Last month, I posted about a Knipex mini electronics pliers deal at Amazon.
$8.03 for some handy precision pliers? Great! I waited a little bit and then bought 2 for my own use.
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These pliers were listed as temporarily out of stock, but would ship when they became available again.
I received an email earlier this month, and so did Benjamen, about how we must approve a delay by February 2nd, or our orders would be automatically cancelled.
Both I and Ben approved the delays and updated our orders, but the same alert message persisted.
Take action by February 2nd, or our orders would be automatically cancelled.
Now, this is a relatively little problem in the grand scheme of things. But for reasons I cannot quite explain, it is extremely aggravating and even infuriating.
Ben spent 40 minutes on a chat with Amazon, with the result being a new order being placed, and a manual price adjustment since the pliers are now being sold for $33.49.
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If you ask me, that might not have been the best approach, as placing a new order likely puts you last in line for order fulfillment. That would mean a longer wait, and greater chance of order cancellation.
A few years ago, I bought several Bosch L-Boxxes on sale as part of their Holiday $20 off $100 promo (or similar). Amazon automatically cancelled my order in January or February because of delays. They delisted that L-Boxx size and cancelled my order. They reslisted it a few weeks or months later when they received new inventory.
I believe that Amazon will still do this if they don’t know if or when they will receive more inventory.
I thought email would be a quicker path to getting this fixed. My decision wasn’t based on hearing about Ben’s experience, but because I figured an email would be quicker and easier. Boy was I wrong.
Amazon customer service reps are swift and helpful when you have a common e-commerce problem. If my order is delayed, there’s an issue with pricing, or something arrives defective, damaged, or is the completely wrong item, they’ll fix things quick.
With this issue, they are utterly incapable of helping.
Amazon Reps are Too [Blank] to Help
I don’t want to commit to any one word, which is why I left a [blank] in the post title.
This was my first email:
I placed this order, for 2x Knipex 37 13 125 Electronics Pliers (ASIN B005EXO0UY), for $8.03 each.
The item is backordered, which I am okay with.
I received a notice that my “attention is required to continue processing” the order. It was asking me if I am okay with the delay, and YES I am.
I updated the order with approval. It didn’t look to have been processed, so I did it 2 more times.
I received 3 emails saying: “Thanks for approving the delay in your order #123456.”
I just checked again, and it says that if I don’t approve the delay by February 2, 2016, the order will be cancelled.
Why is it showing this?
I wish for the delay to be APPROVED and do not want my order cancelled! But I approved the delay and it keeps showing the same message.
What should I do?
Their response?
I’m sorry for the inconvenience that has caused to you.
I understand that you want the KNIPEX 37 13 125 Electronics Pliers.
I’ve checked your order and see that it is temporarily out of stock.I can also confirm that your order is not been cancelled and will be delivered to you once available.
When an item is listed as “Temporarily out of stock. Order now and we’ll deliver when available,” this means the item is currently out of stock. We can’t predict exactly how long it’ll take us to receive this item or when we’ll be able to ship it. If you placed an order for one of these items, we’ll do our best to get the item for you, and we’ll e-mail you as soon as we have more information from our suppliers.
Thank you Gowtham, for not reading any of my message.
When I explained the problem a different way, they confirmed that the item is backordered.
Then it got more ridiculous.
At the beginning of my next message, I said:
I am not receiving emails telling me that approval is needed.
When I look at my open orders at Amazon.com, that is where it continues to
say that my order will be cancelled if I don’t approve it by February 2nd.
And they replied with:
I understand that you have still receiving a email regarding approval for the order [] even though you have already approved it.
And I said, in part of my next response:
Every time I check my order status on Amazon.com, and NOT in any emails, it
shows the same warning message, that my attention is needed to continue
processing the order or it will be automatically cancelled.
And they responded with:
I’m sorry to know about the email that you are receiving for the order.
Here’s the thing – Amazon does a whole lot of stuff automatically.
