Jeff Bezos Responds To Kindle Controversy

It’s not everyday that you see a CEO of a top company apologize for his/her own company’s “stupid” actions. But what did you expect with Amazon? Amazon is known for putting customers first, and while you can’t keep everyone happy, I am sure Amazon’s service is much better than a lot of its competitors. The company’s actions may not be perfect, but at least we can see where Jeff wants to take the company. I was quick to bash Amazon when it did the unthinkable and removed purchased book copies from its customers’ Kindles, and to be honest the decision was a hard one to take. But I am glad Jeff Bezos took the time to address the issueon Amazon forums:

This is an apology for the way we previously handled illegally sold copies of 1984 and other novels on Kindle. Our “solution” to the problem was stupid, thoughtless, and painfully out of line with our principles. It is wholly self-inflicted, and we deserve the criticism we’ve received. We will use the scar tissue from this painful mistake to help make better decisions going forward, ones that match our mission.

Jeff Bezos has always been my kind of CEO. He has shown in the past that he genuinely cares about customers that have contributed to making Amazon one of the most successful companies around the world. But if Amazon was paying attention to this blog, it might have made the right decision regardless. Cameron, a good friend of K.indled, has put it best:

I think the kindle community needs to have a long discussion on this and force Amazon to explicitly state what they will and won’t do in a way that everyone know. A Kindle bill of rights so that everyone has a very clear idea of what can and can’t happen. This needs to be much more clear then the Terms of Service legalese they currently have.

It’s admirable that Jeff Bezos took time to apologize to Amazon customers. But we need action and not words. Amazon needs to be more clear about things. As much as I like Apple, it’s really getting frustrating dealing with a company that is so controlling. I hope Amazon is not planning to go in that route. But even if that’s the case, I hope Amazon will at least give us a heads up.