changing prices on amazon while placing an order

[tempest@de]

I’ve noticed several times when buying at amazon (spain and UK) that the price of some products change after they are added to the shopping cart and before the order is placed, this happens with products sold or fulfilled by amazon.

Last month I bought a new kindle, and the price shown on the page was 89,99 €, however when I went to complete the purchase it was 91,48 €, today I was doing some shopping, 4 products, 2 sold by amazon and 2 from other vendors, and the ones form amazon again have different prices in the confirmation page than the ones shown on the description page.

I first noticed this happening last year, and since then it happened 4 or 5 times, so I wonder if someone else noticed this.

The first time, I thought it was a bug and reported it before making the purchase, someone from amazon support called me, and after more than 40 minutes on the phone she couldn’t explain why the product changes price, she went from taxes, to shipping costs, to customs charges, so she proposed I buy the item and later they would credit me with the difference, and so I did. It was a rather international affair, here I was in Portugal buying at amazon spain and being contacted by a south american person calling from Ireland.

I found specially interesting that when contacted they offer to give a credit or apply a promotional discount as a good will gesture, has if they are doing me a great favor, I’m not asking for any special consideration, I simply want to pay the price that amazon says in the product description page, not another price that they define without explaining how.

So anyone has noticed this?

[issybird]

I've had what I suspect is a manifestation of the same thing happen to me. Essentially, Amazon seemed willing to charge an anonymous buyer less than they wanted to charge me for the same product. When it's happened to me in the past, I went to a "clean" browser, found the product without being signed in (or having cookies), added it to my cart, and then signed in. The product already in the anonymous cart retained the cheaper price.

I get price discrimination, but it gives you a very bad feeling when it's being obviously applied against you.

[library addict]

If you don't buy within a certain time frame (I want to say 20 minutes, but that may be wrong) the price can change. Usually if you click on your cart there will a notice at the top about any price changes.

When I shop at Amazon UK the price on the listing page is higher than once I checkout as they remove the VAT.

[haertig]

I have noticed price changing before. In those cases, I cleared my cookies and the price changed back. I haven't seen this in a long time however. What I do now, Is I grab a screenshot of the item and price just before adding it to my cart, again just before hitting the submit button to place the order, and again once a confirmation number is displayed. I file all these screenshot away in a directory on my computer in case there is a question on price later. I want proof, not just my word.

So far, knock on wood, I have not had to pull up any of these screenshots and show them to Amazon to settle an overcharge complaint. But I still continue to do the screenshots. I now have many hundreds of them stored on my computer. The filenames contain the date, the word Amazon, and the item name.

[DiapDealer]

Can't say as I've never noticed. But then I've never paid that close attention, either.

I HAVE noticed, though, that they're getting awfully creative with their shipping pre-selections in order to try and evade the two- (and sometimes one-) day shipping I'm guaranteed with my Prime subscription. I get that those who have no good place for their packages to be left unattended might appreciate the Prime Day "benefit". But to those who don't have to worry about that, Prime Day is nothing but a "why-should-I-let-you-out-of-your-two-or-one-day-shipping-promise-by-picking-one-day-of-the-week?" tactic. Not to mention pre-selecting three to four-day shipping so certain items "can be grouped into one convenient package." Not when shipping both individually with standard Prime Shipping will get them both in my hands before the suggested option will (and does).

Have my standard Prime Shipping option (that I pay for) pre-selected for me, or have none pre-selected, and I'll choose -- thank-you-very-much. If there's no cash-back, or rewards offered on Prime Day or "Delaying for Item Consolidation," then I'm just not interested in letting you out of your Bought-and-Paid-for Prime Shipping obligation to me.

[John F]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Can't say as I've never noticed. But then I've never paid that close attention, either.

