Amazon, Amid Crackdown on Seller Scams, Fires Employees Over Data Leak • Hacker News Board

Re: Amazon, Amid Crackdown on Seller Scams, Fires Employees Over Data Leak

#141

Post by squarefoot » Tue, Dec 11, 2018, 8:45 PM UTC

rchaud wrote: post #24

One of the first things I remember about moving to a rich country was the absence of knockoff products sold in retail stores. It seemed amazing to me that companies would deal only with authorized distributors. These days, I feel like I'm in a twilight zone where 'wealth creation' is happening by putting a fresh face on 3rd-world country business models. First it was Uber with the "hire a random guy off the street to…

"What's their excuse? Some variant of "move fast, break things", no doubt. "

Possibly "sell at 50% discount, thrice"

Re: Amazon, Amid Crackdown on Seller Scams, Fires Employees Over Data Leak

#142

Post by mtnGoat » Tue, Dec 11, 2018, 8:53 PM UTC

stcredzero wrote: post #120

chipotle_coyote wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uber and company came in with technology that worked better than the old government bureaucracy at cleaning up and regulating the market. To me, at least, this assertion requires some substantiation. It seems to me that what Uber has been better at than traditional taxi services is solely the technology. I can only expect to hail a taxi on demand if I'm in a big city, airport, train station, or other transit center;…

To me, at least, this assertion requires some substantiation. Taxis used to be smelly and dirty. Drivers were quite cavalier in their attitudes towards customers. Hailing a taxi was difficult and chancy. I was scammed by drivers who would take me on indirect routes for more money. It seems to me that what Uber has been better at than traditional taxi services is solely the technology. That is precisely the point. I d…

FWIW, the most rank smelling drivers/cars ive ever had, were both Uber drivers.

Re: Amazon, Amid Crackdown on Seller Scams, Fires Employees Over Data Leak

#143

Post by yourapostasy » Tue, Dec 11, 2018, 8:59 PM UTC

rootusrootus wrote: post #13

As 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…

Just ordered an Apple cable a couple months ago directly from Apple through their Apple Store app, and about $1K USD of Ring security gear off their web site for exactly this fraud reason. If I know I want to purchase a name brand object, I now shop at the manufacturer's site first; if I don't need the Prime delivery aspects, and there is no significant difference in pricing, then the manufacturer site gets my consumer information.

And I haven't even been bitten by the Amazon commingling fraud yet, just bitten by egregiously craptastic products bought off of Amazon. I can't trust the reviews without carefully parsing them to figure out which ones are likely factory-generated. I can't trust the pricing without looking through various historical price add-ons. At that point, the cognitive load between using Amazon and choosing alternative channels is pretty meh, and I'd rather just go "straight to the source", ordering direct from the manufacturer and finding the manufacturer by looking up forum discussions.

For renewing household goods, I'm finding myself shopping at my local grocery chain, Target and WalMart a lot more these days. Once Amazon pricing for the same household item shows it is more than these other sources (and often by a surprisingly large delta), Amazon doesn't get a crack at that spend for another year, as it isn't worth the cognitive bandwidth to comparison shop each time I go to the grocery store, or if Target/WalMart deliver the best price, they get the subscription for the year. I use a credit card number generator for subscriptions, so we have to renew the configuration each year.

Amazon is losing its convenience value proposition, and I find taking their eye off of that ball very odd for a B2C context, but what do I know.

Re: Amazon, Amid Crackdown on Seller Scams, Fires Employees Over Data Leak

#144

Post by goostavos » Tue, Dec 11, 2018, 9:00 PM UTC

nkrisc wrote: post #117

BadassFractal wrote: post #70

Amazon fixing fake reviews would be a giant step in the right direction. What could be more important than having your users believe you're a trusted source?

I used to go to Amazon to look at reviews, regardless of where I was shopping. Now, in the rare moments I'm shopping on Amazon, I go to other sites to read the reviews.

I've noticed that too -- it's kind of a weird full circle. I used to stand in a brick and mortar store and pull up my phone to checkout amazon reviews before purchasing. Now, I feel higher levels of trust in the supply chain of most Brick and Mortar stores.

I've got no clue who to trust in the review space. I tend to trust comments I find in niche subreddits more than I should. They're probably 50% astroturfed or driven by poor incentives, but overall it tends to push towards higher end established brands rather than cheap knockoff garbage. At least going towards the former isn't an electrocution risk, I guess..

Re: Amazon, Amid Crackdown on Seller Scams, Fires Employees Over Data Leak

#145

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Dec 11, 2018, 9:01 PM UTC

TangoTrotFox wrote: post #131

paulie_a wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally I love Uber and avoid taxis as much as possible. The worst Uber ride was still far better than the best taxi I've taken. A driver might be chatty and you have a great conversation, or they just stay quiet. Either ways a much better experience than the angry cab driver. I was a little shocked when Uber sent me my stats for last year 1000+ rides.

