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September 23, 2022

Amazon BIGLY FUCKED UP

I don't often post reviews to Amazon, but occasionally, when a new book is so new there's been little good or bad, or if it's bad and way overhyped, even if there's been massive reviews, I will.

A week ago Sunday, I was going to do just that: post a copy of my Goodreads review of Susan Cain's "Bittersweet." Well, I first went to my Amazon personal profile page.

And was stunned, shocked, then ... pissed off that there was ONLY ONE review there, likely my first, I presume, from back in 2004. Given that I've got 900-plus reviews on Goodreads, and didn't transfer every Amazon review when I joined Goodreads, and had some non-books reviews on Yellow Satan as well, I had probably 1,500 reviews trashed.

So, first I hit Twitter. Amazon, suckingly, has no open DMs there, though I eventually got a response. Like other capitalist corporate whores, it doesn't have a contact email form, so you work through a chatbot before you get to a real person, eventually. Real person first thought I was talking about orders, not reviews. They eventually understood, and said the issue would be forwarded up the food chain, to likely be addressed in 72 hours.

A "Nick" then answered on Twitter. Suggested I had violated community guidelines, when he tossed me this link. I first told him that was a lie, because I'd never engaged in promotion or solicitation, never posted anything sexual, etc.

I then realized I had gotten an email from Amazon the Thursday before, making similar claims. I knew it was actually from Amazon, not phishing, but didn't think it was "real." I fished it out of my deleted items recovery folder and:

You have repeatedly posted content that violates our Community Guidelines (available at http://www.amazon.com/review-guidelines) or Conditions of Use ( https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=508088). An initial warning has been sent to you. Because of your repeated violation of our Community Guidelines we've removed your ability to participate in Community features.

That's an even bigger lie.

First, I've never participated in any community discussions to be warned about. Second, I've never been warned about anything before, period. Third, I've never engaged in intellectual property theft.

And, third, unlike either the chat bot or Twitter, got ZERO immediate response.

So, I updated my public profile. It read, as of Sunday, Sept. 4:

Where's the 1,500 or more reviews that fucking Amazon deleted as of Thursday, Sept. 1, 2022? That fucking Amazon deleted without warning, and for which I had never done anything to warrant deletion per its community guidelines? 
Politically lefitist (for America) as in specifically a contradistinction to "liberal," iconoclastic, an environmentalist, a freethinker. 
I march to the beat of my own drummer, and so do my reviews. 
Update: Since we can't comment on reviews here anymore, and can't downvote unhelpful ones, I report wingnuts who have pseudoscience based reviews on books that cover things like COVID and climate change. Deal with it.

Boom!?

Well, 30 seconds later, "boom" back. Even though an actual human hadn't responded via email to my response earlier a week ago Sunday, when this went down, a bot immediately didn't like the word "fucking." So, I changed it to "flock" and otherwise modified the first graf a bit.

I had, a few months ago, added that last paragraph. Maybe Amazon hated on me for that. If so? Fuck it. If that's "abuse," then they, like places like Quora in the past, are allowing other abuse to run rampant and it's time to leave anyway. That's what you get when humans, not algorithms, even before removing comments, decide to remove thumbs-down/unlike buttons. Thank doorknobs Reddit still allows downvotes.

Fucktards at Amazon then got worse.

Bot messaged me Monday, Labor Day mind you, that my profile still didn't meet standards.

AND THEY HAD DELETED ALL THE BIO INFO!

So, this:

So now Amazon has deleted all my changes? Good thing I copied them all yesterday, Amazon, because I've already started blogging about your flock-ups.

Fuck you even more.

But, why leave one review instead of deleting all? Is this a Mafia-like Amazon version of a horsehead on a pillow? So I suspect.

I am of course deleting my account entirely. Not letting them do that type of bullshit.

I don't need Amazon for any personal orders I can think of. Last two cameras, and last several lenses, have come from either KEH or eBay. Filters I can get elsewhere as needed. Office products, the modest amount I have ordered there for my company? Will go elsewhere the next time I need printer toner. 

I also didn't like Amazon storing my credit card online. And, it seems to have done that even after I toggled that off. Given that my Red and Yellow Satan national bank (think about it) contacted me not too long ago about a credit card issue, that's another reason not to like Yellow Satan. (Not that I totally like Red and Yellow Satan either.)

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