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Amazon starts flagging frequently returned products that you maybe shouldn’t buy

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Re: Amazon starts flagging frequently returned products that you maybe shouldn’t buy

#81

Post by carimura »

Exploitable marketplaces just seem to be seesawing back and forth between those closing exploits and those finding new ones. Anything that gets massive these days seems to get into this stage because of the profit incentive on both sides. I wonder if there's data on whether the general "arc of progress" is going in the right direction? I go back and forth depending on the day.

Personally I've just established my own rules of the road to avoid the bad side, like deleting Facebook and all social other than Twitter, using browser extensions in Twitter to filter out trending stuff, and being very careful and methodical about purchasing from Amazon including avoiding almost everything isn't a reputable company that I can do a simple background check on. I've even been fooled here but it's generally pretty easy to figure out.

Re: Amazon starts flagging frequently returned products that you maybe shouldn’t buy

#82

Post by carimura »

haunter wrote: post #51

The craziest scam I saw on Amazon was ordering an expensive GPU > people change the card's backplate and return a cheaper/broken one. Unsuspecting regular Joe will order the returned GPU ("open box deal!") and they get a fake one. And now you have to fight against the Amazon customer service too. It's incredible. Amazon is basically a "premium" Wish/Aliexpress nowadays. Might as well I order from China becuase I at l…

but who was the seller? This should be a buyer beware situation. The marketplace is compromised.

Re: Amazon starts flagging frequently returned products that you maybe shouldn’t buy

#83

Post by VBprogrammer »

kevincox wrote: post #68
SifJar wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Couple of fairly simple things they could do to at least help somewhat: * Put reviews for current listing at the top of the reviews (currently default sort seems to be a vague "Top reviews", but can be changed to "most recent" which presumably accomplishes this. Vast majority never change defaults though) * Clearly mark any review that is for a previous version of the listing, and provide a link to view the listing a…

I don't think this will work well. Minor updates to listings would trigger all of these actions far too often to make them standard and ignored. I hate to say it but I think some type of heuristics would be needed here. 1. Has the title significantly changed. 2. Has the price significantly changed. 3. Are the search keywords that were finding the old listing significantly different than those finding the new listing.…

Web megacorps are normally allergic to any kind of human review because they are in the business of picking up pennies on each interaction via adverts. It's unsustainable to police the world on that model.

Amazon is in a different space here. Even the smoothest transaction goes through a handful of literal human hands. They have to pay for those hands regardless. At the very least following up on cases where customers (and competitors) flag fraud on their system should be possible.

Re: Amazon starts flagging frequently returned products that you maybe shouldn’t buy

#84

Post by coffeebeqn »

bluefirebrand wrote: post #17
sebsebmc wrote: post #10

I had this come up recently, the issue is that it seems that products with multiple "styles" will show the same alert across all "styles". The problem is that often times the "styles" may be significantly different products, in my case they were monitors with extremely different specs all from the same manufacturer.

This is probably not the correct use of the "styles" feature on Amazon in the first place. Maybe I'm wrong, but I'm betting Amazon would prefer items with different specs to be different listings, with styles being limited to differences like color, finish, etc.

Yeah that’s annoying. Then I read reviews and they’re all for a wildly different product because they decided to list 10 under the same item

Re: Amazon starts flagging frequently returned products that you maybe shouldn’t buy

#85

Post by javawizard »

haunter wrote: post #51

The craziest scam I saw on Amazon was ordering an expensive GPU > people change the card's backplate and return a cheaper/broken one. Unsuspecting regular Joe will order the returned GPU ("open box deal!") and they get a fake one. And now you have to fight against the Amazon customer service too. It's incredible. Amazon is basically a "premium" Wish/Aliexpress nowadays. Might as well I order from China becuase I at l…

> Amazon is basically a "premium" Wish/Aliexpress nowadays

That's an interesting point, and it got me thinking: why do I continue buying from Amazon over AliExpress etc.?

Pretty simple answer, really: logistics. I can order an adapter from Amazon and have it here by 6 PM tonight. The same thing off AliExpress will take a week or more to get here.

If Wish or AliExpress can figure out near-same day delivery, they could put a sizeable dent in Amazon's market share.

Re: Amazon starts flagging frequently returned products that you maybe shouldn’t buy

#86

Post by lwhi »

gs17 wrote: post #65
generj wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even a simple Levenshtein distance would do the trick for most of these product switches.

Exactly, or at least that could flag it for manual review. It has to be a deliberately unsolved problem.

Sure it comes down to incentives.

It will be more profitable for Amazon to do nothing, than to address the problem.

Re: Amazon starts flagging frequently returned products that you maybe shouldn’t buy

#87

Post by ben_w »

generj wrote: post #61
lwhi wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ChatGPT can definitely work this out.

Even a simple Levenshtein distance would do the trick for most of these product switches.

I bet someone's already made a game from before/after pairs such that the smallest Levenshtein distance can give the biggest possible change in meaning to the entire seance.

Re: Amazon starts flagging frequently returned products that you maybe shouldn’t buy

#88

Post by carimura »

waltbosz wrote: post #71

Would this new policy create a new attack vector for scammer sellers trying to damage the reputation of good legitimate sellers. The scammer would organize a distributed buy-and-return of their victim's product, which would trigger this flag. It's complex, but if returns are free and the competitive advantage of the flag is worth it, I could imagine it happening.

ya that's the problem, every action has a reaction in the new world order of massive marketplaces. It would seem like there needs to be more buyer focus on the sellers reputation rather than the product.

Re: Amazon starts flagging frequently returned products that you maybe shouldn’t buy

#89

Post by twawaaay »

I think we know why products are frequently returned.

1) Because some people just want to try stuff out at no cost.

2) Because some people made impulse buy.

3) Because some sellers sell defective/scammy stuff.

Now, the issue is Amazon will not tell you which category this is. You still have to rely on user reviews which still are yet another field of abuse.

I just don't think this move will change anything, only cause potential confusion.

Re: Amazon starts flagging frequently returned products that you maybe shouldn’t buy

#90

Post by Eisenstein »

paxys wrote: post #55
amccloud wrote: post #18

Looking at smoke detectors as they are somehow also often tampered/previously used and non-returnable because of hazardous materials in device :/

Why on earth are people buying stuff like smoke detectors from Amazon? Across most of the US your fire department will likely hand them out for free, and even if you have to pay you can at least be assured that someone is monitoring the supply chain and product safety. Your life isn't worth the $5 Amazon discount.

Amazon isn't really cheaper for anything (unless you count getting a Duwuu 'brand' cable instead of a reputable brand as a discount).

Why do people (I?) order from amazon?

1. I don't mind taking $8 electronic devices apart and resoldering connections or doing basic troubleshooting

2. Often get a product in a day or three

3. I have no idea where I would buy a sediment filter (or similar specialized thing) that isn't walmart (and I live in a big city)

4. No need to go all around town to get things from different places (drive to the fire department for an alarm and then go to the pet store for a scratching post then go to best buy for an HDMI cable

5. They have all my details so I just click 'buy' and don't have to make a new account and deal with another retailer sending me a newsletter

6. I know that amazon will take my returns with no questions and I can drop it a few blocks away at the UPS store and I don't even have to put it in a box

That said -- there are definitely lists of things I would never order from them. SD cards/thumb drives, any easily 'adulterated' food product like honey or olive oil, cosmetics, anything I want to last that isn't a specific brand that I know for a fact isn't counterfeited and is a seller...etc

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