Soapbox: Having My PS5 Launch Day Nerfed By Amazon

Oh dear. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. The strangest thing is the lack of clarification over compensation, it feels rather like settlements out of court. Perhaps put a photo of Jeff Bezos on a dartboard and shoot it with the Nerf gun?

Someone nerfed this whole thing up didn't they??

This is terrible, I was very fortunate but something like this did cross my mind. Feel for the guy.

It stinks this happened to you, but for others that had the same thing occur, it’s good to have someone with a bit of PR weight to their name in the same boat.

If I had this and called Amazon US they’d be like ‘sorry, can’t help, anything else I can do for you today?’

As someone who deals with complaints for a living, the £150 D&I (distress and inconvenience) is pretty high for a "level of service" complaint. I would be 99% sure that this is more than likely due to you being high profile i.e. a reporter for Push Square etc.

The problem now is that they've set a precedent that everyone else will expect.

Overall, the outcome is pretty dire, so I'm really, really sorry to hear you got shafted, Ant. I'd be inclined to have something formal from them though, and also find out who they're regulated by in terms of their complaint handling.

If you're unhappy with their "final position" regarding the raised concerns, you are 100% within your rights to escalate it to their regulator. If they then review your concerns and feel Amazon haven't dealt with you fairly, they will have the authority to overturn Amazons decision.

I guess generally if you’ve not received the right item and want a replacement they haven’t got, they give you a 1/3 apology payment. I bet they’re happy to do this when you buy something at £14.99 and get a fiver, but head office probably just figured out as all these missing PS5s is going to cut into their profit margin.

https://youtu.be/2rIJmGj4g-s
Never buy a console at launch?

Great read. As someone who couldnt even secure a preorder despite trying desperately, it must feel far worse having the rug pulled from underneath you at the last moment. Hopefully law enforcement is able to track down the thieves.

Don't buy expensive stuff online, lesson learned really. Now if you got a refund then you lost nothing, and no more complaining is necessary on the subject. I bet most of the people claiming it was "stolen" are just trying to get another console free.

I was fortunate enough to able to secure a ps5 through sam's club, but when it was delivered the issue I had was that it says PS5 on the box. I told my wife how there will probably be reports of people stealing them. I hope amazon and other companies sort these issues out and prioritize folks who were screwed over.

I’ve been with Amazon for about 16 years or so, and they’ve always been great, something like this is extremely sad and shocking to hear. Like you say the general workforce can’t be blamed, but Amazon need to step up, find the culprits and inform the police. Issuing priority to the people who’s ps5’s were stolen should be done, as it will have shook their faith in buying anything from there again.

I know this is bad for all concerned and all, but a full refund AND £150 on top of that, processed without quibbles and in a fast manner, isn't something that any consumer should be complaining about. If there is no more stock to hand out, what can they do?

Perhaps a step back and a sense of perspective would be more appropriate.

Haven't attempted to order a ps5 yet, but when I do it will be amazon. I have absolutely nothing but praise for the team, especially the customer service who have always been fantastic.
It's the utterly moronic delivery drivers from DPD, DHL, Hermes and all the rest of them that are the issues. Like today for example, ordered a big list of items (from amazon funnily enough) and told them my safe place was just to leave outside my flat door. It's safe and is behind a glass partition wall. Instead, he decided to leave it OUTSIDE my building. Which leads to a busy car park. in the rain. Utter clown.

The bigger they get the less friendly they get. My favorite example is with collectors editions at Bol.com they package it extremely bad. And if you send it back do you have extra stock for a replacement no we will just refund you. Nice so it's sold out everywhere and now I have nothing too show for it...

Wasn't such a straight forward resolution when it happened to me and a 1000 pounds worth of PC equipment. Thought I had it resolved until they started chasing me to return the stuff I never received and threatening to charge my Credit Card directly if not received within 7 days! Took over 4 months to sort out in the end - a very painful experience.

@antdickens But with that £150 you could buy.. checks notes 2 PS5 games!

@MPaulson While the extra 150 would be great, here its more like hush money or something, because he is a reporter and they want to appease him. He wanted the PS5, and Amazon & their courier failed to deliver what was requested. They need to work with Sony to figure out how to make it up to the customers, he doesn't have to sit there and be thankful.

@antdickens why did they email you back about X-Box Series X stock when you ordered a PS5?

My console was also stolen by amazon.uk. pre ordered months ago, item was marked as dispatched but went missing as soon as amazon logistics got hold of it. I have been lied to every day since then. Claiming it was sent to the wrong depot, claiming it had been recovered etc. No one has tried to contact me and even when I've shown to managers and they promise to call back the next day with an update to the situation no such call is recieved. Amazon are liars and thieves. Do not trust them with your money.

