Amazon Loses It...eva Platinum For $6

[JB0]

If I'm nost mistaken, the low-profile screwups ahve a better chance of making it through. When they get swaped with strangely large amounts of orders, it likely sends up a red flag for someone to double-check this.

[nhyone]

Its official, all orders are being cancelled.

362815[/snapback]

I thought Amazon would have honour it. But even so, it's very likely they would give some rebate points as compensation.

[Sdf-1]

If I'm nost mistaken, the low-profile screwups ahve a better chance of making it through. When they get swaped with strangely large amounts of orders, it likely sends up a red flag for someone to double-check this.

So, posting it to a forum may not be the best thing Just keep it to yourself

[Duke Togo]

Its official, all orders are being cancelled.

362815[/snapback]

I thought Amazon would have honour it. But even so, it's very likely they would give some rebate points as compensation.

362827[/snapback]

No, they don't have to. And no, they won't. Its Amazon.com policy, we had pretty much no chance of getting it at that price.

[Hikuro]

Wow that's amazing. Sadly I already own the Platnium set have for well over a year now since it was a Christmas present. But still that's a damn good deal.

[Ladic]

nuts

[Spatula]

C'mon buying a frigging huge ass TV from the internet? I mean I'd actually want to "test watch" this TV before even pull my Credit Card out. Paying for shipping would be a bitch, and plus what happens if it's, well, not want you want? I like internet shopping, to an extent.

[Warmaker]

What was the difference between the Platinum and Original Eva DVDs here in the US? Well, other than Sadamoto's art on the covers...

[Mr March]

I'm sorry to hear my prediction came true.

A friend of mine was boxing day shopping this past season. While on Amazon.com, he came across the three Lord of the Rings Extended Edition Sets (the big ones, with the polystone figures) for $20 a set. He quickly purchased all three sets for $60, an astounding bargin considering that all three sets would have cost him $180 at regular prices.

Two days later, Amazon e-mailed him with a price adjustment....back to $60 PER SET.

Like others have said, if Amazon were a retailer with a physical store, they'd have to honor the price. One of the pitfalls of online shopping.

[JB0]

Actually, they likely wouldn't have to honor the price.

Fliers are covered with legal disclaimers that say they aren't responsible for typos, which are further highlighted at the front door when they get caught. And you'll never convince them that they have any obligation to honor a blatantly mistagged product(say, an XBox 360 someone set in the 5$ clearance bin because they changed their mind).

I've never actually seen any evidence of any actual legislation that forces retailers to honor any given form of mistakes , just vague references to "the law". And the fact that people from diffrent states and even countries claim the law as relevant to any and every situation tends to dampen my belief that it exists.

Such laws in the US would be implemented at the state level, not the national level. Thus they would vary from location to location.

And international law should be obvious. The law in one nation is completely irrelevant to another. Seeing someone from one nation explaining to a consumer in another how their legal rights have been violated is comical at best. No offense to anyone doing so here, I've just seen it too often in any chosen direction.

Unless you can cite title, chapter, and section of the law you're invoking, I wouldn't place any great weight in it's relevance to the situation, whether the store's online or not.

Even IF we grant the existence of a universal "lowest price" law, online retailers are in a rather odd position.

Are they refusing to honor a typo'ed ad with legal disclaimer? A computer error with no disclaimer(similar to a register scanning an item wrong)? A mis-printed "price tag"?

All those situations would vary in treatment under any given law, but they're essentially the same thing in an online store, and you could make the argument for any one you choose.

Where was the purchase made, anyways? At the consumer's PC, the store's server, or both? The location of the transaction changes what laws are relevant.

And the last time I saw this happen it was a pre-order and not an actual purchase, which raises even more questions, though the same "law" was clearly just as relevant even when a purchase had not yet happened.

As far as I know, it would be up to the manager's discretion to honor typos in a brick&mortar store. They usually let it slide to avoid annoying customers.

