Amazon - What are you doing?

After a week of trying to pull answers out of the customer service reps over at Amazon.com - I decided to try sending an email to the Amazon Payments folks instead. Trying to get a yes/no answer has been anything but joyful... the question I have sent time and time again.

"Can I use Amazon Payments at Amazon.com to purchase market place items, such as used books? If yes, how?"

After a total of 4 emails, the final answer ... NO.

The actual response:

Greetings from Amazon.com.

It is not currently possible to use Amazon Payments on Amazon.com.

Amazon Payments allows you to use the payment methods that you already
use on Amazon.com to pay for goods and services online wherever Amazon
Payments is accepted. With an Amazon Payments Account, you can make
secure purchases from 3rd party (i.e. non-Amazon) web sites that
accept Amazon Payments, without having to re-enter your payment
information. Also, there is no cost to you when you make a purchase
using Amazon Payments.

Amazon Payments keeps your payment information private from 3rd
parties, and you are not required to disclose your payment information
stored in your Amazon.com account when you make a purchase. Amazon
Payments provides you with the same trusted payment experience
available on Amazon today, leveraging proven fraud detection and risk
management capabilities. Learn more about Amazon Payments at:

https://payments.amazon.com/sdui/sdui/about?help

Thank you for your interest in Amazon Payments.


Sincerely,

Jacci S.
Amazon Payments
https://payments.amazon.com

Interestingly enough, this is the most direct response I have ever gotten from their script readers. Shoot, someone even signed it with a name. Maybe the Payments team has hired better customer service reps.

Apparently Amazon doesn't trust their own payment tool. Such a high level of confidence really makes me want to adopt it for my own websites!

End result - I still don't have a solution for bulk purchasing used books from Amazon. Credit cards are out. Amazon has disabled bank payments. Then again, Jacci did suggest I try gift certificates. However, given my luck with Amazon and the likelihood that once I sink a few thousand into gift certificates I wouldn't be able to get the money back out - it seems like a pretty poor option.

Amazon - I have no idea how you stay in business.