Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How Amazon Tricks You into Thinking It Always Has the Lowest Prices

recode.net

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 104 posts

Re: How Amazon Tricks You into Thinking It Always Has the Lowest Prices

#21

Post by ecaron »

DiabloD3 wrote: post #13
ecaron wrote: post #5

When I started working on https://trackif.com , I thought the premise was thin because prices couldn't fluctuate that much. I assumed everything gradually declined in price, and that it'd primarily be driven by store-A vs store-B price dropping. Nope. Retailers are just gaming us 24/7. I've become very aware of all the different timeframes retailers offer post-purchase price-matches (published at http://blog.trackif.…

Why would I trackif instead of camelcamelcamel? I'm seriously interested. Also, when are you going to add an Android app that does barcode scanning?

You're welcome to email me at eric@trackif.com and I'd love to chat about it, but I'm not going to hijack this thread with my marketing schpeels ;-)

Re: How Amazon Tricks You into Thinking It Always Has the Lowest Prices

#22

Post by ZenoArrow »

peteretep wrote: post #14

I am willing to pay a significant premium to Amazin for the no-bullshit customer support. If my transaction doesn't delight me, I know they will make good on it.

I have a similar mindset. I don't know anyone who thinks Amazon has the best prices, I'm happy to pay a little extra for the convenience and quality of service.

Case in point, I bought a new router from Amazon last week. When I got it I realised I'd made a mistake (I'd chosen one without an ADSL modem). I fill in a simple online form to get the return label, return it via Collect+ (it's a service in the UK for collecting parcels from local stores) and Amazon process my refund whilst the item was in transit (before the item got back to their warehouses). This is typical of their customer service, it's really second to none (in my experience).

Re: How Amazon Tricks You into Thinking It Always Has the Lowest Prices

#23

Post by wingerlang »

DiabloD3 wrote: post #11

I dont get why they use HDMI cables as their first example: we keep buying HDMI cables because they get busted, not because we need more. AmazonBasics is currently the best cheap cable (replacing Monoprice's now that they aren't nearly as good as they used to be). Also, why does the article call them HD cables. Whats an HD cable? None of my ports say HD, they say HDMI. And it doesn't even get into how Prime games S&H…

Is it possible that there are different types of cables that offers HD transfer to the TV? I've never really heard "HD" cable either, but in the article I read it as HDMI, had to go back to check if it actually said HD.

Re: How Amazon Tricks You into Thinking It Always Has the Lowest Prices

#25

Post by sparkman55 »

GabrielF00 wrote: post #12

They mention HDMI cables specifically. I just went into a Best Buy and asked for their cheapest HDMI cable. The salesman showed me one for $15. The Amazon basics cable is $5.49. If you've got Prime and you factor in the shipping costs of using another website, it's hard to beat Amazon's price.

For cables, Monoprice is also a good alternative (and, generally, price-competitive with Amazon).

Another commenter mentioned that Monoprice's HDMI quality has declined; I haven't noticed any problem with their Ethernet and USB cables.

For HDMI, Monoprice goes all the way down to $2: http://www.monoprice.com/Search/Index?keyword=hdmi

Best Buy preys on the 'I need this cable in 30 minutes for the big presentation' customer, and prices accordingly. Try buying coaxial cable - it's obscene!

Re: How Amazon Tricks You into Thinking It Always Has the Lowest Prices

#26

Post by DanBC »

ZenoArrow wrote: post #22
peteretep wrote: post #14

I am willing to pay a significant premium to Amazin for the no-bullshit customer support. If my transaction doesn't delight me, I know they will make good on it.

I have a similar mindset. I don't know anyone who thinks Amazon has the best prices, I'm happy to pay a little extra for the convenience and quality of service. Case in point, I bought a new router from Amazon last week. When I got it I realised I'd made a mistake (I'd chosen one without an ADSL modem). I fill in a simple online form to get the return label, return it via Collect+ (it's a service in the UK for collec…

Have you tried similar returns with other products? Your description just sounds (to me) like Amazon are compliant with English distance selling law, and not that they were particularly good.

Re: How Amazon Tricks You into Thinking It Always Has the Lowest Prices

#27

Post by branchless »

GabrielF00 wrote: post #12

They mention HDMI cables specifically. I just went into a Best Buy and asked for their cheapest HDMI cable. The salesman showed me one for $15. The Amazon basics cable is $5.49. If you've got Prime and you factor in the shipping costs of using another website, it's hard to beat Amazon's price.

HDMI cables are IMHO the worst example. These are add-on to core purchases and when they break or are required you just want to get one. Physical stores like BestBuy know this and price accordingly. This just makes me dislike these stores even more!

Re: How Amazon Tricks You into Thinking It Always Has the Lowest Prices

#28

Post by nkurz »

ecaron wrote: post #21
DiabloD3 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would I trackif instead of camelcamelcamel? I'm seriously interested. Also, when are you going to add an Android app that does barcode scanning?

You're welcome to email me at eric@trackif.com and I'd love to chat about it, but I'm not going to hijack this thread with my marketing schpeels ;-)

I have the same question as DiabloD3, and I presume others do as well. Your desire not to hijack is honorable, but private email doesn't scale that well. I fear I'd be wasting your time to engage you directly. Perhaps you could write a short blog post and post it to HN for discussion? Or a Show HN? Or you could just answer here, toning done the marketing as much as possible.

Re: How Amazon Tricks You into Thinking It Always Has the Lowest Prices

#30

Post by DiabloD3 »

wingerlang wrote: post #23
DiabloD3 wrote: post #11

I dont get why they use HDMI cables as their first example: we keep buying HDMI cables because they get busted, not because we need more. AmazonBasics is currently the best cheap cable (replacing Monoprice's now that they aren't nearly as good as they used to be). Also, why does the article call them HD cables. Whats an HD cable? None of my ports say HD, they say HDMI. And it doesn't even get into how Prime games S&H…

Is it possible that there are different types of cables that offers HD transfer to the TV? I've never really heard "HD" cable either, but in the article I read it as HDMI, had to go back to check if it actually said HD.

You can do 1080i over YCbCr analog, but no one has done this for like a decade, and it only made sense for pre-HDMI HD sets (which made as little sense to manufacture as pre-Rec2020 4k TVs being made now).
Post reply on HN