Edit: Before more naive commenters reply saying they don’t believe me and have complete faith in Amazon, check out this CNN link with a story by a U. of Washington Prof. of Law about this exact double pricing problem, with an ADMISSION from Amazon that they engage in these practices.
So this morning I visited Amazon.com to check out the price of a watch I’ve been considering buying. I quickly found it, but was not ready yet to pay quite as much as Amazon quoted. To the internets I went! When I ran a price check on Google’ s shopping search, and rankest the results from lowest->highest price, Amazon came up first. But wait a second, that was not the same price I had just been quoted on the Amazon website…. Compare:
Amazon search result for Seiko
Google search result for the same Seiko SRKZ88 watch
So of course, I clicked the results. But what did I get on the actual Amazon page? The same old higher price. Then, suddenly, I remembered reading an article, many years ago, about Amazon offering two different prices at the same moment to two different customers, for no apparent reason. While I had assumed that scandal had long since made Amazon change this strange practice, I suddenly became a little suspicious.
So I opened Internet Explorer, in which I was not logged into Amazon.com as an Amazon Prime member, unlike in Google’s Chrome browser. And I searched again. You won’t believe what I found. Here are the unaltered results of two pages loaded within seconds of each other, on the same computer, from the same vendor on Amazon. On the left side I am logged in as a Prime member. (Note: “Prime means you pay a significant yearly fee ($79) to get free 2nd day shipping all year) On the right side I am not logged into Amazon at all. See for yourself!
Amazon Prime Price Scam (Click to enlarge)
And when I did a little Googling, I discovered that this is in fact a common practice. So while Prime customers pay a significant yearly fee to get free or discounted shipping, apparently Amazon.com secretly changes prices of items for Prime customers on a regular basis. And it gets worse. Since other bloggers encounter numerous replies that claim that they forgot to calculate in shipping/vendor differences and such, I’m including such a calculation right away to illustrate my point:
My $6 higher Prime price still gets me 2-day shipping, unlike the cheaper listing. However, when I checked the cost of 2-day shipping for the non-Prime item, I discovered that it was only $3.69 extra! So not only am I throwing away an annual $79 fee to be a Prime member, I am even paying several dollars MORE for the “item + 2-day shipping” than a non-member is.
Conclusion: As an Amazon Prime member, you are actually paying an annual fee to be allowed to pay MORE for “item + 2-day shipping” than any non-member would be paying! This is a serious pricing/advertising scam. I intend to file a complaint for a complete refund of my Amazon Prime membership for the three years I’ve had it, and I suggest that you do the same.
PS: Check out these pages to see that this price scam is not an isolated incident. Or check for yourself if you’re a Prime member!
Mike’s Crime & Federalism Blog
Really interesting!
Are you sure it’s Prime in particular and not ‘logged in vs not logged in’? (I haven’t tested it.)
There’s other more complicated stuff going on. I think I’ve seen cases where I looked at something on Amazon, not gotten it, and come back a few days later to think some more about it and look at it again, and… viola–the price is lower!
Want to test this together? Email me a few items and prices and I’ll check them for me–logged in vs not. I’m not a Prime member.
Dont ever compare Google Product Search (Amazon Price) with Actual Amazon.com Price. Google keeps the cache of Amazon Product data and price and refresh it for every 24 hours.
I also looked at the above screenshot of chrome and internet explorer. If you look at them carefully, they are shipped and sold by different merchants.
$264.54 – Ships from and sold by Amazon
$258.66 – ships from and sold by Third pary merchant (Ace Photo Digital)
Amazon price keeps changing (even on same day also). To justify this i just checked the above product and the price is $258.66 (Ships from and sold by Amazon)
So finally the Price and Prime are different.
This has to be the stupidest thing I have ever read.
The one on the left is shipped and sold by Amazon.com, it says so right underneath the item.
The one on the right says that it’s shipped and sold by someone seller named ace photo digital.
You’ve had Prime membership for THREE YEARS and you don’t know the difference between something sold by Amazon and something sold by a random person?
Also, Prime has been around for years and Amazon has millions of customers. Don’t you think that *someone* might have noticed before now if Amazon was randomly ripping off customers?
It is pretty amazing how someone can be that… reckless when posting threads.
You say you’ve been a customer with prime for 3 years, and yet you dont know the difference between sold and fulfilled by amazon, and sold and fulfilled by a Third Party Seller?
