[BruceBanner]

I ordered a Cactus EP1 from Amazon a few days ago. It clearly stated it was a 2 pack (for $50), I couldn't believe it, I screenshotted the page and before purchasing the good confirmed with Amazon (through chat, with email transcript kept) that it was indeed a 2 pack, to which they confirmed it was. I then placed the order. Well the product arrived and it was just one of them, which I knew would be all along, I had zero faith they were correct but thought it was worth the risk anyway. Here's a transcript of the conversation this morning as I tried to resolve this issue.

Enjoy

Hello,
Here's a copy of the chat transcript you requested:
Initial Question: Only 1 arrived...
12:46 PM PST Alex(Amazon): Hello, my name is Alex. I'm here to help you today.
12:46 PM PST Eddie Summers: Morning Alex
12:46 PM PST Alex: Oh, I'm sorry to hear that, Eddie, let me pull up the order to help you out, ok?
12:46 PM PST Eddie Summers: sure.
12:47 PM PST Alex: so from the 2 pack, only one arrived?
12:47 PM PST Eddie Summers: yup.
yesterday
unless another one is coming separately? But that makes little sense and I have no tracking for another one etc
12:48 PM PST Alex: these are actually supposed to come together since they are one item
No worries Eddie, let me transfer you to the right department so they can sort this out, alright? Please remain in the chat window
12:48 PM PST Eddie Summers: Ok.
12:49 PM PST Justin(Amazon): Hello, my name is Justin. Please give me a moment to review the previous correspondence.
12:49 PM PST Eddie Summers: sure.
12:54 PM PST Justin: I am very sorry that you only received one of these items. I am looking into a resolution right now, it will be just a few more moments.
12:54 PM PST Eddie Summers: ok
12:58 PM PST Justin: To confirm - you are referring to the cactus P1 Ce Battery Pack, Black - correct?
12:58 PM PST Eddie Summers: Yep.
12:59 PM PST Justin: I am sorry for any confusion, I am not showing that this is a two pack - I see one battery pack and a case and I do not show that anywhere on the item description it states two of these units are included.
12:59 PM PST Eddie Summers: ...
01:00 PM PST Eddie Summers: On the product page it clearly shows '2 pack' and I contacted Amazon before buying the product to confirm it was 2 units, which they confirmed. I have screen shots and email transcript of that conversation. Furthermore Alex (the guy who forwarded me to you) could see they are a 2 pack... :/
01:02 PM PST Justin: I see, I do see the "2 pack" icon with an arrow pointing towards the product pricing and selection, but in the selection and details it only specifies that one unit is included. I am very sorry for the confusion. I can offer a $10 promotional certificate due to the inconvenience, or if you would prefer I can setup a return for you.
01:03 PM PST Eddie Summers: no. unacceptable,
I checked, confirmed before purchasing. I expect 2 units, nothing less.
This mistake is on Amazon, not me.
Fix it.
01:04 PM PST Eddie Summers: $10 is an utter insult.
I paid more for this single unit with you than elsewhere BECAUSE it was a 2 pack.
01:05 PM PST Justin: Once again I am sorry for the inconvenience. I can offer a $15.00 promotional certificate which is the maximum amount that I can provide due to this discrepancy. If this is not acceptable then you can return it for a refund.
01:05 PM PST Eddie Summers: It's not acceptable, I want the unit I have, plus another one as promised.
01:06 PM PST Justin: I am sorry but we cannot send out another unit, this is what I am able to offer you.
01:07 PM PST Eddie Summers: Not good enough.
