Amazon Accidentally Sold $13k Camera Gear for $100 on Prime Day • Hacker News Board

Re: Amazon Accidentally Sold $13k Camera Gear for $100 on Prime Day

#141

Post by okcando » Thu, Jul 18, 2019, 3:09 AM UTC

dodobirdlord wrote: post #104

judge2020 wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This probably plays into the antitrust issues. Amazon is so big that they can drop probably $200,000+ In revenue in exchange for news articles like this one and to let users know Amazon always takes their side. Say a new non-unicorn competitor joins the e-commerce space. They can't afford to burn money like Amazon can, so disputes are treated on a case-by-case basis with investigating sometimes taking weeks before ch…

> Suddenly people stop buying from this company because there isn't a 99.5% chance that the company will refund any future fraud or mishaps. In this scenario one company offers a better product via a better customer experience. Simply being able to offer a better product because of scale is now enough to get people talking about antitrust issues. Not everything is an antitrust issue. It's really starting to grate on…

This complaint is closely related to the idea that selling a product at below-cost is anticompetitive, and that does have basis in antitrust law.

The idea that customer service can be a "product" run at a loss to gain an unfair advantage is at least a little compelling. I don't know if it has merit but it's an interesting question.

Re: Amazon Accidentally Sold $13k Camera Gear for $100 on Prime Day

#142

Post by noidesto » Thu, Jul 18, 2019, 3:15 AM UTC

odensc wrote: post #139

wsxcde wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nah, the blowback they'd get from not honoring the purchasing would be terrible. More generally, Amazon are one of the few companies who understand that short term losses can lead to long-term goodwill and profit. So anyway, my prediction is that they will do nothing about your purchase.

They'll almost certainly cancel it. Pricing errors like this happen all the time on Amazon, there are whole websites/subreddits dedicated to finding them. Usually they just cancel it the next day and maybe give you a $10 gift card. Sometimes you get lucky and get the item, but the media's advertisement of this will probably exponentially increase the chance of getting your order canceled, unless Amazon has some crazy…

Seems some are beginning to receive their gear.

Re: Amazon Accidentally Sold $13k Camera Gear for $100 on Prime Day

#143

Post by RandomBacon » Thu, Jul 18, 2019, 3:17 AM UTC

tomcam wrote: post #126

cwkoss wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you reap the rewards of automation, you also accept its risks.

So if you listed your car on Craigslist for $150 instead of the $15,000 you intended you’d honor the offer and not explain to buyers what had happened?

Did an algorithm you wrote adjust the price and deliver the car without you manually approving the purchase?

Re: Amazon Accidentally Sold $13k Camera Gear for $100 on Prime Day

#144

Post by mnm1 » Thu, Jul 18, 2019, 3:18 AM UTC

WalterBright wrote: post #44

empath75 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly amazon would be better off honoring it. It’s a drop in the bucket and good publicity for prime.

Yes, Amazon would be. That doesn't make what the customer did ethical.

By your insanely stupid logic, buying anything is unethical. Do you understand how markets work? Clearly not. Has Amazon even admitted it was a mistake and not a marketing ploy as others have suggested? No. So how do you know they didn't intend to sell at these prices? There's nothing unethical going on here only incredible misunderstanding and uninformed assumptions on your part. Maybe you should think twice next time before labeling things unethical when you clearly do not have the full facts.

Re: Amazon Accidentally Sold $13k Camera Gear for $100 on Prime Day

#145

Post by mensetmanusman » Thu, Jul 18, 2019, 3:20 AM UTC

Kye wrote: post #119

mensetmanusman wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. But you have to admit it is unethical. People justify stealing $16 million from the government because it is just a rounding error every day :)

>> "But you have to admit it is unethical." No, I don't. Buying something for the listed price is perfectly ethical. Your ethics are different. That's okay. People have different perspectives. My ethics don't require me to pay more than the asking price. I'll tip people who undercharge to the point that it's harmful to them (like albums on Bandcamp), but Amazon will be fine. >> "People justify stealing $16 million fr…

Interesting.

