3184 - Adventure Camper

[JoshTX]

I wonder if we purchased the majority of what they had. Willy stated there were 65 left about 25 minutes before they finished selling out. I'm guessing a healthy chunk of those last 65 were BP members.

[wesman888]

That was quick...  it's all gone..

[emes]

I just received a cancelation email that said:

 

Sold by Kaplan Toys

Cancel Reason: Customer Canceled

 

Anyone else get one? I did not cancel the order.

 

I've really had about enough of this Amazon scam that seems to happen every week. Normally I don't bite, but this seller had a lot of excellent feedback.

I sent a nasty note to the seller indicating that I didn't cancel the order and that I expected it to be fulfilled at the offered price.

[Coneil21]

I just received a cancelation email that said:

 

Sold by Kaplan Toys

Cancel Reason: Customer Canceled

 

Anyone else get one? I did not cancel the order.

 

I've really had about enough of this Amazon scam that seems to happen every week. Normally I don't bite, but this seller had a lot of excellent feedback.

I sent a nasty note to the seller indicating that I didn't cancel the order and that I expected it to be fulfilled at the offered price.

Got the same email. Arghhhhhhhhh

[LowestFormOfWit]

I know I'll be seeing this for clearance in my area, so I would've passed anyway. Walmarts near me are just bursting with this set. It's really weird, because I think it's a cool looking set.

 

I am, however, still hunting for the house for my little girl. People reporting a few weeks ago during a Kmart 50% off clearance they were snagging the house for as low as $19.00 (half off 38.00 clearance) which was making my head spin.

 

The Kmarts near me are decrepit pits of sorrow and I almost pity their condition. They only have garbage in their clearance section at the moment.

[terrymc4677]

 I placed 2 orders of 2 sets each and received two emails stating that they are being prepared for shipment with a delivery date between july 10-12. will let you know if they actually ship.

[emes]

I sent an email to the seller and one to Amazon as well. At a minimum I want to be able to leave negative feedback for them, which the way they've currently canceled the order does not allow.

 

I know this will have likely little effect, but if I don't get the response I want then I will open a BBB complaint against them. Kaplan Toys is a B&M chain in the Carolinas I think.

 

If enough of us make enough noise we can possibly have some kind of impact...

 

http://www.bbb.org/northwestern-north-carolina/business-reviews/educational-consultants/kaplan-companies-inc-in-lewisville-nc-2000221#reasonrating

[emes]

From Amazon:

Hello, 

I'm sorry to know that seller of cancelled your order for "LEGO Friends 3184 Adventure Camper". We certainly don't want our customers to experience this. I'll definitely look into this for you. 

I'd like to inform you that the sellers offering items on our website work hard to maintain their inventories, but sometimes an item is unexpectedly out of stock when it comes time to ship your order. This is bound to happen occasionally, but if we find a seller's out-of-stock sales are excessive, we'll take action. 

I've forwarded the details you sent us to our investigations team. Each report they receive is investigated and the appropriate action is taken. However, we won't be able to release the outcome of the investigation. If you'd like to send more details to this team, please use the form below and choose the "Report a violation of our rules" option: 

http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/reports 

The Listing ID field is optional. If you don't have that information, please just enter "Not Applicable" when submitting the form. 

The "LEGO Friends 3184 Adventure Camper" is available from Amazon.com. If you still want the item, please place a new order with One-Day Shipping and let us know the order number. We'll waive off or refund the shipping charges from that order. 

Please make sure that the item is either "Sold and Shipped by Amazon.com" or labeled as "Fulfilled by Amazon.com". 

I've provided the current listing for this item below: 

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007Q0O9UY 

Please write us back after placing an order and we'll also honor you the price of $19.00 for the item as an exception. 

One of our aims at Amazon.com is to provide a convenient and efficient service; in this case, we haven't met that standard. I'm truly sorry, and I hope you'll give us another chance in the future. 

I hope this helps. We look forward to seeing you again soon.
Best regards,
Amit M

I'm going to order as many from Amazon as I ordered from Kaplan and see if they honor the $19 for each....

 

Please, everyone who had their order canceled complain to Amazon. This is small change as far as Amazon goes, but with more complaints they're more likely to take action...

 

 

Sorry guys, but stuff like this just about makes my head want to explode.

[JoshTX]

They just emailed me and cancelled my order as well, and after seeing this happen to me once already with another seller for the imperial shuttle, I'm pretty upset. I'll definitely be raising a stink about this. 

