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Amazon.com

   Message From Customer Service

Hello,

I understand that you wish to know that the bit coins can be used.

We don't accept bit coins as a payment method on our website at this time. I sincerely apologize for this.

We accept credit cards, debit cards, payment from U.S. checking accounts, Amazon.com Gift Cards, Amazon Payments Stored Balance, and the Amazon.com Store Card. Here are the credit cards we accept:

-- American Express
-- Diner's Club (U.S. billing addresses only)
-- Discover
-- MasterCard
-- Visa, Visa Electron, and Visa Check Cards
-- Eurocard
-- JCB
-- NYCE
-- STAR
-- China UnionPay (credit card only)

You can learn more about these payment methods on our Help pages:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/?nodeId=513058

If you'd prefer to pay with cash, you can buy Amazon.com Gift Card claim codes from authorized resellers at a store near you. Learn more at:

www.amazon.com/cashgcresellers

However, I've forwarded your message to appropriate department and I'll make sure the appropriate people in our company see your message, So that it will be made active in future.

We look forward to seeing you again soon.

Best regards,
Alagu S.

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Amazon.com

Original Message
---------------
03/12/14 19:16:53
Your Name: David Rabahy
Comments:I have Bitcoins and would appreciate it Amazon accepted them as a form of payment.
---------------

My efforts include buying from Overstock instead of Amazon.  :D

That would give Amazon more pressure.

It is better to buy from retailers accepting bitcoin.

What do you think the chances are of this happening in the next year?

Zinc Save is a browser extension for Chrome compatible with major retailers like Macy's, Target, Walmart, and Amazon that bills itself as a moneysaving utility, but it also turns these companies into into Bitcoin-friendly retailers.

http://www.businessinsider.com/zinc-save-bitcoin-extension-for-amazon-2014-3

Accepting cryptocurrencies is too risky for mainstream business. I guess Amazon will not adding BTC as payment method unless BTC become popular. It will take long time. Our best option is to spend more coins at Overstock. Unfortunately, most of bitcoin users just ... hold and wait for exchange price to increase, they don't want to spend any of their precious coins.

While it would be nice if Amazon accepted bitcoin directly (just a matter of time), did you know that you can buy anything from Amazon for 3% off with Bitcoin via Amazon gift cards at gyft.com?

http://www.gyft.com/bitcoin/

Overstock not a mainstream business  ???

I beg to differ, they are an awesome place to shop. 

Yea, the big companies won't accept Bitcoin any time soon, simply because of it's price fluctuations..

that will happen in the next 1-2 years i guess. the money will force them to accept it.

Here's the link to download the Chrome extension Zinc Save, which clones your Amazon order and gives you all the discounts you're entitled to as well as a further Zinc Save discount (http://bitjuice.com/a-new-browser-extension-turns-amazon-into-a).

Overstock has had over a $1M in bitcoin purchases since accepting them in January with many of them new customers, critical to growth strategies. I'm sure Amazon is watching to see what kind of volume we generate through Zinc Saves, so spread the word, we can vote with our Bitcoins!

I think there is a good chance if we keep asking! So keep asking, folks! (Heading over there now....)

If I had a bitcoin I would gladly spend it on a camera which is why I'm saving up my bitcoin right now lol, was gonna buy from over rest obit I might try zinc and buy from amazon instead once I actually get the BTC I need D: gonna take a while to get another .8 unfortunately :(

That can be managed easily, from what I've read, and all the major bitcoin processors offer immediate cashout to local currency to protect against such fluctuations.

Besides, if bitcoin does keep trending up then ending up holding it as a merchant is a good thing.  ;D

People will be watching Overstock to see how it's going, and it's going pretty well.  I think the shitstorm with Gox slowed things down, and BTC got rutted into a bit of a negative news cycle, but as the dust clears retailers will pick up the pace again.  

