If you missed the original story, it was about a guy who ordered a $6,000 Canon 1D X Mark II from Amazon and got a box of stones instead. After he got a "replacement," this time two bricks, the retailer responded with a result from their investigation.
Amazon said they've been delegating the processing of this inventory item (and maybe others) to a third party, although on your screen it says "Sold by Amazon." The proxy seemed to have lots of spare stones and bricks around, that they had decided to make some cash out of them, but got busted. The corporation doesn't share much detail on the case, but says they have taken the necessary legal actions. They've returned the money to the buyer and gave him a $1,000 gift card. The unfortunate vlogger got fortunate by purchasing his Canon 1D X Mark II camera from B&H instead and opened the box live during the recording of this video. No surprises, no drama. There was a camera in there, as expected.
Although he had that unpleasant experience with Amazon, he said he would still spend money there, but probably on items that are much cheaper. The vlogger hopes he won't make any such videos in the future, but will focus on the topic their channel was meant for.
How will Amazon make sure this won't happen again? Will they change their policy regarding "Sold by Amazon," and will they make an official announcement about that?
I'm happy that the story ended well but if you refer to previous videos...have a link to video 1 and video 2.
I referred to the original story here on Fstoppers. This video contains footage from the first and second videos also and there's no need to watch the full first and second videos.
Not for nuthin', but is Amazon simply gonna be off the hook for that "Sold by Amazon" bullshit? Shouldn't there be some kind of investigation into that?
"The proxy seemed to have lots of spare stones and bricks around, that they had decided to make some cash out of them, but got busted."
"The corporation doesn't share much detail on the case, but says they have taken the necessary legal actions."
That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about Amazon lying about the whole "Sold by Amazon" thing. It's false advertising. That's separate from that.
I am sure they've got that legally covered up in the counless pages with terms and conditions. That's probably done via some "Amazon franchise"-like sellers which formally will not be a "3rd party" but "Amazon." That's what I think happens.
It's total bullshit tho, and they'll probably continue doing it unscathed.
every company does mistakes. i'd say they had a shitty experience with an unreliable service provider... they got exposed bigtime and for sure they've learned their lesson the hard way. I'd like to think they've terminated their contract with this 3rd party company and have moved to other partnerships.
They owned their mistake, are taking legal action and gave the customer a 1000usd gift card. i'd say there's not much to discuss after that...
He's actually wondering if there would be other cases like that. Yes, their compensation was decent, but we, as users, are left with lots of questions after that. They're still my preferred online store for books though.
They still sell books? ;-)
You're missing my point. Amazon claimed the product was "Sold by Amazon". It wasn't. That's false advertising. They're not taking a hit for it. That's the problem. They're not being held accountable for false advertising.
at the scale amazon works, it honestly doesn't surprise me. as someone has already said, there must be something in the terms&conditions that allow them to lie like that. i understand what your saying, but in all honesty, a big majority of the big companies lie in their marketing. people just haven't found out yet. Procter&gamble, McDonalds, Banks... but we find out 1 by 1, select the option of "paying attention for 1 week cause this is ludicrous" and then forget it after 1 month and go back to normal.
In the end he got compensated for the huge mess they had made. i'd be happy with the outcome after the frustration.
Sold by Amazon has always been total BS. I’ve brought B+W filters from amazon, when I pay for it, the page says sold by amazon, when I recieved the package, it was fulfilled by 3rd party seller. And the filters I got was counterfeit. Refunded it right away. Never buy filter and battery on amazon, too much fake shit.
Bummer, but clearly it all worked out in the guys' favor, especially given the $1K gift card. I was one of the guys who got two A7Riii camera bodies, instead of ordered one, right before this Xmas from B&H. Of course I shipped one back and got a $250 gift card from B&H for their mistake.
What a difference in the plot :)
bricks and stones may break my bones.................................
Amazon told him they are no longer using third-party sellers but their site says otherwise.
They told him they've used a third party contractor for selling that particular item, although it read "Sold by Amazon." This one is clearly sold by third party, not "by Amazon." No contradiction here.
Also I haven't heard Amazon told this guy they won't be use any third-party "disguised" sellers. They've taken the necessary legal actions against this one and obviously they won't use this one. We don't know about any changes in their policy regarding other "Sold By Amazon" third party sellers.
I miss heard what he said at the 3:00 min mark.
No worries
Wow, that was quite shocking in that Amazon should now be letting folks know what happened, because I for one will not be ordering anything from them. It appears they want to sweep this one under the rug. Best to admit a fault in the system and fix it and let folks know the fault has been repaired.
