Amazon Sellers Threatening Customers With Collections Over Pricing Error

H

HardOCP News

[H] News
Joined
Dec 31, 1969
Messages
0
I'm not sure what the laws are in the UK but is this even legal over there or just a lame scare tactic?

We understand that you think you may have grabbed a great bargain, but we have instructed amazon to revert the prices to our usual prices and recharge your card with the correct amount owed. We would like to offer customers a grace period of 7 days to create a return request and return any stock incorrect priced and dispatched. If this action isn’t carried out, we will seek to recover sums owed 1. By recharging your credit/debit card 2. If funds are not available, passing to a debt collection agency 3. Informing experian and getting your address added to the mail order black list
Click to expand...
 
Amazon should pony up, it was their fuck up. If the people won't return the orders and they can't recharge them, then Amazon should pay PB4L for the loss.
 
The threat itself should be illegal, since they are basically saying threatening to ruin someone's credit and have collection agencies come after them when they have no right.
 
I'd sue them if they did that to me. One a product is shipped and payment has been made its their loss. Sorry but you don't get to change the price after a sale has been completed. This works both ways - if I find a lower price elsewhere they are under no obligation to meet that price after I've bought an item.
 
bucketlist said:
Amazon should pony up, it was their fuck up. If the people won't return the orders and they can't recharge them, then Amazon should pay PB4L for the loss.
Click to expand...

Actually, this was not Amazon's fault. The problem was with a piece of 3rd party software called RepricerExpress that is used by sellers to automatically adjust prices. While the software developer should probably be responsible, assuming that the minimum price was set properly by the user, the license agreement probably limits the liability of the developers.
 
most sites have clauses when you sign up they can change advertised prices or errors, your screwed either way.
 
Velox said:
Actually, this was not Amazon's fault. The problem was with a piece of 3rd party software called RepricerExpress that is used by sellers to automatically adjust prices. While the software developer should probably be responsible, assuming that the minimum price was set properly by the user, the license agreement probably limits the liability of the developers.
Click to expand...

But not to the general buying public. It reminds me of a line in a movie, "You got insurance don't ya?".
 
Tough saying. There has been times before where a company has dispatched packages noticed a pricing error and then held the package to be returned. I don't know of any specific case law on that and the way amazon handles fulfillment processing it can turn into a nightmare that the seller may not even get a chance to review the order before its sent out so I can feel for the seller especially if this is a clear case of pricing error they may have some legal leg to stand on in terms of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hartog_v_Colin_&_Shields
 
Amazon is on the buyers side with this,
I’m really sorry to hear that the seller PremiumBrands-4-Less has been contacting you regarding returning the delivered item. We certainly didn’t expect this to happen.

We at Amazon.co.uk take pride in our customer service standards and believe that customers who purchase from the Marketplace should be treated with the same degree of service as a customer who’s purchased directly from us. Even though your purchase was made from a Seller, we realise that it may influence your decision to visit our website again.

I’ve forwarded your message to our team who review Seller activities as part of any investigation in possible violations of our policies.

Further, Please understand that the payments for these orders are through Amazon and there is no need to return the item which you have received.

I assure that we will not be charging you any extra charge other than the one you paid for the items.

Once again please accept our sincere apology for the inconvenience that have caused you and hope you will give us another chance to prove our excellence.

We look forward to seeing you again soon.
Click to expand...
 
MrGuvernment said:
most sites have clauses when you sign up they can change advertised prices or errors, your screwed either way.
Click to expand...

Most states have laws that protect the public from predatory practices. So over here it would usually be a non-issue. Just like Walmart selling PS4's for $40. They allowed it to happen & the consumer, through no fault of his/her own bought into it, bought it. The consumer should never be liable for this shtuff.
 
While I agree that they went about this the wrong way (threatening a customer that they'll be charged/sent to a collection agency if they don't return an item) I also think that it really sucks for htat company.

It seems (From what I read) that it was a software mishiap that really screwed them over (along with other sites, like play.com)

If you aren't a huge department store (and going by their name an dthe fact it's an amazon marketplace I don't think they are) then something like this can surely be a HUGE devastating loss, especially if the figure they used is correct (100,000 GBP stock sold for just 100 GBP). That can shut a lot of businesses down and/or cause a ton of cutbacks if theiy are on the hook for that.

Personally if it were me that bought an item and got that email, I'd just send it back. Especially at this time of year (Christmas) no way to be.
 
Looks like amazon has responded to the customer about this
After querying this with Amazon I had the following response;

“I’m really sorry to hear that the seller PremiumBrands-4-Less has been contacting you regarding returning the delivered item. We certainly didn’t expect this to happen.

We at Amazon.co.uk take pride in our customer service standards and believe that customers who purchase from the Marketplace should be treated with the same degree of service as a customer who’s purchased directly from us. Even though your purchase was made from a Seller, we realise that it may influence your decision to visit our website again.

I’ve forwarded your message to our team who review Seller activities as part of any investigation in possible violations of our policies.

