OT - beware the Amazon Profit Monster

Re: OT - beware the Amazon Profit Monster

Mike Stafford

I became aware of this a while back when I was doing some comparative shopping and saw the same thing.

I am an Amazon Prime member and once I look at something on Amazon and don't buy I will get e-mails offering me that item at various prices. I have seen the price of an item go up 5% from one e-mail to another. But I have noticed that if I ignore them long enough they will finally make me an offer I cannot refuse.

I was looking for a Foredom 1/3 HP kit and it was initially $399 and I didn't buy it. A week or so later I received an e-mail offering it at $379, an offer I could not refuse.

Most of the time the lesser priced items are not discounted much if any.

Harbour Freight will have the same item

john lucas

at 3 different prices in their paper catalog. If your not careful you will buy the wrong one.

Re: OT - beware the Amazon Profit Monster

John K Jordan

>>>I am an Amazon Prime member and once I look at something on Amazon

>>>and don't buy I will get e-mails offering me that item at various prices.

We have the Amazon Prime. I have never gotten an email about any product. Maybe I "opted out" of that feature.

JKJ

Re: OT - beware the Amazon Profit Monster

Doug Ladendorf

Somehow I missed this. Thanks for the heads up.

Doug

Re: OT - beware the Amazon Profit Monster

Michael Schneider

John,

I use camelcamelcamel.com to track price history of what I am interested in. It shows trends over the year.

If I am not in a hurry, I just wait until the item traditionally goes on sale.

To use it, Just go to the web page in one tab of your browser. In a different tab (or different browser) to amazon page that has the item that you are interested in, copy the URL for the amazon page into camel camel camel dot com. and look at the price history.

Good luck and hope it saves you some $$$

Michael

Re: OT - beware the Amazon Profit Monster

Rum

If I'm buying a non trivial item on amazon I always check the historic price on

http://camelcamelcamel.com/

A lot of stuff they'll change the price based on all sorts of triggers including general demand so its not uncommon if an item pops up on some of the forums for there to be a temporary price jump.

Re: OT - beware the Amazon Profit Monster

Alan Dick

A useful feature of camelcamelcamel is that if you are interested in a product, you can have the site email you when the price drops, so you do not have to keep checking.

Re: OT - beware the Amazon Profit Monster

John K Jordan

>>>I use camelcamelcamel.com to track price history of...

I never heard of this. Thanks, I'll try it!

JKJ

Re: OT - beware the Amazon Profit Monster

Mike Stafford

What is really irritating is that I will continue to get e-mail notifications about deals on a product after I have bought one of the items I was looking at.

Have yet to see one with a lower price than the price I bought at.

Re: OT - beware the Amazon Profit Monster

Hal Taylor

Camelcamelcamel looks suspiciously like an Amazon product. Am I wrong?

Re: OT - beware the Amazon Profit Monster

ebd

One trick (against the monster) is to put the item in your cart and then leave it there and wait. Often I will get an email saying I have an item in my cart but haven't purchased. Do I want it for a lower price. THis doesn't work with wish lists. You have to put it in your cart, start to check out, then close the window/tab.

Re: OT - beware the Amazon Profit Monster

John K Jordan

>>>One trick (against the monster) is to put the item in your cart and then leave

>>>it there and wait. Often I will get an email saying I have an item in my cart but haven't purchased.

I'll have to try that if I can figure out how to turn email notifications on. I've never received an email from Amazon except for purchase and shipping notifications.

JKJ

Re: OT - beware the Amazon Profit Monster

Dave Paine

Try this - at the Amazon site page, sign in to your Account, then click on the "Your Account" menu, then the "Your Account" in the list, then scroll down to the Message Center section.

In this section is "E-mail Preferences & Notifications"

thanks, Michael, for the heads up on this

GaryG in MD

I intend to give it a try. ...GG

I have become very unhappy with Amazon

GaryG in MD

in general.

I have been an active and long-time buyer from them, and now I've taken to looking to buying things elsewhere -- anywhere elsewhere -- first, even if I have to pay some shipping.

In the last six months, I have found many incidences of products that I can buy elsewhere, from large, reputable sellers, for quite literally 1/3 the cost. Amazon is unconscionably jacking up their prices because they think they've got us broken, trained, and corralled. Well, I for one, am out of their loop now. They have become my last choice for merchandise other than books and music.

...GG

Comparative shopping

Mike Stafford

Never buy anything without comparative shopping. I have found many items through Walmart online that were cheaper and still had free shipping and no membership.

