Way past its prime: how did Amazon get so rubbish?

Debate over the term “enshittification”

• Some dislike the term as ugly, vulgar, and unsuitable for polite or mainstream discourse; they prefer “degradation” or other neutral words.
• Others argue the vulgarity is precisely the point: it signals deliberate, profit-driven abuse of users, not passive decay.
• Several note that “enshittification” now has a precise, recognized meaning: a platform that serves users first, then business customers, then finally extracts from both for shareholders. “Degradation” is seen as too generic and passive.
• A minority worry that the crudeness may limit how widely the concept is discussed, reducing cultural impact compared to more respectable framing (e.g., “market for lemons”).

How bad is Amazon? Experiences vary widely

• Many commenters in the US/UK/Germany report serious decline: fake or used items sold as new, wrong or missing items (e.g., one shoe, empty watercolor set), damaged packaging, slow or unreliable “Prime” shipping, and confusing order splits.
• Others, especially in countries where Amazon is newer (Sweden, India, Brazil) or heavily regulated (parts of EU, Japan), say service is excellent: fast delivery, predictable quality, and easy, no‑hassle returns.
• Some see Amazon as still better than local retail (poor selection, higher prices, weak returns), while others now treat Amazon as a last resort and prefer D2C sites or specialist shops.

Marketplace model, counterfeits, and search degradation

• Widespread complaints about:
  • Third‑party “marketplace” sellers flooding results with low‑quality or counterfeit goods, often under random, disposable brand names.
  • Commingled inventory making it possible to receive fakes or returns when buying “sold by Amazon.”
  • Search tuned for ads and “sponsored” results, repeatedly surfacing the same products and obscuring better options; some users report totally different result quality by country or A/B bucket.
  • Bundled reviews across variants or even different editions/translations of books, making ratings misleading.

Returns, fraud, and shifting customer service norms

• Some users still see Amazon’s returns as industry‑leading and frictionless.
• Others describe a sharp turn: demands for ID before refunds, threats or bans over “non‑original condition” even for defective goods, CSRs allegedly lying to improve metrics, and AI chatbots blocking escalation.
• Return fraud (swapping items, sending back junk with matching weight) is cited as a driver of stricter policies, but many feel Amazon is externalizing its anti‑fraud burden onto honest customers.

Prime, media, and incentives

• Introduction of ads into Prime Video (with an extra fee to remove them) pushed several long‑time customers to cancel Prime altogether and reduce Amazon spending.
• Some note that Amazon’s early ultra‑generous policies were a long onboarding phase; now that market dominance is achieved, incentives favor squeezing users and sellers to meet short‑term shareholder targets.

Broader ecosystem and systemic critiques

• Multiple commenters say other retailers (big-box chains, European brands, regional marketplaces) are copying Amazon’s marketplace model and suffering similar “enshittification”: hidden third‑party sellers, junk inventory, bad search.
• Strong consumer protection and enforcement in some jurisdictions (e.g., parts of the EU, Japan) are seen as key reasons Amazon hasn’t degraded as far there.
• Some argue this pattern is an inevitable result of shareholder capitalism and rent‑extraction; others insist “voting with your wallet” still works and that Amazon is nowhere near a true monopoly.