Amazon has been a reputable store for many years. But this happened: a guy received a Canon 1D X Mark II box full with rocks. You think that's all? See what happened when the Amazon representatives apologized and sent a second package to him.
No, it's not a third party seller on Amazon. It's the mothership itself. A YouTuber orders a $6,000 Canon 1D X Mark II and received a well packaged plastic-sealed box that looked like it had a camera inside. Instead, there were rocks in the box. After chatting with the customer representatives, they apologized, sent him another package within two days, awarded him with $20, and gave him a free month Amazon Prime (while he already was an Amazon Prime member). Well, not the greatest compensation, but at least he's got the camera, right? Nope. He recorded the process of opening the new package. It was again nicely sealed and the box looked like there was legitimate Canon 1D X Mark II in it. Then came the surprise and it wasn't pleasant at all. This time, there were two bricks inside. Yes. Two. Nice. Red. Bricks. Imagine his frustration. When watching this you can feel the devastation. We're looking forward to episode three.
What's your response Mr. Bezos?
ARE _you_ certain this is real? Not Satire? Or BS?
The guy is a real YouTuber who has a legit business. He had another video with the first part of the saga. You can see it on his channel.
If you can prove it otherwise, let us know. Everything seems real so far.
Legit I've been following chase for awhile now.
This got posted on Reddit before this article, and like Reddit normally does, it tore it apart and validated that it's real.
I ordered two Lexar 128GB XQD cards from Amazon on 8/28. In December I received two 58mm generic lens caps. Obviously, I returned them. Then I went back to Amazon and asked to be put on the wait list for the Lexar 128GB XQD cards when they became available again. In early January I received notice that they were, and so I re-ordered the cards. In early February I AGAIN received two 58mm lens caps. After the first shipment the Amazon support person apologized and made the refund. After the second shipment she profusely apologized and said that even it showed in stock again I should instead order from someone other than Amazon. Both orders were from Amazon direct.
So, I believe this guy.
Amazingly disturbing...
Well you tube is not what I'd call an ideal vouch.
Go ahead and prove it's fake then. Assumptions are not a proof.
a bit of a drama queen...does he think Amazon is really trying to rip him off? Clearly this is a large scale theft...sadly he destroyed a significant amount of evidence unnecessarily ripping the box apart. Just call your credit card company and move on.
Calling your credit card company doesn't get you views on YouTube. Everybody knows that. ;)
This guy really made me unsympathetic to his problem. What a dick. OK, Amazon screwed up. Twice. So there is a problem there. They are certainly as concerned about it as he is. They pulled all the stock and are launching an investigation. Does he think that they tried to scam him? That is what he makes it sound like. And griping about the $20 gift certificate - have a little class buddy.
Dude. He received a BOX OF ROCKS the first time. Then received a BOX OF BRICKS when they were supposed to have rectified the error. If you can explain how that happens twice and how you would not be super pissed, I’m interested in whatever drugs you’re on.
^^ what he said. Chase is a really humble guy but this is a bit out of hand of a situation.
Here's what I'm guessing happened. Some scammer orders the camera, gets it, places the rocks in the box, then shrink wraps it. They then return it and the people at Amazon don't bother to check it because of the shrink wrap.
And we've got 2 rock-n-roll scammers in a row, and both their packages ended up into this guy's mailbox. What a luck!
Years ago when I worked at a retail shoe store we discovered that the former assistant manager had been bringing in old shoes from home and putting them in new shoe boxes while he would wear the new shoes home. More than six months later we were finding boxes of old shoes when we would bring them out to customers. My best guess is that someone at the distributor Amazon is using is stealing the cameras then re-shrink wrapping the boxes so Amazon has no idea they are sending out bogus non-products. I once had a Dell technician pull the same stunt on a commercial order of new computers back in the 90's as well. He swapped out the RAM and video card in two of our machines with old clunky stuff from home. I had Amazon take excellent care of me when they shipped a defective SB910 speed light to me. Nikon wanted me to mail it to them at my expense for repair. I contacted Amazon and they overnighted a new one that worked fine.
Bought a $500 lens from Amazon warehouse recently and it came in a freaking bubble wrap manilla envelope. I couldn't believe it! I buy a $10 bottle of vitamins and they pack it in air cushions inside a cardboard box. I buy a camera lens and they stick it in an envelope?!? By some miracle the lens was in perfect shape. (Way to go USPS for handling this unmarked envelope with such care on it's journey across the country.)
To be very honest? He behaves like a spoiled little girl, zero class or manners. Yes, the situation is really bad, but it's not like he is going to loose the money. I feel hard to be sympathetic because of his behavior. Such a drama.
It's not just about the money here. It's about customer service. If it was just a one time case with a happy end, it could be just a funny story. Here we're talking about a very disturbing behavior: twice in the same fashion.
Tihomir, I totally understand. Hard to believe it happened. Almost like winning a bad lottery. But I was primarily commenting on the world, composure, lack of class on the guy. Let's say the same situation happened, but you can show class in the way you handle it. He showed non. Publicly swearing, his expressions and body language. There are people who are going through much serious dramas in life and are able to show more class and humility. He is not a role model here.
I see what you mean and I understand you. However, I ignored the "presentation style," and focused on the situation, because this was not a video that was for his business, but something describing a personal issue. He even urged people to not subscribe to his channel just because of that story.
Hahahahahahaha. True though.
Canon generally does not shrink wrap it's boxes. At least while I was in retail camera sales. They heavy cellophane you saw in the video is the cheap stuff you can buy online; most manufacturers, when they DO shrink wrap, use a much "softer" poly material that does not make all the noise, and is not stiff.