01:08 PM PST Justin: I am very sorry that you feel this way, this is what I am able to offer.
01:09 PM PST Eddie Summers: Nope, try harder. Send another unit out as agreed.
This is the ONLY resolution.
01:09 PM PST Justin: Eddie - I am very sorry for any confusion, this is what I can offer. I cannot send out another unit.
01:09 PM PST Eddie Summers: I'm pretty sure Amazon can handle the financial hit...
No you can Justin.
you just don't want to.
Try harder.
01:10 PM PST Eddie Summers: I'm not being ripped off by billion dollar Amazon, do you understand.!?
01:10 PM PST Justin: I have advised you of the only resolution available thusfar, I am sorry but I cannot provide another unit. Is there anything else that I can assist you with today?
01:10 PM PST Eddie Summers: the unit costs $50....
You can escalate this matter.
01:11 PM PST Eddie Summers: Look... 3 left in stock. SEND ANOTHER ONE; https://www.amazon.com/Cactus-P1-Battery-Pack-Black/dp/B00NXR1RMM/ref=sr_1_f...r=8-2-fkmrnull
01:11 PM PST Justin: I am very sorry for the inconvenience that this has caused Eddie. I am only able to provide you the resolution I've already provided. Moving forward I will have to repeat myself if you keep demanding a different resolution.
01:12 PM PST Eddie Summers: your resolution is unsatisfactory, escalate.
You say you can't but you can. There are 3 in stock, send me the other unit THAT I HAVE PAID FOR.
01:13 PM PST Justin: I am very sorry Eddie but this is the only resolution that I am able to provide for you today. I cannot send out another unit.
01:13 PM PST Eddie Summers: Yes you can. Please try harder.
01:14 PM PST Justin: Once again I do apologize but I cannot send out another unit.
01:15 PM PST Eddie Summers: Not acceptable, escalate please.
01:15 PM PST Justin: This is the only resolution that I am able to provide Eddie.
01:16 PM PST Eddie Summers: Ok, to show you how reasonable I can be, I will offer you one more other alternative.
Refund me 50% of my order, to my account, not some Amazon store credit.
Or send me another unit.
01:17 PM PST Eddie Summers: How is either of my two suggestions unreasonable?
TAKE SOME RESPONSIBILITY
I can keep this chat window open all day.
01:18 PM PST Justin: I am able to look into this Eddie, please give me a few moments while I see if I can do this for you.
01:19 PM PST Justin: I am able to offer you a $27.50 refund back to the original payment method which is 50% of the units price.
01:20 PM PST Eddie Summers: + shipping.
50% of shipping
01:21 PM PST Justin: I am also able to refund half of the shipping costs as a courtesy.
01:21 PM PST Eddie Summers: Done.
01:21 PM PST Justin: You will receive an email confirmation shortly confirming the amount issued.
01:22 PM PST Eddie Summers: See Justin, you were able to do more. Why was this offer not suggested before? Instead you made a customer irate.
01:22 PM PST Justin: I am sorry Eddie, I was unable to send out another unit which is what you were requesting.
01:22 PM PST Eddie Summers: Why? There are 3 in stock...
01:23 PM PST Eddie Summers: What's the issue surrounding that :/
01:23 PM PST Justin: I am sorry, due to the discrepancy my only options were to provide credit. I have submitted an inquiry to have the website information updated as well.
01:24 PM PST Eddie Summers: I'll close this chat once I receive email confirmation of refund
01:25 PM PST Justin: Okay. You should be receiving this shortly.
01:26 PM PST Eddie Summers: Received.
01:27 PM PST Justin: Okay. Thank you for joining Live Chat and have a great day!
01:27 PM PST Eddie Summers: Have a nice day Justin, and just so you know, it's nothing personal, it's not you... it's Amazon's fault

