Amazon Marketplace Cutthroat Competition

[Zzzptm]

https://www.theverge.com/2018/12/19/18140799/amazon-marketplace-scams-seller-court-appeal-reinstatement

The start of the article:

Last August, Zac Plansky woke to find that the rifle scopes he was selling on Amazon had received 16 five-star reviews overnight. Usually, that would be a good thing, but the reviews were strange. The scope would normally get a single review a day, and many of these referred to a different scope, as if they’d been cut and pasted from elsewhere. “I didn’t know what was going on, whether it was a glitch or whether somebody was trying to mess with us,” Plansky says.

As a precaution, he reported the reviews to Amazon. Most of them vanished days later — problem solved — and Plansky reimmersed himself in the work of running a six-employee, multimillion-dollar weapons accessory business on Amazon. Then, two weeks later, the trap sprang. “You have manipulated product reviews on our site,” an email from Amazon read. “This is against our policies. As a result, you may no longer sell on Amazon.com, and your listings have been removed from our site.”

[Typhon]

Interesting article.  I don't buy from Amazon all that often, but when I do, it usually is not from a 3rd party seller because then I have to pay for shipping.

[Zzzptm]

Interesting article.  I don't buy from Amazon all that often, but when I do, it usually is not from a 3rd party seller because then I have to pay for shipping.

That's it, though... there are sellers that are part of the Amazon Prime network, where shipping is covered. And these guys are having knife fights with each other, practically, over listing placements. It's insane.

[Vyn]

That really is a look behind the curtain. I guess when you have a worldwide market, different understandings of "business ethics" are bound to collide. Not to mention the outright thieving bastards out there. Amazon really needs to do more in handling that properly, not just handling it.

[Zzzptm]

That really is a look behind the curtain. I guess when you have a worldwide market, different understandings of "business ethics" are bound to collide. Not to mention the outright thieving bastards out there. Amazon really needs to do more in handling that properly, not just handling it.

Yeah, it's almost like one of those crime movies where the rabble are able to do whatever they want, so long as Mr. Big gets his cut of the action.