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Amazon seller reveals glimpse of shadow bribery market

latimes.com

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Re: Amazon seller reveals glimpse of shadow bribery market

#41

Post by hnuser123456 »

gruez wrote: post #37
jonhohle wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recently dealt with a merchant in Aliexpress who was intentionally selling things well below market price, not to build their storefront reputation, but to collect sales and then ask the customer to cancel. I forced them to cancel the order, which harms their rep. Literally every unmanaged, user content controlled platform devolves into the basest scams, thuggery, and unpleasantness. This is why we can’t have nice…

>but to collect sales and then ask the customer to cancel How does that help them?

A particular number goes up which matters too much to someone with too much power, conceivably.

Re: Amazon seller reveals glimpse of shadow bribery market

#43

Post by QuantumGood »

cmiles8 wrote: post #2

Still use Amazon for certain items because of fast delivery but the site is a complete mess. At some point Amazon leadership failed to understand that there’s a lot more to a good customer experience than “selection size.” If I search for X I’d vastly prefer a few simple options that aren’t counterfeit or junk vs here’s 150 variants of your thing, most of which are junk but hey look at the size of our selection!

AI chat interface works where search does not. Not perfect, but much better, and allows more specific, accurate filtering.

Re: Amazon seller reveals glimpse of shadow bribery market

#44

Post by MrDOS »

jonhohle wrote: post #20
cmiles8 wrote: post #2

Still use Amazon for certain items because of fast delivery but the site is a complete mess. At some point Amazon leadership failed to understand that there’s a lot more to a good customer experience than “selection size.” If I search for X I’d vastly prefer a few simple options that aren’t counterfeit or junk vs here’s 150 variants of your thing, most of which are junk but hey look at the size of our selection!

10 years ago I was working on this problem at Amazon. We were developing methods to normalize all the crap listings and methods 3ᴿᴰ party sellers used to get unique listings when consolidating them was known to drive down prices, which was the original goal. I had some interesting insights (vendors want to be unique, but need to keep products visible in search, so they typically use a common transformation within the…

As I'm sure you know but some others might not, the random brands with unpronounceable names (as opposed to no specific names at all) are also a problem that Amazon has created: https://cacm.acm.org/opinion/amazons-quiet-overhaul-of-the-t....

Re: Amazon seller reveals glimpse of shadow bribery market

#48

Post by KennyBlanken »

People. Stop making '20 calls' about this sort of thing.

If you get ripped off by a corporation, you call once. Take notes. Maybe call twice. At most, three times. Show you made a decent attempt. If you're in a one-party consent state, record it.

Then call your lawyer, who will send a demand letter to Amazon legal.

If that doesn't get an answer, you go to court. If you can't work something out, you go to court.

The civil court system exists for a reason. Start using it.

What do you think Bezos does when a contractor takes his money and doesn't fix one of his dozen swimming pools? Or a car dealership fucks up one of his hypercars?

Do you think he makes 20 calls to customer service numbers? Or do you think one of his personal assistants calls once and asks politely, and then if it isn't made right, it gets batted over to his law firm.

Re: Amazon seller reveals glimpse of shadow bribery market

#49

Post by topgrain2 »

showerst wrote: post #4

Amazon, Walmart, Etsy... my kingdom for a marketplace that doesn't become just a dumping ground for shady fly-by-night dropshippers.

This has pushed me to high levels of brand loyalty with direct ordering from the brands I like and trust, plus a lot of buying used… also mostly products from a handful of trusted brands (this is largely clothes, nearly all of which I buy used except socks, underwear, and most sweaters)

Re: Amazon seller reveals glimpse of shadow bribery market

#50

Post by abeyer »

tenpoundhammer wrote: post #13

"This item will arrive tomorrow at 9 AM" -> Pay -> "Sorry this item can't be delivered by tomorrow will be delivered 2 days later" -> Next day -> "This item will be delivered 3 weeks from now"

It's not common that they miss those timed delivery windows, in my experience... but when they do their systems don't seem to be able to handle it well and the delay is far worse than it would have been if it _weren't_ a timed window. I suspect it's related to the timed deliveries mostly being farmed out to gig drivers.
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