Amazon destroys $1.5m of sellers inventory – now homeless • Hacker News Board

Re: Amazon destroys $1.5m of sellers inventory – now homeless

#271

Post by jjoonathan » Wed, Oct 28, 2020, 2:49 PM UTC

offtop5 wrote: post #265

>After being unable to resolve the matter following several appeals as part of our dispute resolution process, we informed this seller six separate times that they needed to remove their inventory from our store by specific dates or it would be destroyed," she said. "The seller failed to request to remove their inventory by the dates provided." This seems more than fair. I'm not sure why he would put all his eggs in…

He says he tried to submit a removal request and couldn't.

It's possible he's lying, but Amazon's jankiness is the stuff of legends, so it would be quite horrible to just assume that.

Re: Amazon destroys $1.5m of sellers inventory – now homeless

#272

Post by bagacrap » Wed, Oct 28, 2020, 2:52 PM UTC

Lazare wrote: post #233

CobrastanJorji wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For such a one-sided article, I came down rather on the other side. A dozen warnings that he needed to claim his stuff before it was destroyed. The evidence of authenticity was illegible. At least four customers complained that the merchandise was not authentic. If he had paid to have his stuff returned, he'd only be out the cost of shipping whatever hadn't been sold. And this is just what I learned from an article f…

> At least four customers complained that the merchandise was not authentic. According to the article, one customer said the item didn't fit, and wondered if it might be a knock-off, but they didn't outright claim it was. And the other three complained about packaging. Depending on how you score it that's ZERO customers complaining, or maybe one at most. > The evidence of authenticity was illegible. [...] And this is…

"either illegible or didn't match the records of the brand owners" --- so Amazon has done some due diligence by reaching out to other parties to the sales, and found that these receipts are likely counterfeit. Besides which, I'm not sure how even valid receipts prove that the inventory is legit; how do you know the receipts refer to this particular merchandise and not some other legitimate purchase? It seems entirely plausible to me that the retailer's brick and mortar started to fail, so he cut costs by switching to counterfeit goods. It still failed, so he tried to hawk them on Amazon. Amazon caught him, but he tried to fool them with old receipts. Amazon demanded he retrieve his goods, but he let Amazon destroy them so that he could sue for some imaginary value and extract money out of them that way.

Why does a journalist feel the need to get involved here? This seems like a job for the lawyers.

Re: Amazon destroys $1.5m of sellers inventory – now homeless

#273

Post by AussieWog93 » Wed, Oct 28, 2020, 2:53 PM UTC

mindcrime wrote: post #245

AussieWog93 wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not going to pass up an opportunity to shill the business. :P https://espotek.com/labrador/

This is a little off-topic, but since we're already on this: I just wanted to say "great job" on the Labrador. I don't even need one (I have benchtop scope, power supply, signal generator, logic analyzer, etc. already, and a couple of Bus Pirates) but couldn't resist ordering one just to acknowledge the awesomeness of your work.

Thanks so much. I've had a bit of a lousy week, so seeing random strangers say positive things on the internet has been a Godsend.

Re: Amazon destroys $1.5m of sellers inventory – now homeless

#274

Post by Loughla » Wed, Oct 28, 2020, 2:54 PM UTC

Karunamon wrote: post #259

wil421 wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are looking at the healthcare coverage problem and you think it’s the only issue. Coverage is a big problem for some but not the biggest problem. The biggest issue is arguably billing and pricing. You have no idea how much something will cost until it’s done. Medicade is paying over 80% more for prescription drugs than the EU. > In 2016 the U.S. spent 18% of its GDP on healthcare, whereas the next highest country…

One of the few good things our current US president did was get a bill passed that requires hospitals to disclose their pricing. This is unambiguously a good thing, but it doesn't help as much as you think it would. The result is extremely complicated, but so is the entire list of services that any hospital would provide (imagine every single ICD procedure code with a dollar amount next to it - that's the level of co…

I would argue that it doesn't really help at all for most people, and is legitimately just a feel-good political sell for soundbites.

Sure, I can shop around for my surgery, but what about emergencies? What about when they're in for the surgery I have scheduled, and end up doing something entirely different because they found something else? What about people who live where there is only one healthcare provider?

A menu of prices is fine to encourage choice at Hardee's versus McDonald's, but health care is a little different, I think.

