Astounding customer service failure

Lessons from Amazon’s 2FA mess

I’ve been an Amazon customer for decades. Books, gear, publishing through KDP—the lot. Amazon and I have had a long relationship. But this week, when I tried to do something as simple and essential as enabling two-step verification, I discovered just how fragile that relationship really is.

Here’s what happened.

I attempted to add my Vietnam mobile number so I could secure my Amazon and KDP accounts with two-step verification. Instead of confirmation, I was met with the following error:

“We detected unusual activity and are unable to verify your mobile number at this time. Please try again later.”

I tried later. And later again. Across devices, browsers, and even through different Amazon portals. Same block, same wall, same dead end.

So I contacted Amazon.

• KDP Support told me my two-step verification was “disabled” and I should now add a new phone number. Yet when I tried, I hit the exact same “unusual activity” message. Their solution was to send me back to Retail Customer Service.
• Retail Support told me they couldn’t even see my previous correspondence. Their solution? Call back again. Start over. Re-explain everything.

In other words, no ownership, no fix—just endless hand-offs.

What this reveals about leadership

This isn’t really a story about account security. It’s a story about what happens when a company loses the very thing it claims defines it.

Amazon loves to call itself “Earth’s most customer-centric company.” But when a loyal, decades-long customer tries to improve their account security and is blocked by Amazon’s own system, the experience exposes a gap between slogan and reality.

Leadership lesson #1: Systems mean nothing without accountability.

You can have the smartest workflows, the most automated checks, the slickest dashboards. But if no one is accountable when the system fails, customers are left stranded.

Leadership lesson #2: Loyalty is not infinite.

It takes years to build trust, but minutes to lose it. A customer who feels abandoned won’t remember the hundreds of smooth transactions. They’ll remember the one time you treated them as a problem to bounce around.

Leadership lesson #3: Escalation shouldn’t be necessary.

When ordinary support channels collapse into loops, customers are forced to escalate. That’s not customer service—that’s abdication of responsibility. And it’s corrosive to your brand.

Why this matters for leaders everywhere

You don’t have to be Amazon to fall into this trap. Organisations of every size are guilty of hiding behind process, of creating “unusual activity” walls for the very people who pay the bills.

The real test of leadership is not how smooth things run when the system works. It’s how you respond when the system fails. Do you make it the customer’s problem—or do you own the problem yourself?

Amazon has deep pockets. It will recover from one disgruntled author in Vietnam. But if you are building a business, a consultancy, or a leadership culture, you can’t afford to let your slogans drift too far from your actions.

Because once trust is broken, it’s not your reputation you lose first—it’s your customers.