I HAVE noticed, though, that they're getting awfully creative with their shipping pre-selections in order to try and evade the two- (and sometimes one-) day shipping I'm guaranteed with my Prime subscription. I get that those who have no good place for their packages to be left unattended might appreciate the Prime Day "benefit". But to those who don't have to worry about that, Prime Day is nothing but a "why-should-I-let-you-out-of-your-two-or-one-day-shipping-promise-by-picking-one-day-of-the-week?" tactic. Not to mention pre-selecting three to four-day shipping so certain items "can be grouped into one convenient package." Not when shipping both individually with standard Prime Shipping will get them both in my hands before the suggested option will (and does).

Have my standard Prime Shipping option (that I pay for) pre-selected for me, or have none pre-selected, and I'll choose -- thank-you-very-much. If there's no cash-back, or rewards offered on Prime Day or "Delaying for Item Consolidation," then I'm just not interested in letting you out of your Bought-and-Paid-for Prime Shipping obligation to me.

Interesting... Two day shipping is always pre-selected for me, which is the default in my one-click options. I always go through my cart when I checkout.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by John F

Interesting... Two day shipping is always pre-selected for me, which is the default in my one-click options. I always go through my cart when I checkout.

To be fair: they may not have ever pre-selected the Prime Day option. I may be wrong about that, but they're definitely presenting me with many, many, many opportunities to choose the Prime Day downgrade-billed-as-an-upgrade.

They absolutely have pre-selected a slower-shipping-to-keep-items-together option, though. It happened on my last order: have both items delivered in one box on Friday, or have two separate packages delivered on Wed and Thurs (one Free One-Day Shipping and the other Free Two-Day Shipping). Guess which option I chose?

[tempest@de]

I’ll have to try to clean the cookies and add it to the cart before logging in to see if it makes any difference.

I would accept it if the price change occurred not only in my cart but also in the product page, but that is not what is happening, the only time where the price is higher is just before I place the order, when looking in my basket all is correct and in the product page also.

I also do the print screens for future reference, the problem is that in the past when I saw this happen I send an email and CS never replied and ignored all my contacts about the subject. So I learned it is better to contact support before buying, which is what I do now when I want to buy something that I can’t find elsewhere or when the price makes it worthwhile the hassle.

[Zetmolm]

Price differences occur because of differences in VAT rates. E.g. on amazon.de prices are shown with German VAT included. The German rate is 19%. But when I buy something there from the Netherlands, prices are recalculated to include the Dutch rate of 21%.

An example: if the item is priced at EUR 119, I need to pay EUR 121.

I guess the same thing happens between Spain (21%), UK (20%) and Portugal (23%).
There is nothing secret about this recalculation. Amazon says that they do this, and they have to because it's the law. (Or at least their interpretation of the law.)

[GeoffR]

I have seen this for many years on Amazon.I think different parts of the website are just not very well synchronised, and so you can see out-of-date prices that update when you move to another part of the website such as checkout.

I see it most often when clicking through from search results to the book details page, quite often the price is higher on the details page than was shown in the search results.

[tempest@de]

Originally Posted by Zetmolm

Price differences occur because of differences in VAT rates. E.g. on amazon.de prices are shown with German VAT included. The German rate is 19%. But when I buy something there from the Netherlands, prices are recalculated to include the Dutch rate of 21%.

An example: if the item is priced at EUR 119, I need to pay EUR 121.

I guess the same thing happens between Spain (21%), UK (20%) and Portugal (23%).
There is nothing secret about this recalculation. Amazon says that they do this, and they have to because it's the law. (Or at least their interpretation of the law.)

your right, I just did some calculation based on the item I bought today and the difference in price is exactly as it would be for a vat of 23%. Just shows how well informed the CS people are because I asked several times why the difference and nobody was able to answer, so instead I’ve been feeling wronged.

I would like to read more about this recalculation; do you know where I can look it up?

I buy online on several countries and the VAT charged is at the rate that is valid in the country where I’m buying so I’ve never seen this before, and why does it only happen with the items sold or fulfield by amazon?