I bought two chucks from Walmart that were priced lower than any other vendor I could find. When I went to buy another one the price was higher and has stayed higher but it is still better than most places.

Re: Comparative shopping

John K Jordan

I couldn't believe some things Walmart sells on line. While rebuilding an old milling machine I found Walmart had the best prices on the large spindle bearings I wanted. Who'd a thunk it?

JKJ

Re: I have become very unhappy with Amazon

Roger Chandler

I just sent Amazon.com a scathing email regarding this practice. I have prime membership, and at times they are the go to because of free shipping.

I told them that last week I had looked at a Delta canister filter replacement for my dust collector. I ended up purchasing one from another company that will fit it, and was way cheaper, and had a spun bond filter media, for way less, but I almost pulled the trigger on the Delta filter, as I had gotten the same one from them back in 2012.

What made me hesitate was that on the 2nd & 3rd looks, the price went up about $20. They lost a sale of over $275 because of this, and that is not the only time this has happened. I told them if they value me as a customer, that I expect better, and want a reply to my concerns......we shall see what they say! If they tell me it is an algorithm that does this, I will tell them to dump the algorithm!

Re: I have become very unhappy with Amazon

John K Jordan

I suspect they make untold millions of $$ from these algorithms, nearly all from people who don't pay attention.

Sounds like a case for a social media campaign. They might ignore you and me but 10s of thousands of complaints?

JKJ

Re: I have become very unhappy with Amazon

Tom Gall

A few months ago I searched online for a replacement battery for my Airmate system. After looking at 7 or 8 vendors with prices from $112 to $219 (I think there was one for around $265 as well but I didn't jot that one down) for the same item, Amazon came in at $124. I didn't buy it right away, but continued to see their pop-up ads every time I checked the weather! About a week later I was going to bite the bullet and order from Amazon because of their free shipping…..the cost was now about $30 higher!

I continued my search and found the replacement (under Medical supplies) from Interstate Batteries at $99.99. They were also having a 10% discount and free shipping sale…..so I got it for $89.99 and received it in 2 days!!!

I have also ordered 3M Sanding Sponges (?) from Amazon several times and there is always a $10-15 difference for the same product at different times.

Blame the algorithm

Geoff Whaling

"Its the algorithm" seems to be the new excuse. Here (Australia) that sort of market behaviour falls into "market power" "predatory pricing" "unconscionable conduct" and "market manipulation."

If enough consumers make substiantiated complaints to bodies like our ACCC then perhaps we may even see a government enquiry into these practices of price manipulation. Somehow I think the outcome will be similar to those held into the cartel like behaviour of multi-national oil companies, fuel pricing and only lead to consumer acceptance of the "pricing cycle."

I sent an email to Amazon

John K Jordan

I sent an email about this to Amazon. The customer service rep replied today that he/she will pass my concerns on to the proper people. They are sorry and want to refund any increase I may have paid.

In the future I will make a screen snapshot of any item I am thinking of buying and use it if the price changes.

I guess I can't complain too much. I was shopping for a quality dial test indicator when I found one I liked at nearly $200. Suddenly I noticed the price dropped to $47 so I bought it immediately. A few minutes later it was back to the previous price. I almost felt I was taking advantage of them but I didn't feel bad enough to not buy it.

I wonder if the camel would have been quick enough to catch that window. Looking at the price history for the Tormek T-7 I see that a few years ago it dropped to $58 for a very short time. Today it is over $700.

JKJ

Re: I have become very unhappy with Amazon

Tom Albrecht

Very Interesting-- can you cite some examples of those items that you have found for "literally one third less" than Amazon?

Re: I have become very unhappy with Amazon

Michael Schneider

One thing to remember about amazon is that it more like a mall that a store.

When you buy an item look at 2 things:

1) company that is selling item

2) company that is fulfilling the item

If both are amazon, then you are buying from amazon, and it is shipping from amazon warehouse.

If other company is selling item but the item is fulfilled by amazon then another company is selling the item, but it is shipping from an amazon warehouse.

If another company is both selling and fulfilling item then amazon collects them money, but the other company ships it to you.

The very high prices on items I have seen were mostly items sold by other companies. Algorithms are usually only used to drive prices sold by amazon.

Unless I know the company, I rarely buy items not fulfilled by amazon.

Hope this is help,

Mike

PS. You can get this info when you click on the link that says "other sellers on amazon"