When last we left Al Lutz, proprietor of MiceAge.com, your independent source for all matters Disney, his visitors were being besieged by buff male advertising models wearing nothing but jockstraps … and he was beside himself with frustration over Amazon’s inability to help.
That was two weeks ago. The other day I sent Lutz an e-mail asking if there was anything new to report.
“Yes, a happy ending,” he replied, “thanks to you, of course!” (Blogger blushes.)
And, not only has there been a satisfying resolution for Lutz, the episode eventually may lead to a better experience for many other Amazon advertising partners.
“No more jockstraps,” Lutz said, “and, from what was indicated to me, about 20,000 other ‘inappropriate’ items have been added to the filter. ‘Woody’ from Amazon originally called June 15, then followed up on June 18 with the note below:”
Hi Al,
Just writing to let you know that we have blocked the offending item and I’ve been refreshing your page a number of times and haven’t seen it.
We are following up by blocking a significant number of similar products, and I’ll be talking with the technical team about your suggestion of a control panel to allow you as a site owner to ask for specific products to be blocked.
Please let me know if you are still having issues with our ads,
Regards,
Woody
Amazon Associates Product Manager
That result represented a dramatic turnaround from what Lutz had been told prior to his plight being aired in Buzzblog.
“I felt that once you got this to Amazon’s attention, they were sincere about fixing the problem,” Lutz told me (more blushing). “But the hurdles that had to be overcome to get this to the folks in charge (especially in getting past the customer service reps) were awfully high.”
In retrospect, Lutz now believes his initial frustrations may have come as a result of a complaint that’s common to service customers of all kinds.
“A friend of mine who until last month used to work both locally and in India with call centers just smiled when I told him what was going on,” Lutz said. “At his prompting, I asked Woody if my e-mails were answered abroad and he seemed to admit it.”
Of course, that alone wouldn’t necessarily account for what Lutz saw as indifference to his situation.
“My friend agreed the unfortunate combination of the words ‘jockstrap’ and ‘Disney’ should have set off alarm bells. But he noted that in a different culture they don’t always comprehend the connections or understand the urgency. While we may share a language, we don’t always share the same sensitivity.”
Welcome regulars and passersby. Here are a few more recent Buzzblog items.
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- How to avoid having to hire an American: lawyerly advice.
- Amazon foists unwanted jockstrap ads on Disney-related site.
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- Casino bans author of Word for being lucky.
- BlackBerry owes this guy a girlfriend.
