I'm a great customer of Amazon. I order from them several times a week and this is not because I support the Washington Post or anything else Jeff Bezos owns, although I do support the Washington Post. I just find that they always have what I need at the best price and they deliver it to my door with remarkable speed and efficiency. About once in every forty orders though, I get burned and it's usually because I didn't pay enough attention.
I have a bunch of webcam interviews coming up and I decided to get a better, newer camera for them. I ordered the Logitech HD Pro Webcam C92. How good is it? I dunno. I've been too busy to even open the package. That's not the problem.
While I was ordering it, I saw a suggestion for an add-on and it was an Amazon Pick. It was the Logitech Privacy Cover for C920 and C930e — a device that fits over the lens to prevent anyone from peeking at you through your camera when you might not want them peeking at you. I really didn't need it because I always unplug my webcam when I'm not webcamming but it had a lot of positive reviews and on an impulse click, I bought it too — for $25. With my free Prime shipping.
Two days later, both items were here. The Logitech Privacy Cover for C920 and C930e turns out to be a tiny plastic cap that fits over the lens. It's about the size of a quarter and if it costs them more than a quarter to make one of these, I'd be shocked. Upon closer inspection — the kind I should have done before I ordered — I discovered…
- Most of those positive reviews are from when they used to sell the same thing not so long ago for $12.
- There are still plenty of vendors on Amazon selling identical items for $10-$11. Which is still way more than this thing should cost.
- What it really should cost is nothing. It would cost the Logitech people almost nothing to include this with their product…or even to build it in.
So someone said, "Wow! We're making a fortune selling these little caps for twelve bucks! Betcha some suckers will still buy 'em if we more than double the price!" And it worked, at least in the case of this sucker.
Needless to say, I've already arranged to return mine for a refund. But then I wrote a fairly civil online review on Amazon and about ten seconds later, I received this e-mail…
Thanks for submitting a customer review on Amazon. Your review could not be posted to the website in its current form. We encourage you to revise your review and submit it again. A few common issues to keep in mind:
- Your review should focus on specific features of the product and your experience with it. Feedback on the seller or your shipment experience should be provided at www.amazon.com/feedback.
- We do not allow profane or obscene content. This applies to adult products too.
- Advertisements, promotional material or repeated posts that make the same point excessively are considered spam.
- Please do not include URLs external to Amazon or personally identifiable content in your review.
I adhered to all those guidelines. You know me. I don't offer profane or obscene content except when the subject is cole slaw. To Amazon's credit, they're swift to give me credit when I return something and they couldn't make it much easier than they do. But I'm disappointed in their pricing of this item and I'm disappointed in them disallowing my review of it and I guess I'm most disappointed in myself for not paying better attention before clicking.