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Re:A Tale of Unwanted Disruption: My Week Without Amazon by teddyh on Monday June 12, 2023 @06:13PM (#36302011)
> This incident has led me to question my relationship with Amazon. After nearly a decade of loyalty, I’ve been given a harsh reminder that a misunderstanding can lead to such drastic measures.

“'I never thought leopards would eat MY face,' sobs woman who voted for the Leopards Eating People's Faces Party.”

— <https://twitter.com/cavalorn/status/654934442549620736?lang=...>

Re:A Tale of Unwanted Disruption: My Week Without Amazon by namaria on Monday June 12, 2023 @06:18PM (#36302068)
Seriously, automating your home around a single point of failure that depends on servers you don't control is a very brittle approach.
Re:A Tale of Unwanted Disruption: My Week Without Amazon by JohnFen on Monday June 12, 2023 @06:36PM (#36302285)
Deeply relying on any service provider for anything puts you in a very vulnerable position regardless of how excellent that provider is. Things change, company priorities shift, companies get acquired by other companies, go out of business, etc. Current performance is not a guarantee of future performance.

Sometimes, you have to accept that vulnerability. I have exactly one option for getting electrical service, for example. But in general, people should avoid this sort of arrangement to the greatest degree possible.

Especially for something where there are tons of other options, like home automation.

Re:A Tale of Unwanted Disruption: My Week Without Amazon by teachrdan on Monday June 12, 2023 @06:24PM (#36302142)
To be fair, Amazon's servers have better uptime than mine.
Re:A Tale of Unwanted Disruption: My Week Without Amazon by namaria on Tuesday June 13, 2023 @03:44AM (#36306916)
Service reliability here is trumped by governance. The servers were up when this person's account was blocked and they lost access to all usability on their devices...
Re:A Tale of Unwanted Disruption: My Week Without Amazon by marcod on Monday June 12, 2023 @06:50PM (#36302454)
It's really not that bad.

I use Amazon Echo to turn on/off my lights. If my home automation doesn't work, I can still just use the light switch to turn them off and then they will come on.

Or if there is an Amazon issue, I can use the app of the bulb manufacturer instead. It's a convenience feature and if it doesn't work, it's a minor inconvenience.

Many of us would be much more screwed if something happened to our Google or Apple account... and that same story of erroneous bans have happened to many people.

Re:A Tale of Unwanted Disruption: My Week Without Amazon by olyjohn on Monday June 12, 2023 @08:15PM (#36303304)
Not to mention, he is still considering keeping all this Amazon garbage. Fucking Stockholm Syndrome or something.