KDP complaints

[lynnmosher]

KDP has a growing amount of complaints against it. And they keep terminating authors. Check this out.

 

[Accord64]

Interesting, but not much helpful detail.

KDP has had complaints for many years. Some legit, while some are just angry for getting caught trying to game their system. It would be much more helpful if Writer's Weekly did a deeper dive into some of these grievances to give us clarity about what really happened. Otherwise it's just a collection of unverified stories, and it's too easy to compile a list of on-line complaints against any company these days.

 

[lynnmosher]

Yeah, I agree, Accord.

 

[Jeff Potts]

Interesting, but not much helpful detail.

KDP has had complaints for many years. Some legit, while some are just angry for getting caught trying to game their system. It would be much more helpful if Writer's Weekly did a deeper dive into some of these grievances to give us clarity about what really happened. Otherwise it's just a collection of unverified stories, and it's too easy to compile a list of on-line complaints against any company these days.

Click to shrink...

Just as an addendum, Daniel Greene has been looking into the Audible scandal now and is discovering that they are changing the ToS to allow Audible to terminate your account and offer no explanation why. They also make you agree to forfeit all of your unpaid royalties.

I'd link the Instagram post, but I don't have access to that at present.

Some of this stuff I've been aware of now for a while. The quality of the books is terrible, and is one of the reasons why, even after switching to Amazon for paperback distribution thru Amazon, I'll still continue to have Ingram Spark be the PoD publisher for everyone else (including my event and online store inventory).

I think part of the reason for some of these issues is Amazon using an AI to handle the volume of tasks. AI systems are NOT reliable. They tend to do things you don't expect. The second reason is I think that Amazon has offshored a lot of their IT and customer service work. My overall experiences with that in the IT field has NEVER been good. And, because Amazon is so big, their "oopsies" just sort of get swept under the rug. The fact that your once successful business is destroyed just becomes an unfortunate statistic. The revenue you generated for them will be replaced by a dozen new authors who are pumping out AI slop like the world is ending tomorrow.

Which is why I always laugh when Amazon ad experts tell me that "Amazon wants to help me make money." It's complete BS. Amazon is out to make money for themselves. If I make money in the process, it's just a bonus.

 

[Accord64]

I think part of the reason for some of these issues is Amazon using an AI to handle the volume of tasks. AI systems are NOT reliable.

Click to shrink...

Yes, I've read numerous claims (for years now) that Amazon has never had any human customer service help, or have offshored so much of it that it became a complete mess - just to save some bucks.

There also seems to be no shortage of people trying to cheat their system. Amazon has to contend with a tidal wave of AI written drudge flooding into their marketplace, people trying to steal/plagiarize legit work, people filing a marid of bogus complaints in hopes of illegally acquiring legit work/royalties, and those who are constantly trying to game their rating/review system. I can't blame Amazon for turning to AI to combat this, but it seems to lead to unpredictable results.

I recall several instances (on other forums) when a new member turned up to rail against Amazon about a grave injustice done to them. But when questions were asked to clarify the situation, that member often got defensive and stormed away. This was usually a telltale sign that they simply got caught trying to cheat the system and were mad about it. But I've also read many detailed accounts of legit authors trying to get a problem resolved, only to have Amazon treat them as though they were an imposter. Accounts got frozen, deleted, and sale/royalties evaporated.

So on one hand Amazon is besieged by all manner of fraud, while of the other they act like an entitled child. It reminds me of that old Lily Tomlin character, Ernestine the phone company operator: "We don't care. We don't have to. We're the phone company!"



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