Over Christmas I order the a Pluto Trigger system and ended up getting 2. I wrote them about it and they said keep it and have a Merry Christmas. So I know I'll be ordering from them other components.
That's a funny one.
You got two, someone else gets an empty box :D
David T now that's a thought, I hope that hasn't happened.
i have my doubts about the whole story,. i have been in e-commerce for over 20 years and have never actually heard about this happening to someone. it happening twice is one in a billion thing. but then again there are always those bad apples working in your warehouse stealing or pulling crap like this to get back to their boss hoping they will never find out who done it. we could always track who picked and who packed the shipments,. the whole story smells like day old fish,. maybe the buyer wanted to earn a fast 12k and global media attention for his youtube channel, thats what he got,.
Doubts are not a proof.
Go and ask the guy to give you a copy of the correspondence between him and the Amazon staff. He has it on file. Then write an article about the first time you've seen this and it is true.
If you watch the video until the end, and also watch the previous video, you will see that the vlogger asks everyone who has subscribed just because of this story, to unsubscribe, because he doesn't want to get attention just for such a story. He has a business and wants subscribers to care about his business, not about his unfortunate purchase. He used his YouTube channel and subscribers to get publicity about this particular case, but not to gain new photographers as subscribers, unless you drive a motorbike.
Read the comments here, in the original story, and on the Fstoppers Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/thefstoppers/
You will see some similar interesting stories from other people too.
i know how both sides work. amazon will work with you from PR perspective and a chargeback is a matter of signing a document with your creditcard company. and if you dont want the views or publicity why make a video about it on your youtube video channel ? im not saying that it never happens. i heard stories about dishonest webshops and things going wrong. what i know is that i can actually prove per parcel who picked it, who packed it, what its weight was, when it got scanned with our logistics partner, when it got deliverd with the customer and who signed for it. the reason behind this is for statistics (raising quality) and for when things go wrong. but again, 1 time something like this happening ,. okay,. but twice makes me go Mmmm,. but twice in a row,.. but then again, i heard about people getting struck by lightning twice on the same day too or winning the lottery twice in a row.
regarding your last comment, don't watch my video's or believe me but i actually show in my video's how to get your camera gear at halve price with 5 year warranty,. dont go to my youtube channel and watch the video where i explain it all.
There are other cases with other items like that. Yes, happening twice. It's less likely this to happen within the Amazon warehouses, but in this case this exact item was sold under the "Sold by Amazon" label (at least that's what the guy says) and was shipped by them.
As I said, you can go and investigate that on your own. You have the contacts of this guy.
We are not detectives here. In this case, we are journalists who share a story that seems legitimate. In real life we are working photographers and filmmakers. If you can prove it wrong, go ahead and give us the arguments. We'll gladly put them to the test and write an article if they are sound.
its a he said/they said type of thing. i know how the ecommerce parts work. i worked for the biggest ecommerce store in my country doing well over a billion euro's. with some products they have external warehouse's or even distributors who do the logistics. amazon sells a product, order gets send to the warehouse ,their own or that of their supplier. after its shipped a message goes to the amazon and they update order info. i know that in the UK and German Amazon warehouse they use lower educated and not very (underpaid its claimed) well paid workers usually. i could see a worker being tempted by this but this case is a one in a million thing. and everywhere you have a rotten apple. personally i never had any issues with amazon and all things i contacted them about got solved asap. its a good thing that guy got the camera in the end,.
I know it sounds quite unbelievable, but I don't see a proof that says "It's fake." All suspicions are assumptions too.
I see other people complaining about similar cases, and even people having the exact same experience (two times in a row for the same item).
Anything's possible in today's world of big corporations.
From my personal experience, I've never had issues with Amazon too. I've purchased items from US, UK, and Germany, including cameras, but my most expensive purchases have been made 3-4 years ago.
your turning things around. i do not see proof it is not fake. amazon is a huge company with a lot of people working directly or indirectly working for them. i dont know who is right, amazon, their supplier or the customer. its amazon that needs to figure things out. until then i am not going to judge anyone or form an opinion of what i saw.
You've got the contacts of the YouTuber. You can ask him directly for a proof.
Canon 1DX, box of stones, what's the difference? =P
LOL, you ,. you ,. Nikon shooter,. hehehe,. 1DX are good camera's,. (if you dont own a Nikon D5 that is,.)
Shoulda started at B&H from the get go.
THANK GOD I did not buy SYSTANE ULTRA Lubricant Eye Drops which Amazon claims are "Ships from and sold by Amazon.com."
