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Doggone it, Amazon had some problems on Thursday.
Amazon/CNETIf you tried to indulge in some retail therapy on Thursday, you may have had trouble accessing Amazon. As of 5:10 p.m. PT, the outage was fully resolved, an Amazon spokesperson said. CNET staffers who had trouble using the site earlier on Thursday were able to complete purchases by 3 p.m. PT.
"We're sorry that some customers may have temporarily experienced issues while shopping," an Amazon spokesperson said in a statement. "We have resolved the issue, which was related to a software code deployment, and [the] website and app are now running smoothly."
Amazon Web Services continued to function normally on Thursday, the spokesperson said. AWS provides the foundational cloud infrastructure that enables the retail behemoth to operate, scale and deliver its e-commerce services globally. When it goes down, it's often huge news, as in an October outage that affected thousands of other companies, including Roblox, Reddit and Venmo.
According to DownDetector, which is owned by CNET parent company Ziff Davis, checkout issues were the most reported problem on Thursday, with 38% of reports, followed by mobile app reports at 18%. Product page errors resulted in 13% of reports.
Error reports at DownDetector peaked at 21,754 on Thursday, but at 5 p.m. PT, they were down to around 800.
DownDetector reports that no specific connectivity provider stood out from the report data, pointing to the disruption not being limited to any particular network.
The Amazon Help account on X posted a message about the outage.
"We're sorry that some customers may be experiencing issues," the message read. "We appreciate your patience as we work to resolve the issue."
Ziff Davis announced this week that it is selling DownDetector and its other Connectivity brands to Accenture, but the deal hasn't yet closed.
Amazon appears to be working again for some, so shop away
By Gael Cooper
Your wallets are no longer safe. Mega-shopping site Amazon appears to be back working again as of 2:40 p.m. PT. At least, I was able to buy a pack of Christmas-themed Post-It Notes. (Look, I was hunting for an inexpensive item as a test, OK? And I'll surely use these for my next Christmas cookie swap, so people can label their treats without using a perma-sticker on their trays.)
A representative for Amazon did not immediately confirm that site problems were fixed for everyone, promising an update when one was available. But my CNET colleagues Corinne Reichert and Jon Skillings confirmed they were able to purchase items, too.
Earlier on Thursday, Amazon was showing customers errors when they tried to complete a purchase. DownDetector reported that checkout items were the most prevalent during this outage, though some CNET employees also reported seeing pages listing items for sale, but no prices. Fill in your own dad joke about how "they must be free."
The dogs of Amazon
By Jon Skillings
Perhaps to take the sting out of your not being able to make that impulse buy, Amazon's error message tugs on your heartstrings with a photo of a cuddly pup -- or two. I've been checking out the status of the Amazon outage off and on for an hour or so, and so far I've seen a half dozen different dogs. Bowser. Milly. Corbin. The list goes on. This photo of Barkley and Emma is the first to give us a back end view, but it's still so... awwwwww. The error message also invites you to "Meet the dogs of Amazon" and, well, apparently there are a lot. Like, more than 10,000 furballs who, the company proclaims, "help make Amazon a great place to work."
AWS functioning normally, Amazon says
By Gael Cooper
When asked about the outage, an Amazon representative pointed me to this statement, similar to one shared on the company's X account.
"We're sorry that some customers may be experiencing issues while shopping," the statement says. "We appreciate customers' patience as we work to resolve the issue."
According to Amazon, Amazon Web Services is functioning normally. AWS provides the foundational cloud infrastructure that enables the retail behemoth to operate, scale and deliver its e-commerce services globally. When it goes down, it's often huge news, as in an October outage that affected thousands of other companies, including Roblox, Reddit and Venmo.
The spokesperson did not give a cause for this outage.
Amazon mobile app not working for purchases
By Corinne Reichert
The Amazon mobile app is also not currently working for purchases. When I attempted to buy a product, no prices were shown, but it allowed me to add it to my cart. I could see the price once I navigated to my cart, but when I pressed "proceed to checkout," I was met with the same error message as the desktop site.
"Sorry," it reads. "Something went wrong on our end."
