Account Lockout Warning!

I had a very scary moment this morning!

After a series of mishaps, I was locked out of my account. It started with two-step verification via email, no problem. But, then I was asked for the expiration date of a debit card that I no longer have. I couldn't remember the date and that lead to the lock-out. So that sucked but no biggie I just need to make a phone call. Here is where the problem really started...
I don't shop on Amazon all that often. Sometimes I use the wishlist, but when I do, I'm not really thinking about it. I'm of course expecting to be asked security questions, but I don't expect to be asked ones about my shopping history. To my surprise, the security questions were about the last three items I purchased and what is on my wishlist. I can vaguely remember a couple of items that I ordered last, but not enough for the customer service rep to find it acceptable. I can't remember anything that would have been on my wishlist either. I ask (and assume) there must be another way to be verified. After all, I'm calling from the number they have on record, I can access codes in my email, I can provide answers to other personal questions, there must be a way, right? But no, there is not. I'm rudely told by the rep that I need to start a new account or call back and try to answer the questions again, and she basically hangs up on me after giving me a sarcastic "have a nice day".
So now I'm stressing but understand better what I need to explain. I call back and luckily get a much nicer and more patient customer service rep. I tell him that I use my account every day, I rely on it to make some of my income, I'm owed money and I can't just make a new account. I understand that they verify the account by using past purchases but I so rarely use my account to shop I can't remember specifically my last purchase or what I might have on my wishlist. He works with me, I verify part of my checking account number and stumble through some things I knew I bought last ( I just didn't know exactly when) and finally remember I had added a backpack to my wishlist last year. Thankfully that sealed the deal and I was able to unlock my account! Everything, luckily, worked out.

Here's the moral of my story. I would highly recommend that everyone keep a record of the last three items they purchased and know something on their wishlist. This might be the dumbest security feature I've seen, but I feel lucky that I was able to stumble through and come up with the right answers. I could've lost my livelihood in an instant because of some really dumb computer errors and security systems and would've been devastated. Hopefully this warning can help save someone else a headache

 

Wow, thanks! You just prompted me to check my amazon account and review my last purchases and wish list....... just in case. Thanks for the warning. Hopefully I will never need it.

 

Ditto!!! Thanks for the warning. Honestly, mturk is kinda scary in their totalitarian view of things...

 

Question: What's the number for customer service for accessing my account? I'm in a sort of similar bind but I'm stuck on the to-step verification and it doesn't offer me email just phone number and my phone just recently took a dunk in a river. I find any sort of help on Amazon, it just keeps sending me to the same place.

 

I think you would benefit from checking their Twitter account here: https://twitter.com/amazonmturk?lang=en

I don't use Twitter, so maybe @ChrisTurk could verify this is indeed their Twitter account. Their latest tweets and replies instruct users that have questions to contact their support team, for which they provide a link.

Best of luck.