It's makes them money, so it's only a matter of time.

http://newsbtc.com/2014/03/13/overstock-com-reeling-20k-30k-daily-purchases-paid-bitcoin/





As to the apparently widespread claim that people are not spending their bitctoin, that's been proven false, so folks should stop yakking on about that.  Simply isn't true.

http://www.coindesk.com/mit-report-bitcoin-more-likely-spent-hoarded/


"Newly released research from the MIT Technology Review, a faculty-run university magazine, suggests that new bitcoins are increasingly being spent, not hoarded, by users after purchase.

The data illustrates that the number of unspent, new bitcoins has declined drastically from 2009, when nearly half of all new bitcoins were held for the entire first year of ownership. Today, the vast majority of new bitcoins are spent within 24 hours, the findings suggest."

Ditto.  Even when not paying with BTC. 

I vote we put and end to trying to get new merchants to accept Bitcoin just to convert it into USD.  Yes, it is OK for a merchant to convert BTC to USD, but to just gather huge merchants who will only do a 100% conversion and never have any stake in BTC is not gaining the community much ground.

It is now time for B2B uses.  If Amazon accepted BTC AND offered to pay out commission sales and Amazon payments balances in BTC that would be QUITE DIFFERENT.  That would be a huge boost to the ability to use and spread BTC usage as a payment method much further. 

That's right. Overstock has no exposure to price volatility because they only use BTC as a payment network. The price of a bitcoin is meaningless when used this way.

I disagree. The more places we can spend bitcoin, the better. Each one is a step closer to the point where retailers can pay their own suppliers and employees in bitcoin. When that happens, they'll start keeping a float in bitcoin without anyone telling them to.

Overstock.com holds 10% of its Bitcoin payments but converts the other 90% to USD immediately...

I think that's a good strategy and it will snowball for them nicely.

Just make amazon orders through btczone.com for now.

bitpay have a few features that are amazon friendly.
https://bitpay.com/bitcoin-for-ecommerce#amazon

so guys, try to mention bitpay when talking to amazon
instant conversions of fiat, already coded shopping carts and fulfillment

+1

Do not lick asses of those who pissed on Bitcoin. If they want to join fine but do not go so low to sell your dignity or soul to make them join Bitcoin.

Did Amazon "piss on Bitcoin"? Or have they just not accepted it yet?

Not sure if amazon or any other companies on the internet will accept Bitcoin anytime soon.

It's understandable because of the huge fluctuations, but i'm sure once (and if) the price gets more stable, they will accept it.

What happens when Amazon acquires $6,000,000,000 worth of bitcoins and doesn't sell them.  Just hoards them?   I don't think the market cap of Bitcoin is large enough currently to be able to service Amazon.

Well I think Amazon would most likely do something like overstock, keep 10% in BTC and the other 90% into another currency

Total support for this campaign, this gonna be awesome if happens.

Go go

That would be awesome! It would tighten up the money supply for bitcoin and send prices rocketing upwards. Demand would be increasing because people would see Amazon as a bellwether for widespread bitcoin use/acceptance, and with tightened supplies bitcoin could go stratospheric. Which would be a nice bonus for Amazon in such a case.

It would be nice if there was some kind of "Bitcoin Acceptance Bounty" system for stores, where people could donate Bitcoins to a pool of money designated for a specific store, held in escrow, as a reward that could be collected once that store accepted Bitcoin.

For example, I would definitely donate $20 to the bounty for Wendy's. Buying a 5-piece nuggets and a Frosty with Bitcoin would be heaven on earth.

For Amazon, if such a bounty existed, it could easily get to pretty high numbers, because the value of Bitcoins will skyrocket it they accept it. So, it could get into the millions, which would be pretty hard for the Amazon board to resist, since their job is to increase the bottom line for shareholders.

 

This is pretty much the biggest message you can send to a business. It's all about profit first. If you affect the profit you can change almost anything.

If bitcoin lasts long enough, eventually they would have to accept it right ?

Now that's a fascinating idea, if someone could somehow get the ball rolling to organize something like that.

Post a good text, we can mail to Amazon.

