The author's laundry list of fixes are already formally done, most of things the author wants to treat as fraud are already treated as fraud.
Indeed. Seems more like a hit piece to me. Amazon is a company the Guardian often likes to pick on.
Way past its prime: how did Amazon get so rubbish?
41–50 of 328 posts
Re: Way past its prime: how did Amazon get so rubbish?
#42Maybe I'm prudish, but I really dislike the term 'enshittification'. It sounds ugly, and it makes what would otherwise be polite discussions vulgar. 'Degradation' seems to carry most (all?) of the same meaning and doesn't have those downsides.
My P.O.V is that corporate double speak is prudish, distorts on purpose and overall is much worse for humanity.
Enshittenification is ugly but truthful.
Re: Way past its prime: how did Amazon get so rubbish?
#43side note:
Amazon is a marketplace, and more and more different vendors came to that place selling cheaper, shady things. They seems to have an open door policy. It's somewhat understandable.
But that same strategy got adopted in many different places.
Decathlon on their website offer products from other vendors. It's really shady as they advertise hassle free returns everywhere but that only applies to products sold by them specifically, not to majority of products available in their shop.
Kaufland (if you're in US think Germany's Walmart) has the same thing going on.
Re: Way past its prime: how did Amazon get so rubbish?
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's return fraud, someone orders a new version of a product they have, put their old product in the new box and file a return immediately. Amazon probably doesnt take the time to check it or check it thoroughly. Goes back on the shelf and you receive it.
It's double-return-fraud. Amazon shouldn't sell returned products as "new," but as "open box." The other way it happens is co-mingling. Some vendor sends an "open box" product to Amazon as new, or a fake product, and Amazon ships it out when sold by Amazon since it considers goods to be fungible. I stopped buying anything which goes in my body from eBay, Amazon, and similar after receiving a premium food product with…
Man, I don't think this co-mingling thing was big or existed when I moved to a country that Amazon doesn't ship to directly almost 6 years ago.
Reading about it on HN makes me feel fortunate. I can't recall ever running into something like this back then.
Re: Way past its prime: how did Amazon get so rubbish?
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
> If type "Charles dickens" in search, there should be a way to get works by Dickens exclusively. I tried it: - on the website from the home page - in the Kindle category - on my Kindle directly All I got was books by Dickens. There was the usual "sponsored" items but they are explicitly displayed as it. I don't know if it's a country issue, but I don't have the same experience as you. Furthermore, I read regularly o…
I just did it on Web and got Emily Bronte, and Oscar Wilde as well as Dickens. I did it for "Philip kerr" and I get Richard wake and mark oulton. John le carre and I get Andrew Brown. These are "in the style of" clone authors.
I can see how annoying your experience must be in that case!
I don't know what (who?) caused this, but I'm certain that I don't want to have the same experience...
Re: Way past its prime: how did Amazon get so rubbish?
#46Despite trying to instill a customer-centric culture, as soon as Bezos let his foot off the gas, his company just isn't as customer obsessed. Or, they changed their definition of customer from the buyer to the seller.
I dramatically lowered my buying from Amazon about 8 years ago, when I noticed that listings had reviews on items that were completely different than what was being listed. Apparently, sellers sell a known good product that gets good reviews, and then swap it out for something else, so that the new product can piggy back off of the good karma. Amazon just didn't shut this down for years. Also, when Fulfillment services by Amazon mixed the the official provider's inventory with 3rd party distributors and reseller inventories. Sometimes, people would get knock-offs. I knew then, Amazon would coast for at least a decade before the decline would be apparent.
I thought I'd buy more Shopify stock as a result. Dunno if I ever did.
Re: Way past its prime: how did Amazon get so rubbish?
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's return fraud, someone orders a new version of a product they have, put their old product in the new box and file a return immediately. Amazon probably doesnt take the time to check it or check it thoroughly. Goes back on the shelf and you receive it.
> That's return fraud, someone orders a new version of a product they have, put their old product in the new box and file a return immediately. Not necessarily. What’s more likely is that people try something, change their mind, and return it now used. Amazon actually allows this for some products, as long as it’s still within the return period. The problem is, they shouldn’t be shipping them back out as new.
Maybe local laws, but probably a third of what I buy on Amazon is sold as "refurbished" which, 90% of the time is just damaged packaging or products that spent a few minutes outside it.
Re: Way past its prime: how did Amazon get so rubbish?
#48side note: Amazon is a marketplace, and more and more different vendors came to that place selling cheaper, shady things. They seems to have an open door policy. It's somewhat understandable. But that same strategy got adopted in many different places. Decathlon on their website offer products from other vendors. It's really shady as they advertise hassle free returns everywhere but that only applies to products sold…
The UX on Decathlon's website was never good, but since they opened the marketplace, it's worse than ever.
Re: Way past its prime: how did Amazon get so rubbish?
#49What bothers me more is Amazon limits the products you can see. When you search for a product type (say a USB Hub), it will show you constantly the same set of products. While you scroll, it repeats the products that are sponsored, sprinkling them here and there, and the mindless customer scrolls search results, seeing only the limited number of products Amazon wants to show you. Finally you‘ll order the one with the highest number of stars.
This is not a neutral listening of all available products. Although Amazon proposes has and knows all sorts of products. It will push the ones right in your face that it wants to promote.
So if you are into a purchase, do your research on other platforms first before you order on Amazon.
Re: Way past its prime: how did Amazon get so rubbish?
#50A few weeks ago I bought a "new" coffee maker which arrived physically broken and with used coffee grounds in the hopper. I don't understand how this is even possible. That's the last thing I'm buying on Amazon. Amazon pre-COVID was amazing. But 2-day shipping is now 5+ day shipping. It's chock full of cheap/fraudulent junk. It's been interesting to watch it go downhill so fast.
Maybe it's because I'm in WA, but my average Amazon deliver is And I still haven't gotten a single fraudulent item despite a steady stream of Amazon boxes to my house (I requested an extra recycle bin I get so many.)