[LowestFormOfWit]

Maybe they just don't like us Texans?

[Guest eightbrick]

They just emailed me and cancelled my order as well, and after seeing this happen to me once already with another seller for the imperial shuttle, I'm pretty upset. I'll definitely be raising a stink about this. 

Yeah, you should complain to customer service. Maybe they will give you the option to buy some from Amazon for the same price like emes.

[JoshTX]

Yeah, you should complain to customer service. Maybe they will give you the option to buy some from Amazon for the same price like emes.

 

I hope they do, but even if Amazon hooks me up, I still want to burn Kaplan Toys at the stake out of principal. 

 

It sounds like this type of behavior is normal for Amazon 3rd party sellers, and like Worldwide market, if they aren't severely disciplined for it, it will not stop. The way Kaplan did it is almost worse, because you don't even have the option of leaving negative feedback. 

[Guest eightbrick]

I hope they do, but even if Amazon hooks me up, I still want to burn Kaplan Toys at the stake out of principal. 

 

It sounds like this type of behavior is normal for Amazon 3rd party sellers, and like Worldwide market, if they aren't severely disciplined for it, it will not stop. The way Kaplan did it is almost worse, because you don't even have the option of leaving negative feedback. 

True. Business practises have seemed to have declined the past couple years.

[willy431]

2 show as shipping, 10 show as cancelled by me. Also got emails that I cancelled the orders.

[emes]

Response from Kaplan:

 

Dear Valued Customer,

Occasionally, high inventory demand forces product to become out-of

[Guest eightbrick]

That's disappointing. I wouldn't be shopping from them again if that was my order.

[emes]

That's disappointing. I wouldn't be shopping from them again if that was my order.

 

I won't be...seems like a good rule to follow as a retailer is "don't put stuff up for sale that you don't have".

[sadowsk1]

I hope they do, but even if Amazon hooks me up, I still want to burn Kaplan Toys at the stake out of principal. 

 

It sounds like this type of behavior is normal for Amazon 3rd party sellers, and like Worldwide market, if they aren't severely disciplined for it, it will not stop. The way Kaplan did it is almost worse, because you don't even have the option of leaving negative feedback. 

That's pretty intense.  Accidents happen.  Then again, I have had moments where I have casually suggested razing Walmart to the ground so I can appreciate frustrating moments too.

[emes]

That's pretty intense.  Accidents happen.

 

Accident - Listed 2 but only had 1.

 

Not an Accident - Listed several hundred but had way less than that. Immediately canceled orders and indicated that "customer canceled the order" when the customer didn't. Also charged my credit card when the order was made and even though the order was canceled the funds are still held.

 

We've made as occasional mistake on eBay and I can tell you that many customers tend to be very unforgiving for that type of thing.

 

IMO, people who intentionally do this, and it appears that Kaplan did, should be discouraged by all means necessary from selling through these channels. As someone wisely indicated in the Imperial Shuttle thread, every time this happens, and end customers get burned, it makes all of our lives as secondary sellers more difficult.

[Darth_Raichu]

I was actually curious if this was solely caused by the negligence of Kaplan or if Amazon also had any part in this.   Someone mentioned Kaplan had 65 at one point.  If number of sets ordered after that point was greater than 65, then Amazon was also partly to blame for allowing too many orders. 

Alas we probably never know the answer.

[emes]

I was actually curious if this was solely caused by the negligence of Kaplan or if Amazon also had any part in this.   Someone mentioned Kaplan had 65 at one point.  If number of sets ordered after that point was greater than 65, then Amazon was also partly to blame for allowing too many orders. 

Alas we probably never know the answer.

 

I'm sure we won't. But maybe someone who is an Amazon seller can tell us how this works...do you not list the quantity that you have for sale through their site, and then it would stop taking orders once the quantity available is sold?

 

The part that bothers me more than anything is that the way they canceled the order prevents leaving negative feedback, which makes me think it was Kaplan's error.

[sadowsk1]

Accident - Listed 2 but only had 1.

 

Not an Accident - Listed several hundred but had way less than that. Immediately canceled orders and indicated that "customer canceled the order" when the customer didn't. Also charged my credit card when the order was made and even though the order was canceled the funds are still held.

 

We've made as occasional mistake on eBay and I can tell you that many customers tend to be very unforgiving for that type of thing.

