Comments on: Amazon Glitch Followup

By: Ray Cornwall

Ray Cornwall — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 19:59:04 +0000

Steve Gerber, if he were still with us (bless his crusty old soul), would probably laugh at a company paying you $25 because you DIDN’T get HTD.

By: David

David — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:33:23 +0000

Amazon.ca had a similar glitch/sale/whatever. I ordered about 12 books, ranging in cover price from $39.99 – $49.99, all priced at $15.87. A bunch of them were preorders. So far nothing’s been canceled, and my first order of in-stock items shipped already.

By: Dustin Harbin

Dustin Harbin — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 17:18:37 +0000

Yeah I was a little surprised the Bones didn’t ship–at $15 for a $40 book, it’s more like a deep discount than a nutty $8.24/$100 ratio discount. I was already marking Christmas to-buy-for boxes as taken care of.

By: Johanna

Johanna — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 16:50:42 +0000

Dustin, thanks for sharing your experience. That ties in with something else I suspect: that the higher priced the book, the more likely Amazon didn’t ship. The books I got at the $15 price were not Omnibus volumes, so they weren’t as drastically discounted as the super deals you mention.

By: Thad

Thad — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 15:50:04 +0000

@Joanna, “Do their computers have more sophisticated algorithms than I thought?”

Amazon’s got some of the best algorithms in the business for their “If you liked this, you might also like this” advertising, so it wouldn’t be a stretch to think they’ve got a good way for flagging suspicious or opportunistic behavior. That said, Thom’s right, it doesn’t take a very sophisticated algorithm to flag the people who ordered multiples.

Since you’re following Johnston’s stories on this, you’ve probably already caught the post where he repeats Kevin Church’s suggestion that you use those $25 gift certificates to donate books to schools or hospitals (he links to http://www.amazon.com/wishlist/25AV8PO3ABKZQ and http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/registry.html?ie=UTF8&type=wishlist&id=2YY3JGTEKKG7P , respectively), but it bears repeating here.

By: Amazon no longer selling many graphic novels after weekend price glitch frenzy | Robot 6 @ Comic Book Resources – Covering Comic Book News and Entertainment

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 15:49:09 +0000

[...] Johanna also offers commentary here and here. [...]

By: Dustin Harbin

Dustin Harbin — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 15:15:29 +0000

Hi Johanna. I don’t think the multiple/non-multiple order thing was a litmus. I ordered two Bone One Volumes and one FF Omnibus, and the first email I got said they could only ship one Bone, and the second email said oops no Bone at all, no FF either.

I was only annoyed by this whole thing when I thought that I was only getting one Bone–which meant that the many people and resellers who were loading up on multiple uber-cheap omnibuses were probably getting some percentage of their orders, and potentially people who just ordered one were not getting anything. Weirdly, once the whole order was cancelled I felt much better.

By: Thom

Thom — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 13:46:59 +0000

I wonder how many of those people tried to buy multiple copies of books… it seems like the loudest complainers were people who ordered multiple books. I would note that a couple of the books in my orders included very pricey books-and those were not canceled so far.

By: Johanna

Johanna — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 11:43:52 +0000

Thom, regarding your comment on questionable orders, I found myself wondering if Amazon could somehow tell “good” customers from bad ones. Like you, I got everything I ordered (which were lower-priced books, not Omnibus volumes, so I got deals, but not once-in-a-lifetime ones) except the HtD plus a $25 credit, while those who tried to really rip off the company seem to have been denied. Do their computers have more sophisticated algorithms than I thought?

By: Thom

Thom — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 08:52:06 +0000

Hmmm…sounds like the glitch might not be Amazon’s “fault” if other retailers had the same issue come up.

By: Hooper Triplett

Hooper Triplett — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 05:11:31 +0000

Checked Barnes & Noble about an hour ago, and they too had a similar glitch, but now for those titles they say “A new copy is not available from Barnes & Noble.com at this time.”

By: James Schee

James Schee — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 05:09:09 +0000

LOL, since I didn’t order anything figuring it for just a temporary glitch. Can I have a $50 credit?:)

By: Rant Howard

Rant Howard — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 04:36:25 +0000

Retailers capitalize on the fact that, by and large, customers spend more than their gift cards are worth. With this Diamond fiasco having whet collectors’ appetites, I’m willing to bet that a $25 booster gets everyone buying legit comics in bulk as well, this time earning more people a profit.

By: Thom

Thom — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 04:27:20 +0000

So, I just came home to an e-mail that one of my books shipped. So, come Friday or Monday I will have two of the books I ordered. The only they canceled was the Howard the Duck Omnibus. So far, they are telling me that they will be completing out my orders, which all have dates they expect me to receive them. Others have had their orders wiped out. And I got the $25. While I *appreciate* it, I am really curious how my order is getting honored-is it possibly because I didn’t try and order multiples of any book, maybe those orders were seen as somewhat questionable?

By: Nick

Nick — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 03:05:12 +0000

And strangely enough, Amazon won’t take the credit back. Go figure.

By: Nick

Nick — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 01:17:17 +0000

I completely agree about that $25. Had they sent me something at those prices, great. However, I couldn’t see that they owed me $25 in credit, so I emailed them and said thanks but no thanks.

And, by way of full disclosure, David Brothers’ piece provided some clarity about why I felt icky over getting that credit.

By: Rich Johnston

Rich Johnston — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 00:44:04 +0000

Johanna, that wasn’t a brag. It was statistics.

By: david brothers

david brothers — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 00:42:02 +0000

Barnes & Noble are suffering from the same Diamond glitch.

Is Diamond publicly self-destructing? This is looking like a pretty costly error, and I’m betting B&N/Amazon/whoever else is serviced by Diamond would rather punish Diamond rather than revoke those orders from customers.

Can retailers order omnibuses from Diamond for cost right now?