[clackers]

Go easy on Jeff Bezos, Bruce, if you've been following the news there's Trouble In Paradise.

[1SG D]

That made my night lol

[cmohr]

You should report the item on Amazone. There's a button to click there to report incorrect product info. I just had a look at your link, and the product, and it still cleary says *2 pack* , which is misleading advertizing and the ACCC don't like misleading advertizing, ,

[mee]

It does indeed say 2pack.

However, you're pretty rude in that dialog. And CS is a rather terrible job because of having to deal with this junk.

You bash guy because he doesn't come up with desired resolutions when he is likely stuck offering what he offered in the set of rules he has in front of him.. that he likely wants to stick to in order to keep his job. It isn't like he gets to make up the rules as to what he can offer you.. nor does he have a direct line to Jeff Bezos to talk it over about joe random's 2pack battery complaint.

[nocturnal]

I've boycotted Amazon for years. I buy all my gear from privately owned (supporting small business) camera shops who are authorised Pentax UK dealers (warranty is 1 year longer so 2 year warranty).

I do have to order online as you can't buy Pentax gear in brick and mortar shops in Ireland, they don't stock it but some can order it in.

[Rondec]

I don't know that Amazon sucks. They just aren't willing to offer you something for less than their cost. If a local hardware store misadvertised an item and you went in to get it and they said "I'm sorry, sir, the wheelbarrow we advertised as 15 dollars really should have been 75 dollars," would you accept their explanation or would you try to get them to give you a deal they couldn't afford to give? I like a good deal, but I don't want to take advantage of someone else's mistake either.

I just think we need to treat everyone with respect, even customer service people for Amazon.

[pepperberry farm]

It does indeed say 2pack.

However, you're pretty rude in that dialog. And CS is a rather terrible job because of having to deal with this junk.

You bash guy because he doesn't come up with desired resolutions when he is likely stuck offering what he offered in the set of rules he has in front of him.. that he likely wants to stick to in order to keep his job. It isn't like he gets to make up the rules as to what he can offer you.. nor does he have a direct line to Jeff Bezos to talk it over about joe random's 2pack battery complaint.

I don't know that Amazon sucks. They just aren't willing to offer you something for less than their cost. If a local hardware store misadvertised an item and you went in to get it and they said "I'm sorry, sir, the wheelbarrow we advertised as 15 dollars really should have been 75 dollars," would you accept their explanation or would you try to get them to give you a deal they couldn't afford to give? I like a good deal, but I don't want to take advantage of someone else's mistake either.

I just think we need to treat everyone with respect, even customer service people for Amazon.

^^ this ^^


it's a mistake on their part, but ragging on the low-guy on the line because he's not allowed to create the solution you wanted doesn't make you a hero, either...

people make mistakes, including businesses (even the big guys like Amazon)

we've been Prime customers for years, mainly they are more convenient than driving to town (minimum of a 30 mile round trip) to find out the local joint doesn't have 'X' or 'Y', but they do have 'Z', which is crap and will break the next time you use it...

Amazon has made some goofs in our orders, and they usually (probably 9 out of 10 times) exceed my expectation of making it right...

[altopiet]

I ordered a Cactus EP1 from Amazon a few days ago. It clearly stated it was a 2 pack (for $50), I couldn't believe it, I screenshotted the page and before purchasing the good confirmed with Amazon (through chat, with email transcript kept) that it was indeed a 2 pack, to which they confirmed it was. I then placed the order. Well the product arrived and it was just one of them, which I knew would be all along, I had zero faith they were correct but thought it was worth the risk anyway. Here's a transcript of the conversation this morning as I tried to resolve this issue.

I can't understand people having a go at you, I think you handled it very well, for an online chat, although while doing so you probably uttered a few words to yourself, that might have been not so civilized, which is also understandable.

I think that you gave them ample time to reconsider the "contract" of the sale, through chat.

I'm sure their rep on the line with you was not offended by it, it's his job and I'm sure he's had much tougher conversations and situations than that.

Unfortunately, stuff like this tends to happen in big companies who dominate the market, and I suspect "price mixups" like this might not always be "mistakes"

[Pioneer]

Amazon is only the latest in a very long line of large, discount retailers who have thrived by underpricing the previous businesses. Eventually Amazon will have elbowed out the majority of the competition and will begin to raise their prices because they are effectively the only one left. At that point another business will begin their own climb to the top of the heap and will begin elbowing Amazon out. Recently Amazon has had the upper hand but their stock will begin to wilt as the market becomes less satisfied with their growth and they will eventually find it difficult, then impossible, to maintain their position.