 

IMO, people who intentionally do this, and it appears that Kaplan did, should be discouraged by all means necessary from selling through these channels. As someone wisely indicated in the Imperial Shuttle thread, every time this happens, and end customers get burned, it makes all of our lives as secondary sellers more difficult.

I guess I see it as overall aside from some money being temporarily held you just didn't get the Lego at the price you wanted.  Oh well.  Mistakes happen too.

[cornstiffy]

I'm sure we won't. But maybe someone who is an Amazon seller can tell us how this works...do you not list the quantity that you have for sale through their site, and then it would stop taking orders once the quantity available is sold?

 

The part that bothers me more than anything is that the way they canceled the order prevents leaving negative feedback, which makes me think it was Kaplan's error.

 

They basically go to the amazon site then sign into there seller account.  From there you have your seller central page and you can control inventories as well as everything else involved with your amazon selling. No different really than when you sign into your my ebay.  You can list quantity all the way up to 999.  It does stop taking orders when quantity hits zero.  When it gets to zero it gets pushed to inactive inventory.  From there the seller would have had to manually relist it to get it back into active inventory.  

 

They cancelled the orders the way they did in an attempt to salvage there seller rating. Marking it as a buyer cancellation doesnt hurt there metrics that bad. Seller Cancellations on the other hand are not good for there metrics and will lower there overall seller rating. If it gets to low they run the risk of being audited and perhaps barred.  Amazon is quick to kick out problem sellers and isnt big on giving 2nd chances.

 

 I went and looked up this seller.  His feedback # for the last 365 days was like 1890.  Feedback on amazon runs about 10%.  Which means this seller processes about 20000 orders a year. Seems like this seller screwed something up in his inventory very badly over blatantly trying to scam.  Still the end result for all of us is another black eye. 

 

Most of us here are already secondary market sellers or will be at some point.  Situations like this one and the imperial shuttle are bad for our businesses. 

[JoshTX]

I guess I see it as overall aside from some money being temporarily held you just didn't get the Lego at the price you wanted.  Oh well.  Mistakes happen too.

 

First off, let me apologize for my "burn at the stake" comment. It was obviously meant to be taken figuratively, but I know in the post 9-11 era we live in, those kinds of comments can be pretty dangerous.

 

That being said, I was somewhat surprised at the comment quoted above. Isn't this site all about numbers and getting the price we want in order to remain profitable? I know this site is for collector's and lovers of all things Lego, not just investing. But being a profitable "picker" is what the majority of this is about. Your comment seems to fly in the face of what is necessary in investing in order to be successful at this type of business.   

 

Like emes, Kaplan toys took my money and held it, issued no explanation for cancellation, and the erroneously stated that the "customer" cancelled the order. As of now, they still have not refunded it. Comments like cornstiffy's above lend to provide reasoning why a seller may be doing this, and although I obviously can't prove it, It could be very far from a mistake. This could be one of those things where they hold money in a high interest savings account, make a quick few hundred or thousand, and then return the initial amount for a small profit. I don't mean to sound paranoid or like a stickler or conspiracy theorist, but I don't find this behavior excusable, at least not in the manner they chose to handle it.  

[Guest eightbrick]

First off, let me apologize for my "burn at the stake" comment. It was obviously meant to be taken figuratively, but I know in the post 9-11 era we live in, those kinds of comments can be pretty dangerous.

 

That being said, I was somewhat surprised at the comment quoted above. Isn't this site all about numbers and getting the price we want in order to remain profitable? I know this site is for collector's and lovers of all things Lego, not just investing. But being a profitable "picker" is what the majority of this is about. Your comment seems to fly in the face of what is necessary in investing in order to be successful at this type of business.   

 

Like emes, Kaplan toys took my money and held it, issued no explanation for cancellation, and the erroneously stated that the "customer" cancelled the order. As of now, they still have not refunded it. Comments like cornstiffy's above lend to provide reasoning why a seller may be doing this, and although I obviously can't prove it, It could be very far from a mistake. This could be one of those things where they hold money in a high interest savings account, make a quick few hundred or thousand, and then return the initial amount for a small profit. I don't mean to sound paranoid or like a stickler or conspiracy theorist, but I don't find this behavior excusable, at least not in the manner they chose to handle it.  

Couldn't agree more with you and Cornstiffy. I am not nearly as into investing as some of you out there (don't really have the funds to go big), but I definitely see the appeal of mass investing. Yes, I can get a bit disheartened when I see high aftermarket prices for sets I want, but if there weren't any resellers, we wouldn't be able to buy new retired sets at all.