Storm in a teacup?
Amazon's Black Friday promotion has irked some UK customers, many of whom are complaining that the ‘lightning sale' offers are gone within seconds and are questioning their consumer rights.
Amazon may currently be regretting bringing the American tradition of ‘Black Friday' sales to the UK, which traditionally offer massive discounts on selected items, as Brits are moaning that promoted items are selling out almost immediately and the site keeps freezing, stopping them from buying their bargains.
The etailer kicked off its UK Black Friday festivities this morning by offering Take That and Susan Boyle's new albums for just £1 each, despite them being current big sellers.
According to forums, including the Amazon Deals forum, many people have been questioning how offered items are selling out so fast and mulling over whether there was only a small quantity up for grabs in the first place.
There is a limited quantity of the selected items comprising ‘lightning deals' only available for a short time. Once the time limit is up or more likely the product has sold out, the deal ends. Amazon has said there are 300 of these deals including 60% off Nintendo Wiis and Flip HD cameras as well as half price TVs.
One disappointed customer wrote: "Amazon need to give their reasons and prove this promotion is fair and reasonable and we had a half decent chance of buying something", while another said: "So many people are unhappy. This should be a concern for Amazon, I'm sure Amazon really don't want to upset all these people."
As well as some irked users threatening to write to the BBC's Watchdog programme, one forum visitor wrote: "What a waste of time. I see now why everybody else fed up, was looking at buying over £1000 worth of 3D TV, DVD player from Amazon, not sure I'll bother now after this disgusting sham."
However, others have sided with Amazon describing moaning shoppers as ‘spoilt brats' with one shopper writing: "Capitalism. Deal with it" and another:"I don't see where there's any con...It's first come first served...pretty simple."
Some successful shoppers have also posted on forums insisting they were lucky enough to get the deals and they do really exist!
A spokeswoman told The Guardian: "We had thousands of the Take That and Susan Boyle CDs to sell, they have just proved incredibly popular. It's not a case of just 10 or a 100 of each thing being available."
All through today there have been a handful of offers every hour with a countdown clock displayed for each promotional item so shoppers can be ready to snap up their chosen bargain when it goes live, much like buying a hot concert ticket.
Brian McBride, managing director of Amazon.co.uk, told the newspaper: "The demand for the albums was incredible. Customers were online and ready for the start of 'Black Friday Deals Week', snapping up the thousands of albums that were available at just £1 in a matter of seconds. The good news is that there are more than 300 deals still to come."
