Funny nobody's mentioned the fact that Amazon has stopped selling PSN codes and Sony's 1st party PS4 games are no longer up for pre-order. Amazon picked another bullshit fight that's hurting customers.

Yeah, the PSN code thing is really pissing me off since I have a bunch of digital credit that I was sitting on that is getting ready to expire now.

Amazon's fight with random companies are one of my only annoyances with them. Like with Disney and selling their movies.

I received an non-damaged order from amazon today. Rarely happens. Looks like I can expect the next 150 to be trashed.

This is my major issue. It's annoying to drive to Target to get the latest Disney movie.

I never understood what it gains them over a single login page. Anybody who's programming a bot can just as easily submit two forms instead of one. But it doesn't really bother me.

After complaining to Amazon UK about my packages arriving held together with little more than the shipper's packing tape and one package actually losing two items as a result, subsequent packages have arrived in perfect shape. They're still coming from Asendia, so that hasn't changed. It could be a fluke or it could be they really listened.

Ordered a few CDs, mostly sold by Amazon. Two were not but were FBA (different sellers) and of course I opened my package to find that those two were just used with new shrink wrap on them. I chose to chat with a representative and was told I could either do a partial refund or send them back for a full refund. I had been looking for one of the CDs for a while so I chose the partial refund on that, and will be sending the other one back.

One of those two CDs was sold by a seller that I have ordered from before and experienced the same issue. Last time I spoke with their customer service and they acted like it was a one-off thing.

I asked the representative if there was a way to report the seller since it's not my first time having that experience and they said they would. I'm not sure what exactly will happen, if anything, but I hope some sort of action is taken.

@rjh 54

It reminds me of the days I bought CD's from Ebay and sellers would list them "New" only to arrive used with scratches.

Dishonesty sellers are found in the bulk on Amazon marketplace and ebay. Anything to make a quick buck.

In a rare (!) Amazon purchase, the two very heavy (15 #) books were shipped in a box far too large, loose, with NO padding or cushioning of any kind. They arrived damaged, of course, bent and scratched.

I grumbled and Amazon offered me 20% off... Since that came to a $38.xx refund, I cut my losses and made a mental note to not order heavy, expensive books on Amazon ever again.

It is a shame, since I still occasionally used Amazon for what they (at one time) did best, selling books. Now, that last, great bastion has disappeared, since Amazon obviously no longer cares to package orders with care, or even adequately.

I guess their packaging robots haven't been programmed to take weight or cost of package contents into consideration when shipping....

The worst part about it is that these sellers get mostly positive feedback because buyers are either too stupid to realize they're being sold used items or they just don't care. Oddly enough, my negative feedback doesn't seem to appear after I leave it. What kills me is I see people leaving negative feedback about the seller with it crossed out and a message from Amazon taking responsibility for the bad experience because the order is fulfilled by them. I guess it is their responsibility in a way since they're allowing this to continue. What will it take for these sellers to get shut down?

Any negative feedback on a third-party Prime fulfillment order gets nullified by Amazon itself if the seller challenges it. It's a scam to favor Prime sellers in the feedback ratings.

I figured it was something like that. It's disgusting.

Wow, I didn't know that.

No. It only happens when the feedback specifically refers to a shipping or customer service complaint - as those are amazons job. It’s actually a pain unless the feedback is very obviously attacking shipping (ie shipped late).

Also Amazon restricts sellers in the media category. There is a whole process to get approved to sell media on there. And they frequently ban anyone who winds up with customer complaints.

If you really have a problem with your dvd being used, it gets the sellers account in trouble if you do a return and state that it wasn’t new. Feedback is left at a rate of under 1% on Amazon.

Also the feedback isn’t removed. It will have a strike thru it. Only a buyer can actually remove a feedback.

Bullshit. I've seen the strikethrough after I complained about DVDs/BDs having the UPC gouged. That's NOT new by Amazon's own policy, and the seller fucking did it before it got to Amazon.

It's probably not the seller that did that. It's the distributor that does that when they remainder out overstock so the items.

At any rate, the seller should not that the barcode is cut in the description, or not sell it as "new."

An actual cut on the case and insert should drop the condition down to VERY GOOD or GOOD (depending on the damage) whether or not it is sill sealed.

It's amazing how often negative feedback on Prime sellers gets blamed on Amazon's shipping and handling. The strikethrough feedback doesn't get used in the overall feedback score, which is how most sellers want it.

Amazon Fulfillment requires that barcodes be covered. If the UPC is gouged, it may have been gouged for a few reasons. Distributors will also damage barcodes on purpose for similar reasons, or when the products enter an overstock/liquidation phase.

There's also "co-mingled" inventory. It's a headache. Legitimate sellers tend to opt-out. And Amazon should get rid of it. Unless the seller opts out, Amazon throws everyone's SKU's into a big pot, and will ship the most convenient and/or closest unit to ship. It makes it virtually impossible to track down who mislabels their products, who sells counterfeits, or who sells resealed DVD's. Your DVD with the gouged UPC code was quite likely not from the seller you bought it from.

Another thing to realize about DVD's, is there is absolutely no profit for a small business to be buying/selling factory-authorized media. So if you see a third party seller selling a DVD on Amazon, it's an overstock/liquidation or sketchy repackaged product.