If you check the terms and conditions for Third Parties, you’ll see that they’re free to put any price they want, and that prime doesnt apply cuz they gotta pay for it
Your replies show a disturbing degree of consumer naivety.
Try this for yourself when logged into Prime and not logged in. Also try clicking the Google link. I entered the EXACT SAME LINK into my Chrome and IE browsers to get to those two images, which magically led to two different ‘ships by’ entries with two different prices.
The difference in “ships by” is fake. Same product from same location, Amazon just changes one for Prime users as an excuse to raise the price. It’s a scam, and you’re falling for it guys.
PS: Vincent, you don’t believe me? Amazon’s double pricing has been a well known issue since 2000, when they admitted it and apologized for it. CNN actually has an article about this exact same issue that I wrote about today: Logged in vs logged out prices. I’m only writing this article because I didn’t realize they were still doing this today, and targeting Prime users.
Here is the CNN link that shows Amazon themselves ADMITTED to this practice.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/06/24/ramasastry.website.prices/
I always loved Amazon, as many people do, but some of you commenters may be putting a little too much faith in what is ultimately not your friendly neighborhood bookstore, but a large corporation trying to make money, however that needs to be done.
Being a Prime member, I decided to try this. And, sure enough, when I went to the site signed in, it showed me the one shipped by Amazon, and then when signed out, it showed me the one shipped and sold by a 3rd-party seller.
What does this prove? Well, it proves that Amazon tries to get me to buy stuff directly from them by showing it first, which would make sense, and would also save me money, since I get free shipping from Prime and I get charged ridiculous amounts by all the 3rd-party sellers.
Not to mention – HOW IS THIS A SCAM WHEN AMAZON HAS *BOTH* OF THE DIFFERENT PRICES LISTED ON THE SAME PAGE??? Seriously. Look at the screenshotted images. It says “More buying choices”. The left image has the cheaper option from Ace Photo, and the right image has the one from Amazon. How is Amazon trying to scam you when it clearly lists both different prices, which you can choose to buy, from both of the different sellers, ON THE SAME PAGE? Anyone can choose to buy the slightly more expensive one, from Amazon (with free two-day shipping) or buy the slightly cheaper one from the seller (and pay for shipping, and have it take a lot longer than two days). I just tested this by adding both of them to my cart while signed in to my Prime account. Amazon freely allows me to buy either one.
As to the whole “difference in “ships by” is fake”, that has to be the most hilarious thing I have ever read. You know how I know this? I sell with Amazon. So do a number of my friends. You know something else? I order things from sellers all the time. A lot of them are shipped to me from California. It’s not hard to figure out where things are being shipped from. You know which company *doesn’t* have a warehouse in California? Amazon.com.
I’m guessing that you’re not going to read any of the points I just made, so, question then: what did Amazon say when you asked them for your Prime subscription back? I can’t imagine they refunded you.
If you really believe this nonsense, when Amazon is clearly targeting Prime/signed in customers with different prices (as they have admitted that they do!), then explain why, within hours of me complaining to them and receiving a response with a lower price offer on this item:
1. The listing has changed, now the exact same thing shows up to Prime customers when they go to that page.
2. When you do click that list of “12 new from…” you’ll see that there IS NO $263 LISTING that ships from Amazon. It doesn’t exist anymore at all, since moments before the time of day when I received my response from them.
The only one available straight from Amazon now is the old $468 listing that existed before my complaint as well. This is obvious evidence that the previous $263 listing only existed to give Prime users the impression that they were getting a “prime deal”. In reality this was always the same item, would always have shipped from the same location, and the two have now clearly been consolidated to reflect the actual listing.
I’ve been buying from Amazon for 13 years, and have probably bought 1000-2000 products from them during this time. But instead of defending them like a blind fool, I’d rather be realistic and see if I really am getting the deals I think I’m getting.
And Amazon is not the only place that does this. Years of involvement in another very large company taught me that these kinds of things are common practice. You only need to say something is discounted or a good deal, and nobody will question you. (We used such strategies on a regular basis and nobody ever questioned pricing, and sales always went up when people thought they were getting deals when they were actually paying more)
BrightViolet, a smart shopper already knows that Amazon prime-qualifying prices (directly from Amazon) are usually a little more expensive than one of their non-prime-qualifying resellers. This is in no way HIDDEN by Amazon, despite the fact that they would present one over the other depending on your login status. That’s no revelation.