You will be able to do it very shortly with Moolah: https://moolah.io/

+1

I'm moving all my business (at least 100k / year in purchases from online retailers) to the sites that accept BTC

Newegg.com -> tigerdirect
Amazon.com -> Overstock.com

The leading online retailers have a false sense of security and hubris that we shall smash by taking our business elsewhere.

This. We are not here to beg , we're the ones offering them advantages like lower fees new customers.

^
|_ noob comment

bitcoin is already accepted on over 100,000+ internet companies sites, and a decent high percentage are sites that deliver physical goods to peoples homes after the payment is made.

there are even websites that, when you pay your bitcoin. FOOD arrives within 1 hour to your doorstep.
takaway.com - 7500 UK fast food restaurants
foodler.com - over 50k restaurants

and i only class the 2 internet companies mentioned above as 2 out of the 100,000+ internet companies. so ill allow you to calculate the many more subsidiary companies that profit daily via bitcoins.

so tell me again how bitcoins do not work for internet websites??

You're forgetting that Amazon would NEVER use Bitpay or Coinbase.  They're a payment company themselves with Amazon payments and Bitpay and Coinbase are competitors so for a big time tech company like Amazon to use a 3rd party payment processor when they themselves are a huge payment processor would be insane.  If you want Amazon to do this what you're asking for is for them to move into competition with Coinbase and Bitpay and I'm not sure that's something you really want-their scale would crush smaller competitors and Amazon is known to eat the fees on their payment services to make it grow.

That said, if Amazon Payments really did integrate Bitcoin it'd be a huge deal since many other sites accept Amazon Payments.

It is very very safe to say that both Amazon and Ebay will be accepting bitcoin, the question is just when. My bet is this year.
The Overstock and Tiger Direct numbers make this a business decision, they can't miss out and they know it.
The CEO of Overstock.com said some big multibillion dollar companies will be accepting bitcoin this year but he wouldn't say which, but said he knew.
Not sure how many businesses fit that profile but it is safe to say that Overstock made it all but mandatory for others to follow.

I think bitcoin is at $10,000 next year. Just look at the VC arena and businesses moving in. We are sitting in the calm before the storm.

IAS

ps - I don't think we have to do anything but some emails saying "I'm taking my business to Overstock due to bitcoin." and the like, worded a bit friendly, might expedite things.
Bitcoin will turn into a cool meme, then look out.

no amazon are amazon.. and amazon work with 3rd parties services all the time. let me mention just 2
visa
mastercard.

.. oh, lets go the whole hog and mention more of their third party payment systems they use, just to prove the point
Discover Network
American Express
Diner's Club (U.S. billing addresses only)
JCB
NYCE
STAR
China UnionPay (credit card only)

+1

It will  be a very big boost if they accept bitcoins, but the price is not stable yet....

Do you know the impact of 3% price fluctuation on the scale of the Amazon sales?

I buy in GBP, Yen, Euro and USD.
Yes, i read every day the currency exchange ... and it's a pain with the fee of the money actual system !

In bitcoin, it's not a problem ... the value change every day but remain stable in 1 week.

do you know that in the hour a person pays for their goods, bitpay locks a price and gives the merchant that exact amount..

Quoted for emphasis. The illusion of the problem of instability is just that, an illusion.

In light of this article today,

hxxxp://www.coindesk.com/ amazon-exec-company-decided-against-accepting-bitcoin

can we organize a new push on this campaign or come together with a joint way to show amazon our support for bitcoin payment options.

if they decided against it after that much hype around it , they won't change their decision too quickly.

I buy a 450 thing with 1 btc. Btc drops to 100 . Bitpay pays the merchant 450. Bitpay ends up with 1 btc worth 100usd.

Where will the 350 come from? Let's divide this by 100 , say 3.5 but multiply by 100 000 sales. And then another 30 days of continuous slide downwards.
Bitpay would have gone bankrupt from january till now.


