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It sounds like Amazon (in Poland at least) has been playing it fast and loose with "eventual consistency" but violated the law by basing legally binding claims

by hnbad 3y ago

It sounds like Amazon (in Poland at least) has been playing it fast and loose with "eventual consistency" but violated the law by basing legally binding claims on the unreliable data. Selling goods that are already out of stock only to then cancel the order later, or indicating a false time pressure to purchase in order to meet a delivery date, etc, all sound like they could as well be genuine mistakes. Amazon just happens to be too big for that to be a valid excuse.

jgeada 3y ago
Except they do still charge you first before figuring out they won't actually ship you the goods as promised. It is the charging and then not delivering that is the problem.
- rafram 3y ago
  Do they? In the US, Amazon only actually charges your card once the items ship. Until then it’s just a pre-authorization.
  - chihuahua 3y ago
    It seems bizarre to hear about these problems in Poland. Amazon had all this stuff figured out a long time ago. Which is why I order from Amazon all the time - it works reliably, 99.99% of the time. And they understand how to properly package things, which is what I would expect after they've shipped a billions packages over the past 25+ years. When I order from Target or Vitacost, there's a 25% chance that they throw things in a box, add a single inflated plastic bag, and ship it. Glass jars arrive smashed, shampoo bottles crack open and leak over the other items, etc. It's like day 1 for Amazon's competition in terms of packaging.
  - gambiting 3y ago
    Nope, in Poland(and in UK as well) it charges you immediately, unless the item is specifically marked as pre-order(like new unreleased yet games and films - those get charged when they ship, everything else gets charged the moment of order). I've ordered a new router from Amazon few weeks ago, it was showing as "shipping 5th of April" (they were on backorder I guess) but they charged my card straight away.
kubanczyk 3y ago
According to the gov investigator a big part of the "darkness" in this case were A's terms of service. They moved the moment of entering the legal sale agreement well after the customer could expect from their web interaction.

by hnbad 3y ago

jgeada 3y ago

Except they do still charge you first before figuring out they won't actually ship you the goods as promised. It is the charging and then not delivering that is the problem.

rafram 3y ago
Do they? In the US, Amazon only actually charges your card once the items ship. Until then it’s just a pre-authorization.
- chihuahua 3y ago
  It seems bizarre to hear about these problems in Poland. Amazon had all this stuff figured out a long time ago. Which is why I order from Amazon all the time - it works reliably, 99.99% of the time. And they understand how to properly package things, which is what I would expect after they've shipped a billions packages over the past 25+ years. When I order from Target or Vitacost, there's a 25% chance that they throw things in a box, add a single inflated plastic bag, and ship it. Glass jars arrive smashed, shampoo bottles crack open and leak over the other items, etc. It's like day 1 for Amazon's competition in terms of packaging.
- gambiting 3y ago
  Nope, in Poland(and in UK as well) it charges you immediately, unless the item is specifically marked as pre-order(like new unreleased yet games and films - those get charged when they ship, everything else gets charged the moment of order). I've ordered a new router from Amazon few weeks ago, it was showing as "shipping 5th of April" (they were on backorder I guess) but they charged my card straight away.

kubanczyk 3y ago

According to the gov investigator a big part of the "darkness" in this case were A's terms of service. They moved the moment of entering the legal sale agreement well after the customer could expect from their web interaction.