Is it me or did Amazon do something stupid and get rid of the user submitted pictures

[The Stigenator]

It seems most of the products I was looking at is missing its user submitted pictures with the notes and stuff.

I used to like that stuff, but it seems amazon is removing it.

Okay a bit more searching came up with this:

This is Adrian from the Communities team here at Amazon.
Thank you for your email today.

On July 15, 2013, we discontinued the customer-uploaded image feature. Customer images will no longer show on Amazon product pages. This isn't a decision we came to lightly. While customer-uploaded images has a small, dedicated group of active users, it hasn't been broadly embraced by our customers. Shutting down this feature will allow us to focus on building a better overall Amazon experience for you.

If you have uploaded images to a product page in the past, they will continue to be available until August 31, 2013 for you to view from your customer gallery:

This is stupid, honestly, that was one of the reasons why people shop at amazon

Edit:
While it seemed trivial, there was a lot of useful information in those user submitted images. It went from a community that showed how the product was being used to something stale.. ugh!

 

[The Stigenator]

If you want to bitch about it:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/html-forms-...mages-feedback

If you want to read about it:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/custom...x2YR5LNIBXTE84

 

[Thebobo]

Shutting down this feature will allow us to focus on building a better overall Amazon experience for you.

Lol what a load of tripe, that was one of the best features in Amazon. Sure the product companys didn't like it.

 

[Doppel]

Oh FUCK this.

I specifically spent about 15 minutes recently uploading an image that I had marked up with various bits of text showing other users exactly how to fix a problem on quite an expensive product. I am 100% positive some people in the future would have fondled themselves with glee over the information I put there, but now they will never know.

I actually started googling yesterday about ways to make money from amazon reviews. I have hundreds and although I love Amazon I can't help but feel they are not giving me a reach around on these reviews, which help their customers and give me nothing in return. My search turned up nothing. The closest thing i found was creating a site about something in general and then linking to amazon pages with a referral ID, so if any users buy you make some money.

 

[Fritzo]

I think there were some "abuse" problems with the service. I've seen on other forums dick pics and such snuck in to the photos.

 

[shortylickens]

Oops.

Oh well, I'll delete my thread.



Anyways, yeah, I'm fuckin pissed.
About half the products on Amazon have shit photos. I like uploading better stuff so people can see what the fuck they're buying.

 

[Zee]

Amazon caters to the product companies. the excuse is stupid, the same can be said to next get rid of feedback/reviews too then

 

[SaurusX]

I noticed pictures had disappeared the other day, but what hoping it was a temporary glitch. I left feedback at the survey above stating that Amazon has moved backwards in the retail space by removing this feature. I can't count the number of times I used user uploaded pics on which to base purchases.

 

[Ken g6]

I didn't even know this existed. I don't think I've ever seen a user-uploaded image. Is this in user comments about a professional product, or for users selling a used product?

 

[nickbits]

I always thought that feature was unprofessional (and useless)

 

[PowerYoga]

This is why you need user submitted photos.

 

[Sonikku]

Why is it whenever a company takes something away or does something lame to it's customers it's always for the sake of building us a better company. A bunch of companies merge together to make verizon to become a more efficient, centralized better company for us. Then they charged us more for the same service than any of their previous business components did before the fact. At this point I think I'm skeptical of companies becoming a more effective, loving business for us consumers. :hmm:

 

[JoeBleed]

Thanks for the feed back link, i left feed back.

Hope they change their minds. They probably will not though.

 

[Mixolydian]

I thought I noticed that a few days ago. :hmm: glad to know it wasn't just me.

 

[Aharami]

This is why you need user submitted photos.

yep. and the sansa clip mp3 players had useful pictorial instructions on how to fix out of warranty units.

this is a shame that amazon removed such an useful feature

 

[ElFenix]

I didn't even know this existed. I don't think I've ever seen a user-uploaded image. Is this in user comments about a professional product, or for users selling a used product?

it was in the main pictures list for products sold on amazon. not really necessary for books but for a computer case you might put a bunch of pictures on there showing where some issues might have been in construction or something.

it was awesome because a lot of stock product photos suck. amazon mostly just rolls with the manufacturer provided photos (unlike newegg).

 

[SP33Demon]

Left feedback, that's BS.

 

[SaurusX]

This is why you need user submitted photos.

See? Now I'll know to never buy that particular brand of Chinese pre-made sandwich. What the hell kind of ingredients are those anyway? It looks like meat spaghetti sauce, cucumbers, and cream corn.

 

[Imp]

I liked them. They weren't the best quality, but it was nice to see something like a burned out power bar I was planning on buying -- that sent me away from the entire brand. Picture is better than just having five people say their thing caught on fire.

Oh well, more traffic for blogs/review websites if Amazon won't allow it.

 

[PowerYoga]

See? Now I'll know to never buy that particular brand of Chinese pre-made sandwich. What the hell kind of ingredients are those anyway? It looks like meat spaghetti sauce, cucumbers, and cream corn.

probably bits of teriyaki chicken, and corn with some mayo. asian sandwiches love their mayo, but asian mayo is kinda different from the miracle whip type stuff here. It's sweeter and almost like a salad dressing at times and is heavily yolk based.

 

[Doppel]

Left feedback also.

 

[TwiceOver]

The "Whole Frozen Rabbit" listing was precious. The bunny in a hoagie bun or whatever it was, was hilarious.

 

[Jeff7]

Oops.

Oh well, I'll delete my thread.



Anyways, yeah, I'm fuckin pissed.
About half the products on Amazon have shit photos. I like uploading better stuff so people can see what the fuck they're buying.

And so many are arranged thus:
- Click "Enlarge image"
- Get popup window with the same tiny 150x150px image.

"Image taken from 20 feet away from the product, using the world's first consumer-level digital camera."


Though Amazon's hardly the only offender there.



But yes, I can see why the vendors wouldn't like the user pictures though. "Stop showing the world how much our products suck!"

Imagine if you had consumer-generated video of McDonalds or Burger King burgers being used on the commercials, instead of the food-like studio-grade assemblies they use.

"Dramatization. Actual product may differ significantly."



Feedback submitted.

This is why you need user submitted photos.

People suck.

 

[The Stigenator]

I am glad I am NOT the only one on this. Stupid decision(s) by bean counters..

 

[shortylickens]

https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-m.../A746EJ1ZA5GQQ

Most of mine were done so you could see what the thing actually looks like. If the sellers would just consider that they might actually get more sales.