As a shrewd shopper, I will usually go with the higher-priced Prime option for two reasons:
1. Amazon customer service has, in my experience, been far better than dealing with some resellers. It is worth a few more dollars to me to pay for the CS.
2. Final price after shipping is still better through Amazon Prime for some items. Just because your example indicated otherwise doesn’t mean it is conclusive. Small, lightweight items have cheap two-day shipping. That’s common sense.
Your “study” lacks any depth from which to draw such bold, paranoid conclusions. Good luck on your witch hunt. Maybe just research it a bit more before you post your blog next time.
I would just like to share this:
I wasn’t logged into amazon.com
On Chrome for asus G73JH-A1 17-inch the price was quoted as $1629.99
On IE at the exact same time the price for the same product was quoted as:
$1616.99
On firefox it was quoted as:
$1616.99
But exactly two hourse ago when i first visited the page it was quoted at $1589
this is the link. i wonder what price everyone else gets
I have screenshots. but no way to upload them here. if the author is interested I can email them
Hi Vi,
I checked on Chrome, logged in, one minute ago and got $1628.72!
Thank you for your contribution, it’s more proof that Amazon uses dubious pricing schemes. Strangely a number of people still go to absurd lengths to defend Amazon, when a little calculation and common sense show the obvious dubious practices, as a number of press articles have pointed out too!
Thanks!
I’d just like to backup the claims by the author of this blog. This issue is generally NOT limited to “fulfilled by Amazon” versus “fulfilled by third party” price differences (although I didn’t look into the specific case cited above). As Amazon has admitted in the past, they “experiment” with “price customization”. This means that they will, at times, charge different people different prices for the EXACT same item.
Up until now, classical economic theory has rejected “price discrimination” (the academic term for these strategies) as a profitable practice in goods markets for the very reason this thread was generated… customers don’t like it when they find out about it! However, a lot of internet retailers (not just amazon) are gambling that you are (a) unlikely to figure out how this issue affects you, and (b) even if you do find out that you won’t be outraged over their behavior enough to hurt their bottom line. So, they continue experimenting with these pricing strategies to see how much more profit they can squeeze out of each customer. This may or may not bother you since we’re usually talking about relatively small proportions of total product cost, but denying that it happens at all doesn’t really contribute much to the conversation.
Personally, I was annoyed when I realized that this issue has probably cost me tens of dollars over years of internet shopping. However, now that I’m aware of it, it’s not too difficult to protect against future losses. I also continue to shop with Amazon because despite the icky feeling I get from some of their pricing strategies, I find that the overall value of their prices and service are still among the very best.
Brightviolet, can’t your post on May 20, 2010 at 10:05 am be easily explained by someone simply purchasing the $263 item after your rant? Do you think you’re the only person in the world buying Seiko watches online? The stock could have just been depleted overnight, at which point Amazon would obviously revert to the other price.
I don’t doubt that Amazon tries to promote its higher priced stuff wherever possible, but as another person with experience selling with Fulfillment by Amazon, I have to tell you it’s silly and paranoid to flatly assert that all those third-parties are dummy accounts. Give me a break — Amazon is just putting its own stock in the first position because its algorithms determined that you don’t mind spending money.
Maybe it’s not the most ethical thing in the world to promote higher priced stock as the default option for certain users, but what you’re accusing Amazon of doing (setting up fake storefronts and removing lower prices) is simply wrong and probably libelous. Do your research and stop jumping to the most damaging knee-jerk conclusions.
Anyway, yeah, you can just opt out if you’re convinced you’re the target of a conspiracy. This is not Big Brother.
By the way… who the heck pays almost $300 for a watch? More to the point: Why would someone paying almost $300 for a freakin’ watch complain about a $4 difference? Sheesh!
People that fucking care, that’s who.
25th Jan 2011
I noticed a transaction on my Barclays current account via their online banking system stating:
24/01/11 Card Purchase, Amazon Prime, Luxembourg £49.00
I thought this wasn’t right so I checked my Amazon online account where I found no purchases for this amount and also realised that my last purchase with Amazon was on the 1st Dec 2010 and that that purchase was for a family member using their credit card.
