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I was am Amazon seller and absolutely hated it. It is seemingly all run by bots. They delisted my product and none of the humans knew why. It is a bot that dec

I was am Amazon seller and absolutely hated it. It is seemingly all run by bots. They delisted my product and none of the humans knew why. It is a bot that decided that and no one could answer what the reason was. I welcome any competition that is more friendly to sellers.

lolinder 3y ago
It's all bots from the customer side too! AI-generated product names and descriptions with AI-generated reviews [0]. Half the books on there these days are AI-generated knockoffs of someone else's work. I think it's not just sellers who would welcome some competition in this space. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38971012 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38971012
YeBanKo 3y ago
I almost stopped shopping at Amazon. There is very little reason left. It is filled with no-name crap by companies with auto generated names. I might as well buy it from Aliexpress or Temu, same crap but at a fraction of a cost and the latter is really aggressive about cheap shipping. For something more serious either buy directly from the brand, or from Costco, Target, Walmart, HomeDepot, BedBath&Beyond, BestBuy, Macy's, publisher's website, some specialized hardware, electronics or hobby shops. There is still a limited number of things where Amazon beats others, but their quality went down, and hassle free return is not hassle free anymore. On top of that, they exhibit highly unethical behavior when it comes to counterfeit books. Here is a good thread by François Chollet about his book: https://twitter.com/fchollet/status/1550930876183166976 https://twitter.com/fchollet/status/1550930876183166976. The main takeaway is this: Q: What is Amazon doing about it? A: Nothing. We've notified them multiple times, nothing happened. The fraudulent sellers have been in activity for years. The issue affects ~100% of Amazon sales of the book since March or April. That's because, amazingly, since fraudsters are claiming to have inventory, Amazon has stopped carrying its own inventory for the book (i.e. it has stopped ordering new copies from the publisher). This is mind blowing to me, that they are still in the business of selling books. And they did not really solve last mile delivery. Yeah, it is still faster, but I can wait for my sneakers for 5 days, instead of 2-3 and many retail chains can now delivery something to you in 3-5 biz days and can beat Amazon on return policy or warranty. It's odd that market forces aren't correcting this for Amazon.
- throwworhtthrow 3y ago
  > BedBath&Beyond I have some bad news for you: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bed_Bath_&_Beyond#Bankruptcy_and_liquidation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bed_Bath_&_Beyond#Bankruptcy_a...
  - CatWChainsaw 3y ago
    But in the same article, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bed_Bath_&_Beyond#Acquisition_by_Overstock.com_and_online_revival https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bed_Bath_&_Beyond#Acquisition_... TBH I had forgotten Overstock existed until the acquisition was announced.
    - monetus 3y ago
      I wonder how many people don't use overstock for political reasons. I know he has done a lot, but after the former ceo tried some insurrection I really swore it off.
      - CatWChainsaw 3y ago
        I didn't know about that until I read your comment. Time and obfuscation can rescue a brand, maybe?
- latexr 3y ago
  > It's odd that market forces aren't correcting this for Amazon. Yes, yes, quite odd. It’s almost as if these capitalist notions of self- correcting market forces that large businesses are so keen to sell us on are based on decrepit bullshit ideas peddled by the ones who stand to profit the most, with the goal of keeping themselves unregulated for as long as possible so they can squeeze every drop of value at the expense of everyone else. Who could have predicted that a system that not only allows but incentivises a handful of individuals to amass and control the world’s money, thus allowing them to effectively make the rules, would have negative repercussions for society? As I finish writing this, I notice on the front page yet another article about rising income inequality. Because of course there is, because it’s only getting worse. https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/2024/jan/15/worlds-five-richest-men-double-their-money-as-poorest-get-poorer https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/2024/jan/15/worlds-fi...
jlevers 3y ago
Much of my work the past few years has been working with Amazon's seller-side e-commerce APIs, and it's truly infuriating how impenetrable their "support" systems are. It's ridiculously hard to get even basic problems solved, and for some reason they make it near-impossible to get access to shipping and tax addresses via their APIs [0], which makes developing pretty basic functionality really difficult. [0]: https://github.com/amzn/selling-partner-api-docs/discussions/3231 https://github.com/amzn/selling-partner-api-docs/discussions...

