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Amazon staffers took bribes, manipulated marketplace, leaked search algorithms

theregister.com

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Re: Amazon staffers took bribes, manipulated marketplace, leaked search algorithms

#21

Post by donogh »

BoorishBears wrote: post #17
lotsofpulp wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazon already has many competitors for their retail business. Costco, Target, Home Depot, Lowes, Bed Bath Beyond, Walmart, eBay, Overstock, Wayfair, Aliexpress, etc. The barrier to entry for retail is very low, and reflected in the low profit margins.

Part of me wants to believe this comment is satire, but the better part of me knows this is HN, so conceivably someone would call the barrier to entry for competing with Amazon's retail unit "very low"

In a sense entering the market is easy -- sign up to Shopify, drop ship from China, etc.

On the other hand, competing in the market is not easy.

Maybe that's what he meant?

Re: Amazon staffers took bribes, manipulated marketplace, leaked search algorithms

#22

Post by rtx »

Waterluvian wrote: post #12

Do large companies basically create an “eggs all in one basket” risk? If the market supplied by Amazon was instead supplied by 10 smaller companies, the attack surface would be higher but the impact would be lower, right? Feels like large corporations could be seen as a national security risk (and not just “guns and ammo” security but “economic stability” security)

>Feels like large corporations could be seen as a national security risk

Already are, governments have outsourced many functions to corporations. Ban on Huawei is an example.

Re: Amazon staffers took bribes, manipulated marketplace, leaked search algorithms

#24

Post by ctdeneen »

Maybe any major change to a system, for example turning on an seller's account that was banned, should require a small explanation that is reviewed by additional employees.

For example 1,user x disables account, fraudulent health products

2,user y enables account, ????

Seems like many major changes almost never require a user to justify them with a written explanation.

Re: Amazon staffers took bribes, manipulated marketplace, leaked search algorithms

#26

Post by wegs »

I think one of the problems Amazon suffers -- and this is not a condemnation of the company as a whole -- is that it treats employees like garbage and runs a sweatshop. There is zero loyalty among Amazon employees I know. Some are very highly-compensated sweatshop workers, but sweatshop workers nonetheless (a lot of fintech and quant work the same way, and even more extreme -- you get a lot of money, but you have no work/life balance, are on call 24/7, and if your performance slips for a moment, even due to a family emergency, and you get the pink slip).

That sets a strong environment for corruption.

Why is this not a condemnation of Amazon? Turns out each corporate structure has problems. You pull on one lever, and you get a dozen unwanted consequences. But it's important to recognize the faults of such structures.

Re: Amazon staffers took bribes, manipulated marketplace, leaked search algorithms

#27

Post by ilamont »

I reported a violation of Amazon's community guidelines and Seller TOS for a popular electronics product I purchased earlier this month (details: http://leanmedia.org/amazon-is-broken/). Here's the thread with support:

Me: Hi. The box for this product contained a card that says "Amazon $20 gift card" and looks like a gift card, but the back says I have to give a 5 star review and send my order information to an outlook email address. Is this legitimate? Is it really a $20 Amazon gift card?

Amazon: Thank you so much for your information on this, I will certainly pass it along here so that we can check this promotion or offer directly with the seller Because I am not seeing that advertised on the item at all And would not be capable of confirming if that is a legit Amazon gift card because, I do not see that offer on the item

Me: So what should I do?

Amazon: My best suggestion would be to contact the seller directly for this through this link [redacted] So that you can confirm directly with them if this is legit or not Certainly giving away gift cards for good reviews is not professional And I have to report the seller for that

Me: I thought this type of offer was forbidden by Amazon's own policies for sellers. But I will contact them using the link you sent to ask them if that's what you recommend.

So I contacted the seller through Amazon's closed system. This is what happened:

Me: I received your product and inside the box is a card that says "Amazon $20 gift card" and looks like a gift card, but the back says I have to give a 5 star review and send my order information to an outlook email address. Is this legitimate?

Seller: Thanks for your contact. Could you please follow the instruction and contact us on the email? Please be rest assured that we will fulfill our promise.

So, to summarize:

- Amazon has strict rules in place that forbid asking for 5 star reviews or paying for reviews (https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/help.html?itemID=18...)

- Amazon's own support people have a difficult time telling the difference between violations of this policy and legitimate promotions, and leave it up to customers to contact these sellers on their own to figure it out.

- The rule-breakers are all too willing to lie through their teeth, brazenly using Amazon's own communication system to do so.

- Nothing happened to the seller, they are still selling this equipment without penalty on Amazon and will continue to violate the rules knowing nothing will happen.

Amazon is completely broken.

Re: Amazon staffers took bribes, manipulated marketplace, leaked search algorithms

#28

Post by swalsh »

I'm generally against the 20th century solution of breaking companies up when it comes to tech companies... but Amazon's problems are not Facebooks or Google's. It's way simpler, and it fits the mold perfectly. First of all, Amazon should absolutely not be allowed to operate both a retailer and a marketplace. Second of all, this marketplace is way too large. It is clearly not in the consumers favor for such a large marketplace to exist.

Fortunately Amazons service oriented architecture should make this break up a breeze.

Re: Amazon staffers took bribes, manipulated marketplace, leaked search algorithms

#29

Post by sidlls »

rtx wrote: post #20
dalbasal wrote: post #5

Note the scale here: Conspirators paid $100k in bribes. "Products and merchants earned in excess of $100 million in sales revenue." I haven't heard the job titles of the amazon employees yet, but presumably these are not very senior people. In terms of corruption dynamics, Amazon is now like a planning authority where a friendly official can rubber stamp a large fortune into a real estate developer's pocket. Also not…

>They are expected to bring inside knowledge and contacts to the table. This is not always unethical, we exclusively hire former AdWords account mangers for our sem team. This primarily done for branding and reducing the recruitment cost.

If the market is unhealthy (e.g. a monopoly exists in some cases) then it is very much as unethical or illegal as their (former) employers’ market position is: they’re literally leveraging the same conditions to extract value.

Re: Amazon staffers took bribes, manipulated marketplace, leaked search algorithms

#30

Post by one2know »

Management is very corrupt at Amazon. Lets just say the teams tasked with catching theft are strongly pointed to the lowest level employees like dock workers, pickers, and stowers. Lets also just say the managers are the ones shoving product over the fence.
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