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[Syriel]

I don't see how buying 59 mobile phones for 1p plays into this human instinct for survival.

Same reason people buy stuff cheap on sites like CAG, SD, RFD, etc. They either use it, or flip it for profit.

Oh wow, thank you professor for the enlightenment. The store WANTS to sell at the price advertised so I don't know how you don't see what the difference is. You do realize that Black Friday was not a free for all even 30 - 40 years ago, so I guess people didn't have those instincts then. Black Friday became so big because of retailers tapping into people's need for an adreneline rush. The sales have very little to do with it anymore. In fact this years Black Friday is starting to show the waning of public interest in it.

You don't even have to look back at the Walmart price mistake thread. Just check out the mispriced $60 WiiU on Sears.com that people were price matching to Walmart and Target stores. If someone can get a deal, the majority will take advantage of it.

Does Amazon UK ship stuff over the weekend? If the orders were all placed between 7 and 8 PM on a Friday night I doubt many of the shipped.

Amazon ships at all hours of the day. The latest warehouses have robots that bring stock shelves to the pickers so that the pickers don't have to walk up and down the aisles.

Here in the US, I've gotten deliveries from Amazon on Sunday...which is a day that mail services don't usually run.

Part of Amazon's success is speedy shipping. They do that with their own products and they do it with any products that sellers choose to have housed at the Amazon warehouse. If Amazon weren't providing speedy shipping, it would be in violation of its promise to sellers.

Why would I order something if I have no need for/interest in it? Just because a lot of humans are greedy, despicable and scummy, doesn't mean that everyone is that way.

I wouldn't be surprised if many of the buyers were other Amazon sellers. At least with games, electronics and toys, the vast majority of Amazon 3rd party sellers are really just scalpers. Most of the time they're selling stuff at above MSRP, preying on folks who don't realize that "fulfilled by Amazon" is not the same as "sold by Amazon" and that the price is arbitrary.

Sellers who don't use that specific software would have been able to buy more stock cheaply (primary reason for someone to buy x50 or x100 is to flip) and then just send it back to Amazon to sell on their own store.

That may not in fact be true.

What liability would Amazon have?

• Amazon doesn't make sellers use 3rd party software.
• Amazon doesn't set rules on prices (see the number of items sold above MSRP).
• Amazon doesn't require sellers to use the fulfilled by Amazon service (which simply did its job here).

 

[Joni]

• Amazon doesn't make sellers use 3rd party software.
• Amazon doesn't set rules on prices (see the number of items sold above MSRP).
• Amazon doesn't require sellers to use the fulfilled by Amazon service (which simply did its job here).

Amazon also offers the option to set a minimum price for an item, something that wasn't violated by this error. It were all items where no minimum was set.

 

[Lucumo]

But what if you did? What if it was something you wanted? Would that still make you greedy if it was a pricing error, even if you just ordered one along with tons of other people? Most wouldn't say that's greedy but it still has the same resulting effect on the merchant.

You did realize that I wasn't talking about any sellers and that they don't have anything to do with what I said?
The difference lies between just wanting a new TV because why not and wanting a TV because you have a pretty old one or your current one is broken. It's the difference between people who take from a buffet what they actually eat and those that take way too much, only to dump it afterwards.

 

[slit]

You don't even have to look back at the Walmart price mistake thread. Just check out the mispriced $60 WiiU on Sears.com that people were price matching to Walmart and Target stores. If someone can get a deal, the majority will take advantage of it.

Great, but maybe you should read more carefully because that has nothing to do with what I said.

 

[Syriel]

Great, but maybe you should read more carefully because that has nothing to do with what I said.

Someone said that people will always take advantage of a deal when the opportunity arises and used Black Friday as an example. You countered that by saying that Black Friday was not a good example because stores intentionally set prices low.

My follow-on was pointing out that your assertion was incorrect and instead supported the original argument by showing a current example of a known price mistake that was not only happily exploited by a large number of GAFfers, but also taken one step further by presenting the known error as a legitimate price to other retailers in order to get a price match, thus getting a "deal" from stores that had nothing to do with the original error and in a situation where no one ever intended to sell the item for a low price.

If I somehow misunderstood the point you were trying to make when you highlighted the intentional nature of Black Friday sales, please feel free to clarify.

 

[Deleted member 325805]

I would do this in a heartbeat if it was a massive company like Sony or Samsung who could take a £1000 hit without blinking but I wouldn't screw over a small business.

 

[IdreamofHIME]

Amazon UK paid less than 1% tax in the UK last year, they can easily afford to help out these small sellers.....but they won't as they are greedy corrupt shits.

 

[iMax]

Amazon UK paid less than 1% tax in the UK last year, they can easily afford to help out these small sellers.....but they won't as they are greedy corrupt shits.

