diff --git amazon.admin.inc amazon.admin.inc
index f923174..500d6cd 100644
--- amazon.admin.inc
+++ amazon.admin.inc
@@ -118,7 +118,7 @@ function amazon_test_form($form_state) {
 
 function amazon_test_form_submit($form, &$form_state) {
   $items = amazon_item_lookup($form_state['values']['asin'], TRUE);
-  if (is_array($items)) {
+  if (!empty($items) && is_array($items)) {
     $item = array_pop($items);
     amazon_item_delete($item['asin']);
     amazon_item_insert($item);
@@ -128,5 +128,7 @@ function amazon_test_form_submit($form, &$form_state) {
     // causes a serialization operation. Whoops.
     $form_state['amazon_item'] = $item;
     $form_state['rebuild'] = TRUE;
+  } else {
+    drupal_set_message(t("Test failed for this ASIN. Please check the !link for messages.", array('!link' => l(t("error log"), 'admin/reports/dblog'))));
   }
 }
diff --git amazon.module amazon.module
index 66d3822..5583937 100644
--- amazon.module
+++ amazon.module
@@ -251,9 +251,13 @@ function amazon_http_request($operation, $parameters = array(), $locale = NULL)
     $xml = new SimpleXMLElement($results->data);
     return $xml;
   }
-  else {
+  if ($results->code == '403') {
+    $xml = new SimpleXMLElement($results->data);
+    watchdog('amazon', "Access denied accessing Amazon's AWS service: %code, %message", array('%code' => (string)$xml->Error->Code, '%message' => (string)$xml->Error->Message));
     return FALSE;
   }
+  watchdog('amazon', "Error accessing Amazon AWS web service. result code=%code, error=%error", array('%code' => $results->code, '%error' => $results->error));
+  return FALSE;
 }
 
 /**
@@ -346,10 +350,12 @@ function _amazon_item_batch_lookup_from_web($item_ids = array()) {
       }
     }
     $items = array();
-    foreach($results->Items->Item as $xml) {
-      $item = amazon_item_clean_xml($xml);
-      amazon_item_insert($item);
-      $items["{$item['asin']}"] = $item;
+    if (!empty($results->Items->Item)) {
+      foreach($results->Items->Item as $xml) {
+        $item = amazon_item_clean_xml($xml);
+        amazon_item_insert($item);
+        $items["{$item['asin']}"] = $item;
+      }
     }
     return $items;
   }