They are $14 at the local store and 2 for $14.44 on Amazon. For all I know a third party shipper can be sending fake or expired or bad eye drops under the "Ships from and sold by Amazon.com" label.
Amazon should be sued for this crap.
First of all, I'd never buy such sensitive items from a we-sell-everything store, but from a specialized one.
Amazon have turned into a pathetic joke where I live (Germany). Lots of scammer fake accounts on the marketplace that they are apparently incapable to get under control, may suspend your account permanently(!) when you return 'too much' merchandise although that 'too much' isn't specified anywhere in their T&C, can frequently not fulfil preorders until two months after the item is available everywhere else, have no competitive prices for most items and even orders 'fulfilled by Amazon' are sometimes shipped from HK or mainland China. Yeah, great customer experience - not.
They are good for buying small stuff like cheap button cell batteries or Chinese made photo accessories if you can actually verify that the crap is shipped from somewhere in Europe and not the Far East and Kindle editions of books out of print or cheap ones that you don't want/need in print. But probably wouldn't buy anything worth more than 100 $/€ from them anymore.
Wow... I remember I purchased something from the German Amazon, but it was 6-7 years ago. It was fine and the price was good, I still use it. Something seems to have happened after that or I've been extremely lucky.
It happened after that - I’d say during the past four years or so.
...Speechless.
But they’re still successful and expanding around here although I don’t really understand why. From their POV things seem to be still running smoothly.
You can't really say if they are successful or not just based on their expansion, because corporate policies are quite different. For example GoPro raised their stock prices when they went IPO and for a short period their stocks were going up, but that was all artificial. Then the bubble burst and they asked for someone to buy them. Expanding may be due to profit or due to an attempt to make profit in a different area.
I don't think that Amazon is going to share GoPro's fate anytime soon. Just looked up the official figures: turnover in Germany is still growing albeit on a lower scale than worldwide. Revenue (worldwide) is a bit down; mainly due to major investments in worldwide logistics, IT services, etc. But that has always been Jeff Bezos's grand strategy: future growth over short term profit. Wouldn't say it has exactly failed for him.
However, Amazon's increased involvement with logistics had another annoying side effect for customers. Now even an order of items 'sold by Amazon' can arrive in multiple shipments as one is sent from a warehouse in Poland, another from the UK (at least for the moment being) and just another one from a German distribution hub. And even Prime customers complain that shipping times have significantly lengthened compared to "the good old times".
The growth policy of the company looks good from aside, but that's also true for any other compan whether it's small or big. The problem with big companies is the desperate need for control, because there are many people working there (because it's big) and they don't trust the majority of them and that's normal. This raises the need for having many levels of management so that each manager controls a relatively small number of people. As the company is so big, they can't trust their managers either and there have to be managers of the managers in order to prevent abuse. Managers want a bigger salary and company expenses go through the roof. Sometimes this affects the salaries of the lowest level workers which causes riots and disobedience. This turns back to the clients. This can't happen in a small family business or a company of friends.
In Amazon's case, they want more profit and they allow 3rd party sellers to sell there. That's OK, because 3rd party sellers can create their own website and sell their items, but Amazon gives them high website traffic in return to a tax the sellers pay. Scammers are everywhere, not only on Amazon. Scammers are on eBay too, but there you can have a bit more protection when using PayPal. However, the problem is when people trust that Amazon will sell and ship their items, they will get an excellent customer service. This used to be so. I see a slight decline right now.
Using Amazon in Mexico can also be a confusing experience, and often feels not much different from using ebay or one of the local alternatives where one is dealing with individuals.
This is why I rarely do business with Amazon for anything. First, their website sucks royally. Second, it's never really clear who you're dealing with amongst all the confusion and clutter that is their site. Is it Amazon or some "store". When it comes to photo gear, I deal with B&H and Adorama.
Yep, I've used B&H for years and years, and have always had a perfect transaction with them. Rock solid business.
Why the Amazon bashing? Their disclosure said “sold by Amazon”, not “shipped by” Amazon. Amazon owned the inventory and therefore was responsible to the buyer. They delegated shipping and processing to a third party, just like many retailers do. So Amazon 100% reimbursed the buyer when it was shown that the buyer wasn’t lying and Amazon (not the buyer) is now going after the shipper. Plus Amazon gave the buyer an extra $1,000. Because it was “sold by Amazon”. Amazon, don’t change your policies. Keep up the good work please. And ignore the clowns out there.
Lol. I'm not watching the other two videos but I hope he kept both the rocks and bricks. I'd put the rocks in a fish bowl and sit it on top of the bricks.