Watch out for Amazon !

M

Moemg

Gone but not forgotten
Joined
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I have been shopping for my grandson's birthday and I usually do it on Amazon and just have his presents shipped . I found a great gift . It's a big tub of dinosaurs with a play mat cost $41. The same toy is $19.95 at Toys r us . I checked several other toys with similar results . The mark ups were huge . Even with paying for shipping it is cheaper to order from Toys r us or mail it myself . Amazon needs to control the price gouging that some of it's sellers are doing before they lose a lot of customers .
 
It is not necessary for Amazon to control their sellers' price. I think it is the buyers' responsibility that they are getting the best price when shopping. Not just at Amazon but every where else. I don't always assume that the deal from Amazon is the best.

And you did the right thing - you shopped around and found a better price somewhere. You are an educated customer.
 
Moemg said:
I have been shopping for my grandson's birthday and I usually do it on Amazon and just have his presents shipped . I found a great gift . It's a big tub of dinosaurs with a play mat cost $41. The same toy is $19.95 at Toys r us . I checked several other toys with similar results . The mark ups were huge . Even with paying for shipping it is cheaper to order from Toys r us or mail it myself . Amazon needs to control the price gouging that some of it's sellers are doing before they lose a lot of customers .
Click to expand...

Has anyone else noticed this?

A few months ago I seem to recall reading that amazon was using 'flexible pricing' of some sort. I wonder if this may be what happened here?

Just before Christmas, there was a thread here about a Leak Detector meter that measures temperature differential from 'normal'. The day I first checked the price on amazon, it was ~$50, the next time I checked the price (a few days later) it was ~$29!

omni
 
Interesting. I generally use several of the price comparison sites (pricegrabber, bizrate, etc) to compare prices if I am looking for a specific item. I often end up buying from Amazon, as their price is usually very competitive (especially if you can get the free shipping). Their service has always been fast and reliable also.
 
I check local prices and availability before turning to the Net to buy stuff. (some of the things I want, aren't sold in stores around here). Then I compare prices across the Net, factoring in sales tax or lack of sales tax as appropriate. The range of prices on Amazon can be befuddling. Sometimes there is a 100% spread across offers for the same item.

The other thing to watch out for, as I noted on some other thread, is that "free Super Saver Shipping" items sometimes cost as much as the same item from another seller, who charges for shipping. "Free Super Saver Shipping" - trust but verify! :LOL:

Amethyst
 
For you Firefox users concerned about Amazon pricing "games", here is a neat add-on: The Camelizer

The Camelizer tracks the price history products sold by Amazon, Best Buy, Newegg and others. After installing it, find the product at the online retailer, click on the little camel icon at the lower right of your screen and it will show you the price history of that product going back several months, revealing any recent price shenanigans.

You can also use it to set a price watch and alert you when the price of a product drops to a target level of your choosing.

Neat stuff...
 
With Amazon I think it is the fact that they are using a lot of independent sellers like ebay so the prices really vary . I do not mind a reasonable mark up but everything I was interested in was 100% higher than other merchants .
 
KingB said:
It is not necessary for Amazon to control their sellers' price. I think it is the buyers' responsibility that they are getting the best price when shopping. ....
Click to expand...

+1

I don't get this from the OP. Why is it Amazon's responsibility to 'do something'? It is up to you to do something - shop carefully and vote with your wallet.

Amazon has dropped a bit in their 'transparency' though. Many sellers have stuff for ridiculously low prices, but add in enough S&H to raise the price above what you can get from others. It makes the 'sort by price' feature pretty useless, unless you specify 'with free shipping' (but you might miss out on a deal).

I still find Amazon to almost always have the best deal though, and I check on almost everything I buy. Prices change all the time, that's nothing new. Brick & Mortar stores change prices all the time too. Oh, and I have their Visa card, you get 3% on Amazon purchases and 1% on all others. I use when I can't use my 2% rewards Fido Amex.

-ERD50
 
ERD50 said:
+1

I don't get this from the OP. Why is it Amazon's responsibility to 'do something'? It is up to you to do something - shop carefully and vote with your wallet.



-ERD50
Click to expand...


I have sold on Amazon for several years and they always controlled how much you could charge for shipping plus they had a pretty high standards for their sellers . In my opinion they have dropped them and now have a lot of sellers gouging buyers on prices . I read several reviewers of the sellers that were selling the overpriced toys and they were not flattering . In the old days those sellers would not exist on Amazon but things have changed and yes ,I do think Amazon should rein in these sellers before their reputation suffers .
 
Not that this has anything to do with it, but Amazon used to be Toys R Us's Internet source--they had a major falling out and Amazon had to pay big bucks to TRU as a result (TRU was supposed to be the only source for toys on Amazon's site but surprise! Amazon let other retailers also sell toys that supposedly were not available at TRU but still breached the agreement). Details here: Amazon pays $51M to settle lawsuit with Toys R Us - MarketWatch

The dinosaur toys sound adorable, Moe--and admit it, you would have paid twice as much to make that little guy happy!
 
Moemg said:
I have sold on Amazon for several years and they always controlled how much you could charge for shipping plus they had a pretty high standards for their sellers . In my opinion they have dropped them and now have a lot of sellers gouging buyers on prices . I read several reviewers of the sellers that were selling the overpriced toys and they were not flattering . In the old days those sellers would not exist on Amazon but things have changed and yes ,I do think Amazon should rein in these sellers before their reputation suffers .
Click to expand...

