When I heard the news that Amazon’s Black Friday deals were coming to the UK I became very excited. Mostly at the prospect of the 60% reduction off Microsoft’s Xbox console. Despite working for Microsoft this is one discount we can’t get due to the Xbox being largely subsidised by Microsoft before they hit the shelf. Amazon UK announced product reductions on thousands of products and customers were left counting down the days for Black Friday week to start.
On Monday morning, at precisely 9am, it became apparent that Black Friday Deals were not discounts across the whole online store but instead product discounts on the hour.
The clock will count down for each item and once available tens of thousands of people will attempt to purchase. Most products are sold out in under a second. I chuckled when I saw one customer had gone through the steps of using a high speed internet connection with an Alien Ware notebook thinking it would boost his chances.
Ever heard of the phrase, ‘stock it high and sell it cheap’? Well, Amazon seems to have a different plan. It seems the stock for Black Friday is in limited supply and dirt cheap. With only a limited number of products and thousands of people waiting for a purchase – not many are successful with their purchases.
The Amazon social media team are hot on their toes promoting Black Friday seemingly unaware that the majority of their customers aren’t too happy with the service so far. Their forum system is regularly littered with angry posts from customers and Facebook page comments have revealed just how frustrated everyone is.
It is rare that I decide to join in with online media storms but even I have been registering my distaste for Amazon UK’s Black Friday week attempt. I feel like Amazon UK fooled their customers, making them believe these were great offers in the store, rather than offers made on a chance basis.
I can’t complain about Amazon’s service as a whole. I’ve been a customer for a few years and their efficiency has always been great. However it seems their UK Black Friday week has left a scar on their reputation, at least in my view.
