Amazon Misplaying Its Stated Mission

It must be starting to feel very lonely over there at Amazon.com .

First, the company irks investors by warning that profit margins may decline for the fourth straight year. Now it may alienate millions of customers by taking on the Humane Society of the U.S., which on Thursday filed a legal complaint against Amazon for selling animal-fighting magazines that the group says are illegal.

Although the issue of animal fights arouses strong opinions, a financial story isn't the best place to air them. Likewise for the debate over whether and where to place limits on free speech. So let's focus instead on how Amazon is handling this controversy, and what it means for shareholders of the company.

And how is Amazon faring? So far, not terribly well.

Remember, this is the Amazon that brushed off calls from investors for better earnings because, it says, it puts the customer first. But when customers called Amazon about the animal-fighting materials, it was their turn to get the brushoff.

On Thursday, so many people bombarded Amazon's main number with calls that it added a special message for them in which a smug, anodyne voice offered a terse lecture on free-speech rights before directing them to the company Web site to email complaints or post comments.

Amazon likes to talk about the importance of customer relationships, so it was surprising it didn't even allow callers to leave a voice message. On such a heated topic, people want to feel their views are heard. When they don't, they get really upset. Amazon could have defused a lot of anger simply by listening better.

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