I have watched with amusement over the last two months the drama between my wife and the Amazon.com, Inc..

For the benefit of my readers, Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) is an American-based multinational electronic commerce company. Headquartered in Seattle, Washington, it is America’s largest online retailer, with nearly three times the Internet sales revenue of the nearest competitor.

For many bloggers in Africa, Amazon is a ‘no-go’ area because of the Cost-Per-Action CPA advertising model. And also because Amazon is not as pragmatic as Google Inc. when it comes to payment to associates or partners participating in her advertising program. This will be a subject of a fresh topic, another time, another day.

It so happens that my wife was due for payment from Amazon last December 2009. She waited in vain for four months without the arrival of the cheque. She now initiated communications with Amazon over the “missing-in-transit” cheque. After almost six weeks of “see-saw” communications between them we now found out the cheque has been cashed by a scammer named Kaddour Chikri email chikri2002@yahoo.com through a bank (Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria S.A.) and acting through a used clothings company where he is manager: Textiles Alcudia,S.L. based in Spain. Who says it is only Nigeria that Yahoo-Yahoo Scams thrives?

The questions that Amazon has refused to answer are many:

• Why did Amazon dispatched a cheque addressed to a payee in Lagos, Nigeria to Cocentaina Alicante in Spain?
• Why was Amazon silent when the email chikri2002@yahoo.com used in clearing the cheque was not the same as the one they have in their associates database?
• Why did Amazon refuse to raise an eyebrow when the cheque meant for an individual was cashed tnrough a company’s account?
• Why did Amazon send an ‘Affidavit of Forgery’ form instead of open admission of liability and public apology?

Instead of sending my wife an affidavit of forgery form to fill and be notarized in order to help recover the stolen money, Amazon should quit this ‘bold-face’ tactics and admit liability for this corporate error as well as offer a written apology to my wife for their ‘mistake’ sending a cheque destine for Nigeria to Spain.

I will keep you informed as the matter unfolds, meanwhile I have contacted our lawyer to help look into this matter. I know that if this matter is not well managed by Amazon, it could become a thriving controversy that could catch the front page story of New York Times. Amazon is big news any day on the internet.

Strangely, we have no axe to grind with the clearing bank: Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria S.A. (BBVA). If Amazon had not commited the foul of sending the cheque to a wrong destination, BBVA may not have been involved in the matter.

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