Amazon dinged on pricing gaffe

Some customers looking for a good deal on an LCD TV at Amazon.com this week are now staring at a blank wall.

Due to apparent pricing error, the company has canceled all orders for a Samsung LNR409D 40-inch LCD TV advertised and sold for $1,899 on Oct. 4. The Web site now shows the old price slashed out, with a new price of $2,954.99 from Amazon partner Vann's and as much as $3,699.99 from Crutchfield--an increase of as much as 95 percent.

The television, which comes with a high-definition-grade 1366 by 768 pixel resolution, a built-in HDTV tuner and a 170-degree viewing angle, sells for a similar price range ($1,899 to $3,699.99) on other retail sites.

Customers were notified via e-mail that the company could not complete the delivery because the price of the television was originally incorrectly displayed. Amazon.com's Customer Service Department apologized for the inconvenience and cited Amazon's pricing policy, which is posted on the company's help section.

"At any given time, despite our best efforts, a small number of the millions of items on our site may be mispriced," Amazon says in its written policy. "We do, however, verify prices as part of our shipping procedures. If we discover that an item's correct price is higher than our stated price, we will, at our discretion, either contact you for instructions before shipping or cancel your order and notify you of such cancellation."

While incorrect pricing does happen from time to time in the online retail industry, several customers expressed anger and dismay at Amazon's handling of the situation.

"We sold our TV because we thought we were going to get this 40" Samsung LCD through Amazon. I don't know why Amazon did not honor the order, they cancelled my order without any notification. Now I'm sitting at home without TV," customer Willy Khusyonny wrote on the site.

An Amazon customer known as "Music lover" in California was similarly riled.

"This, of course, after I received the e-mail confirming my order," Music lover wrote on Amazon. "In any brick and mortar store, you'd pay the advertised price and walk out with the merchandise, even if they screwed up the price. Apparently this does not apply to big online merchants."

Wrote R. Hiltz, "Amazon said we posted wrong price, now won't honor order. Sent an e-mail that said 'sorry we posted wrong price... your order has been canceled'. How convenient!!! Of course no offer of anything for my inconvenience!...very poor business practice."

An Amazon representative said the company adheres to its posted policies but is looking into answering the complaints beyond the automated responses sent to customers.

[dlmtechnology]

Time to start writing!

I'd suggest those that bought this tv start writing their states Better
Business Bureau as well as an Consumer Protection Agency. Better
Responses out of companies usually happen when a government
agency gets involved ;-)

BBB? Not.

The Better Business Bureau (BBB) is NOT a government agency. In fact, they are a corporation whose clients are actually the very companies they supposedly take complaints about.

The BBB is a piece of garbage. Sending your complaints there is, at best, a waste of time.

[Bill Dautrive]

"Now I'm sitting at home without TV"?

He says that like it is a bad thing. Use this time to do something productive.

Amazon did nothing wrong, a mistake was made and they acted according to published policy. If you don't like a businesses policies, do not do business with them.

No company is going to take a ~$2000 per unit hit due to an error. People rushed to order it, because they knew the deal was too good to be true. Now they whine about it?

Whhaaaaaaaaaa

Waaaaaaa no TV! :-( What am I going to do without my precious Wheel of Fortune and Survivor???

Um...duh!

You know....TV's can really come in handy for little things like
NEWS! Here's an example, let's say you live anywhere along the gulf
coast of the United States. And, let's say it happens to be the heart
of hurricane season. Those little ol' weather reports can really make
a difference when it comes to things like LIFE AND DEATH!

Just because a company has a policy doesn't mean it's a good one.

[michaeljmac]

Wrong about Brick and Mortar Stores

If a store's advertised price was a mistake, they would not honor
the price. They would simply say it was a mis-print and apologize.
Nothing given for your time coming to the store, nothing at all. If
the price is only off by a little, they might go ahead and give it to
you, but a significant difference like this one, I don't know of a
single brick and mortar store that would give it to you for the lower
price.

Yes they will. .

