MovieChat Forums > General Discussion > How to Treat Amazon (IMDB's Owner)

How to Treat Amazon (IMDB's Owner)

posted 8 years ago by emvan (12)
20 replies | jump to latest

You need to hurt their bottom line, and make them aware they're being hurt.

It goes without saying that I'll no longer look up showtimes at IMDB.

I also plan to never buy anything from Amazon that I can buy elsewhere without inconvenience, even if Amazon is cheaper. I'm looking for the best way to inform Amazon management, each time I do this.

I'll consider giving up Prime, but there are times when you want something that is not easy to buy locally, and you want it in two days, and of course they have a fair amount of movies that Netflix doesn't.

IOW, I'd be stupid to make my life more difficult or less pleasurable just to demonstrate my ire to Amazon. But just spending some extra money? That's different.

In the meantime, when you add the closing down of the boards to the other complaints about IMDB, particularly the utter joke that is their Rating system (e.g., I am Not Your Negro torpedoed by several hundred racist "1" votes before it had opened, which their system did not identify and eliminate), there's a real argument that Amazon has a SOCIOPATHIC indifference to the quality of IMDB. They are an active ENEMY to movie-goers everywhere, exploiting our willingness to add data to the site while being unwilling to spend a penny to make the site better than it was when they bought it.

Now, I'm a good writer and a reasonably high-profile person in other contexts (ESPN the Magazine did a 10-page story on me in their 15th Anniversary issue, I'm a World Fantasy Award nominee, etc.), and have excellent credentials as an amateur writer on film (lots of most helpful reviews, including Room, Amy, and Son of Saul last year at Netflix). If I write a piece explaining why EVERY FILM LOVER should do exactly what I'm doing, essentially BOYCOTT Amazon until they bring back the message boards and hire some experts to better filter illegitimate votes from the ratings, I ought to be able to get it published where it will be widely seen.

I think that would cost them more money than they saved by shutting down the boards. And that, of course, is all they care about.

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[–] [deleted] 8 years ago

[deleted]

[–] zack14 (347) 8 years ago

I will boycott amazon

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[–] lennonforever (2453) 8 years ago

I am boycotting too. And I will NEVER use IMDb again. I deleted my acct.

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[–] CoriSCapnSkip (2751) 8 years ago

Please see these suggestions and do as many as you reasonably can: http://www.moviechat.org/movies/general/posts/58a6b8170a13470011b2a1f4

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[–] psdhart (1) 8 years ago

Leave a bad review on google

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[–] CoriSCapnSkip (2751) 8 years ago

Agree with your idea and also stuck on how to make them aware of what everyone is doing.

1. How to VERIFY each time when making a purchase elsewhere that until now would have been done on Amazon? Anyone could show products from other sites with, "Just spent such and such amount at Walmart or Sears or wherever," but how to PROVE you did so without revealing sensitive payment information? (Amazon has a purchase history and I plan to copy mine to compare before and after they tampered with the vital forces of nature. Perhaps other sites have purchase histories possible to save in some form such as as screenshots.)

2. How to bring this EACH TIME YOU DO IT to the attention of anyone in an official position? (They will only be impressed, of course, with new merchandise--if you buy a book or DVD at a thrift store or yard sale they won't care even if they sell it new.)

I suppose we could set aside a special area, even part of a board on a replacement website, and have people upload photographs of purchases fresh out of the box, to prove they are new, and photograph the box in which items came to prove they are not from Amazon. For purchases from brick and mortar stores maybe the item along with the sales slip...do sales slips reveal details which should not be shared? Then upload the photographs to the website.

Once a month the webmaster or whoever is designated to do so can bring the contents of the board to the attention of Amazon management. We could also spread these photographs on Facebook and Twitter with #suckitamazonforkillingimdb or the like. We could keep track of individual and overall totals, and award points for whoever sticks it to them the most.

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[–] lennonforever (2453) 8 years ago

great idea

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[–] CoriSCapnSkip (2751) 8 years ago

Thanks, I plan to begin the process today.

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[–] [deleted] 8 years ago

[deleted]

[–] CoriSCapnSkip (2751) 8 years ago

A system must seriously be implemented whereby to grind their noses in disgrace at every opportunity.

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[–] CoriSCapnSkip (2751) 8 years ago

I'm just ready to yet again purchase a product elsewhere that I could have got for less on Amazon, which has me wondering, did you ever find the best method of letting them know each time anyone does this? Is there an email address and can we make a screenshot or something confirming what we bought and where? Thanks.

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[–] [deleted] 8 years ago

Amazon is way too convenient for my situation for me to give it up and I still use IMDb for cast lists and films.

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[–] MissMargoChanning (6630) 8 years ago

It's funny. Only a few months ago when IMDb shut down, so many people felt so much anger. They wanted to boycott anything to do with the site. I wasn't ready to boycott Amazon. It's a great place to shop for things that our local stores don't supply.
As for IMDb, I'm pretty much like you. I look there for cast lists. I will look at actor's bio's.
It isn't the same without the message boards though, so I seldom visit that site any longer.
I'm no longer bitter over the shutdown. They did what they were going to do. We can be unhappy......
I learned one thing many years ago. Complain all you want.
Nobody is listening! Suck it up.

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[–] R_Kane (15828) 8 years ago

To expand on your sentiments, with which I agree, Miss Margo: Corporations with BILLIONS of dollars aren't listening to you guys. Get real. You can stop buying from Amazon until you die, and it means NOTHING to them, because everyone else WILL buy from them, like I do. Find another way to make yourselves happy, or keep wallowing in your anger and misery. Unions can effect corporate change. Consumer boycotts don't work. Stop wacking off.

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[–] db20db (17734) 8 years ago

Yup, it's a juggernaut .

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[–] April-151-CT (10210) 8 years ago

That's actually when this post is from. It's over 4 months old, back when the wounds were raw. Nearly all of the comments are from then.

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[–] MissMargoChanning (6630) 8 years ago

"That's actually when this post is from. It's over 4 months old, back when the wounds were raw. Nearly all of the comments are from then."

True. Most of us have licked our wounds and we have moved on.....
HERE! Smile.......

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[–] [deleted] 8 years ago

Nobody is listening! Suck it up.

Exactly!
Not that I thought it was a great thing they did,I don't but I'm on an island and stuff is either more expensive here or it's just not stocked.
As far as IMDb goes,no site comes close for movie info,it was just great to combine your experience of looking stuff up,watching,rating,commenting.
I do think it was mostly a financial decision but there is no doubt that the boards had become a troublesome entity with the huge amount of hateful stuff that went on.

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[–] MissMargoChanning (6630) 8 years ago

"I do think it was mostly a financial decision but there is no doubt that the boards had become a troublesome entity with the huge amount of hateful stuff that went on."

Dazed, You hit the nail on the head!

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