If it says it will cancel an order if the delay isn’t approved, and it continues to show a message prompting for approval and updating, it will cancel that order if the action requirement is not cleared and the order doesn’t ship out by the designated time.
So…, yea, we broke Amazon. I’ve had to approve delays before, but never had a persistent alert that continues to ask for order approval even after approval is given.
It’s strange that both myself and Ben have encountered this error. We talked about it, and assume that some of you who also ordered the pliers are seeing the same error.
This has been one of my worst experiences with Amazon customer service. Some of the replies I’ve received call their reps’ reading comprehension into question.
I don’t like to call or chat with Amazon unless I really need to, because the situation hardly ever calls for it, and complex problems can be time consuming to discuss in chat format. With an email, I can fire off a question or request, and most of the time a problem with be automagically fixed sometime later, quickly and to my satisfaction, without much effort on my part.
In the grand scheme of things, this is a teeny tiny and almost insignificant issue. Right now, it’s invoked some very colorful language that I’ve spared you from.
Have you had this persistent “approve the delay or we’ll cancel your order” problem? Any luck in getting Amazon to fix it for you?
John
I keep approving the extended delay in Amazon, but the order never seems to get updated. Frankly, it is not worth the hassle to spend 40+ minutes on the phone or chat with Amazon to get this fixed. My time is more valuable than that.
John
Well, I did try chat with the support person who told me that it will keep the status that it needs approval until Amazon gets stock in. The support person suggested I cancel the order and re-order when there is stock. I declined to do this given the huge difference in price now ($8.03 vs $33.49). I guess it will be a waiting game to see what happens on 2-Feb.
Stuart
I believe that this is untrue.
I have had delays with order before. Once a delay is approved, the “your approval required” and “approval needed” alerts should go away.
This seems to be some kind of bug.
Amazon’s e-commerce engine does so many things automatically, I trust their “we’ll cancel your order if we don’t hear from you and this doesn’t ship out before Feb 2nd” alert more than their rep saying “we won’t cancel the order.”
With my last delayed order, which was ordered in August and shipped in December, there was 1 “approve this delay” email, and afterwards all the order status said was that there was no shipping estimate, and they’ll update me as soon as they learn more.
John
Thanks Stuart. I did not believe the rep was correct either. But my order still says it needs my approval. I can try again with another rep, but it really isn’t worth the time anymore.
Tom
I didn’t participate in this one, but on a recent order I had to contact customer service three times to get resolution. They’ve really let things slip.
95% of the time, things go smoothly, but for those couple of troublesome orders… Good luck.
Hilton
Every week, I open up my orders and hit the ‘approve button’ and then get a delightful email confirming this.
Alas the red approval warning does not go away. Living in South Africa, I can’t afford to sit on the phone to Amazon for 45 minutes but I will send them an email.
Are you saying we need to cancel and then re-order?
Benjamen
No, only cancel and reorder if you have a conversation with a representative that said they will change the reorder price to the $8.03, otherwise you will pay the new $33 price….Unless you are okay with this.
While you could cancel and reorder and then try to get Amazon to fix the price, it is going to be much harder.
Tad
Same here, I hope mine are still coming. Lol
schill
I think I may have gotten a single notice about this and approved it.
But, a few days ago I just cancelled the order. I will miss out on the $8.03 deal but I was only buying them because they were a really good deal – I don’t really need them.
After weeks of waiting, I figured I really didn’t need to spend even $8.03.
Hilton
I’ve sent off an email to Amazon so let’s see what happens.
Brian
I had a similar deal with Amazon Canada. I had come across some Wera #2 Square bits in a 10 pack for like $2 or so. Amazing deal.
I ordered something like 5 of them and got them for that price. But 1 of them didnt ship out as it was apparently not available. I let it stay on order for a few month until finally it got cancelled. Shortly after it was relisted but at a much higher price.
