Help setting up buttons on WP sample themes

Simple question – have site set up using Elegant Themes theme. Problem with it so thought change to one of the default ones. Already have amazon link buttons, but can I use these on default themes (Pilcrow/Twenty Eleven 1.3/zeeCorporate. When I preview the theme I see social media buttons look fine but the Amazon button just shows html code. Is this just a preview issue ? also links do not work – again preview issue ? Is it safer using these themes ?

Background : We had downloaded Elegant Themes Feather theme but keep getting website suspended by hoster (iPages) saying they have received “a complaint from a 3rd party ISP about a phishing page that was hosted on your website.” They then add “We strongly recommend that you upgrade <<Application Name Here>> to the latest and most stable version. Also, if you are using an older version of any plug-ins/themes/modules for the application, please remove any outdated ones completely and you can then install the latest version.”
V confused with Elegant Themes responses re uploading new version (no comfort about what will be lost in the re-fresh as have to delete and reinstall – scary !) so thought it was safer to use a default which auto updates.

Any other constraints on default themes ? ie stuff I can’t use/do ?

Any words of wisdom for a system novice really gratefully appreciated.