Way Past Its Prime: How Did Amazon Get So Rubbish?

Not only that, if someone has such a poor grasp of English they probably have little of value to say.

Degradation has a generic meaning.

When you say enshittification, people know exactly what you mean.

I don’t mind it at all, because it’s purposefully turning to shit. Degradation sounds slow natural. Like how a computer bought in 2005 that runs just as well as back then has seemed to have degraded 20 years later, no fault of its own.

I do have a hard time believing this author coined the term in 2022. I’ve had this phase as part of my vocabulary for much long than that to describe the same exact phenomenon, I know I didn’t invent it but it’s been around in the online software community at least. Maybe he claims ownership because he was the first to write about it, or maybe my memory is just failing me and he deserves the credit. Idk but that tidbit bothers me way more than the words. I don’t let vulgarity get in the way of having polite conversations, they’re not mutually exclusive in my opinion.

I agree, a conspiracy theorist would suggest it's a deliberate move to reduce the amount of people talking about it, in media, amongst friends etc.

There are some people who swear every other word when talking to friends and family. Fine, they'll talk regardless. But there's a significant number who don't, and they will thus avoid using "enshittification" in conversations, reducing the cultural awareness of it.

I always think of it as the "Perez plateau"[1], but I will grant that this is less catchy.

[1]: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Phases-of-the-S-Curve-Pe...

> It sounds ugly, and it makes what would otherwise be polite discussions vulgar.

The impacts to consumers are ugly, so it's only fair to use ugly language to describe it.

I think it’s perfect. It captures the vulgarity present in the intention.

your handle is "nullhole", sorry champ enshittification is no more vulgar than that.

I agree that the vulgarity is problematic, but the ugliness seems rather appropriate.

Degradation can happen due to inaction - that is not what enshittification is. Enshittification is the endgame of a platform where the owner stops courting buyers and sellers (in that order) and allocates all the profit to itself.

I think we're well past 'degredation', enshittification is abuse at the end users cost.

Degradation sounds passive, like something getting worse due to lack of care. Enshittification as a new word have the luxury of no baggage, so to me it perfectly captures the process of taking active, intentional steps to change stuff in a way that makes end user experience worse, but (maybe) product owner richer.

My P.O.V is that corporate double speak is prudish, distorts on purpose and overall is much worse for humanity. Enshittenification is ugly but truthful.

I agree that is vulgar but the word carries more meaning than degradation. I thought perhaps dilapidation might work but that also misses some of the nuance.

Isn't that the point, though?

American English prefers more slang in general. The context here is largely American.

"Enshittification" captures the concept that the degradation was knowing and willful, not accidental.

I understand where you're coming from and agree.

But "enshittification" has its own specific meaning which goes beyond existing terms (i.e. it's specific to degradation of platforms making money from two sides of the transaction).

I wish we had a better term for it, but it can't be replaced by just "degradation".

When the present-day is compared to the promises and hopes for big tech as the companies were starting, the word seems appropriate. We ain’t in Sunday school! Degradation doesn’t capture that many of the changes for the worst are willful and intended.

I agree with you -- I never use vulgar words, so I cannot use this word myself. That being said, maybe you saw this article being posted a few days ago: https://frankchimero.com/blog/2025/selling-lemons/ writing about the concept of "Market for Lemons". The last paragraph compares the two ideas:

> What makes the Market for Lemons concept so appealing (and what differentiates it in my mind from ens**tification) is that everyone can be acting reasonably, pursuing their own interests, and things still get worse for everyone. No one has to be evil or stupid: the platform does what’s profitable, sellers do what works, buyers try to make smart decisions, and yet the whole system degrades into something nobody actually wants.

(I don't know if Doctorow's concept really relies on malice.)

If you want, you can translate to Latin and call it "faecefaction".

The key difference is that degradation can be a natural process, or a result of neglect, while faecefaction is a deliberate act of turning a product into crap, while knowing that the customer will continue buying for some time, due to inertia and / or lack of alternatives.

Enshittification captures a specific type of degradation - the inevitable deterioration of a product or service under an economic system that is obligated to secure ever larger profits. I like the fact that it is slightly vulgar because there is an element in this process that is revolting - the idea and acceptance that its fulfillment is guaranteed.

The vulgarity also carries with it higher odds of the term detaching from the intellectual sphere and into the common man, increasing awareness and hope of consumer pushback.

Doesn't sound like it. Entire article was specifically about the enshittification of Amazon

Can you recommend one?

I'm not sure how. Their warehouses and deliveries are very efficient. I'm sure it cost a fortune to build out. Hard to compete with without a ton of capital.

Indeed. Seems more like a hit piece to me. Amazon is a company the Guardian often likes to pick on.

> If type "Charles dickens" in search, there should be a way to get works by Dickens exclusively.

I tried it:

- on the website from the home page

- in the Kindle category

- on my Kindle directly

All I got was books by Dickens.

There was the usual "sponsored" items but they are explicitly displayed as it.

I don't know if it's a country issue, but I don't have the same experience as you.

Furthermore, I read regularly on HN comments about how bad Amazon became, selling fake products, taking forever to send packages... Again, maybe a country issue, but here in France my experience is the same as it was ten years ago. It's even a bit better thanks to the number of Lockers that are available near my flat or my office and the fact that more and more refurbished products are offered.

> If type "Charles dickens" in search, there should be a way to get works by Dickens exclusively

Tried it. I got 100% Charles Dickens, with a clearly marked "Recently bought and rated" sponsored section in the middle.

Now, I did see Amazon completely hallucinating authors' names, but that mostly happened with small no-name authors or with translated names.

That's return fraud, someone orders a new version of a product they have, put their old product in the new box and file a return immediately. Amazon probably doesnt take the time to check it or check it thoroughly. Goes back on the shelf and you receive it.