So I rang my bank where they explained to me that Amazon Prime was some sort of trial service that many people had been charged for and that Amazon was refunding these people if they had not known they had signed up to the service. My Bank gave me a phone number to call Amazon: 0800496108
I hung up the phone and called the number I was supplied. ‘number not recognised’
So I searched google for Amazon Prime to discover that it was a membership program that allows fast shipping for families. I had some recall of being offered this service so I checked my Amazon online account and found a ‘Manage Prime Membership’ setting which informed me that: ‘You are not currently subscribed to Amazon Prime. Click here to sign up.’
I then rang my bank again and explained to them what I had done and asked if they could read back the phone number that I was given. I had the correct number! I asked to be put through to their fraud department so that I could report what I had learnt.
The fraud department explained to me that other customers had called regarding this problem and that they had a number to contact Amazon with. When I was read the number it was the same number I had already been given! I explained that this number was not in use and was then promptly transferred to an Amazon representative apparently via this same number.
An Amazon representative answered straight away and I explained the situation. He told me that I had signed up to the Amazon Prime subscription and that since I had not used it I would be refunded. I explained that my Amazon online account stated that I had not signed up but he continued to cancel my subscription anyway. There was no visible changed within my Amazon online account after his actions but I did receive an email confirming the cancellation! Two emails actually!
Seem obviously a scam to me, the only question is who’s behind it? Barclays or Amazon?
I have found this to be true but in a much bigger way. Before I joined Prime I bought a printer for $129. I went back yesterday, as a Prime member to buy a second unit and was shown a price of $204. I don’t think computer peripherals are rising 60% a year. I’m very disappointed as I buy EVERYTHING from Amazon, from furniture to books; and their customer service is great. I guess Jeff Bezos’ ethics are not what I thought they were. I have screenshots of the above printers if you want. Thank you.
The watch in question is sold by two different sellers. One is Amazon.com and is eligible for prime (free shipping). The other is Ace Photo Digital and not eligible for prime.
The sellers can (and do) charge different prices for different services, legally and ethically.
As a shopper, it’s up to you to choose lower price or faster service.
This is not considered double pricing against prime members, as you’re suggesting.
Is it legal in US to differentiate the price of your product depending on customer?…
Amazon experiments with the prices they show to people as well. Since they know your purchase history, have recommendations for you, have wishlists and know if you’ve been looking at this item or others that are similar, they can know if you are think…
[...] A product otherwise on sale may be offered to me at full price if the profiler estimates (rightly or wrongly) that I want the product and can afford it. This isn’t exactly new, but it may be becoming more common. Amazon tried something similar, but reversed their policy admit a backlash from the internet community. Although, some reports indicate they may be at it again. [...]
I found this morming they had taken £49 out of my account, I just had them call me, and they are refunding the full ammount. I shall be keeping a careful eye on my account to make sure they do.
Just purchased a printer on amazon this morning and when I first viewed the product, it was listed at $149. After I added it to my cart and signed in with my amazon prime account, I noticed the price had reduced to $129. Just to verify I opened a new tab and went back to the product page and since it still had me logged in, sure enough it still said $129 and had a prime icon next to the price. So yes it seems the pricing for prime members are not always the same as others…but not always in a bad way. I was ecstatic to see this price reduction.
The difference is that Amazon sells the watch for one price and Ace Photo Digital for another price. Sometimes Amazon is the cheapest, sometimes it’s not. In this case as a Prime user they assume that you want to take advantage of 2-day shipping, so they’ll often display that up front. If you’re not logged in (and thus likely not a Prime user) the lowest price is displayed.
I can only see this as fooling people who don’t really pay close attention to the money they spend. I always check the other 3rd party sellers to see if there are better deals when buying stuff on Amazon with my Prime account. That’s all you need to do, people.
Oh, but then again, Ace Photo Digital may be charging shipping anyway, slow one week shipping. So it’s all up to you, consumer. Spend smartly, kids!
Lol, this has to be one of the stupidest articles on wordpress.
Not only is the article totally wrong and biased, even after many commenters point out the obvious mistake of the author, she still narrowmindedly fails to understand.
I know this thread is over a year old but I have a curious story to ad. I went to purchase a Canon camera and while checking out, I decided to sign up for the Amazon prime to get free 2 day shipping. After signing up, I went to review my items and noticed one of them was now listing for $100 cheaper due to a discount from the prime membership. It didn’t ring up properly in the cart so I contacted customer service and they promptly changed it for me.
All good, right? I just saved another $100.
