Amazon MP3: Let the Buyer Beware · 14 November, 11:56 AM
I love Amazon’s MP3 download service. Well, I used to love it. Until one day this week I downloaded about 10 songs and suddenly realized today that they were gone from my library. I hunted around and realized what happened: for whatever reason, Amazon gave me a direct link to the MP3 instead of going through the Amazon download application. Firefox asked if I wanted to open the file in iTunes, I said “sure”, so $10 worth of MP3s got downloaded into a tempororay folder and later deleted by some cleanup process, probably Firefox deciding to clean out old downloads. So, hopeful, I went back to Amazon thinking maybe I could re-download what I’d lost. No dice, after 10 minutes of searching, it says so, buried in the help: if you lose track of the music you downloaded, you’re out of luck. Or if for some reason, they decide not to stick to the routine they’ve trained you to expect (the Amazon MP3 downloader, which does a nice job of organizing your music to boot) and you’re not really paying attention, you can be effectively ripped off: not by anyone in particular, just a victim of circumstance. I’m wondering if iTunes does enough tracking on your purchase to let you download a file you’ve purchased. That could definitely bring me back to iTunes.
Who should I be angry at? Myself, for not paying attention? Maybe, I do this for a living and should have realized what was happening, but I can’t imagine that I’m the first to have this happen to them. Amazon, for not sticking to the routine I’d come to expect, and for not standing behind the purchase – accidents happen, right? Amazon has a pretty lousy track record as far as returns and customer service, it’s definitely buyer beware. Or maybe the music industry, for pushing for DRM so hard that customers who try to do the right thing.
I’ll tell you one thing, it’s left a bad taste in my mouth. I don’t like having a lot of CDs laying around, but on the other hand, I don’t like losing $10 with the click of a button either. I’m going to have to think long and hard before going back to Amazon MP3. I’ll know to be more careful next time. If there is a next time.
— Gordon Weakliem
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iTunes tracks what you’ve downloaded enough to warn you that you’re buying music you’ve bought before but doesn’t let you re-download it. I assume that this is because of deals signed with the labels since they let you re-download apps.
— Dare Obasanjo · Dec 5, 10:35 PM · #