Why on earth would Amazon allow whole-seller accounts to edit other peoples listings?
That just seems like a recipe for disaster, as seen here...
Amazon, Amid Crackdown on Seller Scams, Fires Employees Over Data Leak
11–20 of 184 posts
Re: Amazon, Amid Crackdown on Seller Scams, Fires Employees Over Data Leak
#12(Please hold your pitchforks) Since a lot of these scams come from Chinese sellers, I wonder if Amazon could talk to the Chinese government about interfacing with their new social-credit system... you can't sell on the platform if your score is below XYZ, and reports of fraud affect them directly. Obviously this would lead to a lot of sellers mysteriously relocating to other countries, and there would be a lot of pat…
The much talked about social credit score doesn't really exist yet https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/11/16/chinas-orwellian-social...
Re: Amazon, Amid Crackdown on Seller Scams, Fires Employees Over Data Leak
#13As proof that I am clearly not qualified to run a nearly trillion-dollar company, I offer this advice to Amazon -- ditch the marketplace. No more third party sellers.
I have been a reliable Amazon Prime consumer for years, but I have begun making purchases elsewhere because I can not even trust "Ships from and sold by Amazon" any more.
At the very least, quite intermingling stock. And at this point you're going to have to be public about that change and put a guarantee behind it. Your reputation is slipping.
Re: Amazon, Amid Crackdown on Seller Scams, Fires Employees Over Data Leak
#14My (anecdotal) experience with dodgy sellers was this: I bought something that didn't work correctly, I left a review. The seller contacted me and offered money direct to paypal, bypassing Amazon. They did so by attaching an image with the offer to the ticket. I wasn't comfortable with that kind of interaction, so I informed Amazon. Lots of copious apologies from Amazon, and I assume the company was "fired". But the…
With the ability to create fake reviews that can (far) outnumber the negative, I'm surprised sellers bother that much like this... I wonder if a legitimate negative review somehow has more "signal to noise" in it in terms of how it's shown and received by buyers.
Re: Amazon, Amid Crackdown on Seller Scams, Fires Employees Over Data Leak
#15As proof that I am clearly not qualified to run a nearly trillion-dollar company, I offer this advice to Amazon -- ditch the marketplace. No more third party sellers. I have been a reliable Amazon Prime consumer for years, but I have begun making purchases elsewhere because I can not even trust "Ships from and sold by Amazon" any more. At the very least, quite intermingling stock. And at this point you're going to ha…
And the prices on some of the stuff is just weird, with a lot of the Amazon provided stuff now stuck behind Amazon Prime Pantry.
I used to order a lot of our daily household stuff from Amazon: cleaners, dish soap, detergent, etc. So much of that stuff now is priced just horribly. $4 for a bottle from Amazon, but it's just from Prime Pantry so you have to order a bunch of stuff or be stuck with a high shipping cost.
If you go with one of the other sellers, the prices are frequently 2-3x normal retail, I guess preying on the fact that people don't realize they're getting ripped off.
Re: Amazon, Amid Crackdown on Seller Scams, Fires Employees Over Data Leak
#16Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well that's fair. Realized AND acted on a problem vs. just realizing the problem. It unfortunately has to hit them in the public eye before they are willing to really start addressing the problem. I further contend there really is no solution. It's a war of escalation. We've seen it play out with SEO and search engines over the years. You can still "game" Google, but it's a lot harder to do it, the barrier to entry i…
Maybe the current state of affairs is despite significant efforts to combat it. That would explain some of the silence on all these complaints, since "we're doing everything we can and it's still happening" is more embarrassing than "we know it's happening and we're looking into it."
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Re: Amazon, Amid Crackdown on Seller Scams, Fires Employees Over Data Leak
#17(Please hold your pitchforks) Since a lot of these scams come from Chinese sellers, I wonder if Amazon could talk to the Chinese government about interfacing with their new social-credit system... you can't sell on the platform if your score is below XYZ, and reports of fraud affect them directly. Obviously this would lead to a lot of sellers mysteriously relocating to other countries, and there would be a lot of pat…
Abusing Orwellian government schemes to protect your company seems really gross.
Re: Amazon, Amid Crackdown on Seller Scams, Fires Employees Over Data Leak
#18One thing I've been thinking about: Amazon (and Google) have essentially taken the old CPG paradigm of stock shelves (including visibility and monetization of that physical space) and turned it into a new paradigm: Infinite shelf space that dynamically changes based on customer inputs.
Across one axis, this is better for the consumer and better for Amazon: customers get better results, and Amazon can charge for the (still limited) high priority space much more than a typical retailer could charge a CPG manufacturer for visibility.
Across another axis, this is much worse for Amazon: they cede a significant amount of control over a highly valuable asset, which also greatly impacts customer experience. All of the inputs they build their system on can be faked or gamed, and now they have the added responsibility of distinguishing real vs fake, and managing those inputs.
I don't really have any answers, but I think it is an interesting thought exercise to consider how the old paradigm had some advantages, even if those advantages are likely unable to scale.
Re: Amazon, Amid Crackdown on Seller Scams, Fires Employees Over Data Leak
#19As proof that I am clearly not qualified to run a nearly trillion-dollar company, I offer this advice to Amazon -- ditch the marketplace. No more third party sellers. I have been a reliable Amazon Prime consumer for years, but I have begun making purchases elsewhere because I can not even trust "Ships from and sold by Amazon" any more. At the very least, quite intermingling stock. And at this point you're going to ha…
And the prices on some of the stuff is just weird, with a lot of the Amazon provided stuff now stuck behind Amazon Prime Pantry. I used to order a lot of our daily household stuff from Amazon: cleaners, dish soap, detergent, etc. So much of that stuff now is priced just horribly. $4 for a bottle from Amazon, but it's just from Prime Pantry so you have to order a bunch of stuff or be stuck with a high shipping cost. I…
>If you go with one of the other sellers, the prices are frequently 2-3x normal retail, I guess preying on the fact that people don't realize they're getting ripped off.
And as a result, I've become much more careful about checking prices on Amazon, which can't be good for Amazon overall.
By contrast, when I go to the grocery store, I generally assume the amount I'm paying is more-or-less the same as what I would pay elsewhere. (Likely a poor overall mindset on my part, but good for the store.)
Re: Amazon, Amid Crackdown on Seller Scams, Fires Employees Over Data Leak
#20https://outline.com/rjnnqM
Thanks! A short note what is under the link would get more clicks/be more usable. Otherwise you're asking too much trust.