The cycle just continues. Witness the sad fate of Sears/K-Mart who, in their day, were also the great big gorillas in the marketing jungle. Picking on their employees may make you feel better, but it makes no difference. Likewise sacrificing and paying more to "save the little guy" is a wonderful thought but probably hurts you, the individual consumer, far more than it helps the little guy.

Right now it is online companies who are on top. Amazon, Google, Apple, E-Bay, Paypal, Facebook and a few others have managed to fight their way to the top and they are the ones we all like to pick on. But, one thing about the internet, what used to take decades to happen now seems to happen in just a few years. A lot of those common household names may be history within the next 10 years and our grandchildren's children will never have heard of them.

[pete-tarmigan]

I recently paid for a Pentax D-BG6 battery grip from Amazon.ca. The item arrived today, but it was a D-BG7. The Ricoh Pentax label on the side of the grip's box showed D-BG7, and the contents consisted of a D-BG7 and a manual for the D-BG7. However, Amazon's inventory control sticker (complete with bar code) on the top of the grip's box showed D-BG6. I wonder if Bezos' relentless push to increase productivity beyond that humanly impossible (except in a police state) is starting to show problems.

The only reason I bought from them is that they were offering the D-BG6 for $100.02 Canadian dollars off the MSRP ($297.99 CAD). None of the local bricks-and-mortar stores sell it for less than MSRP, and I would have to wait at least a month to get it, if Ricoh Canada has stock. If, not I would have to wait 3 months while they get it from Japan. We'll see whether Amazon will get the replacement right. I used their live chat to point out the erroneous Amazon inventory-control sticker and asked them to ensure that the replacement is not an incorrectly labelled D-BG7.

[BruceBanner]

That made my night lol

Good, that was the intention

It does indeed say 2pack.

However, you're pretty rude in that dialog. And CS is a rather terrible job because of having to deal with this junk.

You bash guy because he doesn't come up with desired resolutions when he is likely stuck offering what he offered in the set of rules he has in front of him.. that he likely wants to stick to in order to keep his job. It isn't like he gets to make up the rules as to what he can offer you.. nor does he have a direct line to Jeff Bezos to talk it over about joe random's 2pack battery complaint.

I don't know that Amazon sucks. They just aren't willing to offer you something for less than their cost. If a local hardware store misadvertised an item and you went in to get it and they said "I'm sorry, sir, the wheelbarrow we advertised as 15 dollars really should have been 75 dollars," would you accept their explanation or would you try to get them to give you a deal they couldn't afford to give? I like a good deal, but I don't want to take advantage of someone else's mistake either.

I just think we need to treat everyone with respect, even customer service people for Amazon.

^^ this ^^


it's a mistake on their part, but ragging on the low-guy on the line because he's not allowed to create the solution you wanted doesn't make you a hero, either...

people make mistakes, including businesses (even the big guys like Amazon)

we've been Prime customers for years, mainly they are more convenient than driving to town (minimum of a 30 mile round trip) to find out the local joint doesn't have 'X' or 'Y', but they do have 'Z', which is crap and will break the next time you use it...

Amazon has made some goofs in our orders, and they usually (probably 9 out of 10 times) exceed my expectation of making it right...

Where was I rude? I never once personally insulted the man, I was direct is all, stating a strong stance of dissatisfaction. Do you think had I not been so firm and direct from the outset I would have still had the same outcome? My experience tells me no. You need to stand firm and be direct from the outset, when they see you are unable to be palmed off so easily you will get greater value/outcome.

