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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?

#241

Post by jobigoud »

tchalla wrote: post #106
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…

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 help…

Maybe that's to combat the strategy where sellers add an irrelevant category or hyper specific one, in order to get the "Best Seller" stamp on their thumbnail.

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

#242

Post by Friedduck »

qcnguy wrote: post #233
qurashee wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recently had a similar experience with Amazon. I bought a pair of AirPods but didn’t like them, so I returned them the next day. Amazon confirmed they’d received the package, but when the estimated refund date passed, I got a message saying they needed more information. When I contacted customer service, they told me I had to send them a copy of my ID to process the refund. I was really frustrated; I’ve had this ac…

Amazon is in a hard spot with this stuff. They have massive problems with refund fraud, where people buy things and returning fake or used items in the box. Asking for ID is one way they try to spot people who are engaged in this activity repeatedly. When you refused to show your ID and did a chargeback, you did the exact same thing actual fraudsters end up doing, and of course they need to fraudulent accounts as oth…

While understanding their motivation to combat fraud they have a 20-year purchase history and have already established identity through payment methods. This is just lazy and perhaps additional data harvesting.

Amazon got so large they stopped paying attention to the details.

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

#243

Post by stanski »

qcnguy wrote: post #234
vdfs wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But 20 years of regular purchases to the same address(es) is easy for them to verify

Yes but so what? All that proves is the account is aged. It doesn't prove it's not been taken over or sold. People move pretty regularly or order things for friends/family, a change of address doesn't mean anything.

So they sold their account to a fraudster who also moved into their old address? Sure, it's possible but now verging on the ridiculous.

They can use common sense for the refund. They are just choosing not to.

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

#244

Post by nixass »

mraniki wrote: post #210
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.

Idealo for larger selection and comparison

Idealo and Geizhals are price comparison sites and nothing else

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

#245

Post by mizzao »

palata wrote: post #174
r_singh wrote: post #67

Amazon in India is truly a miracle service. Affordable, has the largest range of products with quick and easy returns. I think it’s basically impossible to compete with it.

Still in step 1 there?

For everyone's context, I think this is about the process of enshittification:

1. Prioritize customers (product feels great)

2. Prioritize B2B (sellers in this case — customer experience starts to suffer)

3. Prioritize shareholders (customer experience is terrible, now sellers' experience starts to suffer too, product eventually dies — though it takes a while)

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

#246

Post by y0eswddl »

lostmsu wrote: post #240
rasz wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is ID going to help with this in any way? They charge you (bank account/CC) and send you stuff (address), they inspect the return (or rather Should inspect it). What more would they need?

Limit people from creating more accounts.

it was an account with almost 20 years of purchase history, how does that even apply?

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

#247

Post by y0eswddl »

stanski wrote: post #243
qcnguy wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes but so what? All that proves is the account is aged. It doesn't prove it's not been taken over or sold. People move pretty regularly or order things for friends/family, a change of address doesn't mean anything.

So they sold their account to a fraudster who also moved into their old address? Sure, it's possible but now verging on the ridiculous. They can use common sense for the refund. They are just choosing not to.

the real reason is that adding friction to returns decreases them in general - even legitimate ones.

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

#248

Post by palata »

mizzao wrote: post #245
palata wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Still in step 1 there?

For everyone's context, I think this is about the process of enshittification: 1. Prioritize customers (product feels great) 2. Prioritize B2B (sellers in this case — customer experience starts to suffer) 3. Prioritize shareholders (customer experience is terrible, now sellers' experience starts to suffer too, product eventually dies — though it takes a while)

Which is precisely what the featured article is about :-)

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

#249

Post by bichiliad »

My partner ordered two sets of watercolor paints in a travel case, both new. One of them was just an empty case — someone had taken the paints. I feel like everyone has stories like this, which makes me pretty scared for more important purchases. What if I ordered an iPhone and just got a box?

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

#250

Post by regularfry »

400thecat wrote: post #211
regularfry wrote: post #197

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.

how would that help? either they check the returned boxes or they don't. sending back 1 shoe does not fools the inspection

It matters less if it's actually true than if someone trying to pull off the scam thinks it might be. The only way to find out if that hole exists in the system is either to have an insider tell you that it would, or to try it out...
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