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Amazon Marketplace Shoppers Slam the Spam (fortune.com)

Posted by msmash on from the no-way-out dept.

Spammy follow-up email messages are turning off Amazon Marketplace shoppers. Shoppers who buy from Amazon's Marketplace typically like the convenience and prices. But many are also unhappy about the barrage of emails that sellers send them after the purchase, notes Fortune. It adds: Sellers deluge often inboxes with requests for product reviews, inquiries about how the process went, and sales pitches for more stuff. Considering the comments on social media, feedback from friends and family, and in posts in Amazon.com's customer service forum over the past two years, this problem is not getting any better. There appears to be no way to opt out of this email flood, which is odd, given Amazon's self-professed zeal for great customer service. One shopper in Amazon's customer forum thread posted a response from an Amazon service representative that apologized for the notifications and noted that the feedback had been forwarded to the company's "investigations team."

19 of 120 comments (clear)

  1. Funny thing is by TheCastro1689 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    This kind of customer service used to be appreciated. A follow up asking if the product arrived on time and if it was what they wanted and such was a nicety. I have gotten a few and as long as they aren't multiple ones or a random one asking me to buy other things from their amazon shop I don't care.

    1. Re:Funny thing is by Obfuscant · · Score: 4, Informative

      This kind of customer service used to be appreciated.

      By whom? By people who are incapable of autonomously complaining when something wasn't what they ordered or didn't work as it was supposed to?

      I've gotten spam asking me if the product was working well TWO DAYS before it was scheduled to be delivered. And then repeated spam about the same product when I don't answer the first one. I've had them offering to give me money to write a positive review or feedback.

      Count me in the "don't buy from spammers" column. And the companies behind the Amazon Marketplace are not who I ordered the product from -- that was Amazon. "Sold by" means nothing when I'm actually on amazon.com buying it.

      I doubt Amazon will do anything about this, just like they don't do anything about the outright scammers and misrepresentations.

    2. Re:Funny thing is by DeMechman · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Its certainly appreciated, however when its for a $2 roll of tape that is where its silly.

    3. Re:Funny thing is by Obfuscant · · Score: 4, Insightful

      If I purchased their product, I've initiated a relationship with this company

      No, you haven't. You've initiated a relationship with Amazon. You're on the Amazon website and you pay Amazon. You don't deal with the vendor directly, and there is no business relationship to use as an excuse for unsolicited commercial email.

      What I would have a problem with is getting a barrage of e-mails from companies that sell similar or competing products espousing the virtues of their superior versions.

      What about companies that barrage you with requests for positive feedback and reviews and wanting to know how the product you haven't gotten yet is working out? You have to realize that the "how is it working" part of the email is just an excuse to spam you for good feedback, since they KNOW you can't tell them how well it works before it has even arrived.

    4. Re:Funny thing is by Obfuscant · · Score: 4, Informative

      Really? When you're in the mall it's not the individual vendors who you're buying from, it's the mall you're buying from?

      Amazon.com is not a mall. I am not in the spammer's store when I buy from Amazon, and I do not hand my money to an employee of the spammer. I am dealing with Amazon.com. And you can tell the difference, because you often CAN go to the spammer's website and deal with them, and often MUST go to their website to find technical information about the product. But you can tell, and you know, when you've left amazon.com and gone to the spammer's site.

      When I order something FOB from a manufacturer while I'm shopping at a distributor's website, I am not a customer of the manufacturer, I do not pay the manufacturer, and I have not created a business relationship with that manufacturer. If I need customer service on that order, I talk to the distributor and it is the distributor who gets my money. What they do with my money after that is their business. And just like Amazon, that distributor doesn't want me talking directly to the manufacturer to buy the product because then the distributor doesn't get their cut of the sale.

      You can argue, "I gave my money to Amazon, but not to the mall," and this is true.

      Which absolutely destroys your mall analogy. Why did you even bother posting it when you know it is patently absurd?

    5. Re:Funny thing is by Tinsoldier314 · · Score: 3, Informative

      Nine emails and multiple text messages so far from one vendor including notification of an account created for me on their site. All of this for a single purchase of some tea bags. I didn't expressly ask for this much follow-up and there's no way for me to turn it off. Even the text messages have a cost, however trivial, which I did not consent to (amazon never sends me texts because I turned off the shipment notifications feature, something this vendor has ignored).

