Another "Does anyone understand Amazon..." thread

[jimbouk]

This time, sponsored items in search.

"anime" in Women's Socks, top row contains two books, a back pack and some lego. After a bit of scrolling I get "Women Sexy High Waist Butt Scrunch Push Up Leggings".

The sizes are a bit small on the socks, maybe I'll try the Men's Socks category... Top row now has three pairs of "Scrunch Butt" leggings and a hoodie. My butt is ok without being scrunched.

uBlock back on and normality restored. I feel more sorry for the smaller companies paying for completely inappropriate sponsored search space than I do for revenue lost as I'm unlikely to be clicking on the random links!

Most inappripriate sponsored search suggestion anyone?

[Scryder]

Yeah, Amazon is weird sometimes. These days when I search for something, I change the sort to "Price: Low to High". As "Featured" gives some odd results and probably junk most of the time. I'm also the same as you, if I see "Sponsored", I get suspicious. Just based on the junk I've bought from clicking those and the "Today's Deal" page in the past. I've also got uBlock and another on, so probably missing out on some of the weirder results!

And we all know about the Customer Reviews scam. Normally when I buy something, I check the 1 stars for honest reviews (which sometimes has pictures).

[hb904460]

I find that whenever i use a search filter, such as price low-high i lose a lot of results.
Also the search results and filters arent good, i had a GPU from Amazon Warehouse in my basket, it was in stock and i could buy but when i went through the search to find comparisons i couldnt find it.

[ik9000]

I was searching for DIY offers back at black Friday and after a few black and decker/bosch offerings etc it came up (first page, third row) with vibrators of the intimate kind. I guess that is DIY, but not what I think the average user would be wanting to search for.

(ps Before some wise crack suggests it, it's not what I've used Amazon for in any way so there was no history thing at play there!)

[ik9000]

And we all know about the Customer Reviews scam. Normally when I buy something, I check the 1 stars for honest reviews (which sometimes has pictures).

Equally a surprising number of 1* are the "item didn't arrive" or "shipping took 2 days longer, not good enough Amazon" kind of BS that shouldn't be in the product reviews. You used to be able to review sellers directly, but that seems to have disappeared recently - or at least I can no longer see how to do it anymore.

[virtuo]

I was in a rush to get something for my nephew's 7th birthday this week, searched "kids gifts for 7 year olds" (or something similar) loads of sponsored "Valentines Lingerie" results.






Hope he likes them.

[Laxet]

Amazon product categories are dreadful. Moderation seems pretty poor on Amazon's part.

It's full of sellers trying to get the spotlight so they get those extra clicks in the 'bestseller' category. You'll often find them filing their popular products under niche unpopular categories so that it appears as #1 seller in that category which in of itself is a selling point.

[PsyPill]

I've found quite a few "bait and switch" products with loads of very positive reviews...for a completely different item. Anyone knows a way to report such items?

[Jonj1611]

And we all know about the Customer Reviews scam. Normally when I buy something, I check the 1 stars for honest reviews (which sometimes has pictures).

I bought a screen for an iphone x recently from Amazon, sold by some third party but in the package it said free £20 amazon voucher, give us a five star review, take a picture of it and we will send you the voucher. :/

[ik9000]

I bought a screen for an iphone x recently from Amazon, sold by some third party but in the package it said free £20 amazon voucher, give us a five star review, take a picture of it and we will send you the voucher. :/

so obviously you contacted Amazon to report this breach of their T&Cs right?

[Jonj1611]

so obviously you contacted Amazon to report this breach of their T&Cs right?

I did indeed, person on live chat said it will make sure it goes to the right department. I don't have much faith it will

Ok now normally I would have liked a free voucher but I am so sick and tired of seeing 5 star reviews and buying a product and finding it to be complete rubbish and wondering how it got those reviews to start with.

[ik9000]

I did indeed, person on live chat said it will make sure it goes to the right department. I don't have much faith it will

Ok now normally I would have liked a free voucher but I am so sick and tired of seeing 5 star reviews and buying a product and finding it to be complete rubbish and wondering how it got those reviews to start with.

^This. It's why I always go straight to the 1* and work my way up from there. Equally a detailed 5* with a clear pros and cons breakdown is not something I would dismiss out of hand. I've given several products 5* that I felt deserved it.

[Jonj1611]

I have changed my buying habits with Amazon and do now look at the lowest reviews first

[neepheid]

Amazon search is garbage. You can be as specific as you can be but it will throw all manner of spurious, semi-related items in there. Sort by price and it's 20 pages of 99p store first.

If you want a Wumpus from Amazon, they'll make damn sure you have to hunt for that Wumpus.

(Gen X joke alert )

[ik9000]

I quite agree. If anything it's got worse in the last couple years instead of better. A lot of the old filter options have been removed. IDKW

[Scryder]

So speaking of Amazon's shenanigans, I was searching for some earphones. Normally you can filter down from the Department, to something more specific. I was looking for "Brand" and it's not there. What was there instead is something called "Featured Brands"... I assume these companies paid to be listed there.

Also the brand I was looking for isn't there. I don't know what they're playing at, but I guess I have to now filter down as much as I can then type the name of the brand to find them again. Otherwise it's searching through 400 pages of results.

In a way, I can understand why this is done, as there are 100+ of knock-off brands on Amazon right now. But seems genuine companies are also getting filtered out now. They can't blame anyone but themselves for this happening. Oh well.