Amazon Fail

[Former Member]

This has already been linked far and wide on the web, but I don't want anyone to miss it.

 

Amazon has adopted a new policy of removing sales rankings from a number of popular books, simply because they contain LGBTQ subject matter. Amazon claims this new policy is to shield their customers from "adult material."

 

I call utter BS. The growing list of de-ranked books (found here) includes YA novels, autobiographies, parenting books and suicide prevention guides.

 

Meanwhile, scads of heterosexual bodice-rippers with actual explicit content are retaining their rankings. The LA Times points out an excellent, truly absurd example of how unevenly this policy is being implemented.

 

I have contacted Amazon to let them know what I think about this nonsensical and discriminatory policy. I will not be patronizing them again until it is reversed. If you have ever spent a single dollar through Amazon, please tell them how big of a mistake they've made. Just be sure that you make your anger known. Here, I'll make it easy for you:

 

1. Go to Amazon.com's "Contact Us" page,

2. Sign into your account,

3. Tell them how you really feel. It doesn't have to be long or eloquent. Just tell them how upset you are and why, then inform them of your decision to spend your money elsewhere.

 

Your dollar is your vote when it comes to unethical business practices and it's election day. While I find it unfortunate that they do have a customer base which will smile and think it's nice to marginalize works dealing wth LGBTQ themes, we need to remind Amazon that they smacked a lot of customers in the face with this move and we're not going to take it.

 

Twitter's #amazonfail tag

 

Oh, and for G-bomb purposes, Amazon Rank.

[Libby Drew]

I was wondering when this would hit GA. Here are some additional links, for the interested:

 

Mark's original post that set off the explosion on LiveJournal this morning: http://markprobst.livejournal.com/15293.html

List of links for complaints/info/boycotts/petitions: http://gossymer.livejournal.com/320776.html

Collections of books affected: http://community.livejournal.com/meta_writ...992.html#cutid1

[corvus]

I had no idea -- thanks for posting. I've now sent an email to Amazon and mentioned it on my facebook.

Edited April 13, 2009 by corvus

[JamesSavik]

From me to Amazon:

 

Regarding your classification of gay and lesbian material as "ADULT", I would remind you that many of us gay people have been some of your most loyal customers from the very beginning.

 

Putting our lives in the "brown paper wrapper" section next to the porno and condoms is distressing and feels a lot like betrayal.

 

Et tu, Brute?

[Myr]

This is rather irritating.

[AFriendlyFace]

Thanks for the heads up on this, Jessi. I for one had not yet heard.

 

My own letter of complaint, stating my decision to cease shopping at Amazon until such a time when this policy is removed, has been sent.

 

 

-Kevin

[Phantom]

Ditto to what Kevin said... my letter was sent with the same reasons as mentioned by everyone above.

[colinian]

Here's a link to an excellent open letter to Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com by Jon Reed of Publishing Talk: (http://www.publishingtalk.eu/blog/booksell...-to-jeff-bezos/).

 

There have been thousands of twits on #amazonfail. I think Amazon.com is going to have to do a lot of damage control Monday morning.

 

Colin

[Procyon]

I just emailed them to close my account, telling them why, of course. Depressing. This so pisses me off!

[Libby Drew]

Amazon's reply this morning.

 

 

There's still a fair amount of outrage out there, as well as some outright disbelief. There are also several interesting theories floating around regarding the manipulation of Amazon's "report abuse" or "report objectionable content" feature by individuals aiming to target GLBT works: Link, via #amazonfail

[Sir Galahad]

I just find this totally unbelievable. Here we are in 2009 & a company like Amazon pulls a stunt like this! I for one don't believe for a second that a 'glitch' was the cause, because it seems to be a specifically aimed 'glitch'. My account is now closed with them as well.

[Libby Drew]

I just find this totally unbelievable. Here we are in 2009 & a company like Amazon pulls a stunt like this! I for one don't believe for a second that a 'glitch' was the cause, because it seems to be a specifically aimed 'glitch'. My account is now closed with them as well.

 

I, myself, have to wonder if this is really the best their PR department could do on a Monday morning after a holiday. The glitch excuse doesn't hold up to inspection, especially as several of the authors received written confirmation from an Amazon rep that their material had been removed purposefully.

 

Sickening.

[AFriendlyFace]

I received this in my email from them:

 

Hello,

 

Thanks for contacting us. We recently discovered a glitch in our systems and it's being fixed.

 

Thanks again for contacting us. We hope to see you again soon.

 

I agree that that certainly seems like one hell of a "glitch".

 

Of course, if they're really sincere about making amends for these 'technical problems' perhaps they ought to feature their top selling GLBT related books for the next week or so. It would only be fair to the authors who lost revenue over this, the users who couldn't find content, and the GLBT community which was snubbed.

 

 

-Kevin

[JamesSavik]

Glitch is French for Human Error. I sounds like someone screwed the pooch and now they are trying to make it another Monday, business as usual.

