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Amazon destroys $1.5m of sellers inventory – now homeless

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

#351

Post by asdff »

bllguo wrote: post #143
asdff wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's just how customer support is these days it seems. Getting a hold of an actual human capable of doing the most mundane request other than linking to 'help' articles you've already read 10 times is impossible. What happened to emailing support and getting a reply prepared to move heaven and earth to satisfy you as a customer?

help me understand this attitude. unless I'm an enormous customer why do I deserve replies "prepared to move heaven and earth" in the first place? I guess it seems like naivete to me

Let me give you my latest anecdote. I order a can of paint from Lowes. They send me the wrong color. I reach out to their customer support. I ask them to send me the correct color of paint. They inform me that they don't have power to do anything as they aren't the correct team. I ask who the correct team is. They give me a phone number to call for a customer support line that closed three hours ago. I call the next day, and they tell me that they too are powerless to do anything and that I need to return the can of paint I ordered online to the brick and mortar store.

At this point, I don't give a shit about the $16 of paint, I'm not spending two hours of my day to return this can of paint at the lowes store on the other side of town. It's about the principle. A sane company would have replied with the first (and only) customer support team with something like "I'm so sorry! We are shipping you the correct color right now." That sane response used to be the norm 10 years ago, because a $16 loss on one can of paint is far less than losing a customer for life who will now make it their life's mission to deter friends and family from patronizing your business.

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

#352

Post by DoreenMichele »

totalZero wrote: post #296
tomp wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand why people like you keep ranting about "universal healthcare" when obviously about 50% of your country so strongly opposes it that I think it's sooner that hell freezes than US getting social healthcare. Instead, why don't you propose alternative solutions? E.g. in Switzerland, it's illegal for your healthcare to be paid by the company, and also it's obligatory to have healthcare insurance (probabl…

The particular HN user to whom you refer as "people like you" has a unique experience with homelessness and that's why she has a unique perspective on some issues related to the topic. I used to butt heads with her on certain comment threads until I Googled her and understood that. I think it's kind of cool that someone in this forum can present those views in the way that she does. Regarding healthcare, there is no…

I used to butt heads with her

I don't remember this at all, so you must not have ever really upset me.

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

#353

Post by slostar »

nomorealoha wrote: post #221

What I don't understand is how someone can keep such poor proof of authenticity when hocking questionable products on Amazon? To pretend that illegible evidence of authenticity is okay is disingenuous. Everyone knows that Amazon is full of fakes. You would think scammers would try to have reasonable proof of authenticity so that when the banhammer comes swinging down, they'd have a saving grace. Plus, the article is…

According to wikipedia definition he's 'secondary homeless'

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homelessness

"moving between temporary shelters, including houses of friends, family and emergency accommodation"

Actually reading the article, it doesn't mention him being homeless. So unless the original article was edited recently, I'd say the clickbait aspect comes from the HN thread title.

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

#354

Post by greatowl »

asdff wrote: post #351
bllguo wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

help me understand this attitude. unless I'm an enormous customer why do I deserve replies "prepared to move heaven and earth" in the first place? I guess it seems like naivete to me

Let me give you my latest anecdote. I order a can of paint from Lowes. They send me the wrong color. I reach out to their customer support. I ask them to send me the correct color of paint. They inform me that they don't have power to do anything as they aren't the correct team. I ask who the correct team is. They give me a phone number to call for a customer support line that closed three hours ago. I call the next…

But they know that you won't. Next time you need to buy a can of paint, you'll go back to Lowe's because you figure there's a 99% chance they won't mess it up again, and meanwhile the Home Depot is even further away and not really any better. Meanwhile, companies that provide "good" customer service are continuously preyed upon by customers who waste their time and scam them. Personally, if I were you, I'd just take the L on this one. Someday, someone will solve this problem by opening a business that offers absolutely no returns, no customer services, and charges 10% less. I will shop there gladly.

