I asked Amazon for help with my account. They couldn't figure out the URL to get me where I needed to go. They said they needed to escalate. The question was definitely not complicated. They wanted to call me asking questions.

Meanwhile, Gemini gave me the url and explained what I needed to know in one reply. Problem solved. Same question to ChatGPT gave me the correct answer as well. I bet Claude or Grok would have also found the correct answer.

This is where things take a turn: Google.com/ddg/bing failed. amazon's own search failed. Its worth knowing that the good results from the chatbots pointed at Amazon's web.

Based on this one example, I could begin to think document style search engines are dead.

Presumably Amazon were trying to put me into their little Voice AI microcosm. They'd obviously (?) record my voice (yes) of me getting increasingly annoyed (likely) at some Voice Chat Bot (likely) and then they'd apologize (?) for not knowing (probably?).

Is that the goal? Waste 30 minutes of my time for what could have been answered by a chat bot but not a web search?

The underlying situation seems even weirder than simply trying to cut costs. I think Amazon has cut so many corners they have forgotten what shape they are trying to create.

I have only one answer so far: Their customer support has no idea how to navigate their own website and this is by design. This is NOT the customer support people at fault. Let that all sink in: Someone got a bonus for this service design. This is somehow optimal according to Amazon. Yet this style of service design will only get worse for paying customers. It will be much worse for non-customers.

Progress!

I don't think this is restricted to Amazon either. I think this is industry wide. The in-page chat bots are usually just as broken.