Further, Please understand that the payments for these orders are through Amazon and there is no need to return the item which you have received.

I assure that we will not be charging you any extra charge other than the one you paid for the items.

Once again please accept our sincere apology for the inconvenience that have caused you and hope you will give us another chance to prove our excellence.

We look forward to seeing you again soon.”
Click to expand...

Sounds to me like the retailer can go pound sand. They should not be threatening the customer at all, take the 3rd party to court if needed but I don't know how they ever though they could get away with this.
 
I bought 100 boxes of pens a few years ago for 1 cent/box from Office Depot, used a 20% coupon and got it shipped overnight for 87cents.
 
Stiler said:
While I agree that they went about this the wrong way (threatening a customer that they'll be charged/sent to a collection agency if they don't return an item) I also think that it really sucks for htat company.

It seems (From what I read) that it was a software mishiap that really screwed them over (along with other sites, like play.com)

If you aren't a huge department store (and going by their name an dthe fact it's an amazon marketplace I don't think they are) then something like this can surely be a HUGE devastating loss, especially if the figure they used is correct (100,000 GBP stock sold for just 100 GBP). That can shut a lot of businesses down and/or cause a ton of cutbacks if theiy are on the hook for that.

Personally if it were me that bought an item and got that email, I'd just send it back. Especially at this time of year (Christmas) no way to be.
Click to expand...

What does a persons religion have to do with it? I'm confused.
 
I can only hope these chumps get permabanned from Amazon.
The seller screwed up, period.
If I accidentally sold something of mine far below what it was valued at, then that's my fault and outside of asking nicely and appealing to people's humanity I'm screwed.
 
SGA76 said:
I can only hope these chumps get permabanned from Amazon.
The seller screwed up, period.
If I accidentally sold something of mine far below what it was valued at, then that's my fault and outside of asking nicely and appealing to people's humanity I'm screwed.
Click to expand...

This
 
I want to know why there was no insurance against this kind of issue.
If not insurance, a liability clause so that traders dont take the hit.

The ability for the program to massively screw pricing up was always present.
Someone either didnt do a thorough risk assessment or took no notice of it.
 
Nenu said:
I want to know why there was no insurance against this kind of issue.
If not insurance, a liability clause so that traders dont take the hit.

The ability for the program to massively screw pricing up was always present.
Someone either didnt do a thorough risk assessment or took no notice of it.
Click to expand...

There is a reason. It isn't well liked though. People in masses are idiots. Usually blind idiots. This is just a case in point.
 
SGA76 said:
I can only hope these chumps get permabanned from Amazon.
The seller screwed up, period.
If I accidentally sold something of mine far below what it was valued at, then that's my fault and outside of asking nicely and appealing to people's humanity I'm screwed.
Click to expand...

It wasn't the seller, it was a 3rd party software that adjusts the prices of items. It was not only these people that had this issue, play.com also had it (using the same software).

Put yourself into their shoes, you run a small'ish company and a software error ends up costing you over 100,000 GBP, would you just sit there and take it even though it wasn't technically your fault but a 3rd party software error? That can cause almost any small business to go belly up or end up having to do massive layoffs/scale back just to stay afloat.
 
I hate looking for something at Amazon, BB, or Newegg, and have to see all the trashy third party sellers. It's the cheesiest business tactic, reeks of money grubbing in my eyes and I hate to shift through it all. It just lowers my user experience.
 
Stiler said:
It wasn't the seller, it was a 3rd party software that adjusts the prices of items. It was not only these people that had this issue, play.com also had it (using the same software).

Put yourself into their shoes, you run a small'ish company and a software error ends up costing you over 100,000 GBP, would you just sit there and take it even though it wasn't technically your fault but a 3rd party software error? That can cause almost any small business to go belly up or end up having to do massive layoffs/scale back just to stay afloat.
Click to expand...

If you really cared about your company, you wouldn't leave it up to software.
 
Stiler said:
Put yourself into their shoes, you run a small'ish company and a software error ends up costing you over 100,000 GBP, would you just sit there and take it even though it wasn't technically your fault but a 3rd party software error?
Click to expand...

Owner of PremiumBrands4Less: Good news everybody, we got 100k worth of orders out of the blue for some reason, im not even going to double check them so lets ship them all out!
 
forcefed said:
Owner of PremiumBrands4Less: Good news everybody, we got 100k worth of orders out of the blue for some reason, im not even going to double check them so lets ship them all out!
Click to expand...

it was shipped out of Amazons warehouse automatically.
 
Stiler said:
Personally if it were me that bought an item and got that email, I'd just send it back. Especially at this time of year (Christmas) no way to be.
Click to expand...

I would ship it back, but not if I got that e-mail. If the seller is nice about it and said "Hey, we sold you an item at a low price we didn't mean to, it was a software error. Could you please either pay the right price or send it back, at our expense? Thanks." Then ya, no problem, I'll do the right thing. However if they come out of the gate swinging and getting all threateny on my ass, particularly with illegal threats, then no, fuck them, I keep it and they learn a lesson.

