random babble…

Follow up from yesterday.

I didn’t think to save a draft of my email to them, but I got two replies, both the same, so I am guessing it is a blanket auto response:

Hello,

Thank you for contacting Amazon.com.

This is an embarrassing and ham-fisted cataloging error for a company that prides itself on offering complete selection.

It has been misreported that the issue was limited to Gay & Lesbian themed titles – in fact, it impacted 57,310 books in a number of broad categories such as Health, Mind & Body, Reproductive & Sexual Medicine, and Erotica. This problem impacted books not just in the United States but globally. It affected not just sales rank but also had the effect of removing the books from Amazon’s main product search. 

Many books have now been fixed and we’re in the process of fixing the remainder as quickly as possible, and we intend to implement new measures to make this kind of accident less likely to occur in the future.

Thanks for contacting us. We hope to see you again soon.

Sincerely,

Customer Service Department
Amazon.com

In my initial email to them, I mentioned that they had also excluded some books on Feminism (the Yes Means Yes anthology, and Full Frontal Feminism), textbooks on sexuality, and parenting books.  My point was that I was disgusted that it seemed to target literature for and about LGBTQI people, and that the anti LGBTQI titles were still left untouched.  I am fully aware of the “number of broad categories” affected.  I can now conclude from this response that no one actually read my email.

Also, from the response that was sent to Mark R. Probst, and other authors as early as February, I don’t believe that this is an error (even if some other people may believe so).  I think this is a reaction to an outrage at poor decision making by someone at Amazon dot com.  I appreciate the sentiment, but I am not convinced that this half assed apology of an auto response form letter is anything other than an attempt to smooth over a mistake.  They say an error was made, but not by whom or how.  No one is taking actual responsibility for what happened.

If the rankings and searches are actually fixed, I don’t know, b/c I will not be returning to Amazon for any reason.  I hope that it can be repaired, but I don’t feel that they are taking this as seriously as they could.