# Shopping on Amazon rapidly turning to shit **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 12, 2026, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shopping-on-amazon-rapidly-turning-to-shit/1032313 "2026-08-12T17:00:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2026, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shopping-on-amazon-rapidly-turning-to-shit/1032313/21 "2026-08-12T19:28:26Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > 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.” That was apparently due to customer complaints, as people did not want “Shipped, I dozen extra small condoms” 😛 to show up in their email. > [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > 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 Sure you can. Just click on the “3%” or whatever next to the ratings. I just did that. Quite a few others here also had no issues. > [@hajario](#): > > 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”. Same here. I found it slightly annoying but I understand why the change. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2026, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shopping-on-amazon-rapidly-turning-to-shit/1032313/22 "2026-08-12T19:32:09Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > Now there are no photos and just categories, e.g. in your case it might be “1 automotive item, 1 yard item.” Yep, I noticed it a couple of days ago. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2026, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shopping-on-amazon-rapidly-turning-to-shit/1032313/23 "2026-08-12T19:36:50Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > 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. My last Amazon order email was from an item delivered to us on July 25th. My wife orders frequently, so I’ll keep an eye out for the next one. ---
**Author:** ![Dorjan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dorjan/32/12440_2.png) [@Dorjan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dorjan)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2026, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shopping-on-amazon-rapidly-turning-to-shit/1032313/24 "2026-08-12T19:39:10Z")
> [@bordelond](#): > > My last Amazon order email was from an item delivered to us on July 25th. My wife orders frequently, so I’ll keep an eye out for the next one. My screenshots were for items delivered yesterday. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2026, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shopping-on-amazon-rapidly-turning-to-shit/1032313/25 "2026-08-12T19:40:58Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > That was apparently due to customer complaints, as people did not want “Shipped, I dozen extra small condoms” 😛 to show up in their email. Cite? Any reason this couldn’t be an option, instead of being forced on everyone? > [@DrDeth](#): > > Sure you can. Just click on the “3%” or whatever next to the ratings. I just did that. Quite a few others here also had no issues. It does not work for me, I have tried multiple times and in multiple ways. I’m sorry if you don’t believe me, or think that I am a moron. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2026, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shopping-on-amazon-rapidly-turning-to-shit/1032313/26 "2026-08-12T19:42:03Z")
> [@Dorjan](#): > > My screenshots were for items delivered yesterday. So they are. Google Gemini, FWIW, reports that the first day the email change kicked in was July 8th. Like you, I’m also a longtime Prime member … and I’m wondering if that’s meaningful in some way. Maybe our account options are somehow frozen, and we’re not experiencing the various changes newer Prime users are. Seems odd, but I don’t have any better information. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2026, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shopping-on-amazon-rapidly-turning-to-shit/1032313/27 "2026-08-12T19:43:47Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > It does not work for me, I have tried multiple times and in multiple ways. I’m sorry if you don’t believe me, or think that I am a moron. Something that occurred to me: Could it be anything to do with your browser and/or extensions/ad-blocking software? Have you had a chance to try all this on multiple devices/browsers? EDIT: Wait a minute – a lot of this is Amazon’s response to AI data scraping and related issues. @Roderick_Femm , see article below: [https://www.fastcompany.com/91581391/amazon-limits-access-to-customer-reviews-for-some-users-because-it-thinks-theyre-ai](https://www.fastcompany.com/91581391/amazon-limits-access-to-customer-reviews-for-some-users-because-it-thinks-theyre-ai) When you were asked to send an email to see reviews, you are actually asking for an appeal to have your interactions with the Amazon site returned to their prior state. According to that article, once Amazon gets such an appeal and confirms a human is using the account, your usual interactions are restored. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2026, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shopping-on-amazon-rapidly-turning-to-shit/1032313/28 "2026-08-12T19:46:27Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > 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”. Same here. My wife orders a shit-ton of stuff from Amazon - we get deliveries almost every day. Even at that I easily know what items are shipped from that vague description. Plus, nothing ever takes longer than two days at the most. When we lived in Visalia sometime we would receive things the same day. I’m just not seeing this as that big of a deal. > [@DrDeth](#): > > That was apparently due to customer complaints, as people did not want “Shipped, I dozen extra small condoms” 😛 to show up in their email. I’d be willing to bet they have _less_ complaints now. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2026, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shopping-on-amazon-rapidly-turning-to-shit/1032313/29 "2026-08-12T19:47:42Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > Cite? Any reason this couldn’t be an option, instead of being forced on everyone? Just an online rumor. Which is why I said “apparently”. > [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > It does not work for me, I have tried multiple times and in multiple ways. I’m sorry if you don’t believe me, or think that I am a moron. Not at all. But why jump on me? > [@Rebo](#): > > 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. > [@Ellecram](#): > > This still works for me. I just looked at one star reviews for a product I was considering. > [@Maserschmidt](#): > > I can still see one-star reviews. > [@Dorjan](#): > > 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: > [@bob\_2](#): > > The star thing still works over here. So, maybe you got some change no one else here has? ---
