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Amazon blocks non-Prime members from buying certain video games

videogamer.com

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Re: Amazon blocks non-Prime members from buying certain video games

#51

Post by hullo »

inoop wrote: post #48
jerf wrote: post #4

I don't get it. As an incentive to sign up for Prime it makes no sense; Prime needs to offer me things I can't get elsewhere (or at least not for the same price), not return to me things that I can easily get elsewhere. I just spot-checked Amazon US's price for GTA 5, 39.88 [1], and it's the exact same price at Wal-Mart [2], so it's not an exclusive deal or something. (Nor did I spend several minutes hunting for a co…

Calm down. Probably some engineer made a mistake that caused a bunch of items to be incorrectly labeled as prime-only. A bunch of vidya nerds couldn't buy they favorite shooter anymore, made a post about it, and Amazon rolled back. As others have pointed out in this thread, this makes no sense as a deliberate move.

Completely deliberate. As others pointed out, they've already been doing it, on less popular products that caused no backlash. It's there in the article up top, pre roll-back:

UPDATE: Amazon has provided VideoGamer.com with the following statement in response to this story:

"One of the many benefits of Amazon Prime is access to exclusive selection on a number of great products. Customers who are not Prime members can sign-up for a 30-day free trial of Amazon Prime, or they can purchase those items from a Marketplace seller."

Re: Amazon blocks non-Prime members from buying certain video games

#53

Post by throwanem »

scintill76 wrote: post #50
throwanem wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've heard a few people express concerns around whether they actually own Steam games, and whether those games might suddenly be pulled or otherwise made unavailable without the courtesy of a purchase price refund. I'm not entirely unsympathetic, but on the other hand, to the best of my knowledge that's never actually happened, so...

Maybe not Steam or games, but Amazon has remotely pulled back digital books they sold to their customers (with refund though): http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/technology/companies/18ama...

I know. That's Amazon, though, not Steam.

Re: Amazon blocks non-Prime members from buying certain video games

#54

Post by 6581 »

Filligree wrote: post #44
snegu wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Highly unlikely that they're going to implement this in countries that don't have Prime.

There is no Amazon site for Ireland. I can buy things from any of their sites. However... - Amazon.co.uk refuses to ship a number of items outside of Great Britain. - Amazon.com has expensive shipping (obviously), and now this thing. - Amazon.de doesn't usually help. Besides, I can't read German. Looking at the Grand Theft Auto example, it's available from Amazon.com but not Amazon.co.uk; the latter, as mentioned, re…

> Amazon.de doesn't usually help. Besides, I can't read German.

The German Amazon site is available in English too. http://www.amazon.de/gp/switch-language/homepage.html/ref=cs...

Re: Amazon blocks non-Prime members from buying certain video games

#55

Post by aluhut »

oldmanjay wrote: post #41
aluhut wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess they try to hit people like me. I have only one online shopping account connected to my real name. It's on Amazon. Back then I got it to buy books in english. It worked pretty well for some time with other products too. However. Seeing this, I would rather pirate the game then allow them to force me into Prime. Thanks to the messed up DHL delivery guys here I already started to discover shops in my area again…

This has the be the weakest justification I have ever seen for piracy and believe me, I've seen a few.

It wasn't supposed to be one. I assumed the sentence following this would outline my usual way to acquire products besides amazon.

I wanted to show that even if I had no choice, I wouldn't buy into this.

Re: Amazon blocks non-Prime members from buying certain video games

#56

Post by rudolf0 »

mikeash wrote: post #15

Amazon put a lot of effort over the years into establishing themselves as the best place to buy nearly everything online. Now they seem bound and determined to throw that title away. Between rising prices, add-on items, confusing marketplace sellers, a refusal to sell certain products that compete with Amazon branded products, and now this ridiculous Prime tie-in, I find it more and more difficult to find a reason to…

Trying to shove "subscribe & save" in my face 3-4 times during the process of choosing and purchasing a product is annoying, too.

