Hahaha
I’m not sure that the behemoth Amazon behind small sellers is something that works in favour of me, as a customer. Through 
extensive experience I have found Amazon cover not only the product but the delivery, has been very more than satisfactory. Items have been for me, trackable and where delivered damaged, quickly replaced. Even where I did not request a refund.
A piffling purchase of a mini torch I bought recently, ceased to light up after only 5 days. I didn’t bother requesting a refund for only €12 but I did leave a scathing review on Amazon warning others. Lo and behold, I soon had a message (from the French company) of apology and that they were sending a replacement. Duly arrived in a few days and works a treat!
True that some items may be less expensive if available elsewhere but a few forays have left me wary.
Did you update your review? I particularly like to provide reviews when it’s gone wrong and the supplier has really stepped up. It’s a sign of a good supplier.
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Booking.com has been found guilty in court, of price fixing / market manipulation, relatively recently.
I hsve always been treated well by Amazon, beyond what they needed to, as a customer with a good track record (though not spending all that much) and far, far beyond what they had to do, on a few occasions.
When I tòok an Amazon monthly delivery subscription I was worried that once established, higher prices would creep in. But the opposite has been the case. This month prices went down not up shortly before my delivery after a period of being relatively high. I could have cancelled the expensive stuff immediately without notice, either for that delivery or permanently, but hung in there and prices righted themselvea as I thought they would.
I thought the point of the Guardian article should be aimed at Meta (Facelbook etc) in particular. With Google heading in that direction and Microsoft taking shortcuts to try to catch up. Amazon has faults but disrespect of customers’ data and selling on and overexploiting customers’ data for purposes they did not sign up to hasn’t been their thing I would say.
What is their thing, is minute analysis of customer behaviour in the pursuit of their own core business optimisation. At an individual level this may change the interface with the customer ie what they see first. But an aware Amazon customer can defend against it and get to what they’re looking for (which Meta and Google block, or don’t respect).
In fact I thought the article said the right things about what’s going on, but picked the wrong example.
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I have been getting scam emails from Amazon.fr. They keep telling me that my order has been cancelled and that the payment will be refunded with no charge for cancelling the order but they need me to update online my bank card details because the bank has also cancelled the payment. Well I have not ordered anything from Amazon for several weeks and those items have been delivered and payments made so just a heads up to anyone getting these emails as they purport to come from amazon when you touch the sender with the mouse on your email notification page.
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I think that because Amazon membership is popular now, the scam factories are sending out this bait to every email address they can 
And what do you think about how Amazon treats its staff?
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The few people I know that worked there enjoyed their time
Is that an affiliate link below Susannah’s post? Flagged it in case. “Brass neck” comes to mind.
I was replying to Shiba’s post about the scam Amazon email. No link in mine. Only an angry emo.
Like AI, I use a lot of emoji 
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A concern for anyone when looking at ‘generic’ products
Nearly all of the electricals we tested (11 out of 13) had hidden internal faults, with problems ranging from dodgy wiring and soldering to missing When the Ladder Association carried out safety tests on 14 ladders purchased from online marketplaces in October 2025, they found that every single one of them failedand posed a significant safety risk to consumers.
These failures included 9 separate ladders matching the design we found. Alarmingly, 86% of the ladders which failed these tests were marketed as conforming with the relevant safety standard, EN 131.thermal protection. More than half (8 out of 13) were provided with noncompliant or counterfeit plugs, and 5 out of 13 had issues arising from the way they were put together (e.g. allowing access to live parts, presence of sharp edges, etc).
Surely this the responsibility of the Direction générale de la concurrence, de la consommation et de la répression des frauds. If organisations such as Which can find these dangerous products then surely such agencies, specifically charged with the responsibility for safe products should be able to.
A week’s ban on trading for each infraction would quickly clear up the problem.
I did a really silly thing last night, downloaded a book for my Kindle but due to a quivering hand pressed for Audible too at a cost of £11. As the book was only 99 pence I was not best pleased but girded myself for battle this morning.
20 minutes at least being shunted around amazon and audible I found myself in India and the lady said there was no way to transfer me back.
So I started again and found an answer to the chat button, much better and Tayseer went off to investigate. Soon back he said the only way was to contact audible in a phone queue. I replied that the reason I don’t want audible is because I am deaf (I am to an extent which is how I ended up in India, choosing I for India instead of I for English 
) and thus can’t use phone calls either.
Off he/she went again and soon Boorgula joined the chat. She/he had all the details went away again and came back to announce my account will be credited with £11.
Sorted. 
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Good news. Yes Amazon customer support can be a bit convoluted but they usually get there in the end.
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I would think that Amazon peeps check the purchase history of a complainant. Repeat customers will be more likely to have a favourable resolution. Petty normal retail practice. Well done @David_Spardo !
Yes I think they do - I believe you can get banned from returning stuff if you do it too often or without good reasons.
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I haven’t heard that about Amazon but it certainly applies with eBay. Understandable as there are always some out to game the system.
I’ve been offered refunds where needed and declined several offers that were over-generous. I am a relatively low value customer but with a long good record and always, always document any claim with photos etc and do it promptly.
Including a refund I was promptly offered last week when our local rogue delivery subcontractor, Jardel, left a package not at all pre-announced by them or Amazon, no tracking or “we’ve sent it’“ email sent by Amazon and none by UPS,/Jardel, completely unexpectedly without any notice. It wasn’t due for another 2 weeks or so.
So as usual with local Jardel operator, I was out and they left the package behind my gate, in the open and unprotected from the weather, on the wrong day, in my absence and without signature. And this time with zero préavis.
I saw the “we’ve delivered it” message out of the blue. I used Amazon Chat to complain and ask them to ask UPS not to use the contractor for my postcode given the bad history with them for this type of parcel mishandling. I mentioned 2 very recent total loss claims, both reimbursed immediately, where Jardel had delivered and left the parcel on the wrong date during heavy rain. Rain had continued in last case many hours and in previious case some days after Jardel left it - no shelter and no one there to sign. 1 for UPS/ Amazon, 1 for another vendor and transporter.
Jardel did it also several times in the summer - for GLS fot Lidl deliveries - but were luckier with the weather. Of course I’m documented on each case if needed.
I mentioned the above and asked Anazon to ask UPS not to use Jardel for my postcode and suggest they might consider La Poste or Colissimo (not Chronopost) if possible instead.
Amazon said they would pass on feedback, who knows if they will? and offered a refund. I said no thanks the weather is ok today so there’s a good chance the package will still be OK when I get back there later today but please relay the feedback. It was a replacement for my failing bread machine so not a small sum but I declined.
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But I needed a new, smaller, kitchen bin, and there are loads on Amazon but I thought, check local first. Went to the all singing and dancing garden centre which took over the old quainquaillerie years ago but no good. Went into the supermarket next door where I was going anyway. Nothing at all. So I am faced with a 30 km round trip to Nontron on the chance that I’ll find what I want there…or order off Amazon.
No contest, it arrives on Saturday. 
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