What does this Amazon message mean?

Grandad99

An item I ordered from the Amazon website has not arrived and my e-mail to the seller has been ignored.

Looking at the My Account page of Amazon the purchase is not recorded. I did get 2 e-mails from the seller confirming receipt of the order and date of posting it.

I reported all this to Amazon with copies of the e-mails and got this reply:

Im sorry to hear of the issue you had with the order for that you have placed with the Sponsored Links. Please allow me to look into this.

I would like to inform you that Sponsored Links are generated by third-party ad networks, and not by Amazon.co.uk editors. As such, Amazon.co.uk isn't involved with your order from a different website and unfortunately we can’t help you further.

In this situation we suggest that you contact the seller of your goods in order to resolve any issues you may have.

However, we understand that certain links may be inappropriate and we’re currently working to refine the process to prevent these ads from appearing.

I've also forwarded your message to the appropriate team here. After investigation we decide that the link that you purchased from is inappropriate, it'll be removed.

Further, if you believe your contract has been breached, contact your local authorities or visit any of the following organisations:

The Citizens Advice Bureau
http://www.adviceguide.org.uk

Office of Fair Trading
http://www.oft.gov.uk/oft_and_cd/

We do genuinely regret having made this mistake and I can assure you that we will do everything we can to help make your next experience more rewarding, if you give us a chance.

We look forward to seeing you again soon.

Can anyone explain what this means? Can Amazon avoid resposibility for orders made from their website and if so how can these intruders be identified?

agrinnall

Without knowing who you bought from it's difficult to give a definitive answer, but it seems pretty likely that Amazon can indeed decline to become involved in a dispute between two third parties.

eddddy

Grandad99 wrote: »

An item I ordered from the Amazon website has not arrived and my e-mail to the seller has been ignored.
...

To clarify - Amazon say you didn't order anything using the Amazon website.

They say you clicked on a 'Sponsored Link' in the Amazon website (which is like clicking on an advert) which took you to someone else's website. And you made an order on the other website.

So Amazon say they can't help you, because it wasn't their website.



----
Just to add -

Presumably you paid by credit or debit card. If the goods don't turn up when they are supposed to, you could phone your bank and ask for a chargeback on your card. (i.e. a refund.)

macman

So you didn't purchase it from either Amazon or Amazon Marketplace? You clicked through from Amazon to a third party site?
If so, as above, it's nothing to do with Amazon. You might as well complain to Google, as you found Amazon via them...
Your only redress is with the seller, if you can find them. If not, do a chargeback via your credit card provider.

Grandad99

Ok, only a small item so easily written off. My main query is how do I recognise a sponsored link.

abibee

They're usually plain text links near the bottom of a page, and if I recall, they say 'Sponsored Links' directly above.

I think Amazon are pretty fly with the sponsored links, and more-so the marketplace shops. Anyone could be forgiven for thinking they were buying from Amazon.

George_Michael

Grandad99 wrote: »

My main query is how do I recognise a sponsored link.

As abibee states, it will look like this: