Sadly, here we go again. Amazon has informed us this morning that we have to “cease displaying [Amazon’s] content and links to [Amazon’s] site on [our] mobile application and accessing the Product Advertising API through [our] mobile application.”
Of course, once again there is no email address to respond to directly so our reply sent through the Contact Us link on the Amazon page will very likely get lost in the maze of their company or otherwise take a long time to reach someone who might be willing to send us a response. As a software company we understand the need for a support desk system, but it leaves us awe struck that they have no direct communication with a representative, especially when their signature is “Associate Account Specialist”.
But what’s even worse is that they obviously haven’t bothered looking at Pocketpedia2: there ARE no links to Amazon anywhere in the application. It’s impossible to access the site through the program. And as for content, we have explained that the Pedias block any Amazon data from being synched over save for the cover image, title and director/artist/author/platform (so it wouldn’t seem like your Amazon added items just went missing). We’ve offered that we’d pull this information as well if that would allow us to keep Pocketpedia2 going but don’t hold your breath…
Of course we have also asked for an explanation or reasoning once again on why mobile apps specifically are singled out under the Associates Operating agreement. Keep your fingers crossed and maybe this time we’ll receive a response. This is starting to feel a bit like talking to the Queen of Hearts.
We know that many of you wrote to Amazon last time Pocketpedia had to be pulled from the App Store. We’re very grateful for your support. We know that Amazon is not our only input method to catalog your collection (we are routinely impressed with the number of people that painstakingly enter all the details manually). This was the main reason we released Pocketpedia2, an Amazon-stripped version of the original Pocketpedia. However, while we get a dialog going with Amazon we have no choice but to pull Pocketpedia2 from the App Store for the time being.
Stay tuned. Hopefully, there will be a solution to our problems through communication with Amazon or at least some answers from “earth’s most customer centric company”.
In conjunction with the death of Pocketpedia2, Amazon once again killed our access keys and we’ve had to apply for new ones. These are part of the latest version release so make sure you download version 4.5.5 of the Pedias for your searches to continue without trouble.