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

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

#291

Post by LeonidasXIV »

Freak_NL wrote: post #228
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.

If I remember correctly, in these cases (bunk beds and televisions) the orders were never fulfilled. The court ruled that a sales contract is not binding if the buyer can reasonably suspect that the price shown is so absurdly low that an error on the side of the seller is apparent. That is, you can try to order the item, but the seller has no legal obligation of fulfilling it if they can proof beyond reasonable doubt…

This is because (at least in many shops in the EU) ordering does imply a sale, no contract has been made, it is only a notion of intent (which if you read the T&C in the order confirmation you'll find pretty often). The contract is only made when the company ships it, thus agreeing to the sale.

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

#292

Post by londons_explore »

ovao wrote: post #208
qiqitori wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huh, it's crazy that they do this at all. How do they check this kind of thing? Do they ask the buyer to display the Amazon page on their smartphone if it's just a small discount? Or do they always check on their own devices? (Amazon reportedly sometimes displays different prices for different accounts.) In my experience, if you need a retail clerk to do something for you and the first person turns you down, you can…

My price-matching experience is — consistently — that a manager is called over to okay a displayed competitor's price on my phone, and the manager simply gives the okay without questioning or validating. I've never had a competitor's price cross-checked. Based on this, I think I could cheat at least slightly if I were immoral.

I wonder why so many people use price matching?

Why not buy it direct from the cheaper place?

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

#293

Post by arghwhat »

sagebird wrote: post #239

It’s kind of interesting- the asymmetry of moral expectations and entitlement. If you accidentally purchased a bag of M&Ms from Amazon for 500 dollars instead of 5, they will let you undo it. On the other hand, if the matter is reversed, Amazon is expected to be a good sport and take the loss — even if the purchase was made in bad faith (ie- knowing Amazon mis-priced it but purchasing it anyways.) I’m not going to en…

The simple conclusion is that there were never any morals involved. There was only greed and selfishness, that in some cases just so happened to be justifiable as moral.

Of course, I believe that consumers should have good (but reasonable) protection, as consumers are usually the weaker end of the transaction, with the least knowledge and capacity, and due to an evil customer being able to do far less harm than an evil company. However, one side isn't any more moral than the other.

My only problem with this incident was that I didn't get a chance to get in on it... Instead of having to make excuses for myself as to why upgrading to full-frame can wait a few years as it's too expensive, I could just have done it now. One thing is getting a good deal, but getting something today that would otherwise only be possible in the future is something entirely different. You cannot set a price on gaining time.

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

#294

Post by Kaiyou »

Sherl wrote: post #263
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…

No. Amazon is not going to send you a legal notice to return this. Amazon wants to be the customer centric company and this act is to prove that they own the mistake and the customer is the king. Source: Amazon employee.

This attitude is exactly why I feel safe buying from amazon and will continue to do so. If they were sending lawyers over a few bucks like Nintendo regularly does, they would have landed on my blacklist, just like Nintendo did. This attitude is imho one of the most important assets of amazon and they'd be stupid to throw it away over peanuts.

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

#295

Post by Kaiyou »

nkozyra wrote: post #121
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.

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

I didn't know this exists and I'm an amazon customer since 2001 or so.

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

#296

Post by dustinmoris »

Does anyone know if someone tried to order a ridiculous amount of the 13k Sony zoom lens? If I would have noticed this pricing error still in time to place an order I wouldn't have wasted a minute to think what I want, I would have ordered 100-1000 lenses worth 13000 for 95 each and later sold them on eBay for 10k each and bought myself a Tesla or something...

Why don't I read an actually interesting story about this pricing error, who cares that some people got a single item discounted... That's as interesting as someone winning $300 in the lottery. Happens all the time, not worth a story otherwise...

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

#297

Post by mehrdadn »

sagebird wrote: post #239

It’s kind of interesting- the asymmetry of moral expectations and entitlement. If you accidentally purchased a bag of M&Ms from Amazon for 500 dollars instead of 5, they will let you undo it. On the other hand, if the matter is reversed, Amazon is expected to be a good sport and take the loss — even if the purchase was made in bad faith (ie- knowing Amazon mis-priced it but purchasing it anyways.) I’m not going to en…

> If you accidentally purchased a bag of M&Ms from Amazon for 500 dollars instead of 5, they will let you undo it. On the other hand, if the matter is reversed, Amazon is expected to be a good sport and take the loss

Your "reverse" is not the inverse situation, which is what you should be really comparing against.

The real question you need to ask is what people would do in Amazon's shoes. The answer to that is far less clear to me.

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

#298

Post by tomcam »

RandomBacon wrote: post #143
tomcam wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

An algorithm on their end could have modified the price without you manually approving it.

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

#299

Post by Uberphallus »

LeonidasXIV wrote: post #291
Freak_NL wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I remember correctly, in these cases (bunk beds and televisions) the orders were never fulfilled. The court ruled that a sales contract is not binding if the buyer can reasonably suspect that the price shown is so absurdly low that an error on the side of the seller is apparent. That is, you can try to order the item, but the seller has no legal obligation of fulfilling it if they can proof beyond reasonable doubt…

This is because (at least in many shops in the EU) ordering does imply a sale, no contract has been made, it is only a notion of intent (which if you read the T&C in the order confirmation you'll find pretty often). The contract is only made when the company ships it, thus agreeing to the sale.

Actually the contract is in place when the order is confirmed. At least from EU webshops it's common to receive two mails, one for order received, another for order confirmed (potentially hours or even days later).

This actually hit the spotlight recently in Spain as Dell advertised 1000-1800€ laptops for 29-35€ on their site[0]. Many people bought, received the first AND the second email around 5h later.

If it wasn't for that second email, they could cancel the order no questions asked, but actually someone on their side said "yep, this order looks fine" and clicked confirm. Consumer associations are hitting Dell with all their force.

[0] In Spanish: https://www.eldiario.es/tecnologia/portatiles-Dell-clientes-...

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

#300

Post by rkachowski »

ultrarunner wrote: post #266
sgift wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazon is not a person, it's a company. Attributing moral to a transaction with non-person entities is frail itself. Does moral even apply here? What does it mean?

Someone is responsible for that listing and the pricing it receives. The company operates collectively, but there is ultimately a human behind each sale. OP seems to be interested in the morality surrounding the treatment of the people involved, not the legal entity they’ve invented.

That's not necessarily true. There's nothing to say that this wasn't an intentional stunt to push Prime Day to the front of various deal websites by selling camera equipment to professionals as a loss leader.

The size of Amazon is such that they can afford to bleed heavily from selling mid range pro camera equipment at a significant loss whilst recouping the profit from all the incidental purchases and traffic that the attention brought.

I'm not saying that this is what happened, but marketing budgets run into the millions (especially for a highly promoted yearly event like Prime Day) and dropping a few hundred thousand on a scheme like this isn't so outrageous.

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