Losing or having an e-reader stolen is a real drag.
It’s bad enough to have a piece of pricey tech gear disappear, but it’s even worse if you have sensitive data on it.
The last thing you want to happen after realizing your Kindle is missing, is to find someone purchased hundreds of dollars worth of e-books under your account.
Here’s what you need to do if your Kindle, Nook or Sony Reader vanish.
Amazon Kindle
If you’re Kindle goes missing, you’re going to have to rely on your own wits to get the hardware back. Amazon cannot track it via GPS, nor can they remotely wipe the device clean. So, if you have any sensitive documents, you’re all out of luck.
You can, however, protect your account.
Here’s how:
You can call 1-866-321-8851 if you live in the U.S.; 1-206-266-0927 if you live in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Guam, Hong Kong, Japan, Puerto Rico, the U.K. or the Virgin Islands; or 1-206-266-0927 if you live in another country. You can also do this yourself by logging in at amazon.com/manageyourkindle and selecting the “Deregister” button next to your device.
You’ll also want to cancel your subscriptions over at the Manage Your Kindle Subscriptions page.
If you decide to replace your Kindle (doesn’t the Kindle Fire look awesome!?!), be sure to register your new Kindle in the “Manage Your Kindle” area, so you cancu’ll need to navigate to the “Archived Items” menu on your new device to download your saved items.
Nook
As soon as you realize your Nook is gone, contact customer service (1-800-843-2665) or de-register your Nook on the Barnes & Noble website. This is very important, as you are responsible for any purchases made with the device. While you’re at it, you need to be sure and change your bn.com login info.
One of the benefits of a Nook ereader is that all side-loaded content (i.e. all of the potentially sensitive documents you uploaded to your Nook yourself) will be safe as soon as you de-register the device, a customer service representative told Mashable. However, you will not be able to retrieve those documents.
If you replace your Nook, your Nook purchased content will automatically be reloaded when you sync the device with your bn.com account.
Sony Reader
As with the Kindle and Nook, your purchased data can be reloaded onto a new device. That’s great, but their reporting system is easily the worst:
If your Sony ereader is lost or stolen, you are urged to contact customer support at 1-877-263-2863 between 8 a.m. and midnight EST from Monday through Friday, or between 9 a.m. and 8 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. You will need to have the ereader’s serial number to report its loss. There is no way to de-register your account online, a customer service representative told me.
Just like the Kindle, the device cannot be swiped, so personal documents are certainly at risk.
[via Mashable]
Daniel Berman says
I actually worked for Amazon for 6 months as a Kindle Tier 2 specialist, that handled reports of lost and stolen Kindles. While most of the above information is correct, please do not *only deregister* the device yourself.
Call the customer service number as noted, report that your Kindle has been misplaced, lost, or stolen and they will deactivate the device. While they have no way of tracking it, what deactivation does is prevent the person who has the device from ordering more items on your account, as well as preventing the device from being reregistered to any other Amazon account. There will also be no further mention of your name or info on the device.
While no reward is available, Amazon in the past has provided a shipping for someone to send a lost or stolen Kindle back to them. These Kindles were then returned to the rightful owners.
Eric Dye says
Great insight and share! Thank you SO much Daniel!