Black Friday - Amazon.com Prime product price increases?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Muslima wrote:I have been having issues with Amazon prime lately ( missing the 2 days shipping almost every time), showing items as delivered when they were never received. I am even thinking about canceling after years of basically doing most of my online shopping with them. Also, I've noticed that some items are very overpriced on Prime which is why I compare prices of things I am not familiar with on other sites first. They also do charge higher for the same item on Prime as opposed to if you're not a prime customer, I guess they do make you pay for that 2 day shipping after all, in addition to the prime fees. I am still using it because of the digital content, and mostly convenience but it's getting worse and worse by the years....

I call bullshit.

Not the first poster but it is true. Why would you think the poster would make it up? Amazon states on an item's page "Note: Available at a lower price from other sellers, potentially without free Prime shipping."

The PP said that Amazon charges a higher price for an item if you're a Prime member than they charge for the same item for a non-Prime member. That's completely different than what you stated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think its always been the case that Amazon has ridiculously awesome prices on some things and ridiculously expensive prices on other things.

If you are a smart consumer you use them for the great prices and go elsewhere for other things. For common household items, I've found its generally hard to beat walmart.com.

+1 you have to do your research

[Muslima]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Muslima wrote:I have been having issues with Amazon prime lately ( missing the 2 days shipping almost every time), showing items as delivered when they were never received. I am even thinking about canceling after years of basically doing most of my online shopping with them. Also, I've noticed that some items are very overpriced on Prime which is why I compare prices of things I am not familiar with on other sites first. They also do charge higher for the same item on Prime as opposed to if you're not a prime customer, I guess they do make you pay for that 2 day shipping after all, in addition to the prime fees. I am still using it because of the digital content, and mostly convenience but it's getting worse and worse by the years....

I call bullshit.

Not the first poster but it is true. Why would you think the poster would make it up? Amazon states on an item's page "Note: Available at a lower price from other sellers, potentially without free Prime shipping."

The PP said that Amazon charges a higher price for an item if you're a Prime member than they charge for the same item for a non-Prime member. That's completely different than what you stated.

I am saying the same thing that the PP said, probably did not word it well. Amazon Prime items are all sold or fulfilled by Amazon, so when a Prime member logs in the items at the top of the search list are Prime items. Funny enough, the cost of the item from a third party seller + shipping is usually very close to the Prime price. Weird coincidence? “I don’t feel like its a ‘scam’ necessarily, but I’m a prime member and I consistently see that if I select the prime option, the price IS higher than non-prime sellers, and the difference is usually about the cost of shipping. So it’s like the shipping is just built into the price. There are currently lawsuits alleging Amazon of encouraging third party sellers to inflate prices to help cover the cost of shipping (even though customers who pay for Amazon Prime, are supposed to get that benefit for "free" )

Source: http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news/lawsuit-alleges-amazon-charges-prime-members-for-free-shipping-031414.html

But maybe Amazon Prime's “free” shipping isn't free at all. That is the allegation made by plaintiffs in two recent lawsuits against the company: that Amazon Prime members who got “free” shipping were actually charged higher base costs to cover it.

The first lawsuit was filed in February, by Amazon Prime member Marcia Burke of Alabama; the plaintiff in the second suit is A. Cemal Ekin of Rhode Island. Both of them make the same general complaint, a specific example of which is taken from Burke's suit:

"[I]f the price of an item is advertised for $10 with $3.99 shipping and the [vendor] wishes to match or top their price, the [vendor] would charge $13.99 or higher."

In other words, an ordinary customer buying that item and nothing else from Amazon would pay a total of $14: $10 for the item and $4 for shipping. In some cases – if the customer bought at least $35 worth of items at once, thus qualifying for free shipping – the total cost of the item would only be $10. Yet an Amazon Prime member, who paid $79 for “free” shipping this year, is charged a base price of $13.99 for the item no matter what.

Amazon has not commented on either suit, citing pending litigation.

Nothing new there, especially not for Amazon. In 2005, CNN's law blog informed readers about the practice of dynamic pricing, and noted that Amazon got burned for it as early as 2000:

In September 2000, Amazon.com outraged some customers when its own price discrimination was revealed. One buyer reportedly deleted the cookies on his computer that identified him as a regular Amazon customer. The result? He watched the price of a DVD offered to him for sale drop from $26.24 to $22.74.

[Anonymous]

Thanks everyone. I'm the OP. You confirmed what I suspected. Prime was a real deal and very useful to use for the last three years but the price creep is disconcerting - especially on the heavy items like Sodastream, dog food, etc. But the convenience for busy households was wonderful.

