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?
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.
Unfortunately the bricks were returned.
GOOD.
This is why I hate vendors on these types of retail sites. I purchased a $1300 MSI laptop that has failed 3 times now and it was from a vendor on newegg. The vendor was not held responsible. I bought it brand new and it died 22 days into ownership the FIRST time. I called Newegg and they refused to refund me my money and told me to call MSI. I called MSI and they refused to refund me. I shipped into MSI to get fixed. A month and a half later I get it back and it works...for two weeks then dies again. I send it back into MSI for another month and a half get it back fixed again but the screen is all sorts of ugly. large brown spot, 6 small white spots, and dead pixels galore. At this point I can't afford to lose any more work so I deal with it. Fast forward 8 months and my laptop over heats due to a dead fan and corrupts the data on my hard drive. Luckily this time I was smart enough to back up all my data. I buy a new fan for it out of my own pocket from MSI because it is now out of warranty from MSI and now USPS has juggled it six times between Oklahoma (where i live) and California and now my fan delivery is indefinitely delayed. I dunno if i'm even going to receive it. The icing on the cake was that I paid over $100 for next day shipping with rush processing and didn't receive until 3 days after i ordered it.
The very same thing just happened to me today ordered a canon 85mm f1.2 ii from Amazon uk and received a rokinon in a battered canon box. Total madness. Amazon are investigating but it’s looking like it’s going to be slow.
Unless this gets viral on the social media...
You ordered directly from Amazon, right, not from a third party seller?
Hi and thanks.
Yes this was ordered directly from Amazon. It says sold by Amazon.co.uk.
After a few phone calls and emails they have decided they can send me a replacement for next Tuesday. Will wait and see what happens and update this post.
Don't hesitate to share the result here. People read the comments.
I will for sure. See photo for what actually turned up. Will post more info next Tuesday. Thanks
All good. Amazon got it right second time around. No explanation to how the lens got stolen and switched from the first delivery.
Thanks for sharing your story. It's still scary that you're not the only one who share such cases in the comments here and in Facebook.
Until reading this article, I had always assumed that the buyer actually did get a camera, but lied and said that he got rocks instead, just so he could get then camera AND get all of his money back. This is the first time I have heard this version of this story - saying that the customer actually did get a box of rocks. I'm not really sure what to believe now.