The remote-bricking solution would indeed stop someone else using it and is a good idea in theory. But it wouldn't stop thieves, they'd just sell it on and let the over-paying end customer suffer. Then delete their eBay account.

"I've never spoken to a human being there"

Lol I spoke to several humans there back in 2013 when it looked like my GTAV delivery was a whole mess, got me real antsy. But this experience of yours is really awful, Anthony. To hell with criminals.

@GamingVeteran I’m confused. Why are you seemingly angry at the innocent customers?

There are clear cases of theft. A friend of mine used to be a delivery driver. He was always trying to sell me cheap things that “fell off the back of the van”. And I always told him where he could shove them.

Sony made this an online only launch. You could not purchase it in person. They didn’t want people queuing or gathering in large groups and spreading Covid. That would have been worse PR than this with the media, that’s for sure.

Anyways, not sure you why you appear to be looking down at people over this. There are clear issues.

When it comes to 3rd party deliveries, you are putting quite a bit of faith and trust into many people along the line for said deliveries. More often than not you hear about these horror stories of mail being stolen. Be it from porch pirates, the delivery drivers themselves, or somebody who worked the many different sorting lines the items go through. The element of you not getting your package (in some cases, even simple mail) is always very high with not enough checks and balances in place to deal with it. When ordering something that is highly sought after (and expensive enough to make a profit on), you are taking a risk every time.

Yet on the flip side, scammers who do get their packages could easily, and many times do, claim they never got it in the first place. This issue goes both way, sadly.

@antdickens my Amazon PS5 delivery went missing somewhere between being dispatched last Wednesday and getting to the local distribution centre (at least according to the tracking info). So far I’ve had many promises of it being ‘on its way’ but alas no console. Customer services have said I need to wait until tomorrow before they can do anything about it, but from what I’ve read all that will be is a refund with no chance of securing a replacement anytime soon... Like you I’ve not had an issue with Amazon deliveries in the 19 years I’ve been a customer, it’s a shame it had to start with something so anticipated.

@antdickens Yes I know you didn't mean it negative. Most of the time, a simple chat to a rep solves the problem. So you know it's a whole mess when you have to call someone at Amazon.

@antdickens In the exact same boat, my PS5 never turned up but I got some bog roll for my troubles. Amazon told me to send those back before getting a refund which I find pathetic, they are going down the toilet like my money did.

Is there no way to track the PS5 from its serial number online, once it goes online or blacklist it on the PSN, do Amazon not take a note of the Serial or even MAC address?

@antdickens First of all. Let me say that it really sucks you weren't able to get your PS5 on launch day. I hope you can secure one soon if you haven't already.

The one thing in your article I am less sure of though is this statement:
"As a programmer, I know for sure that it isn't a technical limitation for one of the worlds biggest tech superpowers."

While it is certainly true that Amazon has a technical team capable of building a system that supports this functionality, that doesn't mean that their systems currently support it. Further, it isn't likely something they could toss in place quickly as the controls around the those systems are likely to involve some significant testing and red-tape. Being bigger rarely makes you more flexible.

@Masquerade They surely do but how could they trace it? I mean, wouldn't Sony have to be the one to do that?

@evan23 Could they not ask Sony to do so, in the best interests of consumers and to show Sony care? Maybe farfetched, but why not.

@Masquerade I am not sure I follow how you see this working. It seems like Sony shouldn't be providing private customer data to Amazon.

Just because Amazon sold something to someone it doesn't give them a right to anything after that. Even if it was stolen they shouldn't really be able to acquire that information from a privacy perspective.

I would think the only way you could actually get that done is if the authorities got involved, took the serial from Amazon and then got the personal data from Sony using whatever legal mechanism that would require. From there, they could investigate it.

Unfortunately, I don't think the local authorities care enough to do that in most places.

Amazon has always had the trouble of being an inhuman roboticized facade. They're useful for general in-stock purchases, but anything unique or unusual, all you can ever get is robiticized boiler plate "select from the following options" script readers, almost entirely located in India. Amazon doesn't generally care. Amazon doesn't actually need to care, as long as most of the policy works for most of the people most of the time. You certainly got a higher tiered response than most people do, and that sounds like a weak attempt at hush money.

