People regret buying Amazon smart displays after being bombarded with ads

Re:People regret buying Amazon smart displays after being bo... by jonhohle on Saturday October 11, 2025 @06:42PM (#45553285)

I worked on Prime during the Prime Video launch. All of the marketing was around it being ad free and a new benefit of the Prime membership. Not too long later they started playing pre roll ads for Amazon Video offerings (maybe Amazon Studios, I don’t remember). I brought it up in a meeting and the business folks said it was OK because it wasn’t in the middle of the selected content. I’m pushed back, but it went nowhere.

Thinking about it now, he probably meant it was OK regarding their contracts with studios. Our engineering chain of command was completely obsessed with customer experience. The business side, not so much.

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Re:People regret buying Amazon smart displays after being bo... by sanex on Saturday October 11, 2025 @08:00PM (#45553872)

I'm always amazed at how little people will care about the customer experience for a shot at a 20k raise.

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Re:People regret buying Amazon smart displays after being bo... by neilv on Saturday October 11, 2025 @08:11PM (#45553946)

In all fairness to the MBAs, the "Customer Obsession" commandment could be interpreted multiple ways.

Such a metrics-driven company will surely know something about how incentives drive outcomes.

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Re:People regret buying Amazon smart displays after being bo... by ROBLOX_MOMENTS on Saturday October 11, 2025 @11:10PM (#45554835)

For a metrics driven company they sure did not cite a single metric or have any data when they forced mandatory RTO without having enough office space or desks to support everyone returning while I worked there.

Not sure they really care about many metrics these days.

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Re:People regret buying Amazon smart displays after being bo... by garciasn on Saturday October 11, 2025 @11:22PM (#45554911)

The metrics are there and they were driven by them; they just didn’t want to share what those metrics were because they wouldn’t be received well.

“Our primary investors are also leveraged heavily in the commercial real estate market and they’re losing their shirts and we need their money, so…”

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Re:People regret buying Amazon smart displays after being bo... by ROBLOX_MOMENTS on Sunday October 12, 2025 @12:07AM (#45555126)

Yeah, it is just very humorous such that normally, all of us in the room are used to a specific kind of presentation, where they show metrics and why that's a good thing because all decisions MUST to be data-driven. In this particular case, it definitely "boosted productivity and was helpful" no Q&A, no data, meeting was over.

And then we didn't have enough desks, outlets, and internet was slow. Lmao.

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Re:People regret buying Amazon smart displays after being bo... by joquarky on Monday October 13, 2025 @05:32PM (#45573564)

Try using self checkout at Whole Foods and you'll see how much they care about customer experience.

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Re:People regret buying Amazon smart displays after being bo... by apparent on Saturday October 11, 2025 @10:26PM (#45554622)

I always wondered about how this fit with the TOS. People paid for Prime with the expectation it was ad-free. Then it got ads, and now it has tons. I never watch anything anymore, which I guess saves them $ because they don't have to pay the content providers. But it sure feels lousy to be a boiled frog. I would ditch it if my wife didn't insist on keeping Prime.

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Re:People regret buying Amazon smart displays after being bo... by immibis on Monday October 13, 2025 @01:12AM (#45564875)

The TOS of almost any online business says they can change the TOS any time they want to, with the minimum legally required notice.

Plus, most TOSes have very little legal effect, in either direction.

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Re:People regret buying Amazon smart displays after being bo... by N_Lens on Sunday October 12, 2025 @02:34AM (#45555814)

Well ofcourse - the I in MBA stands for Intelligence.

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