Amazon are one of the biggest companies in the world, making billions of dollars in profits
every year.
Although theyve been a financial success story, the company has had a bit of a bumpy ride
along its almost 25 year long history.
Some things have been pretty shocking, Amazon has tried to pay their way out of them and
although money talks, sometimes people talk louder - these are their stories.
My name is Danny Burke, this is the Top 10 Scary Amazon Dark Secrets.
Starting off at number 10 we have Peeing In A Bottle.
For many years, there have been reports of Amazon treating its workers poorly and often
for less than minimum wage.
If that sounds unbelievable then listen to this: in December 2017, Metro reported that
after the Amazon delivery drivers have paid for the van hire and insurance, they are effectively
earning less than minimum wage.
The year before, the BBC reported that drivers also work illegal hours.
They said that Amazon expects the drivers to work 12 hour shifts, despite UK law prohibiting
drivers from working over 11 hours a day.
However, the most shocking part of all came when the undercover reporter said that colleagues
told him they had to -defecate in bags- and -urinate in bottles- because there was no
time for toilet breaks.
Workers said they lived in fear of being disciplined over idle time and losing their jobs because
they needed the toilet.
An Amazon spokesman said -Amazon ensures all of its associates have easy access to toilet
facilities which are just a short walk from where they are working- … still, many critics
were inclined to believe the workers who would have no reason to lie or hold in if theyre
bursting.
Next up at number 9 we have Illegal Items.
In December 2015, the Guardian shared their investigation which found that the British
Amazon site listed illegal weapons including stun guns, pepper spray pistols and knuckle
dusters.
Some of them were found to have been developed for military and police forces.
To the Guardians surprise, they were able to purchase the weapons.
These included a pistol that fires a jet of high strength pepper spray at 112 mph, a 1
million volt stun gun disguised as a flashlight and last but not least: a baseball cap containing
a hidden stabbing knuckleduster.
Im wearing a similar one right now.
Just kidding obviously, I left that at home today.
The sellers on Amazon were said to be from the US and Israel.
Naturally, many people were wondering how these items got through British customers.
Well, the packages had been declared as an -LED flashlight- and a -toy part- … thats
a little bit of a stretch isnt it.
I don't know how many toy parts that could kill you.
This report wasnt the first of its kind, it wont be the last, and its certainly put a
spotlight at just how difficult Amazon has made it to control the sale of illegal items
across borders.
Moving on to number 8 we have The Nazi T-Shirts.
In January 2008, a Czech website called attention to shirts sold on Amazon that bore the words
-I love Henrich Himmler- and -I love Reinhard Heydrich- … two infamous nazi officers and
convicted war criminals.
They are most remembered for being instrumental leaders of the holocaust which saw over 6
million people murdered at the hands of the Nazis.
Patricia Smith, a spokeswoman for Amazon, told the media -Our catalog contains millions
of items.
With such a large number, unexpected merchandise may get onto the web- … the scandal led
to the World Jewish Congress calling on the shirts removal from their site.
Amazon did just that and also removed -I love Hitler- shrits which were on sale for women
and children.
Who is buying that.
For children aswell.
So many questions.
Coming in at number 7 we have Tax Avoidance.
This is a pretty big one.
In 2012, it was reported that Amazon made 3.3 billion pounds in sales in the UK - thats
a lot of money and so youd expect a sizeable sum to be tax - but no, that year, Amazon
didnt pay any corporation tax on that amount.
After a lengthy investigation, Amazon agreed to pay the corporation tax.
So, lesson learnt right?
Well apparently not because in 2017, it was once again reported that Amazon had been avoiding
taxes.
This time it was even worse.
Despite making European revenues of 21.6 billion Euros, the company paid kist 16.5 million
Euros.
In the same year, its UK corporation tax bill halved despite revenues rising almost 50 percent.
A spokesperson said that Amazon -pays all the taxes that are required in every country
where it operates-
Next up at number 6 we have the Pedophile Guide.
In November 2010, an e-book was sold on Amazon titled -The Pedophiles Guide to Love and Pleasure:
a Child lovers Code of Conduct- … of course, many people were outraged.
There were threats of boycotting Amazon over its selling of the book.
Initially, Amazon defended their sale of the book, saying that they didnt believe in censoring
certain books simply because they or other others believe the message is objectionable.
However, as the pressure mounted, the company wavered.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported that Amazon defended the book, then removed it,
then reinstated it, before finally removing it again.