They probably made a mistake when they sold it for the price I paid.
I never did talk to Amazon support and it wasn’t a big deal that my backorder was cancelled, but I could see this happening often.
Benjamen
While my 40 minute chat was a little excessive, it’s not like I was chatting for 40 minutes straight. I was catching up on some YouTube videos in between the 5 minute lag in responses.
What was really annoying was that I got cut off right after I canceled and reordered. I got a new rep that asked me to state the entire problem again. I asked incredulously if they couldn’t just read the previous chat log. When she finally got back to me she said the original rep had taken care of it…and he had. I received an email shortly after from the first rep apologizing for the cut off and confirming he fixed the price.
Also what’s really annoying is that you have to even waste time explaining something like this…they should look at your account right after you contact them and see the problem. If the backend system is designed correctly, a rep should be able to view the account as a user and see that there’s a friggin big red warning.
Andrew
To me, this deal is playing out similar to this deal you posted awhile back:
https://14cyiuhvcgv.com/martin-usa-made-adjustable-wrench-deal-042014/%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
I had bought 3 and waited forever, but in the end Amazon gave me $10 in gift certificates for their trouble in getting stock, and I basically paid $2 for three high quality wrenches. My brother ended up getting shipped a dozen wrenches in error and was also given the gift certificate.
Neither of us asked for the gift certificates, Amazon just automatically sent them out. This was just a nice deal to get in on for a tool I didn’t have any immediate need for, and it paid off really well for just being patient.
For these pliers I did get one notice to say I was willing to wait, but I also didn’t respond immediately. I think I forgot about it for a week and then finally ok’ed the delay and haven’t heard anything since then.
Jim Felt
I offered a couple back then and several unrelated items too. Everything else came in a couple of days. Then like you guys I got the do you still want the b/o Knipex email and I said yes.
No further word or cares. And while I can call them and do fairly often I just don’t care too much. Either way. As they were intended as Christmas gifts.
Adam
Maybe you will get them in time to give as gifts next Christmas
Mikey
Yes. I have the same problem.
John
Has anyone here actually received this order yet? I also have this on order though I’ve only had to approve it once and it didn’t keep sending me a request to keep doing so.
This is likely a price error and it’s probably just easier for them to let it slide and have people give up on it than fixing the problem. So I have my doubts this goes by itself. The few people that make a fuss and call in will get handled but like I said I imagine it’s cheaper to let the majority of orderers give up.
It is worth calling in. The automated, chat, and outsourced support is a negligible hit on their wallet, so calling in will defiantly get stuff rolling so hit them where it hurts. If there’s a bug then they need to fix it. If there’s another issue, a call means they start loosing money and that will kick them into gear to get it resolved.
Stuart
I doubt it’s a pricing error.
For big enough pricing errors, Amazon cancels orders. For minor pricing errors, they honor the reasonable ones.
Doresoom
I remember ordering a few sets of Howard Leight Impact Sport earmuffs a couple years ago when the price was something like $10/pair (normally $40-45). I can confirm that pricing errors of 75%+ off are cancelled very quickly – I think I got the email within 12 hours that the order was cancelled.
Matt
I received the same email saying I had to approve the delay, which I went ahead and did. After that I have not seen any red warning text on my orders page, just the following note:
Not yet shipped
Delivery estimate: We need a little more time to provide you with a good estimate. We’ll notify you via e-mail as soon as we have an estimated delivery date.
Previously I had a similar issue with an 8″ US made crescent wrench that was on sale for a very good price. I had forgotten about it, and was happily surprised when it showed up a few months later.
Benjamen
Just got the reordered pliers (2:50 CST) from USPS woman. I do have to say I love how you can get packages on any day of the week, even holidays. I just got something from the Post Office on Sunday, and now on a Postal Holiday.
Yeah, the pliers are really nice too.
Stuart
There goes my theory that a cancellation and reorder would place one later in the order fulfillment line.
