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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

#31

Post by jrs235 »

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…

BTW, they upped the $25 minimum to $35 minimum (for free super saver shipping, still standard 3-5 day shipping mind you).

Re: Amazon Accused of Cheating Customers Through Shipping Costs

#32

Post by zippergz »

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.

And as a Prime member, that's what I want. In fact, I will often pay more for a Prime-eligible item than I could get a non-Prime item, because I know it will arrive quickly, packed well, etc. When I buy items from third party sellers they can take a week or more to arrive. Unless the price difference is huge, it's not worth it to me.

In other words, this is EXACTLY the behavior I want as a customer.

Re: Amazon Accused of Cheating Customers Through Shipping Costs

#33

Post by res0nat0r »

bluntly_said wrote: post #12
darrenkopp wrote: post #4

Ugh, I hate lawsuits. Amazon often clearly states under the price "Note: This item may be available at a lower price from other sellers that are not eligible for Amazon Prime."

They do that NOW. They did not for a long time. At one point it was bad enough that I could look at an item as a prime user, and see the lowest listed price. Then open the same product page in an incognito browser, and the lowest listed price has changed, to one approximately lower by the price of shipping. Further, the new notice (and it really is new, it came sometime in the last 4 months) does not in any way absol…

Unless I'm crazy this lawsuit seems pretty idiotic.

> “The bottom line is the free shipping that Amazon offered to its Prime members wasn’t free,” said Kim Stephens, attorney for one of the plaintiffs, adding that he was “shocked” by Amazon’s alleged pricing practices.

No kidding it isn't free, it costs $79/year (now $99).

> "For example, if the price of an item is advertised for $10 with $3.99 shipping and the [vendor] wishes to match or top their price, the [vendor] would charge $13.99 or higher," Burke alleges in the suit.

Exactly.

If you are selling something for $5 as a non Prime seller, and Amazon charges $3.99 for you to ship it (which they reimburse you for BTW), then why would I as a Prime seller not list my product for $8.99 due to the fact that I will be maximizing my profit, and have the benefit of having my merch sent to the customer in 2 days? I could just list it for $5 to be sure I can sell the item by undercutting, but I'd like to barely undercut the current highest price.

Also I see others complaining about shipping, it seems you all must live in the worst cities for mail carriers. I've had Prime for the last 3 years, and have been ordering from Amazon since 1999. This year I have 31 orders placed, 2013 I placed 86 orders, 39 orders in 2012. I can only remember one item in all this time which missed a delivery date (by a day).

Re: Amazon Accused of Cheating Customers Through Shipping Costs

#34

Post by munger »

Spooky23 wrote: post #23
solson wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 benef…

Yeah, this. The other thing the $.99 item with $5.99 shipping does is allow refund scams - you would of course be able to return this item, but only if you paid return shipping costs and then you only get refunded the $.99 item price meaning you would generally lose money on a refund.

Building shipping into the cost like Prime however, might do the reverse and expose a seller to over-refund issues where they would lose more on a refund if it must include the total item price without shipping. (When shipping is "free" and built in to the item price.)

Re: Amazon Accused of Cheating Customers Through Shipping Costs

#35

Post by fjania »

admiraltbags wrote: post #3

This is interesting. I'd like to hear what HN's take is on this. I noticed that about 30% of the time products take 3 days, not the advertised 2 to get to me. I live in SF so they really have no excuse. Didn't bother me to much but never the less annoying when paying for the feature. Another slightly off-topic gripe about prime I haven't seen much flak regarding is shipping things like a roll of duck tape in a 12x16"…

I live in NYC and recently noticed 2 day prime deliveries are becoming more unreliable. I've had two shipments in the last 2 months take 3 days. It seems they're switching to using USPS in place of UPS for many shipments, and those are the ones I'm seeing problems with.

These USPS shipments often show tracking information that refer to handing the package off to a "shipping partner". They don't say who they're using, and then things go dark on the tracking information until it gets to a post office.

Re: Amazon Accused of Cheating Customers Through Shipping Costs

#36

Post by jrs235 »

epaladin wrote: post #27
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.

Yes, your order is assigned lower priority when using free super saver shipping.

Re: Amazon Accused of Cheating Customers Through Shipping Costs

#37

Post by _ea1k »

josephlord wrote: post #11
darrenkopp wrote: post #4

Ugh, I hate lawsuits. Amazon often clearly states under the price "Note: This item may be available at a lower price from other sellers that are not eligible for Amazon Prime."

No this is about it being available from the same seller for a lower price not on Amazon Prime. This means that Amazon Prime is getting you no benefit on this purchase. Amazon are saying it gives you free shipping and charging you money for the that service therefore IF true Amazon is defrauding customers.

So are you saying that there are cases where you have a choice like this?

1. Buy the item from Vendor X for $19.99 with Prime "free" shipping (fulfilled by Amazon) 2. Buy the item from Vendor X for $14.99 with $4.99 shipping (not fulfilled by Amazon)

If so, then I would still choose the Prime option. Items that are fulfilled by Amazon fall under Amazon's support and return policies, which are excellent. Third-party sellers not selling under those terms tend to have much less favorable customer protections.

Obviously those protections (and the integrated shipping) come at a cost, but my point is that there is more to it than just "free" vs. non-free shipping.

Re: Amazon Accused of Cheating Customers Through Shipping Costs

#39

Post by greggarious »

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…

I think the assumption by most customers would be that the cost of Amazon prime offsets these costs, ensuring these price rises do not occur.

Re: Amazon Accused of Cheating Customers Through Shipping Costs

#40

Post by jrs235 »

josephlord wrote: post #11
darrenkopp wrote: post #4

Ugh, I hate lawsuits. Amazon often clearly states under the price "Note: This item may be available at a lower price from other sellers that are not eligible for Amazon Prime."

No this is about it being available from the same seller for a lower price not on Amazon Prime. This means that Amazon Prime is getting you no benefit on this purchase. Amazon are saying it gives you free shipping and charging you money for the that service therefore IF true Amazon is defrauding customers.

Amazon is offering 2 day shipping at no additional cost. You can purchase an item for cheaper through a third party, who will probably charge you for shipping which more than likely will bring the total in line with what you would pay if purchasing using Prime through Amazon. Except, they'll probably ship it standard 3-5 business day (possibly taking 7-14 days to arrive) where Amazon is going to ship it 2 day DELIVERY. (Yes, I realize it doesn't always arrive in 2 days. Blame the weather or carriers. I can't remember a prime order that wasn't picked and shipped the same or next business day).
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