I went to look at the item again 2 days later, because I noticed the 2 day shipping was now showing as being 3 day shipping, and the price was about $5 higher while logged in and showing the prime price. The item in question is sold directly from Amazon, not a business partner.
Don’t know if it’s a price adjustment related to the $1500 worth of equipment I just bought but it was interesting enough for me to lookup Amazon price fixing and come across this blog post. I still saved money either way but did find it curious.
I’ve also noticed that the more you search for an item, the higher the price goes up. Also, if you leave on your shopping cart, the prices go up as well.
Hi brightviolet,
I would like to use the side by side image of your article on a presentation I want to put online.
Are there any conditions from your side about that?
Best regards
No, please feel free to use it!
Totally agree about Amazon Prime rip off. Had £50 taken off my credit card with no authorisation. Told today I was already an Amazon prime customer so didn’t change the delivery setting. Now reading martin Lewis website after placing order realise been duped and can no longer get my money back. £50 delivery on one £42 order feel fleeced by deceitful marketing and thus deceitful Amazon.
You are looking at pricing from two different sellers! one is sold by Ace and one is sold by Amazon. If you look at the first image on the left right there on the right hand side of the page, it says “More buying options” and right there is the cheaper price with free shiping (with the two or three extra day processing time). That cheaper price is from another seller: Ace.
If you look at the image at the second image (non-prime) you will see that it is in fact the same offer listed on the first image under more buying options. The seonc image also has the amazon price for a couple dollars mroe listed under mroe buying options.
THis is NOT a scam, it is a thrid party seller offering the same product at a cheaper price than Amazon.
@pete Several other people have mentioned that here, and they seem to have missed part of the story. It was only possible to find one or the other, depending on which way I was logged in. There was no either/or choice of sellers, and they had IDENTICAL URLs (not a single digit different in the full product URL to indicate two different offers, IDENTICAL). They were clearly the exact same product coming from the same place. Had I ordered them, the point of origination would without a doubt have been the same. And THAT is precisely the scam.
You are simply wrong. Saying you’re not over and over doesn’t make you right. They wouldn’t have shipped from the same place. One would have come from a TRUSTED vendor in Amazon subject to their return policy and the other from a third party vendor using Amazon’s marketplace. Are you really that dense???
Also, there is a section in both your screenshots that says “More buying options” If you look there in either screenshot you will see the other price from Amazon or Ace.
This isn’t rocket science.
Eddie, your loyalty to Amazon is endearing. I too am a big fan of Amazon (minus the price deception). However, if you read some other people’s findings, such as RodNHC below, you will see that pricing is consistently different for Prime customers.
I appreciate how you just shrug off people CORRECTING you as “naive comments” and continue to de deceptive with your “findings” in your screen shots.
Maybe, just maybe, if you had actual evidence of what you are saying happens people would take you seriously. What Amazon “admitted” is not what you are claiming.
Im sure sticking to your guns and not correctly your lie sits well with you but your claims are simply wrong.
Wow, so I wish I would have done some research and come across your blog before I dropped the $79!
I have shopped Amazon for years, but never as a prime member. Similar to one of the bloggers above. Two days ago, I was in the midst of checkout when I was prompted to sign up for Prime — I did.
I had a few tabs open at the same time in IE (as I always do to comparison shop). I signed up for Prime on one and then went back to the other tab to go to my cart — and the price was different. I thought I was seeing things or on the wrong tab, wrong item … something! But no, the damn price just changed.
Now two days later, I have spent numerous hours logged in and using Prime on one computer, and not logged in on another. It’s nutty, nothing is the same.
Prime is a fricken joke. Prices are WAY higher. But this is the MAIN POINT: They have gotten increasingly higher the more I purchased in the past two days. Sounds insane, but it’s true. I made a list of everything I was going to get, and can compare line by line.
How on earth can this be legal?
While buying more camera stuff this week I noticed the price fluctuating again. Batteries were $9.70 for 4AA and after browsing, buying a battery pack, and then coming back the same batteries are $11.15. Just a little weird. We’re talking a difference of < 30 minutes. All I did was reload the page. I had been hovering over the page, closing/opening and researching the item for a while trying to decide on it. I'm sure they'd likely chalk it up to 'supply-demand' if questioned but I'm not convinced.
It just happened to me with the Western Digital My Passport Essential. Amazon upped the price by 9% when i tried to check our with my prime account.