    6. Re:Funny thing is by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 4, Insightful

      If I purchased their product, I've initiated a relationship with this company and I do not mind the follow up e-mail.

      It isn't a "followup" since there is no human behind it, and there is generally no way to directly respond to the email. It is just machine generated spam, trying to generate a statistical response. If I receive one message, I delete it. If I receive another from the same vendor, I go to Amazon and give them a one-star review. If you do this too (and I hope you do) then do NOT mention the spam as a reason for the bad review. If you do that, Amazon will remove the review, since reviews must be about the product and not the company selling it. So just make something up instead.

      If enough people do this, the spam will stop.

      An even better solution would be for Amazon to allow the customers to opt out of having their email shared with vendors.

    7. Re:Funny thing is by jason777 · · Score: 2

      Your shop sells customer email lists? What is your company, so I know to never purchase from you?

    8. Re:Funny thing is by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 2

      Nice troll, but you are lying. Amazon doesn't give the email addresses to the vendors. They send the email on behalf of the vendors (for a fee of course), and the sending address is always <???>@marketplace.amazon.com.

    9. Re:Funny thing is by DRJlaw · · Score: 5, Informative

      If I receive another from the same vendor, I go to Amazon and give them a one-star review. If you do this too (and I hope you do) then do NOT mention the spam as a reason for the bad review. If you do that, Amazon will remove the review, since reviews must be about the product and not the company selling it. So just make something up instead.

      You blockhead. They do that because, I assume, you are reviewing THE PRODUCT through a PRODUCT REVIEW. Your review will appear under THE PRODUCT listing on Amazon, which is used by both Amazon, that Marketplace vendor, and all the other Marketplace vendors.

      You honestly haven't figured this out yet? Despite the fact that when you search for the product it displays an Amazon purchase link (usually) and things like "24 new from $XXX.XX" and "5 used from $XX.XX"?

      You want to go to your order history, click on the order, and magically there will appear a button labeled "Seller Feedback." Seller feedback is expressly supposed to be about the company selling it, so I'm not going to buy any cover-your-*ss follow-up that claims that you were referring to that button.

      Hint: there's also a "Package feedback" button that you can use to complain about Amazon's packaging for the Amazon warehouse-fulfilled orders, which might actually provide feedback to the people who packaged the order.

      Stop polluting the product reviews with made up issues because you can't be bothered to figure out how to review a vendor properly.

  2. Report as spam to Gmail? by DiSKiLLeR · · Score: 2

    If enough people do it, they'll start to get put onto gmail's spam lists....

    --
    You can tell how powerful someone is by the magnitude of the crime they can commit and be able to get away with.
  3. akin to.... by JustNiz · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It must be a uniquely American thing to equate massive levels of attention with good service. As a Brit now living in the US, all the unwanted interruptions you get when you're just trying to enjoy a slow, peaceful restaurant meal really took some getting used to.

    I swear servers actually wait for you to fill your mouth before they comes over and ask "Is everything OK" every 30 seconds.... and whats with the rush to clear plates from the table? especially even before everyone at the table has finished eating? That's considered the height of bad manners in pretty much every other country I've ever lived in or visited.

    1. Re:akin to.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      The sooner they get you out of the table and paid, the sooner they can get another set of paying customers at that same table. From what I gather, the waiter's pay is mainly on the throughput of the table times the tip, so they have an incentive to get you moving as quickly as possible. Its good for them, but bad for the restaurant. Perverse incentives are everywhere.

    2. Re:akin to.... by Grishnakh · · Score: 2

      It must be a uniquely American thing to equate massive levels of attention with good service. As a Brit now living in the US, all the unwanted interruptions you get when you're just trying to enjoy a slow, peaceful restaurant meal really took some getting used to.

      I'm American, and have only lived in America, and I really hate this practice too. Drives me nuts.