I had a similar thing almost happen with my PS5 delivery. I had 2 coming, not from Amazon. One was delivered, and the other, supposedly to be delivered with it. There was fumbling in the back of the truck. A really awkward, odd interaction with the driver (and I rarely even interact with the drivers here...) One of the part time use-your-own-vehicle drivers. and the other was "not on the truck." Same thing... I ended up having to make the rounds of calls...the depot finally, hours later got in touch and told me they'd get it out Monday. Sure enough they did. The box did look a little beat up, with some torn tape (couldn't tell if it was opened though....not Amazon so clear tape was the original tape. But it did look like 2 layers.

Had I not chased it down to the depot, would they have located it? Maybe. It could have been a simple left at the depot issue, or it could have been something like this. I fee bad accusing the driver of foul play if he's a totally legit worker that really didn't have a box that got left behind...but you don't know who to trust.

Ultimately, there's a couple of problems. High profile launches of scalpable goods are 100% on these console mfrs. They play with fire and they know it. In Jim Ryan's own words he spent a year drumming up demand....and then will shift to focusing on supply. MS did the same. Perhaps if they didn't spend a year maximizing demand they already know they can't meet, just to have the marketing power of a Cabbage Patch Doll, these incidents wouldn't be so prominent.

The other problem is releasing this stuff near the holidays, when it absolutely shouldn't be. This is when the seasonal part-time temporary drivers and warehouse workers are ramped up. Theft increases across the board as they're hiring "off the street" and the combination of the idiotic console companies launching during this time on purpose along with seasonal temp workers that don't care, and know they can bag some high value stuff off the side, is a terrible, terrible match. I strongly doubt I'd have seen such a problem with the normal full-time union guys. Amazon doesn't do union, but I know the full time guy (or the guy that did it last year) and he was great. The part timers? I had one of them take a package once - they even took the picture for the app...left it hanging off the step in a way no driver ever does...and then it wasn't there when I went for it. Told the full time guy about it next time I saw him. He thought at first he delivered it that day, but it wasn't him, that much I know.

The part time seasonal warehouse/drivers are a risk in and of themselves, but a necessary one. But launching a demand-of-the-decade console during that season is simply stupid. Spending a year maximizing demand for a product you know you can't deliver, therefore generating the black market for your product before it even releases should qualify as criminal. Yes, MS, Nintendo, Sony, Apple, etc, should be facing court for reckless endangerment at this point. Screaming "hot new tech product we can't fulfill, releasing this Holiday!" should be treated akin to screaming "Fire!" in a crowded theater. They are creating a black market, a criminal enterprise, and ultimately risking physical harm to people through that criminal demand by doing this as they do.

I do agree with the article's sentiment though. The UK case seems very very organized. It doesn't seem like random events, but rather a planned and coordinated effort. It's an issue everywhere, but in the UK there's got to be some form of central organization, be it a mafia/gang operation of some sort, or a coordinated Discord-based crime ring.

@evan23 Like Ant mentioned, in the US, Amazon has a note around some high value items like TVs and things that they record the serial number for theft prevention purposes. I.E. If you buy one and return a different one, the SN won't match. If it's reported missing/stolen in transit, then can register that SN as hot goods and track it. It's about protecting themselves from you potentially being a thief/liar more than about protecting you from their drivers, but it does work both ways.

But they don't seem to use that system for consoles. Seems limited to things like TVs, computers, hi-fi, commercial equipment, etc.

@evan23 You are right, not as widespread or serious in nature to warrant the police getting involved in this matter and I suppose also they would need to find the thief before finding the PS5's as this is hitting Amazon's pocket and reputation.

@antdickens Ignore the 'stop complaining' and 'you shouldn't order expensive stuff online' comments, you've been the victim of a crime, plain and simple. That's like having your car nicked and being told "well you shouldn't have learned to drive"

@Jayslow law enforcement? Have you ever seen the British police? You have more chance of seeing pigs fly than them catching thieves. "Too much paperwork"

Mine got missing, long story short, received a refund earlier today with a £10 on top (lol). I looked three times at your £150 to check if I saw right. I was already insulted by this but now I am insulted proper.

Elsewhere on Twitter, another guy from my area had a non-delivery and recorded the conversation with the delivery driver on his phone - he was the same delivery guy as mine. Somebody's got 'rich' very quickly.

Standard Amazon's procedures generally work but not in this case, so I think special circumstances should invoke special measures. I've said this before but priority for next orders should be the bare minimum. System built to support this functionality or not, just pull out a list of people affected and email them separately with a link 2 days before releasing the general stock to get their orders in. This will be very simple to achieve and uncontroversial.

