What Amazon.com Got Wrong (You Are What You Sell)

I wrote a very long post about Amazon.com’s decision to defend selling a book on how to be a pedophile without getting in trouble on the Kindle digital text platform. I decided not to publish my post. Instead, a few short thoughts.

There are enormous inconsistencies in Amazon’s digital text platform guidelines and their email suggesting that they believe that would be guilty of censorship by not selling some material that many people may find objectionable. They are misguided on what censorship means, and they lack the ability to censor this material at all (it could easily be provided over a website and Amazon.com would be powerless to stop the author from doing so). Governments and the media censor. Businesses don’t have the authority or the power to censor in this sort of case.

Amazon’s own Mission and Vision statement speaks to their desire to be the most customer-centric company on earth.

There is really no customer for this book, and Amazon.com will never be proud to have sold this book, especially to someone who would buy the book with the intention of acting on its contents.

As a businessperson and as a salesperson, I believe a complaint is a gift–as long as one is given the opportunity to remedy the source of the complaint before the client ends the relationship.  Amazon.com should consider the complaints they are receiving as gifts. They are the result of customers who care very deeply about their relationship with the company and who hope that their complaints will be addressed.

Amazon is fortunate that they have customers who care who they are.

They would be wise to consider the fact that you are what it is you sell.