Amazon - you just gotta laugh (miter gauge snafu)

[Rick Herrick]

I have a Dewalt DW745 and its fine but small.  I need a good miter gauge so I decided to get the Incra V27 for now.  I have been using Amazon for a long time, mostly satisfied.  I get this thing in today, box looks brand new.  Open it up and I see two big blobs of clay.  Kind of cracked me up as I know Amazon will take care of me but this is really wild.

 

[tjskinny]

Just… wow.. [eek] [blink]

 

[squall_line]

I received a 6" Jorgensen clamp from Amazon Warehouse when I ordered a 36" model.  It even had the 36" hang tag on it.  As soon as it showed up in a book-sized box I knew something was wrong.

So I filed the return, wrote in sharpie on the "checked by Amazon" bag: "This is NOT a 36 inch (3 FOOT) long clamp!!!", and dropped it off at Kohl's.

Never did get my 11" Festool clamps from Amazon, either; they went missing on the UPS delivery truck and are still listed as "in transit" even though I filed a cancellation.

Was this from Amazon or Amazon Warehouse?

 

[Rick Herrick]

I received a 6" Jorgensen clamp from Amazon Warehouse when I ordered a 36" model.  It even had the 36" hang tag on it.  As soon as it showed up in a book-sized box I knew something was wrong.

So I filed the return, wrote in sharpie on the "checked by Amazon" bag: "This is NOT a 36 inch (3 FOOT) long clamp!!!", and dropped it off at Kohl's.

Never did get my 11" Festool clamps from Amazon, either; they went missing on the UPS delivery truck and are still listed as "in transit" even though I filed a cancellation.

Was this from Amazon or Amazon Warehouse?

I don't know the difference between the two, honestly.  I usually don't order unless I see the Amazon Prime shipping (which is was) but it was fulfilled by a tool company which I will leave blank for now.

 

[mino]

Well, least they provided you with the proper white clay.

Looks someone in its path liked the content ... seems INCRA is valued even in the woods these days.
[cool]

 

[Bob D.]

"but it was fulfilled by a tool company which I will leave blank for now."

I try to buy only from Amazon or a known company that has a presence on Amazon.

I dislike how Amazon listings will directly under the item title say it's from company X or Y but that is misleading. It may be manufactured by that company, but they have nothing to do with the listing on Amazon. Batteries is one place this is most evident. It will say Duracell (just as an example, not pushing that brand over nay other reputable brand) but they are in fact knock offs. I've tried a couple times to buy batteries on Amazon and always with problems. They end up being some knock-off brand or outright counterfeit.  The other common issue is they are old stock and the batteries die shortly after put in use. Example, I bought some small oddball 12v batteries (size 23AE) for a remote control switch. Came in a six pack for ~$5. Every one of those batteries lasted about an hour. I was able to use the remote about a dozen times to turn the switch on/off. After that nothing. I finally found some locally and they have been working now for over two months. Amazon gave me a full refund and said throw the batteries away. So now I just get batteries locally at Costco whenever possible. I seem to have better luck going this route.

On the right usually under the price of the item and the 'Buy Now' button you see it says "Ships From" and "Sold By". They are not always the same entity of course but when they are I take extra caution or look for the same item from another seller.

Take this example. A Milwaukee 1/2" mag drill. The brand is listed as MILWAUKEE'S not Milwaukee. It appears to ship directly from the seller not from Amazon so it's not coming out of a Amazon warehouse and it's sold by someone other than Amazon.

Also, the price is jacked up way high. A quick search will find this same mag drill on ToolNut and elsewhere at it's true price which is about $500 less than this Amazon listing.

 

[chrisrosenb]

This happened to me a couple of years ago on an Amazon order for a solid state hard drive. The the factory boxed HD was inside an Amazon box. The HD box appeared to have never been opened. When I opened the HD box, I found pieces of rubber but no HD. The HD was sold & shipped by Amazon. Amazon replaced it.

 

[Packard]

I ordered a 8 ounce can of grain filler from Amazon.  I knew something was wrong when I saw the proof of delivery photo showing a flat envelope.  Empty. 

 

[mino]

Folks, lets not jump the guns.
The OP intentionally and explicitly excluded naming the seller - and for a good reason as nothing would be set/clear at this point.