Glad it worked out well for you, hopefully it’ll work out similarly for everyone.
fred
I had a recent order for a somewhat esoteric bent (Wilde ENT) tweezers – which was listed as temporarily out of stock. No problem for me – so I went ahead and placed the order. I got an email several weeks later saying – good news – the shipping date was now sooner than previously expected. Then I received an email that the item had shipped – with an expected date but no tracking info provided. Then I received an email that I would have to approve a delay. So I’m still waiting. The whole thing seems a bit odd.
Robbie
Stuart, your arguing with a computer, and your putting yourself in the line of fire, you have an order number and you have confirmation that your order will not be canceled, the solution is to stop checking your order status. Your going in circles with Amazon because under your order status it still shows that attention is still needed.
This is par for the course when you chase deals. Stop worrying this is Amazon hands down the best company to deal with, thy will make it right if something goes wrong.
herp derpson
Amazon isn’t that great to deal with. For example: I used to order a ton of stuff using prime, then one day they optimized their logistics one step too far(following status things were obviously leaving the warehouse too late; it wasn’t a carrier issue) and 50% of my orders (at least one a week) were late. So when you talk to them (chat/phone/email, it all takes far too much time, as described above) they offer to extend Prime. Why would one want more Prime when Prime doesn’t work? Eventually I started demanding refunds for what shipping would cost for non-prime members and dropped my membership.
TLDR: Cool Story Bro
Robbie
Orders aren’t filled in the order they are received, there fulfilled based on logistics, the cheapest way for Amazon to fulfill the order, they keep “stock” in there warehouses they may have those pliers in stock across country but you won’t receive those, because of the cost and time to ship them to you, I may order the same pliers a few days later and Amazon may have those pliers in a warehouse in my state and I will receive mine. But that is only true for products fulfilled by Amazon.
Stuart
For Prime members, order fulfillment of backordered items is usually in the order they are received.
These pliers are still out of stock. If they were in stock in warehouses around the country, they would have been sent out by now.
Russ
I’m having the same trouble. I expect something’ll happen that will prevent me from getting the pliers I ordered.
Amazon is so good to order from (usually) that I’m surprised to see how poorly they are dealing with this.
Russ
Surprise, I just got a couple of updates from Amazon saying new estimated shipment is Wednesday, February 24, 2016 – Thursday, March 31, 2016 so all hope is not lost (yet).
Tait
Had to approve the delay, but it said thank you for approving delay and is no longer asking for approval…
Hang Fire
Mine are still pending shipment, and I haven’t received any requests to extend the order. I’ll just let it ride and see what happens.
J., Homeowner
This is a “first world problem.”
I say this with due respect and as constructively as possible as I too attempted to take advantage of this deal as a result of learning about it on ToolGuyd. I too am experiencing the same lack of clarity as to the details of my order.
I placed my order because it was a good deal, not because I needed this item. I am guessing that this can be said for most of us that also placed orders.
Regardless of the reason for the price drop, if Amazon finds that pricing unsustainable I would understand. And, if they can not fulfill my order then I will not be upset with them. If they lose money on this pricing you can bet they will find a way to make up that loss somewhere else. I would rather find steady low pricing on Amazon than the occasional quirky, amazing deal.
To me, it’s important when choosing to support a business, whether that business be small, large, or in this case giant, to not bite the hand that feeds you, for they need to eat, too.
Tait
Just got a ship date of Feb 29 to Mar 4, so it looks like they may be honoring…
Jay
Had the same trouble on a different item. Approved the delay but after a couple weeks Amazon made the same demand that I once again approve the delay or the order would be canceled. Approved the delay once again but to no avail because a day or so later Amazon canceled the order and basically said too bad so sad we can’t fill your order because we don’t know when it will be back in stock. Couple days later it was magically back in stock now at 10x the price of my original order.
