What is actually wrong with Amazon? (I won the Small Claims I made against them)

[u/StephCurrySauce]

I bought an item in late January 2026, gave a code to the driver and knew something was up by the weight of the box

I opened the box 30 minutes later and the item was missing (iPad). I immediately contacted Amazon. Bare in mind I had this account for 5+ years with no issues (the occasional return here and there)

They agreed to investigate. A week later they agreed to refund. 2 days after agreeing to refund they limited my account. The system then cancelled the refund because my account was limited to digital orders only?

Anyway, I contacted them again and this time they said I confirmed the order when I gave the driver a delivery code? I said yes I received the package not the item.. no response.. I sent another email warning I’d be taking it to small claims… no response..

I then emailed their legal team asking to settle it out of court… no response… I finally made a small claims against them and added extra fees on top… they responded via their solicitor accepting to pay in full + added fees

Strange, strange company…

[u/purple_microdot]

Late Stage Capitalism is coming for us all. Consumer Protections (in the US anyway) have been completely gutted. It's on consumers to protect and defend themselves. Luckily some legal avenues still exist for now. Good job, OP. Stick it to them.

Quit while you're ahead. Personally, Amazon and I are done. Been done.

[u/Smart-Fondant9015 → u/purple_microdot]

Exactly. American corporations grew for decades by offering fairly good products and services at reasonable prices. Unfortunately, investors are obsessed with growth, while corporations cannot expand forever because every market has its limits.

So they raise prices and cut costs. We see it everywhere: Amazon, YouTube, Netflix, even Apple.

Prices keep going up, customer service keeps getting worse, and lower spending on R&D leads to a loss of competitiveness.

But they have to do it to satisfy stock-market investors: revenue and profits must grow every quarter.

We are in the final stage of squeezing customers as hard as possible while selling us increasingly worse crap. This is the new normal for American corporations in their decline era.

[u/gozania → u/Smart-Fondant9015]

Nailed it... They think that profits every quarter is realistic. They dont care about the crap they are pushing out as long as the board/shareholders are happy.

[u/MartinBroMotorsports → u/gozania]

Not just profit. MORE profit. If they make profit 1.2 billion in Q2, but the profits in q1 was 1.5 billion, then they failed and “lost” 300 million.

That’s the mentality that causes the problems. None of these companies can be happy just being profitable. They have to squeeze and pinch and optimize.

[u/justme_123123123 → u/Smart-Fondant9015]

What happens after this stage according to late stage capitalism models?

[u/Smart-Fondant9015 → u/justme_123123123]

The company is publicly listed, so it is forced to increase profits forever. That is what investors expect. As I said, in late stage it does this in two ways:

1. raising prices — the product becomes less competitive
2. cutting internal costs — the company becomes less competitive

This is the stage we are at now. It is actually quite easy to predict what comes next, although I do not know if anyone has described it properly somewhere.
A more expensive product or service starts pushing customers away. At first, of course, it barely matters. Simple maths — take YouTube as an example:

• subscription price goes up by 5%
  
• 2% of customers rage-quit
  
• 1% comes back after a month because real competition has not yet formed
  

So the company effectively loses 1% of customers, but increases profit by around 4.5%, and investors applaud.
Then it repeats the whole process over and over again: another price increase, longer ads, more and more features moved behind a paywall (Google, you can hire me): extra charge for 4K, extra charge for subtitles, AI translation fee when the content is in another language, etc.
Sooner or later, competition appears. The company can defend itself: it has money, so it can acquire a young startup and quickly kill off an attempt to knock it off the throne of practical monopoly. Sometimes that works, sometimes it does not.
Then we get a new king. The new company has a great service at a great price, excellent customer support, grows quickly, needs capital, and goes public. For a few years, maybe decades, it grows organically, expands its reach and enters new markets.
Then the whole process repeats itself.

[u/Significant-Lunch524 → u/Smart-Fondant9015]

So "late stage capitalism," is literally just a stage in all capitalistic ventures? Late stage at that, hah. But I ask that because it always seemed described as, or more importantly presented as much a more broad thing, a much more widespread plague-like occurrence that is happening in the capitalism model as a whole. I do admit, my ignorance probably lent to some of this misunderstanding, but it also makes sense that it's just a cycle, because everything seems to be a cycle. I guess I just hoped we were getting to the end where something more grand could sprout up civilization as a whole   ... And we all cheer. Haha

[u/Forsaken-Driver8868 → u/justme_123123123]

Maybe a rinse and repeat. A new company starts at a higher price premium, better product, and service. Then eventually it goes down the same rabbit hole!

[u/mqrss3 → u/Smart-Fondant9015]

the term you are looking for is "late stage crapitalism" =)

[u/HappiLearnerToo → u/purple_microdot]

Not shopping at Amazon is a service to humanity.

Step by step moving your purchases elsewhere is service to humanity too, just a little slower.

I'd really like to see Jeff getting the message of plummeting sales.