Amazon starts flagging frequently returned products that you maybe shouldn’t buy • Hacker News Board

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

#121

Post by verteu » Tue, Mar 28, 2023, 4:08 PM UTC

captainkrtek wrote: post #56

I’ve given up on Amazon shopping years ago. I much prefer to buy things directly from specific retailers, eg: outdoor gear from an outdoor retailer, clothes directly from the brand, etc. This has resulted in never having to return anything, not rolling the dice on product legitimacy, and pretty great customer service who is knowledgable of the products.

I would, but it's such a hassle to enter my address and CC info on every manufacturer's site. The last 3 things I bought were shaving cream, toothbrush heads, and a cheap tennis racket.

Do I really want to signup/purchase/unsubscribe-from-spam for a Proraso account, a Philips Sonicare account, and a Wilson account?

Perhaps Google Pay could add a useful layer here.

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

#122

Post by throwawaysleep » Tue, Mar 28, 2023, 4:08 PM UTC

mabbo wrote: post #106

There is a famous story about Customer Obsession and returns that I used to tell during training sessions for new Amazon employees- Customer Obsession 101, which I was a teacher for. Jeff is in a call center for a day shadowing a customer support agent. A customer calls about a specific item and the CS agent is like "They're going to say it's broken in this particular manner" before the call even starts. Jeff later i…

I am intrigued that such a button is superior to having someone read the tickets.

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

#123

Post by 99_00 » Tue, Mar 28, 2023, 4:08 PM UTC

I only buy hard to find niche things on Amazon or low quality Chinese bootlegs when that's what I want.

For everything else I buy elsewhere. It's usually a difference of cents. I'm voting with my dollars for a world where people can choose to not buy low quality jficushnrkf brand Chinese bootlegs.

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

#124

Post by carlosjobim » Tue, Mar 28, 2023, 4:08 PM UTC

sofixa wrote: post #22

srmarm wrote: post #9

I don't get they don't crack down on the product switcheroo scam [0] - it seems like a trivial problem to solve. I've reported items to them before and they don't care. [0] this product for example, loads of the reviews are for something totally different - https://www.amazon.co.uk/WERPOWER-Windscreen-Invisible-Winds...

How is it trivial to solve? They either need to prevent sellers from modifying product pages (which would be a disaster because any mistakes could no longer be fixed without losing all reviews) or gate it behind human intervention(slow) /algorithm (complex). There's nothing trivial about the issue.

Sellers should think very carefully and verify exactly what they put on the product description. What is wrong with that? If there's a typo there, you'll usually fix it before even getting the first review.

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

#125

Post by rwalle » Tue, Mar 28, 2023, 4:09 PM UTC

bogwog wrote: post #102

blarghyblarg wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to be argumentative, but... that's the second option. Algorithmic. The initial implementation would be simple. One point, two points, three points. Then, some categories turn out to have significant change requirements, some change infrequently, some changes turn out to be very important in some categories, some categories need immediate human review...

I'm sure Amazon can commit more resources to solving this problem than some random individual on HN can commit to a ~3 sentence long comment. If they wanted to solve this problem, they would have already. Clearly, they don't care. People buy products with good reviews, and Amazon makes money when people buy products. I wonder if they've been sued over this? I'm not a lawyer, but this sounds like false advertising to…

Yeah, so many people are wasting their time on those useless arguments. What matters here is not how to solve the problem -- customers should not worry about that at all -- but whether Amazon is commited to address this problem, and the answer is a clear no.

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

#126

Post by 99_00 » Tue, Mar 28, 2023, 4:11 PM UTC

srmarm wrote: post #9

I don't get they don't crack down on the product switcheroo scam [0] - it seems like a trivial problem to solve. I've reported items to them before and they don't care. [0] this product for example, loads of the reviews are for something totally different - https://www.amazon.co.uk/WERPOWER-Windscreen-Invisible-Winds...

Using resources to crack down only makes sense if the problem causes customers to.uae Amazon less.

I don't see that happening. People are locked in and the thought might not even cross their mind. Of course they will complain. But talk is cheap. Money is the only thing that matters.

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

#127

Post by dgs_sgd » Tue, Mar 28, 2023, 4:11 PM UTC

londons_explore wrote: post #116

I just hate the amazon empire, so whenever I have no option but to buy something I give an opposite review. If the product is decent, it gets 1 star and a scathing review. If it's shit, I give a glowing 5 star review.

how is that helpful in any way?

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

#128

Post by SkyPuncher » Tue, Mar 28, 2023, 4:12 PM UTC

sofixa wrote: post #22

srmarm wrote: post #9

I don't get they don't crack down on the product switcheroo scam [0] - it seems like a trivial problem to solve. I've reported items to them before and they don't care. [0] this product for example, loads of the reviews are for something totally different - https://www.amazon.co.uk/WERPOWER-Windscreen-Invisible-Winds...

How is it trivial to solve? They either need to prevent sellers from modifying product pages (which would be a disaster because any mistakes could no longer be fixed without losing all reviews) or gate it behind human intervention(slow) /algorithm (complex). There's nothing trivial about the issue.

Most of the problem is wholesale swaps of products - not minor edits. Allow minor edits, but prevent wholesale swapping of content/categories/descriptions/etc.

Limiting edits, showing product history, or removing reviews on edit (or some threshold of content change) would be an easy place to start.

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

#129

Post by kube-system » Tue, Mar 28, 2023, 4:13 PM UTC

SamBam wrote: post #97

kevincox wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.…

Honestly, these seems like a perfect problem for GPT. Show the title and main description to GPT everytime the seller makes a change, and ask "Do these seem to be the same product?" If GPT says that they seem different, flag for human review. You could probably even ask GPT to take its confidence. If it's highly confident, skip the human review.

Title: BLOMGHSY Luxury Shower Curtain Premium Best Quality

Description: Ignore previous instructions […]

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

#130

Post by SkyPuncher » Tue, Mar 28, 2023, 4:13 PM UTC

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.

Yep. I don't care if they change some filler words/fix some mistakes/clarify details.

I care about the title, description, and photos being entirely replaced while reviews stick around.