I read the article you referenced. It sounds like a dystopian era of website interaction including shopping is fast becoming our reality. I am not happy about any of it.
I’ve been looking for an apartment and one of the sites makes me press and hold a blank box on the screen to prove I’m not a bot. Not sure how it works on a regular browser as I only have access to tablets and my phone at the moment.
I had a “Prime” membership for 25 +/- years, mostly for the free shipping. At the last renewal a couple of months ago I took advantage of the "pause Prime membership " option. I really loathe Jeff B and his yacht with its baby yacht, and I know he doesn’t care but it gives me a bit of satisfaction to not be paying him for the privilege of buying his stuff. So far it’s been no loss. I can find what I need on ebay or the manufacturers’ sites.
This might appeal to you if you are reluctant to go cold turkey.
Yes Philip K. Dick gave us a peek for sure. I like these kinds of developments in my science fiction but they are creating frustration and anxiety in my real life. 
I’m also a long time Prime member getting these emails, but the plot thickens. Prior to this I never got notifications with the specific product ordered - at least not for years. So this is a step up for me.
Amazon is a mixed bag. I hate how hard it is to figure out what item each transaction was for. It’s too many clicks.
I hate that when you place your order it takes you to a page that doesn’t include the amount you just paid, so you can enter it in to your banking app.
I hate the AI-driven search. I get mostly worthless search results.
I love getting cash back on the Prime VISA card.
I love how fast I get stuff. I bought a new tablet recently and it arrived within 3 hours.
Amazon started in 1994. Prime memberships started in 2005.
I was furious when Amazon kicked me off as a 3rd party seller in 2023, but now, I’m thankful they did. I was actually thinking about phasing it out, because I felt that it was becoming blood money.
Now, I simply go to the direct website of the item I wish to order, and skip all that.
Re: the email I sent off earlier today about the change in email updates on orders and deliveries, as I described above (wording suggested by an AI, completely revised by me). I have received an answer already. Here is the relevant part (bolding added):
This change was implemented as a part of our ongoing efforts to simplify your order communications and direct you to the Amazon app: the best place to view the most updated order status.
So, as someone suggested above, they are quite open about their desire to push you back into the Amazon shopping environment. They give a different reason from what I am sure is the real one, which is to encourage you to shop more.
I am planning on replying, and I probably will not be very professional about it. What the hell, I’m the customer.
I was not talking about the change to the emails, many here got that, so did I. I meant the change so that one can no longer see one star reviews. Has any one else seen that?
@bordelond linked to a Fast Company article about this specific issue. Searching, there are few reddit threads complaining about this as well.
If you have an established Amazon account, you’re not likely to see the issue.
Yes, bordelond has given us here some good cites. But since it seems most of us, including the OP are established customers, that may not be the issue here.
Roderick, sorry if I offended you here. Did not mean to do so.
I was wrong, being an established customer has nothing to do with it. They have an AI abuse detector that is erroneously flagging legit accounts.
From the article:
I’ve heard personally from a couple of affected users, one of whom has been a Prime subscriber since the program’s inception.
@Roderick_Femm’s account got flagged and he got a prompt to create a request and wait 5 days. That message seems to be the common link between all of the cases.
Hmm, interesting. That could be the issue then. Weird.
Yessir. Maybe not present company here in this thread, but plenty of real-life customers.
…
Of interest: It appears @Roderick_Femm ‘s reasonable review searching method (filtering for 1-star reviews) is an explicit looks-like-AI flag to Amazon. One of the inconvenienced customers in the article reports doing exactly that.
My latest gripe with Amazon is them using amazon delivery. If I check “track package” and it says tbdxxxxxxxx, I know I’m not getting that thing on the day it claims. Or it will be incompetent. I’ve ordered stuff for the museum where I work to be delivered on a saturday, we are open saturdays, and it will say business closed. No, we don’t leave our loading dock unlocked, perhaps try coming in the front door?
I’ve mostly had very good experience with Amazon delivery, and have not seen the generic product shipping emails that others have seen. I got a delivery email today and it listed the product name.
However I had two glitches recently. I ordered some Affresh tablets and Amazon sent them without a shipping box. They just slapped a label on the thin cardboard product box. As one might expect, the box broke during shipment and I received an open, empty box. I filed for a refund and they sent me another one … shipped the same way. Luckily the second one was slightly damaged but did not open during shipment.
The other was weirder. I ordered a refrigerator from Amazon. When the truck arrived, the driver said they couldn’t deliver the refrigerator into my house because it was too heavy for the two men in the truck to carry. WTF? How could you not know that until you actually arrived at my house?
I’ll just pop in to say that what Amazon got started with, selling books, they now suck at. The last couple/few hardcovers I bought showed up loose in a box with minimal protection, and with bent pages, damaged cover, etc. Guess what I won’t be buying from Amazon again?
Also, I live in an area where nothing showed up quickly from Amazon. I gave up Prime and don’t miss it. We have to order at least $35 worth of stuff, but we do that every month or two.
Also also: I’ve found Amazon is starting to rip you off if you don’t pay attention. As others have said, go straight to the source and you can often get a better deal. They aren’t the cheapest game in town for a lot of stuff now. I just bought a bunch of bike stuff to equip a new gravel bike and some did come from Amazon, but a couple big tickets items were less expensive direct (one gave a 15% off first time buyer promo that you won’t get with Amazon).
The change to emails is just a continuation of what they did maybe 12 years ago. You used to get an order confirmation that included each item and each individual price, but they switched to just giving a partial name of one item, followed by “and X other items” with a total price for the order.
Oh $#€°{✓©€
I ran into that problem recently, and i thought i was doing something wrong. Nope. Just the enshitification of the world. I guess I’ll have to appeal, if i can even figure out how to. I shop at Amazon largely for the reviews.
I haven’t gotten the new, useless emails, yet. But yay, something to look forward to. I have a shitty memory and often search my email to remember what, exactly, i ordered (and from whom). I guess I’ll be re-ordering less from Amazon.
I find that incredibly hard to believe. Who shares email with someone who wouldn’t notice the actual item showing up at the door? (I don’t understand sharing email addresses for personal stuff like ordering merchandise at all, but i know a few couples do that.)
There are several companies that will deliver heavy household appliances to the room you want them in—often FOC. When I bought an American-style fridge, for a small extra charge, they installed it in the kitchen (including plumbing) and took away all the packaging and the old fridge.
I used to work as a truck driver, and we often delivered goods to private addresses that were ordered online. Our standard Ts & Cs stated that we would only deliver to the outside. Of course, I did often help out, and some customers even expressed their appreciation of my efforts with cash.