Throughout countless years, Amazon has provided me with easy access to hard-to-find products, which has saved me a lot of time and trouble. I’ve always found their customer service representatives to be polite and helpful. The supportive crew at Amazon’s KDP recently helped me publish my first ebook. When I came across complaints about Amazon’s Community in its forums and Quora, I was dumbfounded by the contrast between their claims and my positive experiences.
The writers were uncomfortable – not with Amazon’s Community Guidelines or with its policies – but with its lack of communication. The posts claimed that The Community’s automated system left their many questions and concerns unaddressed. Amazon consistently addressed my questions and never left me concerned, so I wondered if the posts were fake news generated by anonymous bots.
To see for myself, I emailed The Community a question about its review policy. A chill ran down my spine as I read its automated reply. Under the notion that Amazon would never leave its customers hanging like that, I sent them a second email. To my inquiry on how I should go about obtaining reviews for that ebook, The Community never responded.
“The Community sometimes responds and sometimes doesn’t.” one person wrote.
“Word your email as simple as possible. That way, you’ll increase your chance of getting heard,” another advised. “Because you know, The Community has no phone.”
Amazon’s Community must have a phone, I thought, searching through the side headings and drop-down menus for an 800 number or “contact us” link. The Community didn’t have a phone. An example of Corporate Gothic Real World, they don’t respond to emails, and they don’t have a phone either. If someone were wrongly exiled or mistakenly banned from Amazon, I understand, they’ll be Nobody Home.