[Slipkid]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Can't say as I've never noticed. But then I've never paid that close attention, either.

I HAVE noticed, though, that they're getting awfully creative with their shipping pre-selections in order to try and evade the two- (and sometimes one-) day shipping I'm guaranteed with my Prime subscription. I get that those who have no good place for their packages to be left unattended might appreciate the Prime Day "benefit". But to those who don't have to worry about that, Prime Day is nothing but a "why-should-I-let-you-out-of-your-two-or-one-day-shipping-promise-by-picking-one-day-of-the-week?" tactic. Not to mention pre-selecting three to four-day shipping so certain items "can be grouped into one convenient package." Not when shipping both individually with standard Prime Shipping will get them both in my hands before the suggested option will (and does).

Have my standard Prime Shipping option (that I pay for) pre-selected for me, or have none pre-selected, and I'll choose -- thank-you-very-much. If there's no cash-back, or rewards offered on Prime Day or "Delaying for Item Consolidation," then I'm just not interested in letting you out of your Bought-and-Paid-for Prime Shipping obligation to me.

If it's not something I need right away, I always select the slow shipping, they usually offer a buck off of an ebook, or other digital item. Used to be that was only good for books sold by amzn digital services. Now it's good for all books.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by Slipkid

If it's not something I need right away, I always select the slow shipping, they usually offer a buck off of an ebook, or other digital item. Used to be that was only good for books sold by amzn digital services. Now it's good for all books.

I'm not talking about the slow shipping for credits. I GET that. There's something in it for the customer. That's not what I was offered, though. I was offered (it was pre-selected actually) the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to have my two items arrive later (but in fewer packages) instead of having them arrive earlier, but in separate packages. There was no compensation for this thrilling offer--other than experiencing the exhilaration of my items arriving at the exact same time, in the exact same box (albeit later), that is.

[FizzyWater]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I'm not talking about the slow shipping for credits. I GET that. There's something in it for the customer. That's not what I was offered, though. I was offered (it was pre-selected actually) the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to have my two items arrive later (but in fewer packages) instead of having them arrive earlier, but in separate packages. There was no compensation for this thrilling offer--other than experiencing the exhilaration of my items arriving at the exact same time, in the exact same box (albeit later), that is.

I get that all the time, too. And like you, when I change the delivery to 2-day Prime, somehow they still both arrive on the same day. I half suspect if there are items at 2 different warehouses, they want to ship one to the other warehouse (using less costly methods since it's Amazon-to-Amazon) and then ship them together in a single box.

[barryem]

I watch prices pretty closely. Any time I put something in my cart and go right away, or at least in the next few minutes, to check out, the price has always been the same. I've never seen it change. Maybe it's different in the USA. I don't know.

If I put something in my cart and go to check out the next day it rarely changes even then. It has happened but it's the exceptional situation.

I've also never had it pre-select Prime day shipping. The 2 day shipping is always pre-selected if it's available.

I buy a lot of things for my neighbors in my retirement home and it's fairly common that I'll be in the recreation area and we'll sit at the computer and pick out the items they want. Then I'll come home and order it. I have seen the price change a bit when I've done that but not often and not by much. I probably do that twice a week and have been doing that for years. Just guessing I might see a price change when I do that once or twice a year. Usually just by less than a dollar.

I've found Amazon pretty honest in it's dealings with me. Last week I ordered a memory card for a neighbor. It was delayed in shipping and finally it said it was probably lost and I should cancel it and ask for a refund. I did and I immediately ordered a replacement. I got my refund. Monday both cards arrived. I called Amazon and told them and they said just keep both of them and don't worry about it. That's an honest company.

I have a lot of examples of that sort of thing over the years. I loaned a Kindle with a book she wanted to read to a neighbor and her dog scratched the screen. I called Amazon hoping for a discount on a replacement and they insisted on replacing it under warranty even though I explained how it was damaged.

Maybe I'm the only one they're fair with but I've had excellent service from them over the years.

Barry