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

theguardian.com

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

#191

Post by hdgvhicv »

rafinha wrote: post #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.

I canceled prime when they introduced ads. That means I no longer spend nearly $1k a year on other things from Amazon too.

They dont care. The mismatch in power between trillion dollar companies breaks the traditional accountability relationship between seller and buyer.

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

#192

Post by patrickk »

onli wrote: post #181
Hendrikto wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Germany has a bunch of alternative online shops that are better. Such as? I never ran into such problems with Amazon, but I would like to know the alternatives.

For electronics: Mindfactory, Galaxus, Coolblue, alternate, Jacob, Proshop, alza, computeruniverse.

Caseking and Alternate.de for PC components.

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

#193

Post by ffsm8 »

svelle wrote: post #187
dwedge wrote: 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…

> Another time I bought a Samsung Fold and it cracked down the middle. I told Amazon and they said they'll refund it under warranty. I sent it back and got a warning that if I return anything else in "non original condition" I'd be banned. Even though it was a warranty return. I once ordered a new pair of Jeans, expensive ones because I wanted them to last, from Amazon and got an obviously used and ripped pair sent t…

Why would you go back to buy from their shop of you're sure it'll happen again?

It's not like Amazon is an actual monopoly for clothing.

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

#194

Post by ivape »

dwedge wrote: 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…

That level of service is for on-boarding customers. Sounds crazy, but they had a multi year on-boarding plan. We are now on-boarded, so why would they keep funding an on-boarding program that accepts any and all returns? The on-boarding process was complete awhile ago.

Retention is the next program they’ll have to initiate, but no reason to finance this now as there are no competitors just yet.

Listen, when it was said that corporations are amoral and sociopathic, it was not a joke.

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

#196

Post by immibis »

hdgvhicv wrote: post #191
rafinha wrote: post #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.

I canceled prime when they introduced ads. That means I no longer spend nearly $1k a year on other things from Amazon too. They dont care. The mismatch in power between trillion dollar companies breaks the traditional accountability relationship between seller and buyer.

I've seen (somewhere on HN) it compared to soviet central planning committees: decisions are made by people so far removed from any actual situation on the ground and with so little accountability they have no hope of making correct ones, and then sooner or later, whatever they're in charge of collapses.

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

#197

Post by regularfry »

Has anyone else ordered a pair of shoes only to open the box and find... one shoe?

Best I can guess someone's ordered two pairs, split one of the pairs across the two boxes, and sent both boxes back for two refunds and they've gone straight back on the shelf.

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

#198

Post by throw-the-towel »

distances wrote: post #183
aborsy wrote: post #155

Never had issues with Amazon, frequently shop. Local shops are scams in my area: expensive, don’t take back items, limited selections, don’t have the right items and have to settle for less, time consuming, bad customer service, can have language requirements for some people at the time of disputes (but not when selling), the reviews of items are not available and a lot of them turn out to be bad, long waiting lines…

> Local shops are scams in my area: expensive, don’t take back items, limited selections, don’t have the right items and have to settle for less, time consuming… None of these are scams, you're misusing the word. You mean a worse shopping experience, not defrauding the customer.

I live in a country with the same problems, and everything here is so much more expensive, it absolutely deserves to be called a scam. Stuff such as books and electronics can easily be 2x as expensive locally as abroad.

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

#199

Post by onli »

patrickk wrote: post #192
onli wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For electronics: Mindfactory, Galaxus, Coolblue, alternate, Jacob, Proshop, alza, computeruniverse.

Caseking and Alternate.de for PC components.

All of them are good for PC components :) But right, I forgot Caseking.

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

#200

Post by [deleted] »

iamwil wrote: 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…

[deleted]
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