This is Amazon we're talking about here, a company I am sure could resolve this issue and take a tiny financial hit for a mistake of their own doing. If this was a small local family business I was dealing with then by no means would I have acted in the same manner, but I expected absolutely poor resolution from this error and I was right, a $10 credit.... really?!!? Pathetic... that's what's actually rude and insulting! Jeff/Amazon was the one being rude, not I. You mistake direct, blunt and firm approach to being rude. Furthermore Jeff lied. He repeatedly told me he could not do any better than x outcome, when I continued to be firm he gave new outcomes (proving he is lying). He would not even mention a solution which is fair, it took for me to suggest it (50% back), and he took it, when previously he said $15USD store credit was the best he could do... lol... whatever Jeff.

I just paid $40AUD (including shipping) for a $58USD item (including shipping), heck... I should order one again and do the same complaint strategy!

It's Jeff's job to take these calls/chats. Amazon is the real culprit here and not Jeff, and if you read my last entry I reassured to Jeff that it was not his fault to blame but Amazon and that it was nothing personal.

I can't understand people having a go at you, I think you handled it very well, for an online chat, although while doing so you probably uttered a few words to yourself, that might have been not so civilized, which is also understandable.

I think that you gave them ample time to reconsider the "contract" of the sale, through chat.

I'm sure their rep on the line with you was not offended by it, it's his job and I'm sure he's had much tougher conversations and situations than that.

Unfortunately, stuff like this tends to happen in big companies who dominate the market, and I suspect "price mixups" like this might not always be "mistakes"

Yeah... <shrugs>

[ChrisPlatt]

Recently I saw the Amazon 2-pack logo on a Domke camera bag.
It made no sense to me that it would be offered that way.

However if true the price would be a steal, so I posted a question.
All Amazon purchasers that replied said they received a single bag.

Chris

[Rondec]

Good, that was the intention







Where was I rude? I never once personally insulted the man, I was direct is all, stating a strong stance of dissatisfaction. Do you think had I not been so firm and direct from the outset I would have still had the same outcome? My experience tells me no. You need to stand firm and be direct from the outset, when they see you are unable to be palmed off so easily you will get greater value/outcome.

This is Amazon we're talking about here, a company I am sure could resolve this issue and take a tiny financial hit for a mistake of their own doing. If this was a small local family business I was dealing with then by no means would I have acted in the same manner, but I expected absolutely poor resolution from this error and I was right, a $10 credit.... really?!!? Pathetic... that's what's actually rude and insulting! Jeff/Amazon was the one being rude, not I. You mistake direct, blunt and firm approach to being rude. Furthermore Jeff lied. He repeatedly told me he could not do any better than x outcome, when I continued to be firm he gave new outcomes (proving he is lying). He would not even mention a solution which is fair, it took for me to suggest it (50% back), and he took it, when previously he said $15USD store credit was the best he could do... lol... whatever Jeff.

I just paid $40AUD (including shipping) for a $58USD item (including shipping), heck... I should order one again and do the same complaint strategy!

It's Jeff's job to take these calls/chats. Amazon is the real culprit here and not Jeff, and if you read my last entry I reassured to Jeff that it was not his fault to blame but Amazon and that it was nothing personal.




Yeah... <shrugs>

I didn't say you were rude, but I do think we should treat others, even big companies as we wish to be treated. Good customer service in this case, assuming an honest mistake in pricing would be either a full refund of the product with Amazon paying for the return shipping or you keeping the product and accepting an apology from them.

I do order from Amazon and if I receive a defective product or something that isn't as advertised, I will return it for a full refund and that feels like the appropriate "penalty" from Amazon's standpoint.

[BruceBanner]

Recently I saw the Amazon 2-pack logo on a Domke camera bag.
It made no sense to me that it would be offered that way.

However if true the price would be a steal, so I posted a question.
All Amazon purchasers that replied said they received a single bag.

Chris

Yeah I dunno how those 2-pack logo's are ending up on their products. Did you read the part where I clarified before purchasing that it was indeed a 2-pack and they confirmed it was? :/
It's clear to me that level 1 service see things as we do, level 2 see things as they really are. In my chat you can see Alex agreed with me, seeing them as 2-packs, but once he passed me through to Jeff it was now clear to being an error.