I ordered my wife a Christmas gift from Amazon. It was on sale at a ‘Black Friday’ price of $349 and a delivery date of December 6. The package was reported to me as “lost in transit” on December 9. I was told to cancel the order and reorder it, so that is what I did. The new price was $620 with a delivery date of December 17. I contacted Amazon to ask them to honor the original price. This is what I was told:

We strive to maintain low and competitive prices on everything we carry. We constantly compare Amazon’s prices to our competitors’ prices to make sure that our prices are as low or lower than all relevant competitors. As a result, we don’t offer price matching.

I explained to the guy that I was not looking for a price match, I wanted Amazon to honor the price that they originally offer it to me for, and since it was THEIR fault that it was lost in transit, they should be the ones to replace it at the original price.

The associate then told me that he could send out a replacement, but that replacement would not arrive until January 19. Checking the Amazon page, they still list the item for sale, and are still advertising a delivery date of December 15-17, with 8 more listed as being in stock.

They have put me in the position of having to buy this item at nearly double the sale price, if I want my wife to have it in time for Christmas.

In fact, this sort of thing is illegal in Florida. It is called a “bait and switch” scam, and is a violation of Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Practices Act. A person who is the victim of a bait and switch can get damages plus up to $10,000.

I am going to send a certified letter to Amazon’s Registered Agent. If they don’t help me, I will contact an attorney. All I want is what I paid for at the agreed upon price.

Categories: Me

9 Comments

Big Ruckus D · December 11, 2021 at 2:23 pm

Way back in my high school days, I worked in retail for a big chain of stores whose iconic logo you might try to shoot out. Calling them the red menace was closer to the truth than I realized at the time, said outfit being run by a bunch of soft, squishy Minnesotan leftists (but I repeat myself).

Much noise was made by said company about “service” being job one. In reality, just as with any company, profit was job one, and service was somewhere down the list after containing costs (cuttng payroll hours and leaving remaining staff to work their asses off, or cutting maintenance and having stores and equipment falling apart) as well as ass kissing to company politics and volunteer community projects for good PR the company could exploit in image campaigns. They turned breaking ones arm patting oneself on the back into an art form.

Anyway, I had a line back then about the way it all worked: “who put the freak in sevice?” To which the preferred response was “there’s no freak in service!”. I’d then say “that’s what I’ve been trying to tell you!”

Ok, that was a long way to go to make my point here. Scamazon doesn’t care. They are raking it in, and underpaying their overworked staff while treating them as livestock on a factory farm. Human resources indeed. And we all know resources are to be exploited for max profit.

Anyway, someone like you comes along and calls out their obvious bullshit, and they predictably blow it off. If you pursue your compaint to the state AG and actually nail them dead to rights, you win, so to speak. But at the cost of spending your time and energy on forcing the issue. Scamazon knows some immeasurably small percentage of customers will be driven to go that distance, and they can take the periodic hit as a cost of doing business. Meanwhile, you are without the wife’s Christmas gift and most assuredly won’t have it resolved before 12/24.

So maybe you get a judgement against them and make some nice extra money for your trouble, but the rigged game will go on unabated, because too big to fail is also too big to care.

I will add here that a number of unfortunate souls (exact count still not known at this hour) lost their lives last night in the utter destruction – by a tornado – of an Amazon distribution center in Edwardsville, IL. These were likely lower level hourly employees busting their tails to fill orders into the madness of the Christmas rush, and then they got dealt a blow like that. They, and many other across MO, IL KY and TN have had their holiday season impacted, if not outright ruined by death and destruction of homes.

Grinch Is A Mean Boy · December 11, 2021 at 2:27 pm

It got jacked at the shipping warehouse?
They should have package tracking like UPS where it will show you where it is at on the interstate or warehouse if you are that impatient.
Comrade Kommissar Bezos is holding out on the customers.
Got a Christmas card in the mail that had been opened as if anyone over age 20 would put money into an envelope in this day and age.

Skyler the Weird · December 11, 2021 at 3:10 pm

I’m thinking it’s not bait and switch but hijinks at the Amazon warehouse. Friend is a vine voice they can order stuff on a list and just pay sales and income tax if you write them a review. The other voices have the same list so you have to be quick on the trigger to get the nice stuff but the really nice stuff tends to disappear in transit sometimes and no refund as it’s free. But they don’t count the item towards the sales and income tax report the Amazon sends to Roy Cooper and Brandon.

    Skyler the Weird · December 11, 2021 at 3:14 pm

    But still they should replace the item at the original price you paid. Are you sure Ferdinand or Imelda at the Alabang customer service center didn’t lose something in translation?

Matthew W · December 11, 2021 at 3:32 pm

Reason # 29,110,832 not to do business with Amazon.

Malachi · December 11, 2021 at 3:34 pm

Amazon has done this to me also. F-ing thieves! I only buy from them as a last resort anymore.

Harris · December 11, 2021 at 6:32 pm

1. Do not use Amazon. Ever. Tough but possible.

2. Order the item again. Get it by 20 Dec or whatever. Give it to your wife on Dec 25. Return the item on 26 Dec if she does not like it. If she does like it, return it and wait for the properly-priced one to show up in Jan.

    Matthew W · December 12, 2021 at 1:25 pm

    “1. Do not use Amazon. Ever. Tough but possible.”
    Nope.
    When Bezos deleted Parlor, I canceled my account.
    Easy to NOT use Amazon directly.

Jonathan · December 11, 2021 at 11:49 pm

I’m sure that the call center you talked to was just following a script and maybe a flow chart; they can’t do squat in a situation like this.
I’ve used Facebook (ugh, I know) to reach higher ups when I had billing or delivery problems – you might want to try their FB page or message them.
They also have many numbers – you could search for a different one and try again…

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