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KennyBlankenyesterday at 10:51 PM4 repliesview on HN

People. Stop making '20 calls' about this sort of thing.

If you get ripped off by a corporation, you call once. Take notes. Maybe call twice. At most, three times. Show you made a decent attempt. If you're in a one-party consent state, record it.

Then call your lawyer, who will send a demand letter to Amazon legal.

If that doesn't get an answer, you go to court. If you can't work something out, you go to court.

The civil court system exists for a reason. Start using it.

What do you think Bezos does when a contractor takes his money and doesn't fix one of his dozen swimming pools? Or a car dealership fucks up one of his hypercars?

Do you think he makes 20 calls to customer service numbers? Or do you think one of his personal assistants calls once and asks politely, and then if it isn't made right, it gets batted over to his law firm.


Replies

steve-atx-7600today at 3:37 AM

Have you ever paid for legal services? If you are a small business you may not be able to afford 4-500 USD/hour while they make phone calls and type emails.

matheusmoreirayesterday at 11:04 PM

That costs a lot of effort, time and money, all of which are in short supply nowadays.

show 1 reply
mschuster91yesterday at 11:52 PM

> The civil court system exists for a reason. Start using it.

Yeah, if you are a private customer that might work out going to small claims court against a large company.

But if you are a commercial vendor? Tough luck, you probably signed some mandatory arbitration clause in your terms, maybe even a non-disparagement clause. Whoops. Arbitration can cost shitloads of money upfront or expose you to the risk of having to pay the counterparty's lawyers if you lose the arbitration, no referral to the regular court system possible. And even going to the press to complain is a risky move.

There's a lot of things I'd be willing to jump into. But I'd never ever want to be in a commercial relationship with Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Meta or any of the other tech giants (or Walmart, they are just as infamous for squeezing suppliers), simply because they have all the cards and I have none. They decide to kick me out, my existence is gone.