The Amazon Kindle Paperwhite is in short supply everywhere in the USA. Ever since mid-December, all major retailers have had very limited inventory and are constantly fielding phone calls from very angry customers. Office Max and Office Depot officially confirmed with Good e-Reader today that the two companies are getting out of the Kindle Paperwhite business and will no longer carry them in the stores or online. Big box retailer Staples has reached its allotment of Kindle Paperwhite e-readers and has suspended the sales of the West Coast of further units. Finally, Amazon has implemented a one unit quota. If you have ordered a device in the last six months and are trying to order more, the company will automatically refund any further orders and then send out an email saying, “If you place future orders for this item, you risk the permanent suspension of your account.”
update: Here is an excerpt of the Email Amazon sent us (note, we have ordered around 20 Paperwhites in the last six months)
Therefore, if you exceed the limit in the future on any of the account, we may close your Amazon.com accounts and you wouldn’t be able to make any further purchases on our site.
We hope that you will comply with our posted purchase limits going forward. Continued failure to comply with our policies may result in the removal of both your Amazon.com buying and selling privileges.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