This has also been my experience. I think a meta here is that the vast majority of cab drivers don't, and can't, own their cab. Medallion cabs, for instance, are sold based on bids and have gone for upwards of $2 million and as "low" as around $500k. And in some places they have government granted monopolies meaning playing this game is the only way to drive a cab. So most drivers rent their taxi, often by the day. A…

[deleted]

Re: Amazon, Amid Crackdown on Seller Scams, Fires Employees Over Data Leak

#146

Post by siruncledrew » Tue, Dec 11, 2018, 9:02 PM UTC

GhostVII wrote: post #41

bloopernova wrote: post #4

My (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…

How much money were they offering? I definitely would have taken it, and then re-posted the same review a day later.

I would take the refund too, but some other avenue than Paypal. For all the buyer knows, the seller could have been using a stolen Paypal account that would have been charged back via a dispute by the victim, and the buyer would be SOL. The seller could also refund the buyer and still open a dispute with Paypal to claim a chargeback. It's suspicious the seller strongly wants to avoid using Amazon for refunds.

I'm not a crypto-fanatic, but I would have pushed the seller to send money to a crypto wallet address, and then I would have immediately withdrawn it to a bank account. Then still posted the bad review of the seller anyways.

Re: Amazon, Amid Crackdown on Seller Scams, Fires Employees Over Data Leak

#147

Post by 52-6F-62 » Tue, Dec 11, 2018, 9:08 PM UTC

reaperducer wrote: post #103

52-6F-62 wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> as a guy, i've only had good experiences (except for the opaque surge pricing which always feels extortionate) Totally off the main topic here, but I'm also a guy and I've had one ride that was a little hair-raising. I wasn't harassed, mind. I was riding with two girls (downtown Toronto) in an Uber and the driver was clearly on speed. He was extremely chatty, actually quite friendly, but very frantic. Took many las…

FWIW, in the market where I drove, it was very common for taxi drivers who were so bad they lost their taxi jobs (think about that) to just turn around and drive for Uber.

That's a thought that had never occurred to me. Seems like a massive oversight.

Re: Amazon, Amid Crackdown on Seller Scams, Fires Employees Over Data Leak

#148

Post by 52-6F-62 » Tue, Dec 11, 2018, 9:08 PM UTC

iak8god wrote: post #115

52-6F-62 wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This definitely appears to be the case. I'll say one thing in Amazon's defence however— their customer service is fantastic in my experience.

> [Amazon's] customer service is fantastic in my experience. Try not having Prime. I tried that once, for a short while. The difference in service was striking.

Sadly I'd believe it and have heard similar before. It wouldn't even really bother me if they were up front about it.

It's not uncommon to sell premium service packages, or restricted shopping (like Costco).

Re: Amazon, Amid Crackdown on Seller Scams, Fires Employees Over Data Leak

#149

Post by rchaud » Tue, Dec 11, 2018, 9:08 PM UTC

rajacombinator wrote: post #137

rchaud wrote: post #24

One of the first things I remember about moving to a rich country was the absence of knockoff products sold in retail stores. It seemed amazing to me that companies would deal only with authorized distributors. These days, I feel like I'm in a twilight zone where 'wealth creation' is happening by putting a fresh face on 3rd-world country business models. First it was Uber with the "hire a random guy off the street to…

Those “3rd world business models” are amazingly efficient though. Just because the “1st world” is rich doesn’t make us smart, in fact it may be the opposite. Also, when all the bootleg crap and non-bootleg crap is made in the same factories in China, what’s the difference?

If by 'amazingly efficient', you mean the burden of assessing risk and quality is shifted entirely to the customer for every single transaction, then sure.

I'm coming from the developing world. The lack of regulations and product safety standards, is not some kind of competitive advantage, it is a problem that leads to ever falling living standards. A fire in a clothing factory killed 1300 people in my country, an incident that would have been avoidable if the building owner enforced fire safety standards.

I suppose if you think about things in terms of MR/MC curves, such loss of life is the price of efficiency.

Re: Amazon, Amid Crackdown on Seller Scams, Fires Employees Over Data Leak

#150

Post by PhasmaFelis » Tue, Dec 11, 2018, 9:15 PM UTC

Wowfunhappy wrote: post #34

PhasmaFelis wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, there's a lot of specific products that are always wildly overpriced on Amazon. Mostly anything that is out of print/out of production, no matter how recently it went out or how easy it is to find, but I recently ran into it with Hanes underwear of all things--there wasn't a single seller that wasn't asking at least 50% over Target's online price. For out-of-print books/toys/games/etc., eBay is usually your bes…

I expect out of print stuff to fetch a high price, I'm more talking about standard grocery items. I've seen ridiculous markups on penne pasta, diet soda, certain brands of hand-soap, etc etc. Some of these items, like the pasta, are things I'd previously ordered from Amazon for a fraction of the current price. Which, again, has caused me to be much more cautious—every time I reorder something nowadays, I have to chec…

I'm saying Amazon can be just as misleading about out-of-print stuff as about groceries and household items. Many times I've seen a book that's years or decades out of print selling for $100+ on Amazon when eBay has two dozen copies for $20-$30 each.

I think it all stems from the same thing. Dishonest Amazon sellers know that most Amazon shoppers don't price check, so they can all get away with selling way over market price as long as everyone selling a given item stays the course.