Maybe it's because I'm in WA, but my average Amazon deliver is <2 days. This "2-day shipping is now 5+ day shipping" is just outright untrue out here. I usually get stuff next day, free. Although I also do Amazon Day for that extra cashback on my card. That card has paid a mortgage payment or two since I got it a couple years ago.

And I still haven't gotten a single fraudulent item despite a steady stream of Amazon boxes to my house (I requested an extra recycle bin I get so many.)

one wonders what jassy's list of accomplishments is after 3 years at the helm....

I live in rural Michigan and almost all of my stuff is next day. Hell some stuff is even same day if you order early

Amazon search looks bad for us because it is designed to sell ads. Its goal is to make company pay the most money to show articles. Iirc, when this was proposed, Jeff Bazos said that this was the most stupid idea he ever heard. I think the reason why it was introduced, and why Executives don't want to change it, is that it generates a ton of money for Amazon. I'd personally love if in the end this would be the reason that Amazon stop making money and it would have been some short sighted greedy move. I'm afraid that advertisement, when it comes down to numbers, is just damn too profitable.

You should read the article. :)

Took me a second to realize this apparent praise is anything but.

I believe this is because Nintendo pulled out of Amazon for Switch 2.

The UX on Decathlon's website was never good, but since they opened the marketplace, it's worse than ever.

Darty, Fnac, Leroy Merlin do the same. It’s impossible to go to a shop’s website and expect to buy their products. They’re all just copying Amazon in a cheaper, scratchier version.

This is happening everywhere, making a quick buck and completely ruining your reputation. The main Amazon competitor in The Netherlands bol.com has gone down the exact same path

The marketplaces in brand shops are completely annoying. If you choose to buy from Decathlon, you expect their coverage over all products, not some of them. Only imagine the same in the physical shop, completely crazy trying to avoid falling into non-decathlon things along the display racks.

Unfortunately, a "marketplace" is precisely what I don't want from a lot of the commerce sites that include them on top of their "first party" inventory, and they're seemingly becoming ubiquitous.

Another mind boggling aspect of Amazon’s review system is that it categorises multiple products / variations under one. So if you want to buy products X with variations X1, X2 and X3- the review page for product X1 will also show X2, X3 ratings bundled together. You don’t quite know the rating of X1 individually. You can filter reviews out by the overall rating is the aggregated view. I can’t believe how this is helpful for customers.

> Or, they changed their definition of customer from the buyer to the seller.

s/seller/shareholder/

I almost never buy from Amazon any more. For certain things it is difficult because Amazon has destroyed so much logistics and has such a stranglehold that a lot small/medium sized companies only sell through Amazon now. I ordered some kitchen gadget a few months ago from the company's own website, thinking I was avoiding Amazon, and it was delivered by an Amazon driver.

Bezus checked out long before he moved to emeritus. Wanted to be a movie producer and shoot his rockets. Andy took over with all of the vision of a corporate franchiser running a Dollar Store.

I slowed down my Amazon purchases drastically when everything I shopped for seemed to be flooded with these thousands of identical products have seemingly randomly generated all-caps brand names like BHHSRE, VHYXZY, XIOU, DAUGHE, JXMOX, LANMU, IBERLS, GMJYC… (yes, these are all actual brands I’ve seen on Amazon).

Jeez, the least they can do is make it look like they are trying to curb abuse.

They also tend to show a very narrow selectio of items, if you search for a synonym of the product you're looking for you often end up finding other items that even contain the original search phrase in the item title and description.

It's very very frustrating.

Exactly. Some companies only sell through Amazon now. In those cases, I often just go without and the company loses the sale.

Yeah - I think they’ve put a big focus on reducing returns over the last year. I bought a Quest 3 last year. One of the controllers totally packed in within half an hour - thumb stick permanently locked to full. Wanted to do an RMA.

Amazon told me to go hang, said I couldn’t return used goods, it would have to be unused in the box, and that I should contact meta.

I contacted meta, who told me to go hang, as they don’t officially support Portugal, which is where Amazon Spain happily shipped it.

So it’s just sat in a box gathering dust since, and I now avoid using Amazon whenever possible. I had already ditched meta so frankly I should have known that I was going to step on a rake.

CSRs lying has been a serious problem at Amazon and it's astonishing that Amazon hasn't duly addressed it.

The moment amazon.de turns into this, im gone.

The only thing keeping me there is the no-nonsense, helpful, customer support.

Any issues i have are always resolved, so it still seems to be working over here.

How did you even tell them that they sent the wrong book?

When an item I ordered is delivered as the wrong item or when it never arrives, I can only select from a list of items in order to inform them about the bad delivery and none of the items lists "item never arrived" or "wrong item arrived".

And there is no other way to complain about the delivery/item--no help chat, no email I can contact.

I recently had a similar experience with Amazon. I bought a pair of AirPods but didn’t like them, so I returned them the next day. Amazon confirmed they’d received the package, but when the estimated refund date passed, I got a message saying they needed more information.

When I contacted customer service, they told me I had to send them a copy of my ID to process the refund. I was really frustrated; I’ve had this account for over 20 years and never had any issues before. I spoke with several representatives, but they all gave me the same response, and a few were even rude and aggressive, something I’d never experienced with Amazon before.

Since I didn’t want to share my ID, I decided to go through my credit card provider (Visa) instead and filed a claim. Visa refunded my money, but shortly after, I got an email from Amazon asking why I’d raised a Section 75 claim (the UK’s credit card protection scheme) and informing me that my account would be closed for fraudulent activity.

I replied with proof that they had received my return and never issued a refund. That was the last I ever heard from them, and the last time I bought anything from Amazon.