Did not bust on them because they have provided excellent customer service in the past regarding other issues and we like shopping there but if the dreaded request to approve delay happens again, in the interest of good judgement will just cancel the order and move on instead of going round and round with them.
Mason
I had actually ordered pliers from the original post. I have not received an email or any notification about the pliers abput the delay. When I do check my order it displays they’ve been delivered. There is no delivery date posted like many of my other orders. The order says will send me an email when there is a delivery date available. I guess we shall see.
Hilton
Amazon replied to my email and have given me the option to cancel and re-order with a guarantee of keeping the original price. The customer service rep has also forwarded my query to the fulfillment center so I can get my item quicker and then also sent the query to the associated team who deals with system glitches.
On top of all this, I was also issued a $10.00 promotional certificate to compensate for the inconvenience.
Not bad service at all.
Jim Felt
I too just now got the Feb. 25th through March 31st Delivery date Amazon Update! So I’m holdin’ on for the long a-coming $3 Knipex. Even if I have to use them for April Fools Day gifts instead Christmas. Damnitall.
jeff
My order approval seamed to have worked, nothing shows up on my order page or order details for that item.
Farid
I got notice to approve changes back in December and I did back then and received email confirmation. Then this past week I got more notices. Every time I clicked on approve, I received email conformation, but the request to approve was still there.
After reading some posts here, I chatted with Amazon. They said I did not need to re approve and that my order will be coming and they had placed a priority on it. Then the rep. offered one from an alternate seller that would be available in less than 2 weeks and offered to pay the difference. The seller was asking $84.84. Wow, that is almost 3 times the cost from Knipex and 10 times for the special price.. Nothing I hate more than late shipment is price gouging.
I asked instead for a refund in Prime fees to match the recent weekend offer (my renewal was just at the end of this year at full price). A better deal all around for everyone. Refund already processed.
Not bad, Amazon!
Farid
Forgot to mention that the rep. filed a report regarding the price gouging.
Nathan
I had hugely frustrating problems with Amazon support in November. A new listing for a refurbished monitor was added on Amazon and then almost immediately put on a lightning deal on Cyber Monday. It was obviously added specifically for that purpose, as the default price was HIGHER than the price of the same item in new condition.
I bought it on the lightning sale, with “guaranteed delivery by” two days later… then, my order sat there for two days with it still blithely reporting it would be delivered (by this time that same night) while also saying it had not yet shipped. I called to inquire and the rep assured me “if it says it will be delivered today, it will be.” Incredulously, i asked if that mean the monitor was in a local warehouse (this was after 14:00 on the day it was to be delivered) and the rep told me it was.
Around 22:00 i contacted support because the monitor hadn’t been delivered (surprise!). He said they had an “inventory issue” but it would absolutely be shipped the next day and would be there by Monday (not 2 day shipping as prime supposedly provides, but anyway…
About an hour later i received an automated email informing me my order was delayed and would not be shipping until at least Monday.
It went on from there but i don’t have the stomach to describe it again (i did in a complaint to Amazon but have had no reply). It wasn’t just the fact that a Lightning Sale is for a specific quantity of items, and therefore there’s no way they had unexpected interest that led to the “inventory problem”, it was that i was outright lied to over and over again by the “customer service” reps. In the end i had to go pick up the monitor (UPS didn’t even try to drop it off, they just left a sticker telling me where to go) the third week of December, more than 2 weeks after i was supposed to have received delivery. It just barely arrived before i left for holiday vacations.
I’ve also had a couple other items either simply not show up or arrive many days after the “two day” window in the last few months. Something is rotten at Amazon, and it’s making me rethink my patronage.
Nathan
Oops, meant to say i’m experiencing the same nonsense with the Knipex deal that is described in this post, but i have NO faith in customer support’s ability to do anything to override any automated process, or be honest enough to tell me so, so i will not waste my time worry about it.
Farid
Nathan,
I have a feeling that Knipex is either balking at a mistake Amazon made in pricing or never planned on selling as many. I can almost grantee that if these pliers are coming from Asia, and for the price they sold, they would have been shipped by sea not air, making deliveries taking much longer.
