Be careful if purchasing "The Art of Electronics" from Amazon...

[Kyl8145]

So Amazon is now selling "The Art of Electronics - Third Edition Improved. This version is expanded, with some new material and corrections, and is 1220 pages. The original Third Edition was 1192 pages. Anyhow, the original edition has the gold tag in the bottom right corner that says "Third Edition" whereas the improved edition says "Third Edition Improved. Well so I purchased it, and found my copy had some damaged pages. So I had Amazon send me a second one, but then I just noticed today that BOTH of them are just "Third Edition" and not the "Third Edition Improved even though that is what Amazon is advertising as for sale. So I am going to return both of them. I spoke to Amazon Customer Service via Chat and they said, "Thank you for bringing this issue to our attention, we will launch an investigation immediately," etc...they might really be serious on that, because earlier today, the book was available from Amazon directly via Prime shipping, but I just checked and now it is only available via Kindle or third-party sellers. I don't know if that is from me or not, but hope so as that means they are addressing it quickly. I told them that this is a major technical reference and expensive, so I want the most updated version.

As said though, I don't know if that is from me or not so when the book becomes available again, something to watch out for. Watch out for counterfeit copies as well from third party sellers.

[Stray Electron]

  Was it actually sold by Amazon or just sold ON Amazon?   Amazon is rapidly being taken over by their sales "partners" or what ever they call them, and they are completely unscrupulous.  Amazon has become another Ebay ripe with fraud.

[Kyl8145]

BY Amazon.

[GopherT]

  Was it actually sold by Amazon or just sold ON Amazon?   Amazon is rapidly being taken over by their sales "partners" or what ever they call them, and they are completely unscrupulous.  Amazon has become another Ebay ripe with fraud.

Actually, Amazon is recently charging higher rates and enforcing stronger return policies on 3rd party sellers to force many out.

[tooki]

I suspect the “improved” tag is either absolutely meaningless, or that it only signifies a later printing of the third edition (in which case it hopefully has all the errata fixed). Or maybe different markets or resellers got that label.

What we can categorically rule out is the “improved” ones having more pages (and thus more material): the AoE website has always stated it as having 1220 pages. This count simply includes the front matter (foreword, colophon, prefaces, table of contents, etc.), whereas 1992 is simply the count of numbered pages (the body matter and back matter, in this book). I have a second-printing (2015) copy and it matches this.

[Stray Electron]

Actually, Amazon is recently charging higher rates and enforcing stronger return policies on 3rd party sellers to force many out.

   The higher rates are meaningless to the buyers.  The return policy at Amazon has always been good and that's not in question. The problem is that Amazon now seems to be filled with shaded third party sellers that sell crap merchandise. THEN it's left up to the buyer to have to contact Amazon to get a refund and you'd be surprised at how FEW buyers actually go the trouble to return an item and obtain a refund. Most buyers just chuck the item and give it up as a bad investment.  Like it or not, E-bay's feedback system is a much more immediate way of highlighting bad products and sellers.

[legacy]

  Was it actually sold by Amazon or just sold ON Amazon?   Amazon is rapidly being taken over by their sales "partners" or what ever they call them, and they are completely unscrupulous.  Amazon has become another Ebay ripe with fraud.

To third parties, Amazon rents two things: the webshop and the logistics infrastructure (warehouses, trucks, vans, etc).

Since Amazon rents the shop, users can benefit from Amazon protection but this implies that the final user must use the payment form offered by Amazon.

If the final user exists from the platform, e.g. if you privately contact a seller to pay via bank money transfer, then ... you cannot ask Amazon to refund you the money.

Most of the frauds there work this way. People opening an account to sell stuff by asking users to contact them privately and to pay via bank money transfer. Then they disappear.

[legacy]

Actually, Amazon is recently charging higher rates and enforcing stronger return policies on 3rd party sellers to force many out.

   The higher rates are meaningless to the buyers.  The return policy at Amazon has always been good and that's not in question. The problem is that Amazon now seems to be filled with shaded third party sellers that sell crap merchandise. THEN it's left up to the buyer to have to contact Amazon to get a refund and you'd be surprised at how FEW buyers actually go the trouble to return an item and obtain a refund. Most buyers just chuck the item and give it up as a bad investment.  Like it or not, E-bay's feedback system is a much more immediate way of highlighting bad products and sellers.

On Amazon dot co uk and dot it (dunno about others), you can review a product, as well as a seller.  I usually write reviews about everything I buy there, and it's more accurate feedback because you can vote by 1 to 5 stars adding a text that tells what you like and dislike.