Amazon scam...

[RaginRaj]

this may not be the best board for this post but it's the one that's going to give it the most exposure. amazon.com is doing some pricing experiment where they send u one of three cookies which will determine what kind of prices u will have. for example people buying the new Men in Black DVD were either charged $23.97, $25.97 or $27.97. Amazon doesn't tell you about this "experiment" or which cookie u receive. for some more details from a better source than me, go here:
http://dvd.ign.com/news/24663.html

[AmRivlin]

This is a rotten deal, I believe though we already discussed it and arrived at the conclusion don't spend money and if one does use Netscape!

[asian_panda]

ok here is my theory of what happened:

they wrote a program and try this so called experiment but some impetent programmer forgot to do a thorough test before they used the code. so when pplz ordered the Jet Li & other dvd's, the experiment went on with them.

so if amazon.com never started this experiment, then the dirt cheap pricing on the Jet Li & other dvd's never would have come up so i truely believe they should paid for their error in the program since they had bad intention in the first place.

ps: anyone out there know if there is a case number with FTC with that fiasco of the amazon.com toy sale mistake a few years back? i wanted to include my theory plus the case number from that to let FTC know that they know what could happen when they mispriced items and used the "bait and switch" tactics. so hopefully FTC will look at this incident and make an example of 'experiment' on us as consumers in the future

just my 2cents

[Megaman369]

Panda,

Punctuation and capitilization were invented for a reason.

[TheLoneGunman]

Interestingly enough, I actually spent about 10 minutes on this very issue with a 2nd tier CS rep (the 1st tier one freaked and passed me on) on this very issue.

Bottom line - If they screw up, I pay. If am screwed over by them, I still pay.

Perhaps, that is why I selected cash cards instead of Amazon GC's

[TheLoneGunman]

Article from Cnet talks all about it and links to the toy story:

http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1007-202-2761393.html

[AJ]

this was posted DAYS ago on off topic. if you dont like it, dont buy there. Don't go around yelling about a scam though...

[TheLoneGunman]

No, the above article is about the DVD flap and the fallout over it.

It was just written a few hours ago.

[Martee]

Two words can best describe Amazon's tactics: "Bait" & "Switch".

In a cnet article, an unnamed FTC representative stated:
"...Amazon's actions could fall under FTC guidelines prohibiting unfair and deceptive acts and practices. They said the FTC's standard response in such matters is to investigate the incidents to see whether they indicate a pattern of behavior by the company."


I'd definitely say there is a "pattern of behavior" here.

Please contact your regional FTC office and file a complaint. If not, Amazon.com may be able to pull this crap over & over again.

[brandonmw]

All the DVDs posted on the deals page today came out at a higher price than listed when I clicked on the link. Is this because I'm using IE or did they change the prices? I hardly think that I am going to download and install Netscape just to be able to order DVDs from Amazon. I think their business practices are lame.

[RebelScum]

This just in...

I read on Slashdot today (www.slashdot.org) that Amazon is refunding the difference if you bought anything that had a "variable" price during this test. So if you bought a dvd at $25 but the lowest price was $23, they will refund you the $2. So see? They're not THAT bad.

[call-in]

Originally posted by RebelScum
... So see? They're not THAT bad.

That's because people found out about it.

[Edited by call-in on 09-13-2000 at 09:02 AM]

[RaginRaj]

For those of you who might be getting confused the original topic of this post was Amazon's pricing adjustment on DVDs. This was an intentional act they called a "marketing experiment" The whole thing with the pricing glitch selling people DVD sets for way cheap is totally different and is only a problem because Amazon wants people to now pay the rest of the price or cancel their very cheap orders.

[pennypinch]

That is an absolutely fantastic sig, RaginRaj

[Startide]

Amazon got caught at trying to implement Targeted Marketing, so their DVD and video manager posted an open letter to dvdTalk members at:

http://talk.dvdtalk.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/015809.html



[Edited by Startide on 09-13-2000 at 03:59 PM]