Yes, I get it, you make more money in the long term when people subscribe.

I wish there was a global opt-out for it.

Re: Amazon blocks non-Prime members from buying certain video games

#57

Post by longwave »

dingaling wrote: post #33
CM30 wrote: post #23

Wait, what? This is ridiculous. Amazon is a shop first and foremost, and this is exactly the sort of thing that I'll drive me to other alternatives. It's especially silly for games, where the console manufacturers offer their own stores (both for digital and physical copies of the games). Heck, if you're buying them digital, it's about as little friction as using Amazon, since they have your payment details from othe…

It's not just games: I tried to buy a Panasonic bread machine on Amazon UK back in January but it was a 'Prime Exclusive'. I bought it instead from Argos nearby for the same price. A few days later it was no longer 'exclusive'. Presumably just more Amazon psychological experimentation. Edit: model is SD-2500

Similarly, Pampers nappies have only been available to Prime customers for some months now.

Re: Amazon blocks non-Prime members from buying certain video games

#58

Post by gdulli »

mikeash wrote: post #15

Amazon put a lot of effort over the years into establishing themselves as the best place to buy nearly everything online. Now they seem bound and determined to throw that title away. Between rising prices, add-on items, confusing marketplace sellers, a refusal to sell certain products that compete with Amazon branded products, and now this ridiculous Prime tie-in, I find it more and more difficult to find a reason to…

When you factor in the well-documented pattern of how badly they treat their employees (both warehouse and corporate) it gets even harder to justify.

Re: Amazon blocks non-Prime members from buying certain video games

#59

Post by mindslight »

paulmd wrote: post #49
mindslight wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazon is the only place I have seen blatant user-targeted dark patterns. "Order within the next hour to ship today". Four hours later: "order within the next 2 hours to ship today". Never mind the lowest-bid delivery acting like this is the first package they've ever handled (a phone call, really?), or email spam from checking a price. I believe a short time after a company acquires a reputation, customers develop a…

I think their shipping windows are often just messed up. I've had the opposite situation too, where it says that an item must be ordered within the next 2 hours and then when I get to checkout the window is already passed for the day. I'm wondering whether the ship timer on the item page isn't quite accurate, and the one on the checkout goes through and does a warehouse-by-warehouse check to see where the nearest war…

The delivery was on the west coast, so it's not like they could ship further for a better timezone. Furthermore I think the times were more spread out than I said - something like 3 hours later, the new shipping cutoff was 6 hours away. They also hiked the prices mid-session, and clearing state restored the previous ones.

When an organization grows large, the distinction between deliberate malice and beneficial incompetence becomes less meaningful. Inferring an organizations broader culture can be informative, but the net incentives are the same.

It definitely did not feel like a data consistency issue. And the "dynamic pricing" is obviously malicious, but it's the sort of machine-vs-human maliciousness we've been groomed to accept as "the free market".

I don't have a particular grudge, and buy from them if they're the lowest bidder. I just don't understand what appears to be single-minded affinity for them.

Re: Amazon blocks non-Prime members from buying certain video games

#60

Post by post_break »

morganvachon wrote: post #42
gtk40 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Granted I don't buy video games with Prime, but my orders with free shipping due to price threshold tend to be significantly slower than Prime, often taking weeks for items of all Prime eligible items. I live in one of the 10 largest metropolitan areas in the U.S.

> ...my orders with free shipping due to price threshold tend to be significantly slower than Prime, often taking weeks for items of all Prime eligible items. I've had the opposite experience (and posted about it here before). Since I joined Prime last year, I've had issues with the guaranteed 2 day shipping taking 3-4 days or sometimes a week. I don't live in the backwoods either; I'm well within the Atlanta metro a…

I've had the opposite. Shipments supposed to be delivered on monday delivered on saturday or sunday. And promptly lost because I ship to a business address that is closed on the weekend. Infuriating watching it state delivered on a sunday at 3pm when I know it's going to be lost.
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