An Open Letter To Amazon

The key balancing factor in a Capitalist system is consumer choice. Companies can do whatever they want, behave however badly they want, price their goods however uncompetitive they want. If enough consumers choose not to use them, they go out of business. Amazon need to assist their customers, not hinder them.

Amazon allow companies to trade under different names. If you've had bad experiences with company X before, and decide to rule out any dealings with company X in the future, it's your right as a consumer to do so. If enough people have a similar experience to you with company X, then company X is screwed. This is how it should work.

When you browse the site looking for a new purchase, and who to purchase from, you won't even consider company X, no matter the prices. You narrow it down to company Y, make the purchase and get the confirmation email from company X.

Company Y is a trading name for company X. You've just done business with the same people you've specifically chosen as a consumer not to do business with, all because they were allowed to trade under false names.

This system allows companies to deceive consumers. It makes it impossible for consumers to properly excersise their rights to not do business with any company for any reason. Why do Amazon allow their customers to be deceived? Why do Amazon allow companies to deceive their customers? Keep in mind that customers come to Amazon because they trust Amazon.

If you have a bad experience on eBay, you may put that down to a bad seller / buyer. The site you went through to get that bad experience was eBay. You may believe it's a one off, you may also decide that eBay doesn't have enough common sense precautions, that it's likely to happen over and over and over and over again. At some point you start to question going back to eBay.

With Amazon, they are just a portal for buyers to interact with sellers. Amazon can't control the user expeience between both, what they can do is empower the buyers and force the sellers to be honest. Any system that allows sellers to hide their identity and reputation will rebound on Amazon.

I've noticed several times now when buying from one company on Amazon, that I get confirmations from another. I got another last night. It's what triggered this post. I'm getting to the point where I wonder just how many companies are on Amazon, and how many trading names each of them have.

I ask Amazon to list all of the companies who have a spot on their marketplace, along with their connections to each other? Or would that be "commercially sensitive" to offer valid information that'd empower consumers?

Imagine company X is the only company on Amazon offering product Z, now imagine page after page of products, from a wide range of companies, except they're all trading names for company X. Smells like a scam right? Amazon helps enable this scam.

Common sense says to treat any email from someone you don't know with suspicion. Imagine an email from a company you've never heard of has details of a purchase you've made with a different company. Is it a scam? Was that transaction intercepted? Do you have spyware on your PC that sent out that information? No it's just Amazon allowing companies to trade under false names to deceive you.

I am starting to wonder why I return to Amazon.

You could of course argue that as long as the product and service matches what you expect, what does it matter who the company is? That's not the point. There are many factors which consumers use to decide who to do business with or not. The only power consumers have in a Capitalist system is to vote with our wallets and purses. If company X does something that enough consumers consider boycotting over, they lose customers and profit. Ultimately this forces them to act to redress that decision, or go out of business.

If Amazon are happy to thwart consumers ability to vote with their wallets or purses, they may just find themselves boycotted. Do Amazon really want that?