This whole situation puts into perspective my other orders with Amazon in the past, which had gone missing. A friend works there and she told me that Amazon doesn't care about theft (she deals with this every single day, usually Apple products, surprise, surprise) as it barely registers in their bottom line. It's like a worst kept secret. I've always liked Amazon but now I feel that shopping there is like funding a gang. I guess I will reduce my custom with them and take it elsewhere.

I'm in a slightly different situation, in that my PS5 made it to the Avonmouth Hermes depot in Bristol and was never seen or heard from again. Amazon seem unable to chase it up and Hermes don't have any way of speaking to them to chase it up. I've refused a refund in the hope that somehow it turns up, but seeing as it's not been pinged since Thursday morning I think I'm out of luck here

@Xiovanni there is no reason why deliveries shouldn’t be just as reliable/safe but with the added bonus of being more convenient.

I agree I collect the item if it is urgent or something very important. But it still wasn’t an option for most people, especially in the UK we can’t click and collect at most stores right now.

@DrJames I am with you on this logic. I always have a back log of games to enjoy and I don't see the need to buy brand new tech. It always becomes refined after launch. I want my stuff to last!

@NEStalgia Jeff Bezos = the devil, in my opinion. The only reason Amazon took off in the US is because he found a loophole in tax law that allowed him to not charge sales tax from out of state purchases. He single handedly almost destroyed brick and mortar businesses (and all of the jobs lost) plus incorporates so much tech that he doesn't provide jobs. To make it clear, although convenient, he has done more damage to the world than good.

@antdickens I gotta disagree with you on this one, bro. Automation is horrible customer service. Isn't that what the Terminator movies are about? 😂 A robot never tells you compassionately "thank you for your business." One-on-one human relations are the foundation of a honest service. Your story genuinely broke my heart as I imagined feeling your excitement. A great story for your portfolio at a minimum, I guess.

I have a feeling I narrowly dodged this happening to me. I got an email a day or two before launch telling me I'd been "upgraded" to launch day delivery - it was odd because that's what I assumed I was getting anyway, but whatever.

But despite that promise, the tracking info was weird on launch day. It arrived at a nearby depot, about half an hour drive away, early in the morning. So far so good. But then after about 5 hours it said "Due to an external issue your delivery has been delayed." After another 4 hours the package arrived at the same depot again. With all this weird stuff going on, it feels as if someone tried to steal my PS5 but got caught, then they had to run it through the system again. I mean, they spent about 9 hours redelivering it to its point of origin again. Also when it turned up it didn't have the Amazon tape on it - I didn't really pick up on it at the time but a lot of people that got some random crap instead of a PS5 said that's how their package was as well.

@hookedWORM17 "The only reason Amazon took off in the US is because he found a loophole in tax law that allowed him to not charge sales tax from out of state purchases."

Ahh....what? Up until the recent law changes almost no business charged sales tax for out of state purchases. That wasn't really a loophole. That is just how nexus used to work with sales tax. You only had to collect sales tax in states where you had nexus. In theory, the consumers should have been reporting and paying use tax on those purchases but almost nobody ever did. That is why they changed the law.

@hookedWORM17 Bezos is a nasty piece of excrement, but the reality here is more complicated than that. The tax thing wasn't a loophole, it was intentional legislation for catalog shopping since forever, because of the complexity of business owners calculating all the national local taxes. He's the one that ruined it for all the real small business catalogs that depended on that. Because of his egregious use of it, they got rid of that, and all the small mail order stores got screwed.

But he didn't end brick and mortar. The media like to say he did. That wasn't him. That was Walmart. They spent decades using the military strategy of "enclosure" to specifically target all local, regional, and small competitors. They'd saturate an area with numerous stores, then price watch and undercut the local competitors until they couldn't compete and closed. Then when Walmart was the only store and a major employer, they'd close all those excess stores and leave everyone driving to the remaining one.... And thanking them for it because that's all else was left.

By the time Bezos arrived on the scene, brick and mortar was already gone, and only a handful of big boxes remained. Bezos just used Walmarts strategy against Walmart itself. Something they never saw coming. He hastened the demise of some of those big boxes, but they were already cannibalizing each other by that point. Until the pandemic, Amazon still only accounted for less than 10% of us retail. Walmart accounted for over a third!

There's another complexity. Most retailers have operated underwater for over 30 years. They all went all in on leveraged buyouts in the 80s fad. They basically borrowed against a future in which their profits would continue growth at the rate it was in the 80s. When that didn't happen, no matter how much income they generated, it would never be enough to cover the debt. After the 2008 depression (which they called a recession after spending public money on the banks), those retailers were completely drowned by that 80's debt.