I

doesn't mean we can't try.

sent email to support about accepting bitcoin

I think I may be able to help.  Our next hash power giveaway may involve taking action and contributing to this campaign.  The customer would need to post a screenshot of their message to Amazon as a requirement to enter the contest, although this might make the pressure less convincing if there is incentive behind it. 

Patrick said he was going to start keeping a small portion of the bitcoin OSTK receives as payment to include on their balance sheet.  This should be all the reason you need to shop there if its financially equal to do so.  Often times I find for household items OSTK is better than AMZN.  The only delta that was too large to cross price-wise was a particular set of speakers I wanted to buy and ended up grabbing off AMZN instead.

I e-mailed support on this after seeing their decision not to utilize bitcoin.

I got this in response.


 
"Hello,

Currently, we don't accept Bitcoin as a payment method on our website. Moreover, I hope you'll understand that Amazon.com does not comment about rumors or speculative news reports.

Although that is the case, it's a good thing that you've brought this up to our attention and we'll consider your feedback as we plan further improvements.

Strong customer feedback like yours is very important in helping us continue to improve our website and services. I'll make sure to pass your message on to the appropriate department in our company. We always want to know how our customers react to all aspects of shopping on our website....."

There was some blah, blah, blah about other payment options after all of that.

I was surprised that they responded, and it was pretty fast.  Maybe they need to be bombarded with these.  Might not help, but it can't hurt either.

I hate to be a party pooper but this will not happen for a long long time. The only reason 99% of businesses accept bitcoin is because they can immediately convert it to fiat through bitpay. And there's no way they can support the transaction volume that would come from Amazon.

I must say, I find myself shopping with Amazon on a monthly basis but if they were to accept Bitcoin imagine that. Would be a fine way to convert without the hassle of selling the coins. Perfect.

Amazon know that those in the Bitcoin community want them to accept Bitcoin as a method of payment, but I think what they really want is your average customer to say that they want Bitcoin as an option for reasons a, b, c etc.

I wonder if they are waiting for the bitcoin ecosystem to be big enough to support their volume. If so ... it's just a matter of time.

Oerstock is a mainstream business with 2013 annual revenues amounting to $1.30 Billion.

Source:  http://www.overstock.com/about (http://www.overstock.com/about)

Amazon would be an interesting addition to Bitcoin but give it time they will either make amazon coin or realizing the competition is out there and getting a revenue stream they aren't diversify into it.

They've ranked outside the top 20 online shops in the US. So , they are hardly mainstream.
Big , yeah , but not one of the key players by far.

The players list: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_companies_by_revenue   if one these guys got on board, probably would be good for BTC  ;)

How's the campaigning going? Wrote to Amazon again today (different department)  :D

Most importantly, Overstock is growing at a rapid pace, while the Amazon is stagnant.

Overstock:

Total revenues (2013): $1,304 million
Total revenues (2012): $1,099 million

If they have the audacity, or forward thinking, to fly peoples packages to their houses via drones, why don't they accept the cryptocurrency of the future...

Make them do a Amazon balance storage but you can convert BTC->Amazon Balance ->purchase !


This would be a crucial spike for the BTC Value if Amazon adopted these innovations

You mean the Google or Apple coins? That's still in beta testing stage...

Thats a great idea. Bitcoin value would go up, and it would make other companies realize that it isnt that hard, and maybe more companies will implement bitcoin as a currency you can use on their site.

Why would this increase the value of BTC?  Maybe a temporary speculative pump but this doesn't get more people buying Bitcoin, does it?

well sure it does... the more people that use bitcoins then the more demand there is for bitcoins. the more demands there is for bitcoins the less supply there will be. the less supply there is the higher the price is.

Actually an increase in demand will simply lead to a higher price. No need to worry about the supply curve as long as it doesn't shift (of course there is a marginal shift of 25 BTC per block but I wouldn't worry to greatly about that in the short term).

the more users of BTC there are the less the supply will be due to smauging and lost private keys. the supply i think i was referring to was the supply in actual circulation because the real supply is fixed and will be forever.