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Technology Stocks : Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bob Kim who wrote (117082)	2/7/2001 9:50:22 AM
From: opalapril	Respond to of 164684

FWIW (probably little - but I invite others to write, too) info@amazon.com ATTN: Management 2/7/2001 Today I read that Amazon.com soon will be charging publishers up to $10,000 for an on-line or email book "review." I understand the challenge you face in becoming profitable, but I very strongly disagree with this means for reaching the goal. It is cheap, dishonest, and an insult to the world of books. Such a policy prostitutes the Amazon.com service at its core. Selling book information and reviews would be a terrible practice for any book seller but it is even worse for one like Amazon.com, which still faces the task of persuading millions of people they can be secure and safe in shopping with you. I would not give my trade to my local bookstore owner if I knew she were being paid for making book recommendations and reviews to her customers, and I will not give it to Amazon.com if you proceed with this newly announced policy. Unless there is a retraction, I vow never to shop on line with you again. In addition, I will do all I reasonably can to persuade friends and relatives to shop elsewhere. I know I am but a single customer but I believe you will find many more agree with me as word spreads. Book lovers rely on book sellers to be honest brokers of information about books. Selling your informational reviews, even as proposed with a disclosure to that effect, nurtures the suspicion there is no limit to what you will do to make a buck. And, for me and others, that raises just as many Internet security issues as it does questions about your business ethics and probity. I urge management to reconsider this ill-advised scheme before it permanently stains Amazon.com's reputation. /s/Signed