To point:
It is pretty unlikely the package content was like that when it left the seller. Or, at the minimum, was -supposed- to be like that. This is just too crude to be intentional on the seller side.

It seems very much like someone ad-hoc liked the package content so made an inpromptu improvised content from clay. Likely weighed based on the actual package content weight. That would indicate it is someone from the shipping path as such folk know that the shippers weight the packages multiple times over their path to detect tampering. A proper "fake" seller is much more likely to pack-in a non-genuine knock-off to ensure non-zero probability the buyers will be fooled and play in the grey legal area. Packing bricks is just too crass to be effective commercially.

 

[Packard]

35 years ago I had a Buck which had to be replaced under guarantee.  I sent it to Buck with no problem.  But the two replacement shipments never arrived. 

I asked Buck to send it again without their branding anywhere on the box.  It arrived no problem.

The first two shipments were small and obviously had a pocketable treasure.  It could have been a driver, a foreman, anyone that pocketed those knives. 

Another subject:

I was at Walmart cuss-tomer service desk and a woman was returning a large electric coffee percolator.  The customer service agent decided to take the percolator out of the carton.  The percolator in that new box looked to be 20 years old and heavily used.  But it was the same make and model and fit nicely in the carton.

If that agent had simply looked at the top of the carton and re-sealed it the next buyer would have ended up with a broken old percoator.

That might be what happened here.  Someone returned the "merchandise" with the clay to give it weight.  The vendor did not examine the contents and sold it again not knowing that the clay replaced the original contents.

 

[afish]

Yea, I have one that beats them all.  I ordered a clear check valve for a sewage ejector pump off Amazon but shipped from the seller. I must have missed the delivery the day before. I got up early Saturday morning still half asleep and found the package on the front porch.  It was just before sunrise so it was still pretty dark out.  I open the box and notice straight away since the hosing is clear that the little flapper was stuck open inside.  So I think straight away Huh, thats odd.  So the first thing I do is stick my finger up there and try to flick the little flapper to see if the spring was hung up for some reason . Nope that didnt work so I meander back in the house and turn on a light to get a better look and thats when I see ahhhh,  Brown residue inside and it had been obviously used.  Since this is for sewage ejector pump I can only imagine what had passed through this thing and what my finger was just touching. Still get grossed out over a year later thinking about it.  So at least you got clay and not a package of biohazardous waste to play with... I wasn't laughing that time...

 

[Packard]

The funniest, and saddest shipment I ever saw was the UPS shipment of racing slicks my friend ordered in time for a weekend SCCA event.  The tires (tubeless) arrived on Friday with the packing slip stapled through the sidewalls.  My friend had to drop from the race as he did not have tires for it and it was too late to order new ones. 

Even my mother would have known not to staple through the sidewalls of a tire.  These are those big copper-colored industrial staples, not staples for paper, but for corrugated.

 

[squall_line]

Folks, lets not jump the guns.
The OP intentionally and explicitly excluded naming the seller - and for a good reason as nothing would be set/clear at this point.

To point:
It is pretty unlikely the package content was like that when it left the seller. Or, at the minimum, was -supposed- to be like that. This is just too crude to be intentional on the seller side.

It seems very much like someone ad-hoc liked the package content so made an inpromptu improvised content from clay. Likely weighed based on the actual package content weight. That would indicate it is someone from the shipping path as such folk know that the shippers weight the packages multiple times over their path to detect tampering. A proper "fake" seller is much more likely to pack-in a non-genuine knock-off to ensure non-zero probability the buyers will be fooled and play in the grey legal area. Packing bricks is just too crass to be effective commercially.

I don't know that people were necessarily conflating the OP's predicament with intentional malfeasance, but I appreciate you pointing that out.

If I were a betting man, I would say that someone purchased it, packed clay back into the box, and re-shrink-wrapped it and returned it.

Theft is theft, and is disappointing either way, no matter how it occurs.

 

[Rick Herrick]

Thanks folks, I have my suspicions about what happened but I had not thought of the 'vendor blunder' by making a sample ( for a photo ) and actually shipping it.  Either way, I'll just send it back, I know Amazon will take care of me.  I just got an email about a sale on the Incra 1000SE.  I know it will dwarf my DW745 but I may get it anyway and use just the gauge for now and try to figure out how to work with that large fence on such a small table.