**Author:** ![ShadowFacts](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shadowfacts/32/2934_2.png) [@ShadowFacts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShadowFacts)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2026, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shopping-on-amazon-rapidly-turning-to-shit/1032313/30 "2026-08-12T19:49:11Z")
> [@bordelond](#): > > Like you, I’m also a longtime Prime member … and I’m wondering if that’s meaningful in some way. Maybe our account options are somehow frozen, and we’re not experiencing the various changes newer Prime users are. Seems odd, but I don’t have any better information. I don’t think that’s it. I am a long time Prime member (a quick search shows I joined in 2013) and I’ve got the new, more anonymized confirmation emails. I also don’t care for them much, but it’s not a deal-breaker for me. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2026, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shopping-on-amazon-rapidly-turning-to-shit/1032313/31 "2026-08-12T19:51:34Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > So, maybe you got some change no one else here has? Others have had this change. Many others. This is a very weird thing if you’ve been using the Net for 25+ years and haven’t run into any kind of targeted actions from a consumer site. But yeah … now we’re in a world where Amazon can and does deliver wildly different interface experiences to different users, for better or worse. Man, is the AI stuff THAT big a conundrum for Amazon? I do understand the email changes … but locking down review filtering? BTW – AI will get around all this stuff, too, and probably in five minutes. Do better, Amazon. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2026, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shopping-on-amazon-rapidly-turning-to-shit/1032313/32 "2026-08-12T19:52:23Z")
Thank you for your suggestions. I have not yet tried it with a different browser, I will do that. And especially thank you for that link, it makes sense, in that it sounds exactly like the sort of nutty thing that happens when AI is in the process. So I will wait my 5 days to see if my “request” produces any results. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2026, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shopping-on-amazon-rapidly-turning-to-shit/1032313/33 "2026-08-12T19:57:52Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > And especially thank you for that link, it makes sense, in that it sounds exactly like the sort of nutty thing that happens when AI is in the process. It’s kind of the reverse – these user-interface inconveniences are Amazon’s response to AI being in the process. The process of purchasing items, or collecting review data, and so forth. Now I’m curious as to what, exactly, a legit human user does (presumably inadvertently) to make Amazon think “_That’s an AI bot!!_”? ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2026, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shopping-on-amazon-rapidly-turning-to-shit/1032313/34 "2026-08-12T20:58:17Z")
Yes, that question is why I called it nutty. I don’t think it’s some person who has reviewed my conduct and come to a wrong decision, but just another AI bot. This change happened for me quite recently, although I’m not sure exactly when was the last time I looked at product reviews. Probably not more than a month or two. I wonder if I copied something out of a review once, for some reason? I can’t specifically remember doing so, but it is possible. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2026, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shopping-on-amazon-rapidly-turning-to-shit/1032313/35 "2026-08-12T21:20:24Z")
There is a thing where you can mark that an item as a gift. I wonder if the behavior now or the old was is different for a gift. So if you were buying a friend size small condoms for their birthday, it wouldn’t have shown up so specifically. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2026, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shopping-on-amazon-rapidly-turning-to-shit/1032313/36 "2026-08-12T21:24:33Z")
OK, I looked it up. A “gift” won’t have a price if an invoice is included, it won’t affect your personal recommendations on the front page and you can include a note. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2026, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shopping-on-amazon-rapidly-turning-to-shit/1032313/37 "2026-08-12T21:26:30Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > I don’t think it’s some person who has reviewed my conduct and come to a wrong decision, but just another AI bot. No doubt about it. AIs deployed to combat AIs. Sigh. 🎶 _Where have you gone / Early Amazon? Online shopping rocked back in the day / Hey hey hey … hey hey hey_ 🎶 ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2026, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shopping-on-amazon-rapidly-turning-to-shit/1032313/38 "2026-08-12T21:28:55Z")
Yeah, when I started to make this thread, one that came up that was “like” my topic was singing the praises of Amazon in 2002. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2026, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shopping-on-amazon-rapidly-turning-to-shit/1032313/39 "2026-08-12T21:29:26Z")
You can look back at every Amazon purchase you’ve ever made. My first one was in 1998 and naturally it was a book. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2026, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shopping-on-amazon-rapidly-turning-to-shit/1032313/40 "2026-08-12T21:34:41Z")
I’ll add my Amazon complaint here: it seems to be about 90% cheap Chinese crap, even for products where there are plenty of better options available from known brand names. It’s really put me off shopping with them. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shopping-on-amazon-rapidly-turning-to-shit/1032313.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shopping-on-amazon-rapidly-turning-to-shit/1032313.md?page=3)