Re: Amazon destroys $1.5m of sellers inventory – now homeless

#275

Post by AussieWog93 » Wed, Oct 28, 2020, 2:55 PM UTC

iamatworknow wrote: post #261

AussieWog93 wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly, I designed it when I was a student because there was nothing usable at the low-end of the market. While I could possibly charge a little bit more for it, I don't think the specs justify a $50+ price point (as-is), and for a lot of people that extra $20 makes a big difference. There were some thoughts a while back of making a higher-end product to fill the $50-$80 gap, and possibly even a stripped down Labra…

Have you considered a bundle that includes a case? I don't do a lot of maker/tinkering stuff so having the chip loose or on a breadboard wouldn't work for me in most situations. But I do sometimes have a need for an oscilloscope or multimeter, and would gladly pay ~$50 for one that had a case and some basic/standard connections, especially if it's supported by open software like yours. Edit: I still bought one as is,…

There are a couple of 3d printed cases on Thingiverse - one that keeps the original pinout and one that adds BNC connectors via a perfboard mod.

Re: Amazon destroys $1.5m of sellers inventory – now homeless

#276

Post by scruffyherder » Wed, Oct 28, 2020, 2:56 PM UTC

p1necone wrote: post #20

ethanwillis wrote: post #9

The merchants must navigate a largely automated, guilty-until-proven-innocent process in which Amazon serves as judge and jury. Their emails and calls can go unanswered, or Amazon's replies are incomprehensible, making sellers suspect they're at the mercy of algorithms with little human oversight. This is something our modern society was and is not ready for. Bureaucracy and the bureaucrats that administered it is a…

I've had a similar experience with Uber customer support. Their navigation thinks there's access to my house from a road that isn't actually connected, so delivery drivers consistently go the wrong way. But emailing customer support just got me seemingly automated responses saying "we're sorry the location pin was not in the right place" which isn't even the problem that I'm having.

I got dropped off on the top of a mountain by mistake. The driver gave up on trying to follow the ap and he insisted that the mountain was the address. Naturally he gave me a 1* because I wasn’t happy about being kicked out on a mountain top. Uber never replied to my attempt at disputing any of it.

The only thing worse than the arbitrary thing is the double rating. I’m forced to give 5* to shit service.

It’s annoying

Re: Amazon destroys $1.5m of sellers inventory – now homeless

#277

Post by Pet_Ant » Wed, Oct 28, 2020, 2:57 PM UTC

willturman wrote: post #269

noir_lord wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "provide good, human support to everyone" - it creates as many problems as it solves. Agreed with all your points except they really should have some `if (claim > minForHumanAgent){ bypassAutomatedHandling(); }` logic for millions of dollars.

This comment feels so ... wrong. As a society, so many of our institutions seemingly prioritize attention or outcomes effectively in exactly this fashion, but seeing it in code makes it that much more cold and ruthless.

I think (hope!) that the poster meant amongst other things. After all, someone's chemo change is someone else's life savings.

Re: Amazon destroys $1.5m of sellers inventory – now homeless

#278

Post by mensetmanusman » Wed, Oct 28, 2020, 2:57 PM UTC

jonhohle wrote: post #197

edude03 wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm really curious what sort of support the retro video game business needs. My (clearly naive) assumption is that it would be as simple as sending them the cartridge and telling them to have a great day, but if you're meeting so many seemingly unpleasant people it seems to be a lot more than that. Could you share more about the sort of issues you face?

I trade in games as well and like any collectible, often sell items that are rare and expensive. As an individual doing this for a hobby, my margins are usually small, so selling an $400 console for $50 or so profit can go south pretty quickly if there is a dispute. Because buyers are often collectors as well, they sometimes have unrealistic expectations for the condition of 25-30 year old hardware. A seller once had…

I have a SNES DK competition cartridge in great condition framed with an unpopped condition milton bradley pog set https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/1995-donkey-kong-pog-...

All acquired when I was a nintendo power obsessed kid :)

Hope to sell it some day to a SV tech bro for 5 figures

Re: Amazon destroys $1.5m of sellers inventory – now homeless

#279

Post by AussieWog93 » Wed, Oct 28, 2020, 2:59 PM UTC

amelius wrote: post #257

AussieWog93 wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not going to pass up an opportunity to shill the business. :P https://espotek.com/labrador/

Hi, does your scope have a ground that is isolated from USB ground? This would be a very useful feature.

It doesn't have an isolated ground (the focus was on size and cost), but this shouldn't be an issue. All spec-compliant USB ports contain self-resetting overcurrent protection - in practice this is almost always via a PTC resettable fuse on USB GND. For what it's worth, I haven't had a single complaint related to the grounding in 3 years.

Re: Amazon destroys $1.5m of sellers inventory – now homeless

#280

Post by alangibson » Wed, Oct 28, 2020, 3:10 PM UTC

US-based meta-comment: I see lots of talk in this thread about the problem of customers just wanting to shout at customer support. Maybe I've got election brain, but does anyone else think this is a symptom of the frustration people feel under a political system that no longer responds to the legitimate grievances of people on the bottom of the social and economic order.