Same thing here, I was gonna buy WD 1.5 hard drive, and instead of paying shipping I decided to join Amazon prime. AND GUESS WHAT !!! My price jumped $10 more right away !!!!! I went back and immediately canceled by Prime membership and W-H-O-A! price dropped $10. RIPOFF. !!!!!!
Conclusion: PRIME MEMBERSHIP =double waste of money
I have shopped at Amazon for years. I am currently a paid Prime member. I know their pricing is fishy. You put something in your cart to buy it at a later time then BAM the price goes up. It rarely goes down. Worst price adjustment? I put a Scangauge 2 car milage computer in my cart at 119.99. The next day when I was about to purchase it I noticed the total was higher than it should be. The price of the Scangauge 2 was 149.99!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I deleted the item off my cart and when I later went back into the website the price was 119.99. Go figure. Because of this, I check the price of their items and wat several days if not a week to buy it at the better prices.
There is another dynamic with Amazon pricing, often the third party vendors change their price to be a little bit lower than Amazon’s price. It appears that Amazon is aware of this and monitors pricing, and sometimes they follow suit and match the lower price (but not always instantly, sometimes hours later). If Amazon does decide to match that price, the third party vendors will often reduce their price again, and another round of price changes occur. I’ve seen this cycle occur repeatedly on Amazon by watching the price of things I have in my cart change during the day. Also, when the third party vendor who has been reducing the price finally sells their item, Amazon will normally hike the price back up to where it started, so you sometimes will see a huge increase in price from day to day due to this kind of thing. As far as the higher prices for Prime members, I’ve not seen this but will keep an eye out for it (I frequently check Amazon with IE and Firefox, with IE signed in and Firefox not, so I’m already set up to look for this).
I noticed some odd price changing going on and thought it might be in response to my clearly doing research on a product. Here’s a link to screen shots of the same product with different prices- for whatever reason: https://plus.google.com/photos/109421618778122666247/albums/5704359917120277041. Sure I get the 2 day shipping with the prime membership, but isn’t that what the $79/year is for.
I took down the album. One thing that I think is going on is that the same link will take me to different sellers at different points in time and sellers have different prices. It seems like you should be able to compare them side by side, but that’s not the case.
I guees that Amazon admiting they do it should be enough but fanboys defy logic
Thank you for the additions, Whitney!
@KL Yeah, the irony is that I’m a huge fan of Amazon.com, and continue to use Prime simply because it makes me less hesitant to go for 2-day shipping haha. I just like having it prepaid so I don’t sit and waste time trying to decide whether to go for 2-day or regular with each purchase.
The reason I care is precisely because I love amazon, have been a fan since their early days (1997 or so), and am so disappointed that they do this.
First, let me state that I HAD been a satisfied Amazon customer for years, prior to my experience that led me to find this blog and decide to comment.
I finally bought the Prime membership during the 2011 holidays. I had experienced the same issues with MINOR price fluctuations between what I was initially quoted vs. the price of the same item (even just minutes later), in the past. When logged into my Prime account, I noticed the price fluctuations seemed to be much larger. I also found that the more I used Amazon to comparison shop, the more the price of an item would fluctuate.
To test what I was perceiving, I used a web proxy (hides origination) with a different web browser (Firefox vs.my usual Chrome), with an empty browsing cache, to completely mask my identity. I then compared (and confirmed) the difference in price of the exact same items, sold by Amazon, at the exact same point in time- looking at the list of prices from ALL sellers, not just the 1st displayed on the product page. I found that the price quoted to me as a Prime member was higher than when I was an anonymous shopper. I have duplicated this test many times. In my experience, the price as a Prime member is usually within a dollar of the price being charged by the next lowest-priced Amazon vendor, AFTER factoring in their shipping charge.
Do I think this is crooked? YES Possibly illegal? Apparently not, but it should be! Do I think Amazon Prime is a good value? Not anymore, and I won’t fall for it again! Will I continue to shop at Amazon? YES- despite their unsavory price-fixing practices, they still offer a competitive price, good customer service, and a great return policy. However, as an educated consumer, I will no longer trust Amazon to give me the best price, and where I find they are trying to really gouge me, I will take my business elsewhere.
Dear RodHNC,
Thank you for your thorough investigation which far exceeds the scope of my own. Your research, and reports from various others here, seems to offer conclusive proof of Amazon’s deceptive pricing policies. I appreciate you sharing your findings with us. I will try to bring this entire thread of comments to Amazon’s attention once more.