 

I can believe it was an error. Many big operations like Amazon have their rookies on duty on holidays and weekends.

[Krista]

Ahh! Damn I bought all my books from Amazon.. and that's a lot of books.. hmm.. well not anymore.

 

I hope their "glitch" was worth it.

[DragonFire]

I have to agree with most guys on here, blaming a glitch is a pitiful excuse. Sigh, guess I'll to find somewhere else to buy my books.

[colinian]

I sent this email to Amazon.com today:

 

I wrote about the new policy of Amazon.com, and received the following response:

 

"Hello,

Thanks for contacting us. We recently discovered a glitch in our systems and it's being fixed.

Thanks again for contacting us. We hope to see you again soon.

Please let us know if this e-mail resolved your question"

 

Unfortunately, saying there was a "glitch" seems to be disingenuous. The following was posted on Mark R. Probst's blog:

 

"On Amazon.com two days ago, mysteriously, the sales rankings disappeared from two newly-released high profile gay romance books:

[Graeme]

There are also several interesting theories floating around regarding the manipulation of Amazon's "report abuse" or "report objectionable content" feature by individuals aiming to target GLBT works: Link, via #amazonfail

Only in the interest of fairness, I would suggest people read the link that Libby supplied. Yes, it's only a theory, but it's certainly a possibility. As the author of the blog says, it's interesting that this happened over a holiday weekend. The IT specialists around here know that you don't upgrade software or make configuration changes just before you go to a skeleton staff. If Amazon had introduced changes, they would have had the staff on hand to fix any problems that may have arisen as a consequence. Since they didn't, I think the cause is more likely to be elsewhere.

 

If that blog entry is on the right track, the 'glitch' was insufficient controls over the objectional content reporting functionality. We should know in the next couple of days, because if it's true, then Amazon will be smart to detail what happened. However, they won't do that until after they've put something place to stop someone else from doing the same.

 

If it was a targeted attack, I suspect it was automated, looking for a flag for GLBT content, because that's the only way I can see for it to be so hit and miss, and to have targeted books that make it more obvious that it wasn't being done intelligently. Again, if this is true, Amazon should be able to provide information to support that theory -- though it's possible that they can't if they've reported it to the authorities.

 

The part that doesn't match this theory is where authors have received messages saying that their books have been deliberately removed. However, again, that could be a low level employee following company policy and simply observing that the books were removed because of the objectional content reporting functionality.

 

Overall, I'm inclined to believe it's either a targeted attack from outside Amazon, or the malicious actions of one or a handful of employees, and not company policy.

[old bob]

From me to Amazon:

Regarding your classification of gay and lesbian material as "ADULT", I would remind you that many of us gay people have been some of your most loyal customers from the very beginning.

Putting our lives in the "brown paper wrapper" section next to the porno and condoms is distressing and feels a lot like betrayal.

Et tu, Brute?

Tu quoque, mi fili ?

[Libby Drew]

Sage words from Graeme. The policy does seem contradictory to how Amazon has conducted business in the past. However

[AFriendlyFace]

Only in the interest of fairness, I would suggest people read the link that Libby supplied.

 

....

 

....

 

The part that doesn't match this theory is where authors have received messages saying that their books have been deliberately removed. However, again, that could be a low level employee following company policy and simply observing that the books were removed because of the objectional content reporting functionality.

 

Overall, I'm inclined to believe it's either a targeted attack from outside Amazon, or the malicious actions of one or a handful of employees, and not company policy.

That does seem plausible, I had read and dismissed the theory for exactly the reason you cite: the authors receiving messages about their books! However, I suppose it does make sense that confused employees might have answered with a canned response.

 

I read GLAAD's statement and I'm really hoping Amazon does make a gesture to apologize:

Neil Giuliano, president of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, says in a statement:

[Graeme]

Your email response agrees with the press stories I've seen in the papers here, including that number of 57,310 books affected. However, it looks like a standard answer they're giving out now, rather than a personalised response.

 

As long as they stay open about it (a search to exactly what was affected would be something nice, so they can be show that they've been fixed), I think they're on the right track.

 

And I believe those initial responses were canned, standard answers by low level staff to queries when something is taken off the list, which just inflamed the situation.

Edited April 14, 2009 by Graeme

[Myr]

It might have been a hacker:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,514923,00.html

[Graeme]

I, too, read earlier that a hacker had claimed 'credit', but the article says that others don't believe that the person in question has the skills to do this. They said it was more likely the hacker trying to claim something he didn't do....

[Bondwriter]

I did send my email of complaint before I saw the blog wondering whether this was an attack. Lesson learned: next time I'll wait for a bit longer before to follow the pack. There must be issues in any case, but giving an organization 48 hours for crisis management over this type of case has now become my policy.

 

I got the same email as Kevin did.