lolinder 3y ago

It's all bots from the customer side too! AI-generated product names and descriptions with AI-generated reviews [0]. Half the books on there these days are AI-generated knockoffs of someone else's work. I think it's not just sellers who would welcome some competition in this space. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38971012 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38971012

YeBanKo 3y ago

I almost stopped shopping at Amazon. There is very little reason left. It is filled with no-name crap by companies with auto generated names. I might as well buy it from Aliexpress or Temu, same crap but at a fraction of a cost and the latter is really aggressive about cheap shipping. For something more serious either buy directly from the brand, or from Costco, Target, Walmart, HomeDepot, BedBath&Beyond, BestBuy, Macy's, publisher's website, some specialized hardware, electronics or hobby shops. There is still a limited number of things where Amazon beats others, but their quality went down, and hassle free return is not hassle free anymore. On top of that, they exhibit highly unethical behavior when it comes to counterfeit books. Here is a good thread by François Chollet about his book: https://twitter.com/fchollet/status/1550930876183166976 https://twitter.com/fchollet/status/1550930876183166976. The main takeaway is this: Q: What is Amazon doing about it? A: Nothing. We've notified them multiple times, nothing happened. The fraudulent sellers have been in activity for years. The issue affects ~100% of Amazon sales of the book since March or April. That's because, amazingly, since fraudsters are claiming to have inventory, Amazon has stopped carrying its own inventory for the book (i.e. it has stopped ordering new copies from the publisher). This is mind blowing to me, that they are still in the business of selling books. And they did not really solve last mile delivery. Yeah, it is still faster, but I can wait for my sneakers for 5 days, instead of 2-3 and many retail chains can now delivery something to you in 3-5 biz days and can beat Amazon on return policy or warranty. It's odd that market forces aren't correcting this for Amazon.

throwworhtthrow 3y ago
> BedBath&Beyond I have some bad news for you: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bed_Bath_&_Beyond#Bankruptcy_and_liquidation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bed_Bath_&_Beyond#Bankruptcy_a...
- CatWChainsaw 3y ago
  But in the same article, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bed_Bath_&_Beyond#Acquisition_by_Overstock.com_and_online_revival https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bed_Bath_&_Beyond#Acquisition_... TBH I had forgotten Overstock existed until the acquisition was announced.
  - monetus 3y ago
    I wonder how many people don't use overstock for political reasons. I know he has done a lot, but after the former ceo tried some insurrection I really swore it off.
    - CatWChainsaw 3y ago
      I didn't know about that until I read your comment. Time and obfuscation can rescue a brand, maybe?
latexr 3y ago
> It's odd that market forces aren't correcting this for Amazon. Yes, yes, quite odd. It’s almost as if these capitalist notions of self- correcting market forces that large businesses are so keen to sell us on are based on decrepit bullshit ideas peddled by the ones who stand to profit the most, with the goal of keeping themselves unregulated for as long as possible so they can squeeze every drop of value at the expense of everyone else. Who could have predicted that a system that not only allows but incentivises a handful of individuals to amass and control the world’s money, thus allowing them to effectively make the rules, would have negative repercussions for society? As I finish writing this, I notice on the front page yet another article about rising income inequality. Because of course there is, because it’s only getting worse. https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/2024/jan/15/worlds-five-richest-men-double-their-money-as-poorest-get-poorer https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/2024/jan/15/worlds-fi...

jlevers 3y ago

Much of my work the past few years has been working with Amazon's seller-side e-commerce APIs, and it's truly infuriating how impenetrable their "support" systems are. It's ridiculously hard to get even basic problems solved, and for some reason they make it near-impossible to get access to shipping and tax addresses via their APIs [0], which makes developing pretty basic functionality really difficult. [0]: https://github.com/amzn/selling-partner-api-docs/discussions/3231 https://github.com/amzn/selling-partner-api-docs/discussions...