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Amazon refused to refund $7k after shipping an empty box instead of a Sony A1

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Re: Amazon refused to refund $7k after shipping an empty box instead of a Sony A1

#601

Post by Natsu »

WalterBright wrote: post #576
Natsu wrote: post #494

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, but I can hardly blame non-technical people who don't know the prices of things and who haven't heard about the cheats that off-brand memory cards can pull. I mean, many of them advertise to the computer that they are the listed size. But... when you fill them up, it becomes clear that's a lie. I wish Amazon could randomly test and delist some of those products or whatever. Or maybe do some random testing befor…

Of course Amazon needs to do better. But the point remains - to-good-to-be-true prices should always arouse suspicions, as they are a tell for scams.

Oh, I definitely look for those as well, but I'm just saying this is often difficult because people don't know what brands are trustworthy or what a "too good to be true" price is in the first place.

Re: Amazon refused to refund $7k after shipping an empty box instead of a Sony A1

#602

Post by ericmay »

dredmorbius wrote: post #594
ericmay wrote: post #586

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't claim that Amazon was or wasn't a monopoly so I'm not following the point you're trying to make here. Centralization is not the same thing as monopoly.

"Centralisation" in the context used is synonymous with monopolisation.

Not in the context of my comment which you replied to.

Re: Amazon refused to refund $7k after shipping an empty box instead of a Sony A1

#603

Post by danaris »

DSingularity wrote: post #598
Hemospectrum wrote: post #578

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The company is over twenty years old. What’s the problem?

Because I doubt anybody complaining about decline used a feature available for two decades and saw decline in it.

Dunno about anyone else here, but I've definitely been using Amazon since the late '90s when it was primarily for buying books.

Re: Amazon refused to refund $7k after shipping an empty box instead of a Sony A1

#604

Post by ender341341 »

jfrunyon wrote: post #584
caseysoftware wrote: post #556

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Intriguing and horrifying.. What happens with a ban? I assume all my not-downloaded Kindle books become unavailable. Does the Kindle app delete the ones I have locally? (I assume the result would be similar for movies/shows purchased.) Does it ban my credit card, name, address, or a more abstract "buying profile"?

Amazon does have the ability to remove downloaded items from your Kindles (assuming they sync with Amazon, of course); they've publicly used it before [ https://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/technology/companies/18am... ]. I can't confirm whether that happens when you chargeback, though.

No longer at amazon but I was in the appstore and charge backs were pretty common, you just lost access to the apps/iaps you charged back. Though I don't know what happens if you do it repeatedly or high value items.

And while they definitely deserve the ire for doing that with 1984, even in 2018 when I left preventing 1984 like issues were commonly brought up in design reviews, calling out 1984 by name.

Re: Amazon refused to refund $7k after shipping an empty box instead of a Sony A1

#605

Post by wpietri »

DSingularity wrote: post #598
Hemospectrum wrote: post #578

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The company is over twenty years old. What’s the problem?

Because I doubt anybody complaining about decline used a feature available for two decades and saw decline in it.

My first order with Amazon was May 6, 1997. It was worlds better than traditional mail order at the time, and also way better than most bookstores for niche things like technical books. And when I had to deal with customer service, they were really on top of things.

As many have testified here, they just aren't like that anymore.

Re: Amazon refused to refund $7k after shipping an empty box instead of a Sony A1

#606

Post by vl »

mlyle wrote: post #549
vl wrote: post #544

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It worked as it should have been - situation got resolved and on top of that Amazon got reputational damage.

Via media intervention? Eh. That concerns me and makes me worry that 99% of the time this happens it silently goes away from a customer who is not able to get media attention. IMO this should be a flag for regulators to start taking a look, too, to understand how systemic this is.

Out of all things such as app store monopoly abuses and taxes, right to repair abuses in both devices and cars, search/ads monopoly power abuses, consumer protection is already reasonably and well regulated and not the first thing that needs additional regulation.

Re: Amazon refused to refund $7k after shipping an empty box instead of a Sony A1

#607

Post by WalterBright »

Natsu wrote: post #601
WalterBright wrote: post #576

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course Amazon needs to do better. But the point remains - to-good-to-be-true prices should always arouse suspicions, as they are a tell for scams.

Oh, I definitely look for those as well, but I'm just saying this is often difficult because people don't know what brands are trustworthy or what a "too good to be true" price is in the first place.

When searching for USB sticks, and there are two clusters of prices, one of which is 20% of the other, you don't have to know much to be skeptical.

Re: Amazon refused to refund $7k after shipping an empty box instead of a Sony A1

#608

Post by DSingularity »

wpietri wrote: post #605
DSingularity wrote: post #598

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because I doubt anybody complaining about decline used a feature available for two decades and saw decline in it.

My first order with Amazon was May 6, 1997. It was worlds better than traditional mail order at the time, and also way better than most bookstores for niche things like technical books. And when I had to deal with customer service, they were really on top of things. As many have testified here, they just aren't like that anymore.

I don’t like my dependence on Amazon but they have definitely improved my quality of life. I get everything I need other than groceries online. This has saved me a lot of time over the years.

Re: Amazon refused to refund $7k after shipping an empty box instead of a Sony A1

#609

Post by wpietri »

jfrunyon wrote: post #579
wpietri wrote: post #428

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perfectly believable. The thing I really loved about Amazon is that they had their act together. But that has declined drastically over the decades; now whenever I actually have to deal with them it seems like there's a ton of internal chaos. In June 2018, I ordered a soccer magazine, "Futbol Total", for my soccer-mad nephew. It said it would arrive in 4-16 weeks, which seemed weird. I waited it out, and no magazine.…

To be fair, this is almost certainly an issue with whoever was selling the item on Amazon, rather than Amazon. Which of course is nothing more than a convenient excuse for them to use when the only ones with the power to regulate what sellers end up on their platform is... Amazon.

There could well have been an issue with the seller; I can't tell. But my issue is more with how Amazon was a) totally unprepared to notice and fix seller issues, and b) absolutely unable to get it together even when brought to their attention repeatedly.

Re: Amazon refused to refund $7k after shipping an empty box instead of a Sony A1

#610

Post by wpietri »

DSingularity wrote: post #608
wpietri wrote: post #605

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My first order with Amazon was May 6, 1997. It was worlds better than traditional mail order at the time, and also way better than most bookstores for niche things like technical books. And when I had to deal with customer service, they were really on top of things. As many have testified here, they just aren't like that anymore.

I don’t like my dependence on Amazon but they have definitely improved my quality of life. I get everything I need other than groceries online. This has saved me a lot of time over the years.

That sounds nice.

How does this relate to you repeatedly doubting what I said?

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