Bezos is more of a carrion eater than a predator. In retail, not in tech.

Walmart is the real predator that set things up for him. The same walmart that made ps5 preorders go to pot.... Not coincidentally.

In a way Bezos is our "savior"... Without him, Walmart would pretty much own us with no competition by now. But, then, who will save us from him?

@Kienda Ok pal, I'm sure your friend did that. Did he also have a PS5 and Xbox stolen from him by Amazon drivers too... The hearsay aside, Sony didn't announce online only until after launch, before launch retailers decided what to do. I made my preorder in store, picked it up launch day in store. Bottom line is if this did in fact happen to someone, and if they got a refund, STOP COMPLAINING PERIOD. You lost nothing. People need to grow up and realize a game console isn't a necessity of life.

I mean I like the PS5 and all...but if I got this nerf gun unexpectedly I wouldn’t be disappointed

@GamingVeteran Lol. Yes my brother bought a cheap TomTom off him back in the day. Some delivery drivers are crooks and thieves. Not all, but some. And no I don’t know anyone personally affected by this.

However, the main point is about Amazon needing to do more than a simple refund, because this is a rare circumstance. This product is currently limited and in the case of Ant it has affected his work.

They should hold stock for these people and offer it to them first on their next delivery of consoles. They also need to get the police involved. This is criminal activity.

Furthermore, Sony's reputation has been damaged.

This is Amazon’s fault yet there are currently news articles that make Sony look bad. My Apple news this morning mentioned people receiving items other than PS5 and did not mention Amazon in the headline. If I was Sony I would be pressuring Amazon or taking legal action as this could have a negative effect in their brand image and future sales.

You don’t need to defend a mega corporation that takes in billions each year. They need to fix it and customers have a right to be upset. It’s not like they can just go buy a PS5 anywhere else. And it is NOT their fault they chose Amazon over picking it up in store. That is just a stupid argument. Both should be equally reliable.

@kyleforrester87 I think part of the problem is that he needs one for his job.

@kyleforrester87 I'm sure they can, but still. This will prevent him from doing his job, which sucks more than any one of us not getting their ps5.

I hope this isnt true as I was told many lies by the Amazon reps I spoke to but one 'manager' claimed Amazon make no special plans for releases like this, pre-orders are simply orders that are dealt with the same as everything else, hence many delays.

Think how crazy that is. To know you are going to have a massive delivery day and plan nothing for it.

An excellent article. I hope that it brings some comfort to others who find themselves in the same predicament. At least they know that they're not the only one.

@Robinsad I think you are interpreting that information wrong.

Amazon is the one of the largest and most advanced logistics operations in the world.

In the US alone they ship over 15 million packages per day and it isn't isn't uncommon for them to get massive spikes in volume on holidays or promotional periods. They have systems that handle and manage all of that volume. That system is capable of handling the additional volume of the PS5 launch without special handling.

I still don't understand why this issue with PS5's seems to be so much more prevalent in the UK than in the US. The only thing I can think of is that the week later launch provided more publicity and so more people were aware of how valuable the PS5s were and what day they were shipping on.

@evan23 I hope so, it comes across as incompetent to me but he seemed to think it was just another day for them. Of course he also blamed the delivery company for the missed delivery even though it was Amazon Logistics and how busy they are.

@antdickens Sorry this happened to you and a fair few other people, apparently. Also unfortunate that the contrarians couldn't take a day off on this one.

Even if all you ever get is the refund + bonus, Amazon UK and PlayStation still have a responsibility to address this failure. And anyone acting like this is only an online issue clearly don't understand that at the end of the day, all merchandise is "delivered" one way or a another.

My mate ordered toilet roll from Amazon... and got a toilet delivered! 🤣 He is now converting a spare room into a 2nd WC room!

This has also happened to me, similar scenario, tracked driver to our door, when asked he said he only had a parcel for my neighbour, my parcel was on another van and would be with me soon. It never arrived. I’ve been fighting since with customer service, I’ve only had £50 credited back as a promo credit. I’m tempted to carry on and ask for more. I too don’t want a refund, just a guarantee on one from the next batch they receive. Really disappointed.

@finalstan this is exactly what happened to me. The ‘small amount affected’ seems to be pretty damn large, and I was told the maximum they could do was £20, somewhat irritating because they delivered a load of games and accessories the week prior!

@antdickens
You might look into this...
https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/missing-ps5-amazon-uk-deliveries-to-be-investigated-by-bbcs-watchdog/