Guylhem's most recent funny hacks & thoughts

Amazon.es in fraud + lying

These last days I thought Amazon.fr might have changed the product description between the date of my order and the date of my refund claim. It seemed far fetched, but it was the only real explaination I saw for the difference between what I ordered and what I got.

Now I have proof that amazon.es is doing exactly that, and even more by falsificating client orders. IMHO it is called fraud.

See this screenshot of the item description for ASIN B0050GNQAK, as posted here on december 10, 2011 : it is clearly a revision 1.3 (follow the big red arrow!!)

And if you do not believe a screenshot is binding, I am sure I did not made any mistake in my order since amazon itself confirmed by email I would get a revision 1.3:

from: auto-confirm@amazon.es sender-time: Sent at 23:25 (UTC)date: Tue, Dec 6, 2011 at 23:25subject: Tu pedido de Amazon.es

(…)

Pedido nº:

171-9404429-3853925

(…)

Importe total:  

EUR 145,47

 
Fecha de envío estimada para estos productos: 7 dic 20111“Gigabyte Z68MX-UD2H-B3, 32 GB, dual, 1066, 1200, 1300, 1333, 1600, 1800, 1866, 2133 MHz, DDR3, 1.5 V, Intel (rev. 1.3)”
Accesorio; EUR 126,25
En stock
   Vendido por: Amazon EU S.a.r.L.

Now guess what ?

Today on december 12, 2011, at the very same URL, the very same item is listed as revision 1.0 - and with the same item number (ASIN). Ain’t that strange ?

Check for yourself on  http://www.amazon.es/Gigabyte-Z68MX-UD2H-B3-dual-1066-Intel/dp/B0050GNQAK/ :

That could be an honest website update, but that would be a wrong guess because you need to hear the end of this story.

The very worst is that they ex-post-facto “updated” (some would say “falsificate”) my purchase to list the motherboard I purchased as a revision 1.0 - in contradiction with their own email!!

The only question is why? IMHO, it is to deny customers who got scammed the possibility to return a product different form the one they ordered, so that they can not ask for a refund.

Here they can only ask to return it for an exchange of the same product. The same product is a revision 1.0, which will be officially be attributed to the customer this time, who will thus give away all its hopes to ever get a 1.3

I was more than patient, but that is just too much. Today I got 2 calls from people form Amazon.fr who offered they apologies, and explained that yes, they did a mistake, that it was they fault, and that they would issue a full refund:

Suite à notre conversation téléphonique, je suis désolé d’apprendre que vous ayez reçu votre carte mère avec la révision 1.0 au lieu de 1.3.

Veuillez trouver ci-dessous un lien vers l’étiquette de retour personnalisée. Il s’agit d’une étiquette prépayée, vous n’avez donc pas à affranchir votre colis. 

But still, they didn’t think my thousands K of purchased goods on amazon were worth a single dollar coupon. Lamers.

Anyway, I consider the matter with amazon.fr settled.

But Amazon.es is not doing anything like that. They are now even trying to falsificate my order, by claiming I ordered a 1.0 while I have multiple proofs I ordered a 1.3 - even they own sending slip and their own bill !!!

At this time, I can only see of one good solution : I am going to call my bank and ask to revert the charge, then sue amazon.es for fraud. What they did is just not acceptable. I have all the proofs that they posted a product description, then altered it, then also falsificated the order so that they can pretend that the ordered was right and refuse any refund.

I wonder how long such business practices would fly in the US?