I do agree with you that this makes Amazon look rather 'tacky', and I don't like the 'tricks' either, and wish they would just keep things transparent to the highest degree.

I've also noticed that many of these sellers have really shoddy 'descriptions' of the product. It's hard to tell what is included or not, sometimes you have to rely on the comments to know what's up.

I've been thinking of writing them to express this, but who knows? Many people are attracted by what look like 'deals', and maybe overall Amazon feels they are doing better with this. It's their business, we can just decide to deal with them or not.

I disagree that anyone is being 'gouged' by a listed price. If you don't like the price, don't buy it.

-ERD50
 
omni550 said:
Has anyone else noticed this?

A few months ago I seem to recall reading that amazon was using 'flexible pricing' of some sort. I wonder if this may be what happened here?

Just before Christmas, there was a thread here about a Leak Detector meter that measures temperature differential from 'normal'. The day I first checked the price on amazon, it was ~$50, the next time I checked the price (a few days later) it was ~$29!

omni
Click to expand...

I think you meant an Infrared Thermometer around Thanksgiving. It's not flexible pricing, they continually adjust their prices based on all kinds of things, matching competitors, or if the quantity is running low, etc. I commented on the price dropping on the Black & Decker model Thermometer. If you plan on shopping any store like Amazon, don't just assume you're getting a good price, like any service, check around and get at least 3 sources (if not more... I check a lot more) to see if the price is good. If you use Amazon, put it in your shopping cart, then select "Save for Later". Keep checking your shopping cart over time and if the price changes, you'll get a note at the top of your shopping cart telling you so. Be forewarned, the price can go up or down! If you don't need it yesterday, it's a nice way to catch a price change. I used this for some video games that I caught at 50% or more off this Christmas and for Birthday presents.
 
Sounds like the airlines, every time I check a flight it's a different price.
 
Bestwifeever said:
The dinosaur toys sound adorable, Moe--and admit it, you would have paid twice as much to make that little guy happy!
Click to expand...


You are so right . It was the principal of the thing . I did end up buying the bucket of dinosaurs , a stuffed dinosaur that roars , several books , and a dinosaur stamp kit . Plus I am looking for dinosaur Pj's .:)
 
There might be an innocent explanation of confusion or a mistake, in the case of the bucket of dinosaurs. I've bought quite a bit through Amazon in the last few years, and in the few instances that a transaction went sour, I never thought that Amazon was trying to gyp me. I did find Amazon user reviews for the bucket of dinosaurs which pointed out that Toys 'R Us had a much better price.
 
I buy a fair amount of vitamins and other bottled things for my body, and while I always find the Amazon price very attractive, I also notice most of the pill vendors have some available described as used.
I'm not sure how that works, but the mental picture I get of the used pill production line is not very pleasant.:nonono:.Anyone else notice that?
 
In Amazon's defense, I bought a DVD for my DB's birthday. The vendor sent the wrong DVD, then jerked me around and threatened to charge my credit card for reshipping charges. I filed a claim with Amazon's A-Z guarantee. In a few weeks I got all my money back and DB got the right (and wrong) DVDs. I appreciated that Amazon stepped in and took my side.
 
Seems like things have gotten weird at Amazon lately. They no longer give you the price difference if they drop the price compared to what you paid 30 days ago.

I recently ordered 4 items. 2 of them were oil filters. On day one, after I ordered they shipped 1 item. On day two they shipped the 2 filters. On day 3 they shipped the last item. I wasn't charged for shipping, at all, since it was over $25 worth of items and it qualified for free shipping, I didn't check the option to send them as they became available (they all were at the time of ordering). Either they're out to bend over backwards for some customer service reason or they are trying to maximize their carbon footprint with multiple shipments.

Previously, I had a bunch of stuff marked for purchase later, in my "shopping cart". They dropped the price on everything, and then proceeded to mark them "out of stock" after I checked that they were still in the cart but didn't buy them for a few days.

Maybe there's a decent explanation, but I can't think of one that's not a weird one.

-CC
 
CCdaCE said:
I recently ordered 4 items. 2 of them were oil filters. On day one, after I ordered they shipped 1 item. On day two they shipped the 2 filters. On day 3 they shipped the last item. I wasn't charged for shipping, at all, since it was over $25 worth of items and it qualified for free shipping, I didn't check the option to send them as they became available (they all were at the time of ordering). Either they're out to bend over backwards for some customer service reason or they are trying to maximize their carbon footprint with multiple shipments.

....

Maybe there's a decent explanation, but I can't think of one that's not a weird one.

-CC
Click to expand...

I'd bet that each of the 3 shipments came from different warehouses. I've seen that a bunch of times.

It's one reason I try to split my free shipping up into as many orders as I can and still stay above $25 in each. If they are in the same order and in the same warehouse, they will hold it up if one item in that warehouse is delayed. I've seen that too.

-ERD50
 
It is easy to cost compare on the internet... do not limit the cost compare research to Amazon!
 
Yeah, they were offering "used" hair dye, too :nonono: Which would no doubt be very, very expensive...think of the advanced technology that would be needed to collect it! :LOL: Methinks it's just their software - a thingy that always comes up, unrelated to whether you actually can buy a "used" version or not.

Amethyst

JPatrick said:
I, I also notice most of the pill vendors have some available described as used.
I'm not sure how that works,.:nonono:.Anyone else notice that?
Click to expand...
 
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