0000

I still can’t purchase, with the original message as of the top of this thread, tried a number of times, last time a moment ago (00:10 Wed 7-Oct UK)

I wonder if Amazon eng will help.

Perviously worked via 2 accounts, gift cert etc.

By: Andrys

Andrys — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 21:58:26 +0000

As of today, many abroad, rdering using their two-account method and gift certificates are once again able to order books from Amazon without the added IP# workarounds they had to use the day before. And there are even reports at the Amazon thread of non-boilerplate email from helpful Amazon Customer Service reps who are following up on people’s problems.

By: John

John — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 11:23:56 +0000

I had the same problem, too. Managed to go through a US ip-address and bought a book. After that: no problems. I can use my non-US ip and buy books. Maybe Amazon requires you to have at least one successful purchase from a US ip before they let you free? Or it might be that is was just a glitch as the op said

By: Andrys

Andrys — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 10:49:58 +0000

In reading the Amazon forum, where I pointed people to this blog article a couple of days ago, as of this morning, people who could download e-books before are still reporting problems.

Included with those having problems are U.S. citizens with U.S. credit card and a U.S. address who are traveling. That’s as of 3:00am pacific time Tuesday morning.

And, one gal in Europe asked her sister in the U.S. (with U.S. credit card and address of course) to use her account from her own IP# in the U.S. to try to download an e-book, and her sister wasn’t allowed to. The option was not showing up under the problem account at http://amazon.com/manageyourkindle page book listing.
The option was showing up under the sister’s own U.S. account though. This was strange as her sister was accessing the other account under her own U.S. Internet host w/U.S. IP# and the problem acct overseas does have a registered U.S. address using gift certificates.

Anyway, traveling U.S. folks are still having problems, dribbling in.

– Andrys

By: robyn

robyn — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 21:43:14 +0000

I’m a MAC user so Ultra Surf is out for me too and I can’t connect with Hotspot shield for some reason. Can someone tell me how to set up and use a US proxy or a VPN. So sad I can’t buy books anymore :(.

By: Tracy

Tracy — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 16:57:50 +0000

I can verify that this is not solved by having a good 1-click info. I am a US citizen with a US address with US-based credit card, all of which are my 1-click settings. I am currently in Africa and cannot (suddenly this week) buy any Kindle books.

Off to download Ultrasurf now.

By: Claude

Claude — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 08:51:44 +0000

Ultra surf is out for me as I am on a Mac. I was wrong about Leopard not working with Leopard. It worked flawlessly this morning.

By: Devin

Devin — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 06:18:10 +0000

I just tried Ultra surf and I have to say, it’s much easier to use than Hotspot shield. Both work any ways with a gift certificate.

Problem solved.

By: milou

milou — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 03:56:51 +0000

thanks for this. i used Ultrasurf 9.5 and worked perfect.

By: Claude

Claude — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 00:34:38 +0000

Thanks for the info. Just bought a book with a gift certificate using hotspot shield
I looked into the VPN stuff, but I must admit it’s totally obscure to me.
Just one thing, I think that hotspot shield doesn’t like Mac Leopard. It works on my laptop but not on my Leopard Imac

By: Devin

Devin — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 00:11:43 +0000

So using these solutions I could continuing using the Amazon gift cards?

By: Devin

Devin — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 22:46:30 +0000

Ok, found a way around it, well atleast for the free Books: just use a program called Hotspot Shield.

If you want to buy books, it should be as easy as buy an Amazon gift card and than buying the books, while using Hotspot shield, which basically hides your ip.

By: Devin

Devin — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 22:14:49 +0000

From the nerdgirl page comments:

“Many thanks to Caroline Wong from the amazon forums for giving a hint to the solution. Amazon is now checking the IP address for those without a valid one-click payment option – generally those purchasing with gift certificates. You need to do a VPN to a US ip address – just do a google on “VPN to US” and download the software. Just run the software before any amazon session. Just bought 3 kindle books of amazon using gift certificates.”

By: Pierre

Pierre — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 20:46:36 +0000

For Windows users, I can recommend Ultrasurf 9.5. It is a small, free, download. No need to install anything, just unzip and run. It worked like a charm with Amazon.com from the Netherlands. Didn’t need to change anything and it doesn’t leave anything running afterwards.
But I do hope that the old route using the gift vouchers gets restored again.

p.s. I’m not affiliated with Ultrareach in any way.

By: Devin

Devin — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 20:33:17 +0000

One way of doing this, is to buy an Amazon gift card and mailing it to yourself. This way, you can purchase all books. Not sure if this is also being blocked.

By: Claude

Claude — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 20:05:35 +0000

It started last night for me and I am rather upset, because they let me redeem a gift certificate and I don’t know what i am going to do with it. Thanks for the proxy list
Just wondering what US citizens travelling abroad are going to do about buying their books