Big Tech replaced “the customer is always right” with enslavement to the machine… literally

There are thousands of talented, cash-strapped writers out there who haven’t had the good fortune to be picked up by a quality-minded publishing house, and must rely on Amazon. It may be time for independent authors (no AI allowed) to form co-ops;

A. Dru Kristenev , Bio and Archives--August 28, 2026

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There’s no way that this headline doesn’t speak to every individual who has had a run-in with internet-based big biz… Amazon being the mother of them all.

There was a time when Ma Bell was the butt of every joke regarding lack of customer service. Some older folks even remember the bumper stickers “We Don’t Care. We Don’t Have To...” The unspoken credo of the all-powerful telephone company.

The main heir to that motto, and taking it one step further, is Amazon. And it all comes back to the huge fib that doing business online makes life easier. Anyone who has had to return an item that didn’t fit, work as advertised, or live up to its website hype knows that the convenience of ordering online and home delivery suddenly becomes inconvenient. Internet purchasing that promised to be better than in-person shopping at brick and mortar stores turned into a betrayal when the return policy meant repackaging the item, getting in the car and standing in line to ship it back from a limited choice of locations.

But that’s just part of the problem customers face when attempting to handle a quality issue, and Amazon takes the cake as the queen of mandating customer “rights.” In business according to Big Tech, only the purveyor of goods gets to set........

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