I like how I had no problem, when I was sixteen, setting up Paypal so that I could buy some random components for some old PDA's from china on ebay.
But this is seriously upsetting, the tone of this writing wants to rip my heart out for the author. I can only wish that this gets resolved decently.
His comparison also reminds me how Amazon's customer service is absent as much as possible. Automation and all that. Yet on that topic, it seems people don't mention Google as much. (I wonder if they filter that out in their results..)
Amazon customer service absent? They have some of the greatest customer service I've ever seen. If I need help with my Kindle, I can click a button to get a human to call me immediately, so I don't even have to pay for an international phone call. The one time Amazon sent me an incorrect parcel, I got connected to a real human who initiated an immediate & instant refund while I was talking to them and let me keep and/or sell all the items I'd received mistakenly. For such a large company, Amazon's customer service is really good. (I agree that Google's is nowhere near as good, though.)
If you're flagged by them as an unfit marketplace seller (weird that this can happen when you've never sold a thing on their marketplace before) then their support is horrendous. They get a person to explain politely that there's no appeal, they won't say what the matter is, and they just don't care if you're now tainted for life by the last person who lived in your apartment who apparently was shady.
Ahh I see, I wasn't thinking from the perspective of a marketplace seller on Amazon.
I do know that in fraud prevention it's common to not explain what the problem is, because it tells fraudsters which filter they've tripped (and potentially how to evade it on their next attempt), but it certainly doesn't help genuine people caught in a false positive.
As a customer, yes, they can be (are) great. I have close to 1,000 orders in seven years, tens of thousands of dollars.
Yet I sold a camera lens on Marketplace. Perhaps the tenth thing I'd sold. I was willing to be patient to get a better price. Nine items sold, no problem.
This one arrived three days after the "expected delivery date". The buyer complained, and my Marketplace account was canceled. I could appeal. I pointed to history, inclement weather. Said I'd be willing to be flagged "Fulfilled By Amazon-only", if that was possible.
"After review, our decision stands and you will remain permanently disqualified from using Amazon Marketplace."
But this is seriously upsetting, the tone of this writing wants to rip my heart out for the author. I can only wish that this gets resolved decently.
His comparison also reminds me how Amazon's customer service is absent as much as possible. Automation and all that. Yet on that topic, it seems people don't mention Google as much. (I wonder if they filter that out in their results..)