I'm glad that I talked my wife out of buying me a Canon 5D III from Amazon. I wanted to check B&H and I found a similar package for $500 less.
i think i would have opened it up infant of the ups guy when it was delivered. amazon is gonna think he is pulling a fast one. no one but him knows the truth, doesn't matter how many youtube followers he has.
Unfortunately, more people like him are sharing similar stories here in the comments.
This is an inconvenience but *obviously* Amazon is not trying to cheat anyone. I would be worried they would assume I was trying to scam them. But that's one of the benefits of dealing with them; they give customers the benefit of the doubt.
If he's going to be pissed at anyone, be pissed at the low life scammers that stole the cameras. Try that at B&H and the warehouse guys will know the box shouldn't be shrink wrapped. But the guys at the Amazon warehouse are more likely than not to be clueless. In fact, when they were picking out a replacement camera body for this guy they probably thought that the shrink wrapped box was the safest bet.
Yes, nobody thinks it's "Amazon," but whoever from the workers did that cheap cheat affects the company reputation in a bad way. Maybe there are internal issues in the company we don't know about. This is not the first case, from what I see.
AFAIK, cameras, lenses, and accessories don't come in shrink wrapped boxes. Sounds like a third party seller/scammer using Fulfilled by Amazon.
No, it was sold by Amazon, not by a third party seller.
This is why we need to use the anti trust laws and break up Amazon! It's just too damn big! Im sure this is probably an employee either at Amazon or the shipper stealing this stuff. I would insure the package and request a signature for it to be released. Open it with the shipper standing right there. If the box still has rocks, call 911, report the theft and charge the shipper right there! That should wake them up . . . Thats what I would do.
I agree that small companies are always having less problems than big corporations. The bigger the company gets, the more control it has, the more levels of management it has, the more chance of a dictatorship and abuse at any level there may be, the more the employees may act in a rebellious fashion.
Is it worth buying camera gear on Amazon? If I'm spending that much I'd rather go to a store if possible.
It worked so far. One of my cameras was from Amazon. I've spent thousands of dollars on books there (a commong thing for me was to spend $500 on books at once). But this was about 10 years ago. One time I had a package lost in the transit and they've did a free replacement (about a $350 value) and shipped it for free. Hearing to such stories now makes me wonder what happened to the company. I liked it.
I have bought a crap ton of camera equipment from Amazon, both used and new, with nothing but the best results. They have always stood behind their products and have provided nothing but the best service. I have returned several items and never had to do anything more than click a button, print a label and send it back. Never any questions asked. For customers like me who live 200+ miles away from the nearest camera store Amazon has been wonderful.
The same here. I've purchased lots of things, including a camera, and never had issues with the store.
Get your money back and go to B&H
Bunch of rocks for the Rock head guy.
Bunch of bricks for the Brick head guy.
It’s not his fault. But rocks and bricks actually made it to the correct guy.
:))))))). Jajajajajajajaa.
why not just buy from a local camera-store ? promote the growth of a small business and no frauds possible !
That's also true and surely people do that (and I support that), but this doesn't mean buying from a big corporation has to be a bad experience.
Use B&H, problem solved!
That won't solve the current problem, but may be beneficial for future problem-less purchases.
This sucks in a big way. Thee's no arguing that.
I work in an Amazon Fulfillment Center and I'm at a loss as to how this could have happened within the FC itself. Assuming an FC employee opened the box and took the camera out, I can't figure out how they would get the camera out of the facility without being caught. I can't give details due to the company's social media policy but suffice it to say, it would have to be a colossal inside job for this to happen.
My guess is that it occurred before those cameras even got to Amazon's fulfillment center.
Thanks for the input Rob. I also wonder how this could have happened. I personally had only good experience with Amazon and I've trusted them for every single purchase of mine (including photography gear). I'm looking forward to seeing the results from the investigation.
So let me see, a YouTuber.... happens to receive, not one, but TWO, boxes full of rock ware in a row, right? And the guy happens to open one of them LIVE.
So when he complained with Amazon the first time about, wait for it, not a $6 scam, not $60, not $600, but a SIX THOUSAND DOLLAR SCAM, and the camera was sent again, nothing was said at Amazon to, you know, make sure you they not swap the camera with rocks this time.
It is either this thing is happening so often, and mysteriously we haven't heard about it before, that it is normal a guy gets rocks instead of a camera, and the replacement is, rocks too..... or this guy is soooooooooooooo unlucky, that the only couple of times this happened, it coincidentally happened to the same guy, sorry, YouTuber, in a row.
Give me a break.
Wrong. It was an upgrade the second time: bricks.
What company delivered it? The problem is that they see the Battery warning on the package and that's a key that something valuable is inside. I would make sure that it's delivered by a different carrier or go to B&H or Adorama.
So much love on here for B&H or Adorama. What about your local shop where you can actually talk to a person.
I have read on another camera blog page that amazon does not keep inventory separate from their own and other vendors that are set up to be distributed by Amazon thru Prime. If you think about, AMZN has so many DCs and they usually try to ship from a DC close one to the customer. So it seems one of their customers (XYZ Camera company) that sells on their site but has Amazon handle the shipping for them sent in the rocks and bricks. They make out like a true bandit. An Amazon order being fulfilled with their bogus item. An order let's say on the other side the USA that is placed with marketplace from XYZ is fulfilled with a genuine Canon product purchased by Amzn.
After reading this, I started to order from B&H.
If that is true, that you buy "form Amazon," but the order is fulfilled by a representative, there has to be a very easy way to track such cases then, not to take 1-2 weeks. There will be an info who from the representatives processed the purchase and take the responsibility.