My goal on this original post was just to bring in a little levity.  Never ceases to amaze me at what you see out there... [big grin]

 

[Packard]

A packaging store near my house used to have a shrink-wrapping machine.  He planned it for retailers who had open packages and wanted to sell them as factory sealed, but he would shrink-wrap any package for $1.00 to $3.00 depending upon the size.

With one of those machines, you could easily return packages with substitute weights.

A friend of mine in high school needed new tires for his car.  It was not yet illegal but they were getting close.  So he rented a car from Avis, which used a machine to check if the tires were too low on returned vehicles. 

He switched the tires from the Avis car to his and from his to the Avis car.  When he returned the vehicle the "Wizard of Avis" did not notice that the tires were changed.  It was probably a dozen rentals down when they realized that the tires were swapped so he got away with it. 

He wanted to do the same with the automatic transmission but it stopped working too soon. [big grin]

 

[mcooley]

Maybe this will start to be their demise. Although I seriously doubt it.

Their random warehouse method where they only know where stuff is because the computer tells them is as they say faster (since the objects get stored according to wherever they fit) and the AI knows where to tell the picker the closest toothpaste is located etc. But I assume if they get hacked like so many others are then not having their inventory in categorized cubbies and instead each cubby having a random assortment could be a huge wake up call.

Let's hope some ecosystem pressures do indeed slow them down! No one needs everything in life from one single supplier and surely none of us here would like it if our trade suddenly went to the cheapest bidder.

m

 

[AstroKeith]

A packaging store near my house used to have a shrink-wrapping machine.  He planned it for retailers who had open packages and wanted to sell them as factory sealed, but he would shrink-wrap any package for $1.00 to $3.00 depending upon the size.

With one of those machines, you could easily return packages with substitute weights.

A friend of mine in high school needed new tires for his car.  It was not yet illegal but they were getting close.  So he rented a car from Avis, which used a machine to check if the tires were too low on returned vehicles. 

He switched the tires from the Avis car to his and from his to the Avis car.  When he returned the vehicle the "Wizard of Avis" did not notice that the tires were changed.  It was probably a dozen rentals down when they realized that the tires were swapped so he got away with it. 

He wanted to do the same with the automatic transmission but it stopped working too soon. [big grin]

In 1966 Hertz rented out Mustang GT350's as a promotion (nice black and gold colour scheme too). There are accounts (based on truth I believe) of people renting them for the weekend and swapping engines with their 'lesser' Mustangs.

 

[Packard]

You would think that the engine swap might be noticed.  If the tranny was still functioning and continued to function for a few thousand miles, then a transmission swap might work.  It would have to  be not notices for several renters or you would get caught.

 

[rubber_ducky]

A packaging store near my house used to have a shrink-wrapping machine.  He planned it for retailers who had open packages and wanted to sell them as factory sealed, but he would shrink-wrap any package for $1.00 to $3.00 depending upon the size.

With one of those machines, you could easily return packages with substitute weights.

A friend of mine in high school needed new tires for his car.  It was not yet illegal but they were getting close.  So he rented a car from Avis, which used a machine to check if the tires were too low on returned vehicles. 

He switched the tires from the Avis car to his and from his to the Avis car.  When he returned the vehicle the "Wizard of Avis" did not notice that the tires were changed.  It was probably a dozen rentals down when they realized that the tires were swapped so he got away with it. 

He wanted to do the same with the automatic transmission but it stopped working too soon. [big grin]

When I was in high school. An acquaintance of mine has access to a shrink wrap machine. He would go to the toy store (remember those?), but a video game (~$40 msrp), take it home and swap the cartridge for a children’s book. He’d shrink wrap the box and return it. Rinse and repeat.

I went to the toy store with him one time when he was doing this. A store manager, who likely received more than one report from somebody who bought a game but received a book instead, was working the customer service desk. He decided to open my friend’s return right in front of him. My friend booked it out of the entry door. I, not fully aware of what was going on, followed.

He didn’t get caught, but I believe that that was the end of that trick.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Birdhunter]

I’ve had excellent luck getting Amazon to rectify any mistakes. I always try to have items shipped through UPS or FedX and never through USPS. Our area has recently had some  pretty ugly USPS experiences.

I’ve had to submit a very negative product review an item. The vendor offered a compromise which I rejected. I did get a refund.