      A couple years ago, I lived in northern New Jersey where there's a bunch of Italian restaurants. At one, that looked family-owned, it was totally overstaffed, with some Italian-looking waiters, but a Mexican guy who I'm not sure what his position was other than "waterboy". He came around every few minutes to refill our water glasses, even though we had barely drank any water. It was the most annoying over-service ever. One of my guests (an older guy who speaks some Italian) tried thanking him with "grazi", and the guy corrected him with "gracias". My guest then asked him if this was an Italian restaurant or a Spanish one. I didn't go back to this place.

      Anyway, you're completely correct about them seemingly deliberately waiting until your mouth is full of food to come over and ask "How's that tasting for ya?" and also clearing the plates before you've even finished. This stuff is epidemic.

      Honestly, eating out in America is really not a fun experience. Just like going to a movie theater. Better just to buy your own food at a supermarket and cook it yourself, and watch a movie at home. America's a good country if you want to make good money and stay at home all the time to enjoy it with a big house, and come and go in a nice car (and you're healthy...). If you like going out a lot to restaurants, cafes, movies, etc., it kinda sucks.

    3. Re:akin to.... by tlhIngan · · Score: 3, Interesting

      It must be a uniquely American thing to equate massive levels of attention with good service. As a Brit now living in the US, all the unwanted interruptions you get when you're just trying to enjoy a slow, peaceful restaurant meal really took some getting used to.

      I swear servers actually wait for you to fill your mouth before they comes over and ask "Is everything OK" every 30 seconds.... and whats with the rush to clear plates from the table? especially even before everyone at the table has finished eating? That's considered the height of bad manners in pretty much every other country I've ever lived in or visited.

      Well, it's American to not spend hours on a meal, actually. I know, I traveled to Italy and had many great meals, and spent a couple of hours or more at the restaurant. That was fine, I was on holidays and was enjoying the leisurely experience.

      Back home, well, things are a bit more rushed, so having efficiency really helps. I don't want to have to look for a waiter to call over so I can have my glass refilled. Just like I don't want to have to wait 10 minutes to get a waiter to get me my bill. (Yes, I like it when they automatically come and refill my glass, as well as print me out my bill and leave it at the table. Of course, if they hover around waiting for me to pay it, that's another thing, but if they drop it off and let me deal with it when I'm able, I'm happier.

      Having to get the attention of a waiter can be the most annoying thing ever.

  4. I bought a car... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I bought a car from a used car lot. They are known for well kept upper end vehicles. In the last 12 months, I've received 2 emails from them. At 3 months, an email asking how I felt about the car and if there were any issues I'd like them to address, and then another reminding that I was due for service.

    That is follow up that I appreciate.

    My email spam rules send most Amazon communications to the spam folder and I'm an Amazonaholic.

  5. Could be worse... by jxander · · Score: 2

    Overstock is so much worse. It's insane

    I bought one or two things over there a couple months ago, and received a barrage of emails daily. An absolute unmitigated shitstorm of spam. And they came from several different addresses (domains?), and were assigned to several different mailing lists, so marking one as spam and/or unsubscribing wouldn't stop the deluge.

    I think it's mostly under control now, but what a mess that was...

    --
    This signature is false.
  6. Some time back. . . by Salgak1 · · Score: 2

    . . . . I had a Marketplace Seller who sent me a request for Feedback for 8 consecutive days.

    I gave them feedback: One Star, titled "Adequate Item, but seller spams for feedback"

    Amazon sent me a nastygram saying my review wasn't "helpful". . .

    Have not left a review for a Marketplace item since, , ,

  7. Frustrated by the emails by Cheviot · · Score: 2

    I get a lot of these. I buy used books on Amazon, all at least graded "good" or better. In Amazon's description, Good means the book includes a dust cover. About a quarter of the books I order arrive with no dust cover and they get a one-star review and an explanation why.

    Then the e-mails start. The seller wants to give me a discount to make things right. I explain that I've already wasted as much time on the order as I'm going to and it's well worth whatever discount that they might give me to let people know that they messed up.
    Next up is the full refund offer email. I reply, asking if they even read my email. I explain that they're wasting even more of my time and I'm even less inclined to remove my review now as I was before.
    Occasionally at this point I get the begging email. What can we do to make this right? Let us know and we'll do it. I reply that if I hear from them again, I'll order from them again and give that item a one-star review too.

    That shuts them up.