Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

petapixel.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

211–220 of 526 posts

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

#211

Post by thaumasiotes »

FireBeyond wrote: post #137
danso wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But price matching is predicated on realistic economic competition, not we'll-match-it-no-matter-what-based-on-principle. There are already exceptions based on only dealing with "major online retailers" – i.e. retailers that operate on making stable revenue/profit from selling things – as well as disqualifying certain kind of discounts, like clearances and Black Friday prices. And in any case, Best Buy's qualifying r…

One of the things they "fixed" was requiring it to be sold by Amazon or Fulfilled By Amazon. A few years ago there was a little racket in creating an Amazon seller account, "selling" things at stupid discounts (which you neither had nor intended to fulfill), go into Best Buy and say "Look, half that price on Amazon, match it!".

> One of the things they "fixed" was requiring it to be sold by Amazon or Fulfilled By Amazon.

As of the last time I heard their policy (within a couple of years, from floor/cash register staff), Fulfilled By Amazon doesn't cut it -- they will price match only if Amazon is the vendor.

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

#212

Post by teej »

_Nat_ wrote: post #178
acid__ wrote: post #123

I got in on this! I got a Sony A7R II and a 24-70 2.8 II I'd always wanted but could never justify the purchase of. ($~3k value for $200) A few observations: - Despite the extraordinary deal we got, my friends (who also made a purchase) and I all have our joy offset by a feeling of regret that we didn't order more. Greed! - Despite the fact that I couldn't justify the purchase before I owned them, I now definitely do…

Grats on the lucky score! > A lot of people saying the orders are going to be cancelled -- seeing as I currently have both body and lens in possession, I find that unlikely. Gotta agree that it's unlikely for these orders to be cancelled. Seems like Amazon.com's got a lot of cash (without checking, but I assume?), so they can probably afford it. Instead, the smart move would seem to be to play this up hard -- perhaps…

There were stories of other mispriced deals that folks got where the order was cancelled. So I imagine it’s simply a matter of what Amazon caught in time vs not.

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

#213

Post by h6d-100c »

teej wrote: post #212
_Nat_ wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Grats on the lucky score! > A lot of people saying the orders are going to be cancelled -- seeing as I currently have both body and lens in possession, I find that unlikely. Gotta agree that it's unlikely for these orders to be cancelled. Seems like Amazon.com's got a lot of cash (without checking, but I assume?), so they can probably afford it. Instead, the smart move would seem to be to play this up hard -- perhaps…

There were stories of other mispriced deals that folks got where the order was cancelled. So I imagine it’s simply a matter of what Amazon caught in time vs not.

A camera I ordered just shipped, so I think they are just eating the cost.

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

#214

Post by edanm »

Cd00d wrote: post #197
sharkweek wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure how far and wide the show Nathan For You reaches, but there's a fantastic episode where he proposes a local electronics store mark TVs down to $1 in order to buy up new inventory from Best Buy for his own store using their price match policy. Rather than trying to explain it poorly, I highly recommend everyone watch this clip from the show: http://www.cc.com/video-clips/i6q9t5/nathan-for-you-the-pric...

Never seen the show before, but enjoyed the clip - thank you. Very curious how it turned out.

Despite being not at all the kind of show I normally watch, I found this to be one of the greatest shows I've ever seen. It's funny, and brilliant in its observations of human nature.

Highly, highly recommended.

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

#215

Post by thinkloop »

guelo wrote: post #41
WalterBright wrote: post #9

Amazon would be within their rights to refuse to honor such purchases. I also don't think it's ethical to take advantage of such mistakes. What if it was you who accidentally listed your house for $60,000 rather than $600,000? What if you accidentally included an extra 0 on the check you wrote?

In my ethical framework it is more than fine to take advantage of a mistake by one of the largest companies in the world. They'll take advantage of you if given the chance.

Corporations are owned by regular people, especially the larger they are. Their shares are in retirement accounts and college funds, etc. That must count for something?

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

#216

Post by mattashii »

want2know wrote: post #205
acid__ wrote: post #123

I got in on this! I got a Sony A7R II and a 24-70 2.8 II I'd always wanted but could never justify the purchase of. ($~3k value for $200) A few observations: - Despite the extraordinary deal we got, my friends (who also made a purchase) and I all have our joy offset by a feeling of regret that we didn't order more. Greed! - Despite the fact that I couldn't justify the purchase before I owned them, I now definitely do…

In the Netherlands this also happened some times on webshops. And everytime a judge ruled people had to bring the goods back or should pay the full amount. The reason is that it is very clear for the buyer it is a mistake. And almost all webshops have a legal notice about wrong or false prices.

> And everytime a judge ruled people had to bring the goods back or should pay the full amount.

This is slightly different from what I remember, so can you link me an example?

Last time I checked, the webshop must fulfill the order, unless the price is obviously wrong, and the webshop cannot force a return for something the customer has already recieved and paid for.

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

#217

Post by meddlepal »

bromuro wrote: post #177
nkozyra wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Sounds to me like someone at Amazon is good at marketing. Ah yes, finally someone will be talking about Amazon and Prime Day.

To me is the first time i hear about it.

I still do not know what it is :/

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

#219

Post by cronix »

kls wrote: post #108

Sounds to me like someone at Amazon is good at marketing. Let a few things go for an insane deal, knowing it will hit the front page of every blog. Then reap the rush of next years prime day with people scouring the site for pricing "errors". Pretty cheap and effective marketing. Kind of like a raffle but without having to get all the lawyers involved to make sure you comply with raffle laws.

Or some employees had some fun as part of the Amazon protests.

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

#220

Post by want2know »

mattashii wrote: post #216
want2know wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the Netherlands this also happened some times on webshops. And everytime a judge ruled people had to bring the goods back or should pay the full amount. The reason is that it is very clear for the buyer it is a mistake. And almost all webshops have a legal notice about wrong or false prices.

> And everytime a judge ruled people had to bring the goods back or should pay the full amount. This is slightly different from what I remember, so can you link me an example? Last time I checked, the webshop must fulfill the order, unless the price is obviously wrong, and the webshop cannot force a return for something the customer has already recieved and paid for.

Here an example (in Dutch): http://uitspraken.rechtspraak.nl/inziendocument?id=ECLI:NL:G...
Post reply on HN