Most of us are familiar with the Bhagwad Gita and the Communist Manifesto -- at least by name. And while most would agree that it is hard to confuse the two, Amazon seems to have managed. In a strange turn of events, a Kolkata man hoping to read the Communist Manifesto received a copy of the Bhagwad Gita instead from the e-commerce portal.
In a Facebook post on Saturday, Sutirtha Das wrote that he had ordered The Communist Manifesto -- a political document authored by Karl Marx and and Friedrich Engels in 1848 -- after seeking that it was available on the e-commerce site at a discount.
"Understand the chronology," Das urges in Bengali, before delving into a step by step recounting of the event that left him with a copy of the Bhagwad Gita. On June 10, Das had placed the order after getting information that the book was available at a discount. As he explains, the book was for Rs 90 with a delivery charge of Rs 50, and he placed the order and paid online via card.
He had received a message confirming the order, which added that it would be delivered by the 12th or 13th. Accordingly he received the parcel, which incidentally claimed that the Communist Manifesto was enclosed within, on June 13. It was only when he opened the parcel that he was "stunned" to discover the Bhagwad Gita.
It is unclear as to whether Das has raised the issue with Amazon, or whether the company has reacted to the mix-up.
The amazon listing for The Communist Manifesto at the time of publishing this article reflected the same price as narrated by Das. However, it must be mentioned that the listing notes the original price as Rs 149, before slashing it to Rs. 90 and adding a delivery charge of Rs 50. Thus, it is unclear as to how much of a discount Das truly received.
In another recent incident, Amazon had accidentally sent a customer Bose earbuds worth Rs 19,000 after he ordered a lotion costing Rs. 300. Since the earbuds were a non-returnable item, the e-commerce company asked the man to keep them.
