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Amazon saved me from irreparable eye damage (feddit.uk)

submitted 1 week ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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So, I just got an email from Amazon refunding me the purchase of lint-free wipes I bought for screen and lens cleaning. I didn’t request the refund, they initiated it, but their reasoning seems hilarious to me:

We have identified that the product that you purchased may not be safe for viewing a solar eclipse. If you still have this product, out of an abundance of caution, we recommend you not to use it to watch any solar eclipses, including the one happening on March 29. Please dispose of this product.

The product:

Are people actually watching solar eclipses through lint-free wipes? Anyway, I lol’d and thought I’d share it with you all to brighten your day.

TL;DR don’t use lint-free wipes to watch solar eclipses. You’ve been warned!

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[–] [email protected] 36 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Obviously don't know the story for why Amazon is pulling this product, but know that the supplier is the one that will be eating the cost - Amazon will 100% stiff them in cases where the product is deemed faulty.

Seeing as the 'product fault' here is bullshit, and the product seems to be an honest USA-made one, I'd say this is just more of Amazon being shitty Amazon and harming small to mid-sized US businesses.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

Well at least it's not a Canadian business

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Why would they bother?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

Well I can't speak to this exact case, but in the past Amazon has made their own product (which they get manufactured by a third party cheaply) to very similar specs and dimensions as the existing US market dominant product on their store - and then pushed them off the listing by placing theirs higher and slightly cheaper. Could be a similar case.

https://www.propublica.org/article/amazons-new-competitive-advantage-putting-its-own-products-first

https://www.foxbusiness.com/retail/amazon-scooped-up-data-from-its-own-sellers-to-launch-competing-products

[–] [email protected] 32 points 1 week ago

I wonder if this is a situation of a reused item listing. The amount of review doesn't seem high enough, but I've heard that some places will edit "Amazon items" and change all details, title, photos, desc, etc to keep the good rating and feedback rather than create a new entry for a fresh product.

If the previous details had cross over to eclipse glasses I could understand a database query issue.

[–] argh_another_username 11 points 1 week ago

Maybe because there’s some kind of search that people are doing like “eclipse lens” and the word “eclipse” is written in the box. People don’t read manuals and the general public is stupid.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

"Eclipse®" is on the box and probably in the description of the product. Some DOGE-level employee probably wrote a dodgy SQL query.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

Nice catch!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago

I got a similar email, but I actually had bought solar eclipse glasses (which I used for the one in April 2024). Why you got this for a completely unrelated product, no idea.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

Looks like someone at Amazon refunded every product which title contains "lens", "filter" and/or "binocular" that were bought recently out of an abundance of caution.