Strange Amazon Book Edition Problem - Do You Know the Answer? (sell, service)

[sponger42]

I have a very strange experience with Amazon.com.

While ordering textbooks, I looked through the marketplace for the 10th edition of a certain book. I found it and placed an order for it.

When I checked my receipt, I noticed that it linked back to a description page for the 3rd edition of the same book!

Then, guess what showed up in the mail? The 3rd edition, of course. I am working on sending it back to the seller (as my receipt also says paperback, but the book I received was a hardcover), but that's a separate issue. The real problem is with Amazon's structure.

I tried contacting Amazon, but of course the low-level customer service people don't have a clue what I'm talking about. They just copy-paste stuff about contacting the bookseller. Yet it seems to be Amazon's website which has a problem. Somehow the editions of some books change between when you pay and when you get your receipt.

I am guessing that the Amazon marketplace must have a loophole which allows booksellers to somehow issue a receipt (or direct the receipt link) to a different item than what was ordered. Or possibly structure their links so that they can sell old editions when a user clicks on the marketplace listing for newer editions. It's a really perplexing issue since there is no way to prove that it is happening. Anyone else ever have this happen?

At first I thought it was my mistake, but when it happened twice (for the same book, and the second time I was EXCEEDINGLY careful to make sure I was ordering the correct edition) I became aware that the problem was on Amazon's end and not mine.