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When is “Sold by Amazon” Not the Same as “Bought from Amazon”?

Mouse Print* reader Chris L. recently purchased a $1,900 piano from Amazon and was offered three months of online piano lessons for free as part of the deal.

Amazon piano

When he didn’t receive an email with his promotional code from Amazon for the free piano lessons, he contacted customer service via chat. An hour and 20 minutes later, nine representatives later, and a bazillion bogus excuses later, he finally extracted a promise that he would be sent the appropriate promotional code for the piano lessons. But, he never received it.

Finally he received an email explaining the real reason he never got the free piano lessons — he got tripped up by the fine print.

The original offer and the terms and conditions used magic words that most people wouldn’t understand had a very specific meaning.

MOUSE PRINT*:

amazon piano

********
Piano terms

Although our consumer purchased the piano at Amazon.com, he did not buy it from Amazon.com. He bought it from a third party marketplace seller found on the Amazon website and the order was “fulfilled by Amazon” meaning that Amazon shipped it out for the seller. The promotion, however, required that the piano be “sold and shipped” by Amazon alone.

Would anyone ever catch that nuance? And why was it promoted on a page where the offer didn’t apply?

Fortunately for Chris, the actual company providing the free lessons, Skoove.com, provided him with three months of free lessons after he sent them proof of purchase.

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Thanks for Nothing #4

We continue our series of offers, which upon closer scrutiny, offer less than expected.

Example 1:

Supermarkets have become fond of advertising 10 for $10 deals. But this deal from a New York supermarket chain falls a little short.

10 for $10

*MOUSE PRINT:

The bulbs are indeed 10 for $10, but you can only buy four it seems. Thanks for nothing, Shop Rite.

Example 2:

Speaking of buying larger quantities, we’ve always been taught that when you buy in bulk, you can often save money.

Kidde

*MOUSE PRINT:

At Amazon, you can buy a two pack of detectors for the price of three single ones. That’s right, one is $15 and two are $47. Whatta deal. Thanks for nothing, Amazon.

Example 3:

Speaking of deals, Best Buy is seemingly offering an LG stainless steel dishwasher for an unheard of $199 in this ad:

Best Buy

*MOUSE PRINT:

The dishwasher is not $199 as it first appears. That’s the price for the microwave. So, how much is the dishwasher? Who knows. Thanks for nothing, Best Buy.

Example 4:

A few weeks ago, we got Lowe’s to pull a TV commercial which promised 20% off major appliances, but according to the fine print, virtually every major brand was only a maximum of 10% off (except where noted). Now fast forward to this past Labor Day when Lowe’s upped the phantom discount to as high as 35% off.

Lowe's

*MOUSE PRINT:

The fine print disclaimer in this commercial, just like the other ads, says:

Whirlpool, Maytag, KitchenAid, Amana, GE, LG, Samsung, Frigidaire, Electrolux, and Bosch brands limited to a maximum 10% discount unless otherwise shown.

So again, virtually all the major brands are not 35% off. In fact, a review of their website reveals that of the 200 dishwashers offered for sale, only one was 35% or more off the regular price. Thanks for nothing, Lowe’s.

If you find a good example of a “Thanks for Nothing”-type offer, please pass on a screenshot of the ad to edgar (at symbol) mouseprint.org .

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Non-HP Ink Cartridges Suddenly Stop Working in Some HP Printers

Hewlett Packard inkjet printer users often buy generic printer cartridges to save money compared to the HP branded ones. Earlier this month however, those no-name cartridges mysteriously stopped working in some HP printers giving users error messages like this:

HP error

What’s going on? Users have said that they had made no changes to their computer or to the printer at the time the problem started.

*MOUSE PRINT:

HP update

According to published reports, a firmware update from March 2016 had a hidden time bomb set to disable non-HP cartridges being used starting on September 13!

When asked by a Dutch broadcaster why HP did this, the company said in a statement:

“This is to protect innovation and intellectual property, but also to improve the safety of products for customers.”

The changes are made according to HP, “to protect the printers and to protect the communication between the cartridge and the printer.”

“Affected printers will continue to work with refilled cartridges if they contain the original HP security chip. Other cartridges possibly don’t work”, HP added.

We all know the real answer is “money.”

The affected printers seem to be OfficeJet Pro models 8610, 8615, 8620, 8625, 8630, 8640, 8660 and others.

If you are facing this problem, experts say you can try to rollback the firmware to an earlier version (not easy) or wait for no-name cartridges to update their chips to work again. To prevent the problem from spreading to other HP printers, experts suggest that you turn off firmware updates.

UPDATE: A few days ago, an Alabama consumer filed a class action lawsuit against HP for planting a “ticking time bomb” and trying to monopolize the printer ink market. And a day later, HP relented. Come back on Monday for a full follow-up story of these late-breaking events.