I went to a home depot, saw a $897 Air Compressor mismarked for $459. The GM of the store honored the price. . .It now proudly sits in my garage. . .

I find most b & m stores will honor a price mismatch. . Especially if it's a bigger chain. . .

It's Law

They have to honor those prices because it is the law, and has been that way for some time. If one of those Amazon customers challenged the company on it, they'd have no choice to send them a TV. Quite frankly, I'd like to see that happen.

[ITrogue]

Not True

I worked retail and that is not true. You can't advertise one price and then charge another at the register. I've worked at Eddie Bauer, Lowe's, and Cingular. If you put a tag on something for 9.99 and the register rings up for 15.99... the store must honor the price.

Recently at Home Depot I bought a storage shed which had a flier up for a $100 rebate making the price $499. The Department manager didn't want to honor the sign since it had ended a month earlier, but i knew they had too. the store manager honored the sign without question and explained what i knew... false advertising is illegal and does apply to promotional signs.

[gdmaclew]

Bad Analogy

It happened AFTER the sale.
I somehow can't see a regular store running down the street after you after you've made a purchase or calling you up 3 days later just before shipping to tell you the price was wrong.
Duh!

[heystoopid]

Ahh!

Ahh! The old Dept store get you in sucker trick sales post/pre christmas strikes again!

[davidpratt]

Stop trying to get something for nothing

What Amazon did is correct. No doubt. Unless you can get you lawyer friend create enough noise to let them sneak you one under that table to keep you quite.
Consumer law, in any state, in any country is based on basic contract torte.
A sale is a contract, only when its made. In this case until money changes hands, via cheque or credit card. UNLESS its a means to deceive, which this surely isn't.
If you've paid for it and they ask for more - No can do. Its a contract.
If they haven't signed up an agreement ( with no get out clause ) to supply at the price then you can't force them to sell.
Ticket switching in a shop is an easy way to understand the principles.

This is the real world with more than one supplier

You're not comparing apples with apples here. Ticket switching is fraud. These customers committed no fraud. They made a good faith purchase. Amazon, at the very least should have offered them a gift certificate for their store with the cancellation notice if for nothing else than to compensate the consumer for their time spent making the purchase with Amazon.

[AuriRahimzadeh]

Re: Stop trying to get something for nothing

If Amazon would lose a lot of money due to a pricing error, that would make sense they'd say no-can-do on giving the price break to those who thought the system was a good deal. Think about what would happen if you were Amazon - some clerk made an errant entry and it would cost you close to $1000 per device to make up for the error. Yowsa.

On another note: The article *did* say other retailers were selling the set for $1899. If that's the case, I'm curious why Amazon bumped up the price. That could be akin to ticket swapping. However, if the consumers want that TV so bad, why not look on Froogle or one of those other sites and get the set?

[gdmaclew]

This is Not about Laws.

Don't you get it?
It doesn't matter about legality or who has the better lawyer.
It's all about perception.
If enough people think they've been wronged, anybody can be brought down.
And NO..it's not the same rules of business for everyone!
Online business have the upper hand when it comes to these shenanigans... they don't have to face their customers.
I found it totally petty that with all its billions, Amazon couldn't suck back their mistake (which I happen to believe is an excuse BTW) and make their customers happy...customers who bought in good faith.
Too bad Amazon didn't see fit to sell in good faith.
Now you know why a healthy portion of the public still refuse to buy online.
Clean it up Amazon and admit your mistake.
Give these people what they originally bought, for the price they originally bought it for.
Even the biggest can fall.

FTC rules

should be updated to reflect the current state of advertising. The laws state that you must sell an item at the "shelf price". My question would be isn't the advertised price on a web site the "shelf price" for a store that is virtual?

[M C]

Is this what CNet calls "news of change"?

In any brick and mortar store they would catch the error BEFORE the sale.

Pricing errors happen all the time. It's a frickin' LUXURY ITEM. How it's even news is beyond me, other than "ha-ha" value because it was Amazon.