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

#355

Post by oblio »

robotnikman wrote: post #323
AussieWog93 wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So sometimes discs won't load or cartridges won't read in their console, or they're unhappy with condition - sometimes this is as simple as apologising and accepting a return, sometimes people aren't happy with that and just want to kick up a stink. More often than not, the people kicking up a stink return a perfectly working product, and they just wanted to make sure we'd accept it by them being as foul as possible.…

The amount of people that seem "unable to regulate emotion like a healthy adult" as you say is surprising. I used to work at a call center job many years ago, and the amount of people who just seem unable to act like a decent person is astounding. I had to leave the job after a few months for my own sanity. I know its somewhat biased since obviously a call center position will deal with many unpleasant people, but it…

You're optimistic if you think there is a decline. I think it's a constant percentage, unfortunately.

I think we're now just uncovering the amount of people suffering from these issues. Before they would just be disregarded entirely and wouldn't even have access to various things, so they'd terrorize only people around them.

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

#356

Post by account42 »

londons_explore wrote: post #327
oblio wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Instead of spending "hours with mentally ill people" (your terminology), why not perfect the art of triage and funnel people without problems appropriately? Because some problems are NP complete.

"Hello...? Is that Gmail? I was just calling to let you know that I don't need Uncle Franks email anymore. He comes up whenever I press "F" for frank, but he's dead now so it doesn't make sense. Auntie Anna sees the same, so it must be a problem with your computers or something. Whenever I type Frank in on the Chrome he pops up on everything!"

And? Either you tell the user to remove Frank from the address book or if that is not possible (ie, autocompletes use addresses from all emails and there is no way to exclude addresses) and then you have an actual bug report.

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

#357

Post by account42 »

AussieWog93 wrote: post #179
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?

So sometimes discs won't load or cartridges won't read in their console, or they're unhappy with condition - sometimes this is as simple as apologising and accepting a return, sometimes people aren't happy with that and just want to kick up a stink. More often than not, the people kicking up a stink return a perfectly working product, and they just wanted to make sure we'd accept it by them being as foul as possible.…

> People asking less specific questions (such as asking for "more photos") are often just bored and have nothing better to do and will either disappear or ask more questions.

Or maybe the photo is the easiest way to confirm if you have the version that the customer is looking for. I know because I have done that. And yes, if you don't have the right version it might look like I never intended to buy.

Really though, if you don't already have detailed pictures posted that show the state of the product from all sides then that's something I'd consider a problem with your used games business.

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

#358

Post by Lazare »

bagacrap wrote: post #272
Lazare wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

> It seems entirely plausible to me

That is plausible. It's also plausible Amazon, who famously has poor customer service and often makes mistakes when their automated system glitch, has done so yet again.

You are, of course, free to assume that in a dispute one party is telling the unvarnished truth and the other is lying.

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

#359

Post by doodlebugging »

mjevans wrote: post #72
doodlebugging wrote: post #63

I think the most interesting thing here is that Amazon can effectively claim a seller's property is fake based on reviews that everyone knows are regularly gamed. Then they can refuse access to the inventory and make the claim, without having to provide any evidence, that the questionable inventory has in fact been destroyed and not just passed on to another seller behind the scenes. Accountability is entirely absent…

The cominging is also an issue. How does anyone know which supplier actually supplied X among Amazon's swath of caches? As a consumer, how do I know that when I buy from one FBA retailer on Amazon, the stock wasn't actually sourced by another that's also in that program? The lack of transparency, the lack of the consumer (and presumably also retailers) being able to trace these products back to their source of manufa…

Exactly. There has to be a way to put trust back into the system. Trust only works if each participant is accountable to the others. Asset tracking is supposed to be a solved problem but obviously it is a bad idea to hand your operations over to a third party whose agenda is likely different than your own.

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

#360

Post by thirdsun »

rdtwo wrote: post #243
AussieWog93 wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So sometimes discs won't load or cartridges won't read in their console, or they're unhappy with condition - sometimes this is as simple as apologising and accepting a return, sometimes people aren't happy with that and just want to kick up a stink. More often than not, the people kicking up a stink return a perfectly working product, and they just wanted to make sure we'd accept it by them being as foul as possible.…

Ha I get you I’m trying to sell a PlayStation on offer up right now and “buyers” are toxic even for one item. Idk why you do this to yourself I’d go nuts

That is exactly why I prefer eBay to sell stuff. I happily give up the 10% sellers fee for not having to deal with countless potential buyers acting entitled, trying to negotiate or telling me how they could get the same item new for about half my asking price.
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