Amazon seller reveals rare glimpse of shadow bribery market

ppetethomas about 3 hours ago 30 commentsRead Article on latimes.com

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Discussion (30 Comments)Read Original on HackerNews

gertrunde•about 2 hours ago

I tend to find ebay less shady than Amazon these days, which is a bit disapointing really.

smallerfish•about 2 hours ago

AliExpress is less shady. If only they had customer service and a decent UI.

jonhohle•about 2 hours ago

I recently dealt with a merchant in Aliexpress who was intentionally selling things well below market price, not to build their storefront reputation, but to collect sales and then ask the customer to cancel. I forced them to cancel the order, which harms their rep.

Literally every unmanaged, user content controlled platform devolves into the basest scams, thuggery, and unpleasantness. This is why we can’t have nice things.

victorbjorklund•about 1 hour ago

I only had good experiences with the customer service. Do they wanna have long conversations? Nope. But they are quick to just give you a refund.

radicality•about 1 hour ago

> leave a product review in exchange for a free bed scrunchie accessory

I wonder what the exact language was. If it included something like “5 star review” on that card, then the guy deserves getting kicked out from Amazon and getting his business shut down (it’s federally illegal to do that per ftc regulation). If it was just very neutral language asking for reviews, then that sucks, and hope he can get it resolved with Amazon eventually.

buzer•41 minutes ago

In 2022 I got physical mail about leaving a review for something I bought from Amazon (sold by company X, shipped by Amazon) in exchange for Amazon Gift Card. It contained the name of the product I bought. When I tried to report it to Amazon:

* there was no obvious way to do it. Closest thing was by reporting issue on product.

* there was no way to show the customer service agent a picture of the mail. Chat did not support sending pictures & they were unable to open imgur link.

* agent recommended me to leave a report it by leaving review to the seller page. I did that and next day review was deleted.

So it's pretty clear that Amazon didn't care and I doubt it has changed (unless the law you are talking about is recent one).

showerst•about 2 hours ago

Amazon, Walmart, Etsy... my kingdom for a marketplace that doesn't become just a dumping ground for shady fly-by-night dropshippers.

JKCalhoun•about 2 hours ago

Don't allow 3rd party sellers?

giarc•about 1 hour ago

I think that is key. I used to browse Best Buy's website for various electronics and it was typically pretty good. I knew that somewhere, a Best Buy product buyer was evaluating the products with at least a minimum set of expectations. Then they opened their marketplace to 3rd party sellers and it's the same low cost, low quality crap on every other site.

jonhohle•about 2 hours ago

But then how could you skim off the top of other people’s work?

danesparza•about 2 hours ago

Amazon could easily solve this problem if they wanted to. They just don't want to.

kjellsbells•about 2 hours ago

Its been "day 2" at Amazon for a long time now. I guess the Leadership Principles need an update.

HumblyTossed•about 2 hours ago

Of course not. They _created_ this problem.

pan69•about 1 hour ago

"We're not competitor obsessed, we're customer obsessed. We start with the customer and work backwards." - Jeff Bezos

Backwards indeed.

theflyinghorse•about 1 hour ago

That's a problem for you — the customer - not for Jeff, the VP.

incomplete•19 minutes ago

https://archive.is/hioIm

ericras•about 3 hours ago

Non-paywall version: https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2026-06-30/shadow-bri...

nizbit•about 2 hours ago

Gods work, thank you!

moltar•about 1 hour ago

This has been going on for a decade.

cmiles8•about 3 hours ago

Still use Amazon for certain items because of fast delivery but the site is a complete mess. At some point Amazon leadership failed to understand that there’s a lot more to a good customer experience than “selection size.”

If I search for X I’d vastly prefer a few simple options that aren’t counterfeit or junk vs here’s 150 variants of your thing, most of which are junk but hey look at the size of our selection!

jonhohle•about 1 hour ago

10 years ago I was working on this problem at Amazon. We were developing methods to normalize all the crap listings and methods 3ᴿᴰ party sellers used to get unique listings when consolidating them was known to drive down prices, which was the original goal.

I had some interesting insights (vendors want to be unique, but need to keep products visible in search, so they typically use a common transformation within their own listings to satisfy both properties), but left before implementation rolled out. Based on current search results, either they failed or the project was abandoned.

I’m shocked at how some categories just contain junk from random brands with unpronounceable names. Want a music player by Sony or even RCA? Those brands have left that market completely for B2B products or are a licensed name on top of some garbage. Now you can get a Zaqe, Picxiul, Lwyinp, Globluum, or Swofy!

macintux•about 2 hours ago

I do my best to find a local or online shop that actually knows & understands what they sell. Getting harder, but for more expensive items definitely achievable.

Loughla•about 2 hours ago

I have yet to find something on Amazon that I couldn't find at a local shop for within 5% of the Amazon price. I live in a very rural area, so I have to imagine that it's easier if you live near a city. Or maybe my sample size of 1 person isn't enough.

cmiles8•about 2 hours ago

A lot of things are actually LESS expensive in stores. All that speedy delivery adds a lot to costs that are baked in. Sometimes things on Amazon are 50+% more. You have to know your prices to know what’s a good deal vs what’s a total ripoff.

IE folks will take a 4 pack of something that sells for $20 and sell each bottle individually for $10 each.

tenpoundhammer•about 2 hours ago

"This item will arrive tomorrow at 9 AM" -> Pay -> "Sorry this item can't be delivered by tomorrow will be delivered 2 days later" -> Next day -> "This item will be delivered 3 weeks from now"

cmiles8•about 1 hour ago

OMG yes this. So annoying.

It’s like Uber saying book and pay for a ride, cars are 2 min away. Great here’s my money, send a car. 15 min later still waiting for car…

nomel•about 2 hours ago

I think Amazon is catching on. I had this happen last week, and after the 2 days late, Amazon sent an automated apology with the option to cancel if it didn't show up after the third day.

saghm•about 1 hour ago

I'm not sure that's "catching on". One would think that if they can't reliably offer a service, they shouldn't be offering it in the first place.

worik•44 minutes ago

The only thing I use Amazon for is price guidance - is that hardware $1, $2, $10 or $100?

I have not bought from them since 2005.

There is no need