A PP reminded me to mention that I've also noticed a big jump in counterfeit, grey market, or old products from the third party sellers - and I've noticed in the reviews others complaining of same. I recently bought a perishable beauty products thru amazon.com prime but fulfilled by a third party seller. The moment I opened the box I knew something was wrong because label upon label had been glued on an Estee Lauder product. I peeled off the labels and got down to the original Italian production notice which probably indicates a grey market product (i.e., not for sale in the U.S. and may not comply with U.S. standards) but what was really upsetting was that I could tell the product was old. So I went online and found out how to locate the date of production by some digits on the bottom of the product and pulled up the date through Elizabeth Arden. It was 2 3/4 years old! So I complained and got my money back but I don't need this hassle. Thank you everone. And check those production and expiration dates.

[Anonymous]

Muslima wrote:I have been having issues with Amazon prime lately ( missing the 2 days shipping almost every time), showing items as delivered when they were never received. I am even thinking about canceling after years of basically doing most of my online shopping with them. Also, I've noticed that some items are very overpriced on Prime which is why I compare prices of things I am not familiar with on other sites first. They also do charge higher for the same item on Prime as opposed to if you're not a prime customer, I guess they do make you pay for that 2 day shipping after all, in addition to the prime fees. I am still using it because of the digital content, and mostly convenience but it's getting worse and worse by the years....

Yes, this.

[Anonymous]

Muslima wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Muslima wrote:I have been having issues with Amazon prime lately ( missing the 2 days shipping almost every time), showing items as delivered when they were never received. I am even thinking about canceling after years of basically doing most of my online shopping with them. Also, I've noticed that some items are very overpriced on Prime which is why I compare prices of things I am not familiar with on other sites first. They also do charge higher for the same item on Prime as opposed to if you're not a prime customer, I guess they do make you pay for that 2 day shipping after all, in addition to the prime fees. I am still using it because of the digital content, and mostly convenience but it's getting worse and worse by the years....

I call bullshit.

Not the first poster but it is true. Why would you think the poster would make it up? Amazon states on an item's page "Note: Available at a lower price from other sellers, potentially without free Prime shipping."

The PP said that Amazon charges a higher price for an item if you're a Prime member than they charge for the same item for a non-Prime member. That's completely different than what you stated.

I am saying the same thing that the PP said, probably did not word it well. Amazon Prime items are all sold or fulfilled by Amazon, so when a Prime member logs in the items at the top of the search list are Prime items. Funny enough, the cost of the item from a third party seller + shipping is usually very close to the Prime price. Weird coincidence? “I don’t feel like its a ‘scam’ necessarily, but I’m a prime member and I consistently see that if I select the prime option, the price IS higher than non-prime sellers, and the difference is usually about the cost of shipping. So it’s like the shipping is just built into the price. There are currently lawsuits alleging Amazon of encouraging third party sellers to inflate prices to help cover the cost of shipping (even though customers who pay for Amazon Prime, are supposed to get that benefit for "free" )

Source: http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news/lawsuit-alleges-amazon-charges-prime-members-for-free-shipping-031414.html

But maybe Amazon Prime's “free” shipping isn't free at all. That is the allegation made by plaintiffs in two recent lawsuits against the company: that Amazon Prime members who got “free” shipping were actually charged higher base costs to cover it.

The first lawsuit was filed in February, by Amazon Prime member Marcia Burke of Alabama; the plaintiff in the second suit is A. Cemal Ekin of Rhode Island. Both of them make the same general complaint, a specific example of which is taken from Burke's suit:

"[I]f the price of an item is advertised for $10 with $3.99 shipping and the [vendor] wishes to match or top their price, the [vendor] would charge $13.99 or higher."

In other words, an ordinary customer buying that item and nothing else from Amazon would pay a total of $14: $10 for the item and $4 for shipping. In some cases – if the customer bought at least $35 worth of items at once, thus qualifying for free shipping – the total cost of the item would only be $10. Yet an Amazon Prime member, who paid $79 for “free” shipping this year, is charged a base price of $13.99 for the item no matter what.

Amazon has not commented on either suit, citing pending litigation.

Nothing new there, especially not for Amazon. In 2005, CNN's law blog informed readers about the practice of dynamic pricing, and noted that Amazon got burned for it as early as 2000:

In September 2000, Amazon.com outraged some customers when its own price discrimination was revealed. One buyer reportedly deleted the cookies on his computer that identified him as a regular Amazon customer. The result? He watched the price of a DVD offered to him for sale drop from $26.24 to $22.74.

Yes, we have been prime customers for years and this is exactly what we think is going on. We pay the prime membership but then end up paying shipping rates on top of it, for many things. We're much more selective about buying now because of it and I think we may not renew the prime next year.

[Anonymous]

Has anyone tried google express and is it better? I used to get everything from amazon but lately found target.com to be better.

[Anonymous]

OP back. No, I haven't tried google express or target.com. Are they better than amazon.com prime? Do they operate the same? The one thing I do like about amazon.com are the reviews. Some have really changed my mind about buying a product.