Somehow I expected something like this to happen when I read something like "Design subject to change" on the Amazon website... however, it gets worse if they mix up cells made in Japan with those made in China, and much worse is the mix-up with Li-Ion cells which are a totally different item from what was ordered.
To be fair, I think that's what distinguishes cheap house brands from name brands... you don't know exactly what's inside, and what's inside is subject to change. However, some brand name manufacturers are doing the same... even Eneloops come from China instead of Japan in some regions. It basically says "If you're buying Amazon Basics, you get rechargeable AA batteries (if that), but it doesn't matter if they are made in China or Japan".
I've seen similar mix-ups with Amazon and other items as well, unfortunately. Some weeks ago, I looked for a converter from HDMI to old-fashioned video output because my cleaning woman wants to connect a Playstation 3 she got to an old CRT TV. On Amazon, I actually couldn't be quite sure which converter I was looking at. The description on the page was different to the photo shown... one said from HDMI to Video, and the other way said the other way round. Granted, these things cost under € 20, but you can't really be sure if you order the correct one. In contrast to that, Conrad has a store here in Vienna where you can look at those items in person and buy them, but they are around € 60.
Similar to that is a relatively new kind of electric powered ride-on for children, a Mercedes 6x6 which has four powered wheels and a parent seat and is able to hold (and move) 200 or even 250 lbs. Well, on Amazon's page some people complained that they actually got an item with only one powered wheel which "doesn't go anywhere" if an adult sits on it. Apparently there was another mix-up, this time with a cheaper model with only 1 motor instead of 4 which adults aren't supposed to ride along on.
And I saw a possible mix-up on another page with go karts for children where there is an electric and a pedal-powered variant, but it's not really clear which one it is you're ordering.
One reason for such mix-ups might be that Amazon has a structure where an item may have several variants, and all reviews apply for all variants of that item. I guess this was originally supposed to cover different colors of the same item, but 3rd party sellers found creative ways to use (and abuse) that. More harmless variants are children ride-on animals where each variant is a different kind of animal, but they all share the same specs. But it gets worse when for Amazon Basics rechargeables, "C" and "D" cells are just 2 variants of the same item, and for the HDMI converter I mentioned above, "HDMI to Video" and "Video to HDMI" are also just 2 variants of the same item, and there are more variants to the same item doing yet different conversions.
And those are just examples... I've seen quite a few more items where the variants are much too different from one another to be lumped into the same item. I think Amazon should look out for such mix-ups and fix them.