It is a process to get a strikethrough. It is not easy. If you've seen it done, it may be from very persistent sellers. If your feedback doesn't qualify for a strikethrough, you may be able to still get it done after you keep calling and emailing. But most sellers would be too timid to do that, as too much interaction between a seller and Amazon will likely result in account suspension. Amazon sees third party sellers as pests and tend to ban accounts who report too many lost products, feedback requests, etc. If you question or hassle Amazon too much, you're gone. There is no real human interface. They are not nice people. And they only care about their bottom line. If their complex algorithms deem your account unprofitable (based on fees, problems, cu/in storage, etc.), you get a permanent suspension.

Lastly, I'll say that Amazon is "locking down" categories and brands daily. And it becomes very complicated to get welcomed into a gated brand or category. There's going to be a point when third party sellers are mostly gone. And Amazon FBA will mostly be for manufacturers who want to stock their own products at Amazon (ie, an artisanal soap company). There was an almost unbelievable shift on July 1 2018 that we'll see the results of over the next six months. It'll be very interesting to watch the effects. I can go into that if you wish. But it's a whole other subject.

What else changed? The bullshit sales tax ruling last month makes 3rd party sellers even more pointless. Smaller sites/ebay might still dodge on collecting tax for out of state sales for a while, but Amazon sellers are fucked because Amazon enforces it. Used to be you could at least save on tax by going 3rd party. At least, that's been my reasoning for doing it since Amazon started collecting tax in my state a couple years ago. Prime fulfilled sellers without tax were useful. Now they're not unless they can afford to actually undercut Amazon's prices.

There's no a magic way to remove it. As a seller, you submit a request. If it's a clear issue with Amazon's Fulfillment, it gets removed. Even then, often times you'll get rejected a few times before you escalate it (as the seller).

There's also another variable in the strikethrough. Some companies pay third party overseas companies to basically harass Amazon until they remove it. As I mentioned above, if a seller contacts Amazon too many times, they will suspend the account. Doesn't matter how many sales or how much you have done business with Amazon. They'll suspend your account and they don't care in the least.

Another fun detail, is that the Amazon competition is rough. Competitors will sabotage each other's accounts buy buying products incognito, leaving negatives, reporting products as counterfeits, etc. It becomes really hard for Amazon to maintain integrity.

I don't think sales tax will be much of an issue ... ever. The internet is too convenient now. Amazon has always collected sales tax in states they have presence in. All of that stuff has become very simple. Add Avalara for $20/mo, and all of the sales tax forms are printed and submitted with one-click authorization (or print/mail in some states).

The big shift... They just added penalties to FBA sellers who stock their products longer than six-or-so weeks. And it's not just a little penalty. They basically charge around 20x the storage fee, and also restrict the seller from stocking any additional inventory, based on quarterly reports. The algorithms are hidden and no sellers quite no exactly how they work yet. Nobody has any idea how it works yet. There is no "hack" to get your account into the green, other than moving your FBA inventory every six weeks.

My best estimate is that approximately 1/2 of all FBA sellers had their accounts restricted. Many (most?) of them will not survive the shift, and the inventory will be destroyed/liquidated (or shifted to Amazon Warehouse Deals) after their accounts reach default (from the negative balances that will hit in July and August).

They're also gating brands and categories daily. They're doing their best to push out most FBA sellers. All of those private labelers selling typical made-in-China merchandise (imagine bed linens, kitchen knives, cheap tools, etc.) because they want to sell their own under Amazon Basics.

In short, it's not a place for middlemen anymore. If you make a specialty dog food (for example), and want to stock it at Amazon, then FBA is a nice foot in the door - which will lead to Amazon contacting you and purchasing direct if your SKU performs well. If your SKU doesn't perform well (even though it's still profitable for you), you'll be kicked out of their system via storage penalties.

In the case of DVD's and books, Amazon already doubled/tripled the fulfillment fees last year. A lot of FBA sellers are just barely hanging on as-is. The new penalties will be their last leg in closing up and and moving on (I hear Amazon is hiring!).

I don't normally complain about Amazon. But seriously, go fuck yourselves. I'm a real buyer. I buy on Amazon quite a bit. And I like to think I contribute helpful reviews. I'm taking this personally right now (I'll get over it). What a bunch of fucking assholes.



I think Amazon is reaching a tipping point. I feel like there's an undercurrent of disapproval and hostility brewing. They start chipping away at the goodwill of their customers (like me)... A company is too big to fail ... until it fails.

I was just defending Amazon feedback. This is a product review (which is different). The only thing I can think of, is that an listing got a 1-2 star review on a product, and an FBA seller disputed it, thus blocking my account from posting any more reviews.

The digital age really sucks sometimes. As you mentioned earlier, a company may be trying to do right but gets hammered by bots. Then real customers get caught up in the flak. I have plenty of complaints about Amazon, but they have real challenges on their end.

If you're that angry about not being able to post a review, maybe their reasoning has some merit if you really just had a bone to pick about the product and/or seller.

Not trying to judge here, but without more details about the content of your review and about the product and seller, can't really say that it's easy to judge if Amazon was acting correctly or not or if you were actually breaking their rules on reviews.

This isn't a government or national bank. Any consumer goods company can and will eventually fail. If anything, Amazon is still steadily moving upward while the likes of Apple and Google are slowing down.