I don’t think your experience with is unique either. I have had some items delayed recently and there was a non-delivery of Engineer pliers (after progress bar showed shipment in progress for almost 2 months!). They did however fix it by refunding the whole amount without question, including the portion of the order that was delivered and had reorder the pliers again. The other deliveries were not critical, so no problem there.
But, I did notice lately that prices for prime items have shot up considerably and sometimes it cheaper to go to the source directly and even pay for standard shipping and still save some money. I also noticed that there less and less choices for items in the prime list.
Amzons plan for prime was to make it the defacto delivery service and get people hooked on it. They subsidized shipping. The plan was to increase prices gradually as well to recover the subsidy back. It seems that a number of people have reconsidered their prime membership recently and have quit. I was reconsidering it myself. The prime movies service is useless. The music streaming is not bad but I cannot use it at home and have to be careful at work (you cannot filter explicit songs).
In the end, the recent adjustment in cost and customer service response makes it more palatable though and if I make as many purchase as I did this past holiday season, then it would be OK. I just hope my experience with service keeps up.
Chris
I got an email today stating my pliers would be delivered somewhere between Feb 28 and April 6th.
Lukas
Mine said 2/24 and 3/31
ktash
That’s odd. I have them on order but haven’t gotten that notification. When I go to that order, there’s no “approve” button that I can find. Is it just on the regular order page? I ordered mine on Dec 5.
Richard G.
I had to approve it once and now it is in pending shipping status for Jan 29 Feb4. Will see
Toolfreak
Didn’t see it mentioned, but it might be worth pointing out if it’s not obvious-
At least part of the communication problem with Amazon Customer Service (and plenty of other companies) is due to English not being the first or even the second language of the customer service reps. While they might understand formal (i.e. “proper, texbook English) perfectly well, they generally issue a somewhat ‘canned’ response to many particular inquiries that use slang, or less common English words or phrases they don’t understand.
That, along with the job itself consisting of reading and responding to message after message and I’m pretty sure they start to all blur together after hours and hours of reading nothing but complaints.
I didn’t get in on this pliers deal just because it seemed like something where this kind of stuff would happen. I did order a tool set from Amazon over the holidays though, and when it arrived partly damaged, I contacted them and received a partial refund on top of the incredibly low price. Pretty satisfied overall.
Joel
I got an email update saying that my new delivery date is next Tuesday 1/26. When I look at my orders under my account, it still says that it needs to be approved. I’m just going to leave it the way it is. I did approve it multiple time last time.
We’ll see if I get it next Tuesday, I’m pretty confident that I will though.
Jim Felt
Earlier tonight I received an Amazon update that my two pliers would be delivered on Tuesday. As in early next week Tuesday. I’ve no idea what the heck is going on. But it’s been kinda fun to see it all play out. And still at 3 bucks each!
Jim Felt
OOPS!!! 8 bucks apiece. Darn iPhone.
Pat R
I just got shipping confirmation for my this morning. So here’s hoping…
Pat
Richard G.
Just looked at it again in my account and saw that shipping date has shifted from jan29-feb4, to feb28-apr7…what a … Looks like they are trying to intimidate some people, so that they will cancel this order, otherwise I don’t see another explanation why they are not shipping them yet, while they started selling them for 32.
Art
I had the same issue (approving the wait, but not seeing it on the status page). I called customer service, they said it was approved even though the screen didn’t show it as such. Received a new email this morning that my single pair would arrive this coming Tuesday the 26th.
Farid
Same here. Now arriving by Jan 26th.
Greg
I got the original email asking to agree to keep the order. I agreed. No issues.
Earlier this week I received the email referenced above by others about the delay in shipping until February 25 to March 31.
Received an email Wednesday that my order had shipped. Go figure.
Received pliers yesterday. All good.