[bungeonsBaggins]

I think this is a pro-Amazon piece disguised as an anti-Amazon piece. Like, the author comes across as so inept and unlikable, and Amazon so reasonable, that I strongly suspect that this is an Amazon-sponsored piece? If that makes sense?

Is that a concept that exists, where you write a shitty criticism of something in order to make people go "That actually sounds pretty good" and it ends up working as an endorsement or advertisement? Sort of an on-purpose Streisand effect?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect

[aragonite]

I don't know anything about this particular case, but I believe the term "black propaganda" (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_propaganda) is often used for the kind of situation you have in mind.

I've often wondered about that with some online interactions. Sometimes, a "defense" of P is so poorly argued that it seems almost intentional, as if designed to provoke the well-sourced, well-argued rebuttals that almost invariably follow immediately.

Logically speaking, these rebuttals should not discredit the proposition P itself, only a particular argument for P (e.g. refuting the ontological proof of the existence of God does not thereby refute theism). But when such exchanges happen frequently enough they can give rise to the widespread impression that P has no smart, thoughful defenders, so the overall effect is similar.

[belval]

I'd just go with Occam/Hanlon's razor, the author is somewhat inept (at least when it comes to Amazon returns) and wrote a piece on it because being anti-Amazon gets clicks like being anti-Walmart in the early 2010s (2000s?).

Returns are hard because in practice, 11" (or 10.5") baskets are one such item that are just sold and returned on Amazon for appearances, as the dimensions probably makes shipping cost-prohibitive, but Amazon knows that they can't just say "keep it" because then people would fake-return stuff all the time.

[idopmstuff]

I don't know if I'd go quite this far, but I definitely had the same overall impression. The person set up two returns and got two QR codes, but just used the same QR code twice. That is just an inability to follow basic instructions, not an Amazon problem.

[open592]

This assumes that the majority of people read past the headline.

[tuatoru]

Interesting idea, but I don't think it'd work, as most people aren't critical (sceptical) readers.