In the cases of the Amazon.com screwups, the diffrence is so massive that they'd have to either flat-out refuse to honor it or, more likely, attempt to find a compromise position that was acceptable to both parties(likely an intermediary price that was at or slightly above cost, with a freebie gift certificate for future purchases).

[Gaijin]

I still haven't receieved a cancellation email. Still shows processing etc. in my account. But I'm sure it will happen soon enough.

[Mr March]

Actually, they likely wouldn't have to honor the price.

*snip*

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I can't speak for the others in this thread JBO, but honoring an advertised/displayed price is not some law as I'm aware (discussing this within the context of disclaimers and honest vendor error). My point was simply the need for the decorum of good business when faced with a customer in a physical location as opposed to the advantages of impersonal correspondance enjoyed by online retailers.

[JB0]

Actually, they likely wouldn't have to honor the price.

*snip*

363028[/snapback]

I can't speak for the others in this thread JBO, but honoring an advertised/displayed price is not some law as I'm aware (discussing this within the context of disclaimers and honest vendor error). My point was simply the need for the decorum of good business when faced with a customer in a physical location as opposed to the advantages of impersonal correspondance enjoyed by online retailers.

363042[/snapback]

Ah. I agree with that. The "have to" is usually presented as a "because the law says so" argument, so I assumed people were going on a similar assumption here.

I think Amazon probably would have let it slide had it not become such a big deal(of course, being Eva, and the internet, everyone linked it and it rapidly became a big deal).

Had a brick&mortar store been hit with the same kind of attention... well, for one they'd be out of stock very rapidly. But as soon as they found out, they'd run to tape an error notification to the window. And given the response to things, they'd probably already have 2 dozen or so customers running around inside waving 6$ Eva boxes around, and they'd be trying to find a compromise fast.

If only one or 2 people made it before they noticed the error, though... let 'em have it, then put the correction up before person 3 gets in the door.

The distance and anonymity DID help Amazon. They didn't have someone standing there with a box and a credit card in hand ready to yell and throw a fit, so there wasn't a sense of immediacy.

They cancelled the order under the argument that the purchase hadn't actually taken place yet, and informed people it was a screw-up on their part. From their point of view, they did the equivalent of taping a printout in the store window saying "that ad flyer is wrong." From our point of view, it's closer to catching someone on the way out the door and telling them the reciept is wrong and they need to pay more or put the box back and take their 6 bucks.

It WOULD be in their best interests to offer the people that had placed orders a discount, or credit towards a future purchase.

But I don't think they could've feasably honored the price for all the people that caught it before the correction. It would've been eating a MASSIVE loss.

[DeathHammer]

Please Delete Thanks

Edited February 9, 2010 by DeathHammer

[myk]

Tracking our purchasing habits is commonplace-most people don't really know that those "club savings" are just designed to see what and how we're buying...

[Zentrandude]

Nowadays, if I get the wrong price rung up at the grocery store, they do a price check and adjust the price there. Most of the time they don't even apologize or acknowledge the mistake. An interesting development I've read about is not so much customer retention but large companies actually distinguishing between profitable and unprofitable customers (sometimes done with minimum order limits) and discouraging the unprofitable ones.

363078[/snapback]

Know what you mean abit. When Mechwarrior 4 mercs came out in stores, I went out to get a copy and the store had copies in 2 places. One place was in a bin and was marked at $50 and the second place was a standard software shelf and was marked for $20. So I took the one from the shelf naturally and head to the counter to pay for it. They rang it up at 50 and told them they have it marked at 20 and then the manager came up and ask me to point it out. So me and the manager went back to the shelf and I pointed to the price tag on the shelf saying 20 then the manager rips the price tag and says its 50 bucks with a low tone. Pissed me off that I went to another store and bought it for 45 bucks.

[JB0]

Ah yeah... you can always tell which stores have competent management and which ones don't.

The few times I've had pricing discrepancies, I've gotten a no-fuss discount.

Admittedly, I've never had any huge discrepancies, but they've always been willing to toss me the diffrence, and certainly never acted like I was the problem.

[DeathHammer]

Please Delete Thanks

Edited February 9, 2010 by DeathHammer