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Amazon Accused of Cheating Customers Through Shipping Costs

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Re: Amazon Accused of Cheating Customers Through Shipping Costs

#21

Post by surye »

palebluedot wrote: post #17
achille wrote: post #8

I caught amazon pulling this a while back and it was disappointing. Screenshots: http://imgur.com/a/fiPnD Notice it's the same exact item# Not logged in : $19.23 + 6.99 shipping When Logged in: $27.85 + free shipping

However, you should also note that the cheaper item is sold by an affiliate, and not by Amazon itself. When you are logged into your prime account, it defaults to showing prime-eligible items by default. Your screenshot does not show Amazon adjusting their prices based on whether you are logged in or not.

Both are being sold by the third party PUR

Re: Amazon Accused of Cheating Customers Through Shipping Costs

#22

Post by MBCook »

surye wrote: post #21
palebluedot wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

However, you should also note that the cheaper item is sold by an affiliate, and not by Amazon itself. When you are logged into your prime account, it defaults to showing prime-eligible items by default. Your screenshot does not show Amazon adjusting their prices based on whether you are logged in or not.

Both are being sold by the third party PUR

No, the item is made by PUR.

In the first screenshot, it's being sold by Infutech, Inc. In the second it's being sold by Amazon themselves.

Re: Amazon Accused of Cheating Customers Through Shipping Costs

#23

Post by Spooky23 »

solson wrote: post #20
GrantS wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think anyone doubts that the shipping costs money to someone, but the assumption many people might have is that Amazon themselves would be the ones paying the shipping costs to your wife behind the scenes because the customer already paid Amazon in advance when they paid for a Prime membership. It is news to me that this is not the way things work.

eBay is doing the same thing. They are pushing sellers to offer free shipping which simply means don't line item your shipping costs. The sellers still need to pay for shipping. Amazon still needs to pay for shipping too. It is built into their model. I mean really people, I hate to sound condescending, but... when you do a "buy one get one free" do you really think you got something for free? Maybe one day we'll all…

eBay and Amazon is different. Pushing shipping fees into the item cost is a profit driver for them. When you pay shipping explicitly, those costs usually aren't driving profits.

Remember the classic EBay scam back in the old days? You'd sell some widget for $5, with $25 shipping. Commissions were calculated on the item cost and excluded shipping.

Also, Amazon is making rule/practice changes that are eroding the benefit of Prime. In 2010, they would send products to me that weren't in east cost warehouses via 2nd Day air. These days, they usually just deliver it late.

Re: Amazon Accused of Cheating Customers Through Shipping Costs

#24

Post by joncalhoun »

I realize this is the media playing out this story as well as possible, but this article focuses entirely on "free shipping" and never bothers to mention the fact that prime is "free 2-day shipping." The distinction is pretty major.

eg - The example used in the article is $10 + $3.99 shipping, vs $13.99 on prime. What they fail to mention is that $10 + $3.99 for 5-8 day shipping is not equivalent to $13.99 for 2 day shipping.

I'm not saying I love it, but I never once believed I was paying upfront for free shipping when I bought prime. I was paying for an upgrade to 2-day shipping. The 2-day upgrade may not seem like much now, because items ordered on Amazon often still show up in 2-3 days without it, but that was not the case a few years ago when items normally took 5+ days to show up on my doorstep.

Re: Amazon Accused of Cheating Customers Through Shipping Costs

#25

Post by solson »

solson wrote: post #20
GrantS wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think anyone doubts that the shipping costs money to someone, but the assumption many people might have is that Amazon themselves would be the ones paying the shipping costs to your wife behind the scenes because the customer already paid Amazon in advance when they paid for a Prime membership. It is news to me that this is not the way things work.

eBay is doing the same thing. They are pushing sellers to offer free shipping which simply means don't line item your shipping costs. The sellers still need to pay for shipping. Amazon still needs to pay for shipping too. It is built into their model. I mean really people, I hate to sound condescending, but... when you do a "buy one get one free" do you really think you got something for free? Maybe one day we'll all…

One other thing most people don't know about this: Free shipping actually costs the buyer more than actual shipping costs. The seller has to guesstimate what actual shipping costs are and add that to the margin. Most estimates will be higher than actual costs since estimating under costs will put you out of business fairly quickly. If they aren't over actual costs initially they will be adjusted to higher than actual costs over time.

Re: Amazon Accused of Cheating Customers Through Shipping Costs

#26

Post by jcater »

solson wrote: post #20
GrantS wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think anyone doubts that the shipping costs money to someone, but the assumption many people might have is that Amazon themselves would be the ones paying the shipping costs to your wife behind the scenes because the customer already paid Amazon in advance when they paid for a Prime membership. It is news to me that this is not the way things work.

eBay is doing the same thing. They are pushing sellers to offer free shipping which simply means don't line item your shipping costs. The sellers still need to pay for shipping. Amazon still needs to pay for shipping too. It is built into their model. I mean really people, I hate to sound condescending, but... when you do a "buy one get one free" do you really think you got something for free? Maybe one day we'll all…

> I mean really people, I hate to sound condescending, but... when you do a "buy one get one free" do you really think you got something for free?

To reiterate the parent comment: No, but we are paying a non-trivial fee for Prime membership every year. Is it unreasonable to have thought that part of that fee would go to offsetting shipping fees to the original seller?

I found your post informative in that, no, in fact it does not. That was definitely news to me. But no need to be condescending about it.

Re: Amazon Accused of Cheating Customers Through Shipping Costs

#27

Post by epaladin »

alphakappa wrote: post #5

Anecdotal, but lately, I've noticed that items I purchase do not ship immediately from Amazon, so while the shipping time itself may be 2 days, I get the product several days later which kinda defeats the purpose of Prime. Not to mention that several of the items that I purchase are 'add-on' items, which means that I need to accumulate $25 worth of items to ship them (which is pretty much what every non-prime member…

Also anecdotal, but I've noticed that when I pay for shipping, the time it takes for items to leave the warehouse appears to be less compared to selecting "free" super saver for order totals > $X.

Re: Amazon Accused of Cheating Customers Through Shipping Costs

#28

Post by rossjudson »

solson wrote: post #16

I think the obvious answer is that this isn't FREE shipping. Nothing is FREE. "Free" shipping is nothing but marketing speak, and if this is illegal so is "Buy one get one Free" or "Buy one get one half price" since the discount is built into the business model. My wife is an Amazon seller and yes when she ships prime she must pay for shipping which would force her to lose money on each shipment so she builds the cos…

Of course nothing is free. That is why prime members are paying $79 a year for the upgrade from free supersaver to free 2 day shipping.

The real issue here is that amazon is accepting the $79 fee, but not passing any of it to their third party retailers, whose offers are still labelled as "prime" (when they are not).

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