Say what you will about the economics or politics of shopping on Amazon, it used to be, at least, convenient. Since I joined Prime (which I did so I could watch Rings of Power, fool that I am, and kept on for convenience and no shipping charges) I had increased my shopping on Amazon quite a bit. Recent changes are rapidly reducing that shopping experience to crap. (Note: as with many large systems, it is possible that the changes I have seen are being rolled out to different users at different times, so they may not have hit you yet.)
The first thing I noticed is that the order and shipping notifications no longer include what the item is, only the category in which they have placed the item. So instead of a particular food supplement, I am notified about the shipping progress of a “health item.” If you have ordered more than one item in the same category, the only way to tell what is being delivered now is to go into Returns and Orders and check there. At least for this change, there is a way to check, albeit with more steps.
Today I noticed that I can no longer look at a specific level of star ratings for a product. For example, if I want to check all the 1-star reviews to see what they are complaining about, I can no longer do that. If I want to, I have to put in a request, and wait 5 days for their reply. This one is pretty much a deal-killer – bad reviews help to steer me clear of many of the awful knock-offs and utter crap that they sell.
There was one other change for the worse recently, but I can’t remember what it was. If I think of it, I’ll come back and add it in.
This change in reviews is probably going to be the straw that leads me to cancel Prime, which will mean much less shopping on Amazon. I will probably go back to the way I used to use it, which was to see what’s available, and then use Google to find someplace else to buy it. I have never seen any way to give feedback to Amazon, although I suppose they might ask me why I am cancelling Prime if and when that happens.
I went to check if I could still see one star reviews, since this is a huge criteria for how I buy stuff. I still can see them.
I click on the orange stars under “customer reviews” in the upper right of an item, then again click the orange stars under the heading “customer reviews,” then click on one star.
Does this not work for you? This is how I’ve always done it.
What enrages me is how relentlessly they push sponsored search returns, and how fucking useless the Alexa AI is for trying to specify a product. “Give me printer cartridges that fit Printer X” gives me sponsored cartridges that may or may not, followed by cartridges that mention the product line but not the specific printer, and in fact may exclude that printer.
I can’t replicate your trouble viewing 1-star reviews. Like Rebo, I had no trouble doing this for any item. Can you describe your issue in more detail? This is how it looks for me:
I also get very detailed shipping notifications from Amazon, including exactly what item(s) are in the shipment. I’ve never heard of categories. Typical screenshot below:
I don’t recall having these categories show up in my email for Amazon orders until recently. I think it just used to show something like your order has shipped. But I can still click on track package in the email and it takes me to my specific order where the exact items are shown which is what I have always done anyway.
AI is likely partially to blame. Over the last year or so, tech companies have asked consumers to imagine a world where an AI “agent” is doing their bidding for them, including spending their money…
As users hand over more and more data and agency to AI tools, service providers are caught in a bind: If agents are truly as efficient as tech companies say they are, customers and audiences in theory have no reason to visit a website themselves — the agent can just do it for them. (The Verge has been calling this “the DoorDash problem.”)
In other words: It [the first issue the OP is complaining about] is a way to hedge against the DoorDash problem by hiding the meaty information on Amazon’s properties, and to keep customers visiting the retailer directly. The upshot for shoppers is that it’s ever so slightly more annoying to access our own information, too…
Interesting. i did recently get a popup in my Amazon app where they invited me to start using the Alexa for Shopping AI experience to handle all of my Amazon business. I politely declined. If I had accepted I wonder if things would have started showing up as categories along with the other unpleasantness that the OP described. I also wonder if that’s default for new Prime subscribers and they aren’t really given the choice, as opposed to someone like myself, a longtime subscriber.
I have always found the notifications less than helpful, but there is a workaround, so meh.
What really bugs me is the search. Everyone complains about it, but it doesn’t change and shows all kinds of products that are only vaugly related to the one I want.
I’ve always ranked ratings from low-to-high, and then checked out the poor ratings that way. Off to check if that’s verboten now.
EDIT: @Roderick_Femm , I know you said that not all of these changes may have been rolled out to all users … but are you still able to view the “Customer reviews” bar chart that appears when you mouse over the rating/stars underneath the name/description of the item? If you can see that bar chart, click on “1 star” at lower left – that should bring up all the 1-star ratings plus a bunch of filter drop-downs at the top.
EDIT2: Or … what half the thread has suggested already Generally, my experience tracks with @Dorjan 's. I also feel the pain of others who’ve complained about the glut of sponsored junk in the Search results.
Replying here after reading @PastTense ‘s post about a possible AI-related effect on Prime members’ experiences. Again … so far my experience on this front also is the same as @Dorjan 's. I don’t recall seing a pop-up related to Alexa for Shopping, though. If it matters, I don’t have Alexa and don’t use AI to place orders for me (to research items, yes).
If I want to see any more than 4 or 5 reviews of any star rating on Amazon I have to login. The more AI takes over, expect it to become worse.
For your health supplements, try Biovea. They have very good customer service.
For me, customer service, as in, real people, has become more important than saving a couple dollars. AI chat bots do nothing but waste your time and you often have to enter much irrelevant personal information to even ‘talk’ to them. Information that they likely pass on to who knows who.
I don’t rely on my cell or on email to notify me. I just go to the site and look under “orders”. I also am not seeing any problem with looking at reviews.
I really hate Bezos, but Amazon is amazingly efficient and most deliveries are within a day or two. Often within a few hours for food items. I only buy food that I can get with free delivery, which leaves out Amazon Fresh. Amazon has a relationship with Cub Foods, among others, and free delivery doesn’t depend on having to place an order over $100. I’m guessing the same sort of services aren’t available in smaller towns or cities, but MSP has about 3M people and volume matters.
This is how I have always done it. It does not work for me now.
Someone mentioned about logging in. It certainly seems that I remain logged in, it has my orders and it refers to me by name.
Your screen shot is exactly how my notifications used to look, with photos and actual product name. Now there are no photos and just categories, e.g. in your case it might be “1 automotive item, 1 yard item.”
Regarding AI, I don’t remember seeing any suggestion for using AI, and if I had I certainly would have declined it. I will try to check my account settings thoroughly.
Yes, that used to work that way for me, now it works just as if I had opened the item and scrolled down to the Reviews section, i.e. as I described it in my OP.
I have relied on email, it’s just faster because it’s always open. I don’t have to actually open Amazon and click on my orders list to get this information.
That’s pretty odd. if my experience changes in the immediate to near future, I’ll be sure to report it in here. If not related to Alexa, could be an upcoming system-wide change being rolled out to specific customers or regions first. I sure hope not.
Here is a Reddit topic that was a link in one of @PastTense’s links about the change in order notifications:
This is the introduction to the topic:
Amazon recently changed its order-confirmation emails so they no longer show the names or details of the products you purchased. Instead, they use generic descriptions such as “1 Essentials item,” “1 Household item,” or “1 Personal Care item.”
I contacted Amazon Executive Customer Relations and was told this is a system-wide privacy feature. It is applied automatically, and there is currently no way to opt out.
They suggest sending an email to high-ups at Amazon, and they provide an LLM prompt if you need help generating such an email. They note that this change took place in July, so if you haven’t ordered anything more recently than that, you haven’t seen the change yet.
Oh, and luckily my Prime renewal is coming up next week, so I can put that fact in my email to give it a tiny bit more relevance.
I noticed the change on my email notification and it struck me as odd. I order quite a bit from Prime but not so much that I wouldn’t know exactly what they meant that day by “electronics” or “personal care item”.
Generally, my experience tracks with