Even today, a debate still remains between those who believe that the book was not pornographic
or obscene and should not have been censored, and those who say that anything of this nature
simply serves to normalise child abuse.
Coming in at number 5 we have The Tents.
In December 2016, The Independent reported that Amazon workers in Scotland had resorted
to sleeping in tents near the companys warehouse in an attempt to save money.
At least 3 tents had been pitched in the woods near Dunfermline, close to one of Amazons
fulfilment centres.
The employees said they were living in tents in the sub zero temperatures to save money
on travel costs.
They said that if they didnt do this, they couldn't continue to work for the company,
which was not paying them a living wage.
Naturally, critics said Amazon should be ashamed of this and demanded the company raise workers
wages to enable them to commute from their homes.
During the week that the story broke, temperatures dropped to -7 degrees in the area, with locals
becoming concerned for the welfare of the workers camped out in the woods.
An Amazon spokesperson refuted the story, saying that the company pays a fair living
wage, enough to allow a commute to work.
Critics deny this, saying nobody would sleep in the woods in sub zero temperatures unless
they had to …
Moving on to number 4 we have Price Discrimination.
Many websites ask your permission to use cookies which track what sites you have recently visited.
They aim to build up an online profile of you to better market products or tailor your
experience.
Most of the time, this is fine for people - but when Amazon once used it in a very questionable
way.
One Amazon user found that a DVD on the site at once price, but when they deleted their
cookies they were offered the the DVD at a much lower price.
Thats right, Amazon gave them two very different prices when before and after deleting their
cookies.
This means that you and I could be given two different prices simply because of automated
information about our online history.
The scandal went right to the top.
CEO Jeff Bezos responded to the story by apologising for the pricing.
He said that Amazon will -never test prices based on customer demographics- … they offered
to refund customers who paid the higher prices but many people felt the cat was now out of
the bag.
Coming in at number 3 now we have The Reviews.
In 2004, the New York times reported that a glitch in the Amazon Canada website allowed
authors to write reviews for their own books or rival books written by other authors.
Of course, you can see why this would be a huge problem - kind of defeats the whole purpose
of a public review.
Amazon said they had fixed this problem but over the years, more reports kept coming in.
In April 2010, a British historian was found to have posted positive reviews of his own
books and negative reviews of his colleagues.
A few months later, a news blog found that 75 book reviews had been posted by a public
relations company on behalf of their clients.
Scandals like this only increased until in 2011, it got even worse.
It was reported that Amazon itself had moved into the publishing business and begun to
solicit positive reviews from established authors in exchange for increased promotion
of their own books and upcoming projects.
Basically, thats not cool.
The whole practice makes reviews kinda worthless - do you trust the ones you see online?
Next up at number 2 we have The Competition.
In October 2015, Amazon banned sales of Apple TV and Google Chromecast products that were
directly in competition with its own Fire TV product.
This was obviously done to create an advantage for their own product but Amazon denied it.
They said they only banned the sales to prevent -customer confusion- because at the time,
Apple and Googles devices did not support Amazons video service.
Critics werent buying it.
They argued that Amazon had deliberately refused to develop an app for the other devices as
it was trying to suppress their sales.
This seemed to be proven true when, in December 2017, Amazon launched an Amazon Video app,
but neither it or Chromecast products have returned to the site.
And finally at number 1 we have Holocaust Denial.
We spoke about the Holocaust earlier.
Some countries hold this piece of history in such high regard that it is illegal to
deny the Holocaust happened.
In October 2013, British magazine The Kernel reported that Amazon was selling books that
defend Holocaust denial and were even shipping them out to countries where holocaust denial
is illegal.
The World Jewish Congress called on Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos to remove the books that deny
the holocaust and promote anti semitism.
In a statement, they said -No one should profit from the sale of such vile and offensive hate
literature.
Many holocaust survivors are deeply offended by the fact that the worlds largest online
retailer is making money from selling such material- … by 2017, the group announced
that Amazon had complied with their requests.
Well what do you make of all those?
I know a lot of people defend Amazon and say that with a company of its size, its expected
that scandals will happen, but others feel that in this day and age, companies like Amazon
are so big that they have more power than people, cities or even some countries - and
stories like these make that quite worrying to hear.
What are your thoughts?
Let me know, thanks for watching as always guys, my name is Danny Burke and Ill see you
all in the next video!