When you make an error, and yes software you use counts as your error, then it is on you to be nice about it and ask people to help you. You can't act like they screwed you, you screwed yourself.

This is going to go even worse for the company than they imagine. Because of their assholish attitude, few people will return the stuff and Amazon is going to boot them from the marketplace. Amazon likes happy customers and if you abuse their customers, your ass is gone. They've done it a number of times before. Likewise, Amazon will not authorize further charges and since they collect the money, there is fuck-all the seller can do.

If they actually try and go after people with collections, well then they are going to get in legal trouble.

These guys went from losing a big wodge of money to now losing their ability to sell on a massive consumer marketplace, and they may lose their whole business if they keep it up.
 
tikiman2012 said:
It definitely wouldn't work on this side of the pond. Holy lawsuit Batman!
Click to expand...

Wouldn't work, but then again they could legally cancel all the orders since it's an obvious pricing error. Sounds like an issue between Amazon and the retailers though, not the customers, but you don't want to bite the hand that feeds you so they'll do nothing against Amazon..
 
edit: Ok didn't see that this was due to software on the retailers side not amazon. Still though, obvious pricing error is obvious, it's their fault though for automating their shipping such that no one verifies the price they paid for stuff.
 
It's amazing to me how many people can't see right from wrong these days. :(
 
Ha. Good fuckn luck.

I believe tiger direct or someone similar tries to pull this last year around Christmas over a TV. They then tried to recharge people's credit cards which obviously turned into a giant fiasco over on slick deals.
 
Stiler said:
Put yourself into their shoes, you run a small'ish company and a software error ends up costing you over 100,000 GBP, would you just sit there and take it even though it wasn't technically your fault but a 3rd party software error? That can cause almost any small business to go belly up or end up having to do massive layoffs/scale back just to stay afloat.
Click to expand...

No, I wouldn't "sit there and take it", however I wouldn't go after the wrong party either. I'd go after the ones responsible, you know - the people that put the listing up wrong and configuring the system to allow this to happen. The customers paid the advertised price, and received their items. At that point the transaction is complete and done. Sorry but you don't get to come back after the fact and tell a consumer to pay more money after the fact. If it was an outside contractor that you hired to perform the work, that's who I'd go after. As a business, if you hire a 3rd party to act on your behalf you are responsible for their actions. The customers fulfilled their end of the transaction.
 
“We would like to urge customers to be honourable and honest during this Christmas period and not take advantage of a small business, who cannot afford to give away its £100,000 inventory for under £100. This will create a number of job losses in the run up to Christmas, due to the behaviour of a select number of customer.”

That's the important quote from this story, not the one about the big bad threat.Don't be dicks. Give them their shit back. You know damn well you when you ordered hundreds of dollars worth of shit for $2 you were taking advantage of a glitch.
 
From the story link... Oh dear, sucks for PremiumBrands-4-Less. Oh well, serves the scumbags right.

After querying this with Amazon I had the following response;

“I’m really sorry to hear that the seller PremiumBrands-4-Less has been contacting you regarding returning the delivered item. We certainly didn't expect this to happen.

We at Amazon.co.uk take pride in our customer service standards and believe that customers who purchase from the Marketplace should be treated with the same degree of service as a customer who’s purchased directly from us. Even though your purchase was made from a Seller, we realize that it may influence your decision to visit our website again.

I've forwarded your message to our team who review Seller activities as part of any investigation in possible violations of our policies. Further, Please understand that the payments for these orders are through Amazon and there is no need to return the item which you have received.

I assure that we will not be charging you any extra charges other than the one you paid for the items.

Once again please accept our sincere apology for the inconvenience that this has caused you and hope you will give us another chance to prove our excellence."
Click to expand...
 
Stiler said:
Put yourself into their shoes, you run a small'ish company and a software error ends up costing you over 100,000 GBP, would you just sit there and take it even though it wasn't technically your fault but a 3rd party software error? That can cause almost any small business to go belly up or end up having to do massive layoffs/scale back just to stay afloat.
Click to expand...
The problem I have is that these "small companies" don't verify any of the actual sales. If you have a small company I would think you'd want to check ever damn sale because one error (like this) could hurt your bottom line big time.
 
zer0nix said:
good lordy :eek: how did you find that deal?
Click to expand...

was browsing OD's site and just sorted by lowest to highest and the pens were listed for 1 cent, so I ordered 100 boxes of 48 pens.
I didn't think they'd ship them out, but they did.

pens1.jpg


pens2.jpg
 
The seller is responsible, the price on the storefront is what the customer has to pay. This has been upheld in court many times. Even to the point where if the price on the shelf is wrong they have to give you the product for that price. If Amazon got the prices from the seller (no matter if it was automated or manual) it's their responsibility. The seller can try and sue the software company if they like, they might have a case.

It does seem intensely stupid to not have someone review these prices before they put them up, I'm sure that is what the opening argument from the software company would be.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top