Nothing corrupt about using tax loopholes, if that's what you're implying.

 

[Syriel]

Amazon UK paid less than 1% tax in the UK last year, they can easily afford to help out these small sellers.....but they won't as they are greedy corrupt shits.

Why should Amazon pay for the mistakes of others?

As has been pointed out many times in this thread, Amazon didn't make a mistake here.

All the blame lies solely with the sellers and the third party software they used.

If the sellers had entered minimum prices or if they had entered prices manually, rather than relying on third party software, they would not have been impacted at all.

 

[IdreamofHIME]

Nothing corrupt about using tax loopholes, if that's what you're implying.

No, you'll find it's very corrupt.

Illegal? No.
Corrupt? Yes.

 

[iMax]

No, you'll find it's very corrupt.

Illegal? No.
Corrupt? Yes.

Care to drop a source?

 

[Kieli]

A lot of small-scale/mom-and-pop businesses about to go bankrupt from this pricing mistake.

 

[slit]

Someone said that people will always take advantage of a deal when the opportunity arises and used Black Friday as an example. You countered that by saying that Black Friday was not a good example because stores intentionally set prices low.

My follow-on was pointing out that your assertion was incorrect and instead supported the original argument by showing a current example of a known price mistake that was not only happily exploited by a large number of GAFfers, but also taken one step further by presenting the known error as a legitimate price to other retailers in order to get a price match, thus getting a "deal" from stores that had nothing to do with the original error and in a situation where no one ever intended to sell the item for a low price.

If I somehow misunderstood the point you were trying to make when you highlighted the intentional nature of Black Friday sales, please feel free to clarify.

I was debating someone over whether or not Black Friday was the result of human survival instinct. The fact that a lot people would take advantage of a website error is irrelevant and was not the point.

 

[Mr. Tone]

People will take advantage of a pricing error. That does not mean taking advantage of a pricing error is right.

 

[TimmmV]

Care to drop a source?

Stuffs come out recently about how big companies use Luxembourg to minimise their tax expenditure, here is the top one I got after Googling "Juncker Luxembourg Amazon" http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/10/juncker-amazon-luxembourg-eased-tax-expert-comfort

Thats after ignoring the fact that wealthy companies lobby politicians for these types of tax loopholes that they (and only they) can then exploit. as IdreamofHIME said, its not illegal, but its very corrupt.

 

[Gintamen]

I don't see how buying 59 mobile phones for 1p plays into this human instinct for survival.

Buy 59 phones for 59p, seel for a high multitude of that to gain a lot of capital to invest or save to survive the next months/years. Don't act so obtuse.

 

[Prophet Steve]

Buy 59 phones for 59p, seel for a high multitude of that to gain a lot of capital to invest or save to survive the next months/years. Don't act so obtuse.

It is greed, not human instinct.

 

[MarkMclovin]

I'll admit that I'd probably take advantage of it too. I don't know many people that wouldn't.

 

[King Tubby]

This is terrible for affected businesses. The people responsible for the glitch should be held liable but I imagine they have indemnified themselves in the terms and conditions. Even if they were held liable the losses must surely be in the millions.

It is greed, not human instinct.

What's the difference?

 

[ThoughtsOfSpeaking]

Eh. Call me what you want. I would of been taking advantage of this with the swiftness.

My pocket means more to me than your judgement.

That said, I feel the pricing company should be responsible for compensation.

 

[King_Moc]

No, you'll find it's very corrupt.

Illegal? No.
Corrupt? Yes.

The government serving big business over the general population is the problem. If they gave me the option of paying 1% income tax I'd take them up on it instantly. That's all they've done.

 

[bidguy]

anybody here take advantage of it ?

pls post pics of your 50 phones later thx

 

[Conkerkid11]

Did anybody else question why it took all of these third party sellers an hour to realize the pricing for all of their merchandise was off?

I have no synpathy for them, and find the current argument over morals absolutely ridiculous. This is so much like that recent pricing error for the Wii U, where in the original thread people were buying it up and being so thankful. Then you get the aftermath thread where those same people look down on everybody who bought them up.

 

[Joni]

Did anybody else question why it took all of these third party sellers an hour to realize the pricing for all of their merchandise was off?

Because they never have to look at those things. Especially if they're FBA, they never need to check what is happening.

 

[King Tubby]

Did anybody else question why it took all of these third party sellers an hour to realize the pricing for all of their merchandise was off?

I have no synpathy for them, and find the current argument over morals absolutely ridiculous. This is so much like that recent pricing error for the Wii U, where in the original thread people were buying it up and being so thankful. Then you get the aftermath thread where those same people look down on everybody who bought them up.

When you're running a business you don't always have time to check if your prices have been slashed by 99% out of the blue.