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Way past its prime: how did Amazon get so rubbish?

theguardian.com

101–110 of 328 posts

Re: Way past its prime: how did Amazon get so rubbish?

#101
The genious leadership at prime video thought it would be a good idea to introduce adds not only on the beginning of movies but also in the middle of it, with an extra paid option (on top of prime) to remove it. When an add appeared I got so frustrated I cancelled my prime subscription at that very moment. I wonder if they even considered/cared about brand reputation impact.

Re: Way past its prime: how did Amazon get so rubbish?

#102
When your stock price is so high that it out-values operations and out-paces innovation, and you need to provide value to your shareholders to retain your valuation, what can you do other than squeeze your revenue stream for more juice?

Hopefully Enshittification is just the dying throes of a megacorp before they implode - otherwise we are all screwed if this becomes the new normal.

Re: Way past its prime: how did Amazon get so rubbish?

#103
post #80

in Japan I experience none of the problems that people in HN seem to have with Amazon in other countries. Never encountered fake products, return has always worked, and stuff that never arrived was also reimbursed. Maybe I'm an exception.

Most likely Japan just have better customer protections. Amazon only able to sell open-nox and co-mingled knock-off crap because US regulators are toothless.

Louis Rossmann have a video about fake electrical fuses sold on Amazon US with almost half a million views. Literally the product that can burn your house to the ground:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B90_SNNbcoU

Did Amazon US at least pulled these off store? Nope.

Re: Way past its prime: how did Amazon get so rubbish?

#105
post #64

I bought a $120 book from Amazon a couple of months ago, internationally, and they sent the wrong book. I told them, and they said they'd refund it, don't need to send it back, and they'd even add $15 credit. The refund never arrived so a few weeks later I got in touch again and they said I need to send it back if I want a refund. They told me the previous CSR had lied to improve ratings. I asked who I can complain t…

Yeah - I think they’ve put a big focus on reducing returns over the last year. I bought a Quest 3 last year. One of the controllers totally packed in within half an hour - thumb stick permanently locked to full. Wanted to do an RMA. Amazon told me to go hang, said I couldn’t return used goods, it would have to be unused in the box, and that I should contact meta. I contacted meta, who told me to go hang, as they don’…

[deleted]

Re: Way past its prime: how did Amazon get so rubbish?

#106
post #46

Despite 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 kn…

Another mind boggling aspect of Amazon’s review system is that it categorises multiple products / variations under one. So if you want to buy products X with variations X1, X2 and X3- the review page for product X1 will also show X2, X3 ratings bundled together. You don’t quite know the rating of X1 individually. You can filter reviews out by the overall rating is the aggregated view. I can’t believe how this is helpful for customers.

Re: Way past its prime: how did Amazon get so rubbish?

#107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Amazon told me to go hang, said I couldn’t return used goods I don't buy it. Don't we have actual consumer protection laws here in europe? We can return anything we bought online in 14 days time, full refund, no questions asked.

That’s the law, yeah - and if the goods are faulty it’s actually up to two years. But this is Amazon - they don’t need to follow consumer protection laws - I think their specific get out is that they’re Amazon Spain, and I’m having stuff shipped to Portugal, and Spanish consumer protection regs (which implement the EU regs) only protect consumers in Spain . That was meta’s get-out, too.

> But this is Amazon - they don’t need to follow consumer protection laws

No one needs to follow consumer protection laws if you don't sue to make them.

Re: Way past its prime: how did Amazon get so rubbish?

#108
post #43

side 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…

Darty, Fnac, Leroy Merlin do the same. It’s impossible to go to a shop’s website and expect to buy their products. They’re all just copying Amazon in a cheaper, scratchier version.

Re: Way past its prime: how did Amazon get so rubbish?

#109
Do not ever buy anything safety-critical off Amazon. Fake electrical fuses linked in Louis Rossmann video are still for sale:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B90_SNNbcoU

Or any food, or anything that you wear too close to your body that can be health hazzard due unsafe or toxic materials.

Re: Way past its prime: how did Amazon get so rubbish?

#110
post #64

I bought a $120 book from Amazon a couple of months ago, internationally, and they sent the wrong book. I told them, and they said they'd refund it, don't need to send it back, and they'd even add $15 credit. The refund never arrived so a few weeks later I got in touch again and they said I need to send it back if I want a refund. They told me the previous CSR had lied to improve ratings. I asked who I can complain t…

The moment amazon.de turns into this, im gone.

The only thing keeping me there is the no-nonsense, helpful, customer support.

Any issues i have are always resolved, so it still seems to be working over here.

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