In previous e-commerce mistakes, negative prices were listed.

If amazon listed -$16M as the cost of the camera and put it in your bank, would it be unethical to accept that?

Re: Amazon Accidentally Sold $13k Camera Gear for $100 on Prime Day

#146

Post by giarc » Thu, Jul 18, 2019, 3:22 AM UTC

what_ever wrote: post #135

wsxcde wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nah, the blowback they'd get from not honoring the purchasing would be terrible. More generally, Amazon are one of the few companies who understand that short term losses can lead to long-term goodwill and profit. So anyway, my prediction is that they will do nothing about your purchase.

Eh, no one is going to stop using Amazon if Amazon didn't honor 2k camera for $94.

You're right. A few years ago Air Canada accidentally priced an $8000 flight pass for $99 or some low number. I bought two, as did hundreds of other people. Air Canada canceled them all and yet I still look up Air Canada prices every time I need to fly.

Re: Amazon Accidentally Sold $13k Camera Gear for $100 on Prime Day

#147

Post by travmatt » Thu, Jul 18, 2019, 3:26 AM UTC

zrobotics wrote: post #91

travmatt wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe this was common on eBay. People also looked for common misspellings of items, misspellings that would lead items to get fewer ids and usually end underpriced relative to similar items.

I don't have this automated, but this is definitely still a thing, at least for used test equipment. I'm not clever enough to automate it fully, since often constructing the search terms is fairly difficult, but I definitely have scored some incredible deals ($40 for a perfectly fine HP spectrum analyzer a month ago). The only automation is some simple greasemonkey scripts, but there are definitely deals to be had on…

Most I believe use all words within a given Levenshtein distance.

Re: Amazon Accidentally Sold $13k Camera Gear for $100 on Prime Day

#148

Post by zrobotics » Thu, Jul 18, 2019, 3:27 AM UTC

rwc wrote: post #96

zrobotics wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not trying to pick a fight, I'm genuinely curious- why should Amazon be expected to do that? Even with their attitude for good customer service, if you purchased an item a week ago why should they give you money now because it is on sale? Prime day isn't exactly a secret, I would say the fair argument here is that you wanted a TV in a hurry and weren't interested in waiting for the sale. Otherwise, should they also r…

It's standard practice in retail that price adjustments are made if a price cut happens within the return period of the purchase.

This starts to make sense to me after reading the sister comments. Within the return period, environmentally it does make sense (CO2 costs of shipping a large TV aren't negligible). I may not be savvy enough, if I see an item I bought on sale I don't think "I should return this and buy the same item" but it does make perfect sense to do so.

If i see an item I bought on sale I think "damn, I missed out", but a rational consumer (economics sense) would think "I should return this and buy another". I just approached the question from my typical viewpoint, which is "you buy it, you own it" and not expecting any additional customer support.

That, and social anxiety means I would be far more comfortable paying the extra $400 than bugging an associate for a refund.

Re: Amazon Accidentally Sold $13k Camera Gear for $100 on Prime Day

#149

Post by bgrynol » Thu, Jul 18, 2019, 3:29 AM UTC

Retail arbitrage at its finest!

Even the big players make mistakes that are completely avoidable with proper oversight

Love this so much <3

Re: Amazon Accidentally Sold $13k Camera Gear for $100 on Prime Day

#150

Post by Kye » Thu, Jul 18, 2019, 3:29 AM UTC

mensetmanusman wrote: post #145

Kye wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> "But you have to admit it is unethical." No, I don't. Buying something for the listed price is perfectly ethical. Your ethics are different. That's okay. People have different perspectives. My ethics don't require me to pay more than the asking price. I'll tip people who undercharge to the point that it's harmful to them (like albums on Bandcamp), but Amazon will be fine. >> "People justify stealing $16 million fr…

Interesting. In previous e-commerce mistakes, negative prices were listed. If amazon listed -$16M as the cost of the camera and put it in your bank, would it be unethical to accept that?

This is like asking "what if the sun disappeared?" It hasn't happened, probably won't happen, and would be such a shock to all logic that any thoughts about it wouldn't survive contact with reality.