Anazon's Big Blunder???

[rpcrowe]

Amazon had listed the Sony FE 85mm f/1.8 lens for $250 U.S. Dollars. I didn't order one because I thought that the offer was a hoax(I also own this lens and my only reason for buying another one would have been for resale)...

After all, the list price for this lens at Adorama is $548.

Anyway, Amazon cancelled all of the orders at $248 but, sent folks who had ordered on at that price a gift card for $20 as recompense for not delivering on their ad.

[LePetomane]

I wonder how many orders they received for the lens. Pretty shady.

[pendennis]

I wonder how many orders they received for the lens. Pretty shady.

Doubt that this was anything but a clerical, or input error. Offering a gift card for a buyer's inconvenience is a nice touch. If the lens retails @ $548 OTD, then $248 is below their cost, if they're the dealer. If it's a 3rd party, the supplier is under no obligation to sell at below cost.

[rpcrowe]

Lexar once made a mistake and offered a three pack of 16GB 800X UDMA-7 CF cards at the price of a single card. They found their mistake and removed the ad after one day. However, they honored their commitment to folks who had ordered those cards during the time that the price was low.
The $248 offer for the Sony 85mm f/1.8 lens was in effect for several days. All of the Sony sites were buzzing about that price and it wasn't revoked for several days.
I didn't order one because I already have that lens and didn't want to purchase another - even with the thought of making a resale profit...

[revi]

Some countries have laws forbidding sales below cost.
Also, a three-for-one offer can be plausible, depending on the type of the card, a '5' being replaced by a '2' really looks like a clerical error.
And there's often a disclaimer stating that the seller is not bound by clerical errors.

[rpcrowe]

There are also often legal agreements between the manufacturers and vendors stating that a product will not be sold below a certain minimum cost.

Companies like Adorama in New York City get around that agreement by offering extra products to sweeten the deal since they can't lower the cost to the customer.

I just ordered a Tamron e-mount 28-75mm f/2.8 e-mount lens from Adorama. The price was $869 USD the same as at other vendors. However Adorama is giving a few goodies away with the lens to make their sale more attractive such as a filter kit, some cleaning supplies and a filter strap as well as some freebie software. None of these is worth a lot or made me buy from Adorama - I just like doing business with those folks. They also give you a little bit of money back - something like 1% or so as a store credit for later purchases.

I could have paid for the lens with a Visa card which also gives me cash back but, I have a comfortable balance in my PayPal account from selling my Canon gear and I used part of that to pay for the lens...

[tao2]

Amazon have made a few blunders like this, over the years, not just in photography. About 3 years ago, they advertised a pair of Sennheiser headphones on special offer price of £135. Now, years ago, they used to do this frequently. I got a 5.1. PC speaker system for around 50% of the retail price.

The headphone retail price was £255 elsewhere. I bought these headphones. A day later I received an email asking me to return the 'phones and I would receive a voucher for £25 for the misunderstanding re. the advertised price. I emailed back declining their offer and pointing out that I bough the 'phones in good faith and I intended to keep them. Never heard from Amazon again. Someone in the Amazon admin had obviously put up the wrong price for the headphones.