Frustrating!!!

Try the SF chocolate syrup in iced coffee on a hot day. Delicious.

Speaking of vanilla...why is it so darn expensive these days? I know a lot of things are going up in price these days, but the price of vanilla extract has absolutely skyrocketed. I don't get it.

That is frustrating, outsideplaying! I hope you hear from the seller today.

Perennialfan, there are a lot of reasons for vanilla's skyrocketing prices, including a cyclone that hit Madagascar, theft, and the fact it is such a labor intensive process to produce it. http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-vanilla-prices-20180727-story.html

Make sure the seller (or Amazon?) pays the postage, both ways!

If you think of the zillions of items and sellers on the Amazon site, it's inevitable there will be database/web page goofs. Same with the picking and shipping functions, tasks and stuff like this will never be 100% and error free. Annoying, yes, but crap happens. I'm sure you'll have your order properly filled, hopefully with not too much aggravation needed.

Was this a fulfilled by Amazon item or shipped directly by the seller? If the latter, Amazon may not have had anything to do with the sale, other than hosting the interface.

Ugh. I hope you get it resolved quickly and easily. It seems like every time I order from an Amazon vendor or ebay, I feel like I have to research the seller before making the purchase-- and it still sometimes leads to problems.

Let us know what happens.

I hope you will get this straightened out. At least you did get something. I don’t know if FedEx is already in the holiday mode, but they have started delivering in the UHaul trucks. Last week I found a package in front of my garage that belonged to somebody half a mile down the road. Two days later a neighbor from all the way down the road brought over one of my Amazon packages delivered to her by FedEx. Another neighbor was missing an Amazon package (turned up at another house). Customer service will be busy.

Update: The seller wrote that they were out of the larger size so they sent the smaller and would process a refund. Which means I get the small bottle for free. Which is fine but why the heck didn’t they just send me a note and why didnt they just send me two small bottles to make up the large size? Weird.

Elmer it was not fulfilled by Amazon. A large size wasn’t available from Amazon Prime at the time I ordered it.

So, did they think you wouldn’t notice it is the wrong size and are just going to fix it after you said something?

Between Amazon and FedEx, completely due to their mistake, I am now the lucky owner of a $375 ladder.

It was delivered this afternoon by the most incompetent FedEx driver ever -- there was NO label mentioning me or my address, NO shipping number AND the jerk left it out in the pouring rain leaning up against the garage door (instead of leaving it on my covered porch which was right in front of him). By the time I got to the garage, he had driven off. The box was taller than I am (5 ft) and extremely heavy. Since it was leaning against the garage door, when I opened the door, the box began to fall into the garage. I am 72 and not terribly agile at juggling. Managed to drag the box inside and then noticed several large holes and tears. Grrrr.

Already too-long story made shorter, I contacted Amazon (phone), explained the situation -- and was told to consider the ladder a "gift from Amazon"! A $375 gift!!

Serendipity in the end. =)

Speaking of vanilla. I read that several years back due to low worldwide vanilla prices, Madagascar decided to destroy most of their vanilla plants to try to grow something else. That then caused a worldwide shortage, and caused prices to skyrocket, and they are probably wishing for a do-over.

I haven't researched the truth of this story, but it seems like an incredibly ill-considered, short-sighted decision.

Iris, you could be right. But at the time I searched for a couple of days on Amazon for the 750 ml size and finally this seller had it for a decent price. And then he didn’t. Seems fishy.

Roxana, it makes one wonder how often Amazon does things like this. I’ve only had to complain maybe 3 times now, all legit complaints, like not receiving a package, damage, and this. Always small purchases under $10 and easy to resolve, but you have to wonder about the large ticket items like yours! Happy for you.

bob, interesting story.

"it makes one wonder how often Amazon does things like this."

This was what I was trying to understand about your similar comment before. It doesn't seem, from your description, that Amazon was involved at all. What are you suggesting "Amazon" did?

If the item is from an outside vendor, you are dealing with their selling policies, standards and shipping times. I ordered a gold tone filter for my coffee maker. After a few days I discovered it would not be delivered for 7 weeks. From China. I wouldn't have ordered it if I knew that up front. It is probably best to check the box that says from Amazon.com so you know it comes only from their warehouse.

Elmer, when I had a problem with 2 previous orders I went to Amazon directly. I was using ‘Amazon’ generically in this context, although I went to the vendor first for resolution since it was not shipped from Amazon directly. Make sense now?

Yes, completely, and your explanation is what I thought you meant. My comment was because it seemed to read that you were grousing about Amazon itself (including the heading of the thread) when in fact Amazon is there to be your solution if needed. It's not the problem.

I try to avoid marketplace sellers just to reduce the possibility of squirrely experiences but I once had an incident when Amazon really stepped forward and made it right.

Someone I know had discovered and become enamored with a unique kind of coffee gadget. It was expensive, like $150 - and not generally available. The person sent one to me as a gift. I tried it and didn't like it. I tried to contact the Amz Marketplace seller to return it and they decided to go into turtle mode and withdraw into their shell. After two weeks of no response, I contacted Amazon. They tried to contact the seller and had the same problem. They called me and wIth a very short conversation, the outcome was - "we'll reverse the charge for your gift giver, just keep the item". I gave it to the gift giver (who was happy to get another one for free) and life went on.

Good luck to you. Amazon really stands behind what they do, it's why I channel my buying activity to them even when items are a bit more expensive. Trust and convenience are more important for me than price.

The gift giver got a full credit from Amazon and you also gave them their gift back because you did not like it?

Yes. He liked it and thought I would too. The gift was "hey, try this, you may like it as much as I do"

I didn't. I told him and asked him if it was okay if I returned it to get him a refund, no reason to spend so much on something I wouldn't use. The answer was yes.

I did tell Amazon I was happy to pay the return shipping so long as a payment refund was processed. They said no need to do that.

So with the "keep it" result, the person who loved the product got a spare.

Generous of Amazon.