Ready to delete Amazon for good? Talking Tech

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Hey there, listeners. It's Brett Molina. Welcome back to Talking Tech. This is a question that you'll probably think to yourself once you hear it, is this really something I can do? Is it time to delete your Amazon account? Yes. It sounds like a wild notion. It feels like everything within our internet lives is intertwined with Amazon on some level, and this was especially true as we have lived through the COVID-19 pandemic. Amazon has served as a vital lifeline for getting everything we need. We were all hunkering down at home, we were trying to avoid catching or spreading COVID, which meant not going to the grocery store, not shopping like we normally do, and as a result, it was all about ordering from Amazon and having it shipped directly to our home.

But there was another lesson from the pandemic, and that is, other businesses decided to beef up their online shopping tools as well. We saw curbside pickup really take off. A lot of different retailers started to offer that and, as a result, Amazon now has a lot more competition in this space. So yes, as crazy as it sounds, you can live life without Amazon. Maybe you want an alternative shopping destination, maybe you just had a really bad experience with Amazon, or whatever your reasoning is, there is a way to live life beyond Amazon. I write about this in a story that you can read on tech.usatoday.com. It's about how to permanently delete your Amazon account.

Now, this isn't the first time we have talked about different tech services and how to delete your accounts. We've talked about Facebook, Instagram, you name it. If you're just finally done with these services, we take you through the process. So this is what you need to do. It's a very straightforward process as far as deleting your account. There is some important stuff you have to consider though before you do it. You want to double check everything that you might have access to if you delete your Amazon account. So we obviously know Amazon mostly for shopping, but there's a lot more to it. If you bought movies or TV shows from Prime Video, if you used Amazon Music and you bought songs, if you bought books from Kindle, you're not going to have access to a lot of that anymore.

Now, I believe, I'm not 100% sure on this, that if you have downloaded books on your Kindle, those might still be available. I am still trying to find info on that to confirm it, but it's best to operate under the assumption, the possibility that those books might not be there either. So you're losing a lot of stuff that you may have purchased over the years. If you have a gift card balance, double check and make sure that you spend that, because if you delete your account before you spend it, you lose that gift card money. So double check that before you even think about trying to delete your account. It's good though, because when Amazon does take you through the steps, you can look at all the services you have tied to Amazon so that you know for sure this is what's going away. And Amazon has a list on their website detailing all the services that are impacted if you delete your account.

The other thing to know too, once you delete your account, there's no returning. A lot of sites will allow you to delete it and then there's a grace period where you can think it over and maybe you decide, "Ah, I wish I hadn't done that. I want to get my old account back," you can't do that here. Once it's gone, it's gone. You have to start over from the beginning. So you have to be really, really sure you don't want Amazon before you do this. But the steps are easy. You go to Amazon's website. Go to the link that says "Close your Amazon account" and you just go through this step apps. It'll ask you why you're quitting, so you'll pick from a dropdown of different choices. And then you'll want to click a box to confirm that, yes, you definitely want to permanently delete your account. Once that's done, you'll get an email or text that confirms that you actually do want to delete the account and you have within five days to confirm.

I think that's an extra step so that way Amazon knows for sure that you really do want to delete your Amazon account. We take you through all the steps, all the links you need to go to, and the whole process in my story on tech.usa.today.com. So be sure to check it out. Listeners, let's hear from you. Do you have any comments, questions, or show ideas? Any tech problems you want us to try to address? You can find me on Twitter, @BrettMolina23. Please don't forget to subscribe and rate us or leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, anywhere you get your podcasts. And don't forget, every Thursday, the Talking Tech Newsletter. If you want it in your inbox, go to newsletters.usatoday.com. You've been listening to Talking Tech. We'll be back tomorrow with another quick hit from the world of tech.