I’ll keep it at $99, at least until they start charging sales tax in Illinois. I live in Chicago, and I order quite a few things from Amazon. While I do have a car, parking is a bitch in my very densely part of the city. I order plenty of everyday household items from Amazon, the convenience is well worth it, especially for bulky items. I use streaming video from Amazon from time to time, it is quite similar to Netflix, but occasionally there is a movie they have which Netflix does not.
I don’t know that I save a ton on shipping, since I don’t order huge amounts from them except for this last Christmas (and probably next Christmas).
But I bought a new iPad a couple of weeks back. By that time my mother was home from her spinal fusion surgery and recovering nicely. But “Hey mom, here’s my old iPad. I loaded both the Comcast streaming app and the Amazon streaming app on it, signed in to my accounts” was very much worth it. (My dad is getting cheaper by the day and cut their cable a couple of months ago.)
I order TONS of stuff from Amazon and also watch Amazon Prime stuff on my Roku (which I lovelovelove). It’s still totally worth it for me.
That isn’t what the suit is alleging. It’s saying:
With Prime: $14 +0 Shipping
Without Prime: $10 + $4 shipping
Both people were charged the same but the Prime person is already in the hole. I’m not saying I agree they should be sued but that is what they are alleging. I can also say for the handful of things I buy with regularity from Amazon’s affiliated stores, that matches my observation, at least as far as price. The Prime stores are more expensive and the difference is usually the cost of the other stores’ shipping. But where my observation differs is the stores without Prime don’t offer that shipping as two day so going with the Prime stores still has some value.
So, if I understand you:
I have Amazon Prime.
I search for an item. The lowest price I find is $14+0.
If I were to log out of my Amazon account and search for the exact same item, it would now cost $10+$4.
That’s seriously fucked up.
I’ve never seen that happen. Does anyone have an example they could link to?
What I question is whether the Prime shipping is for two-day, and the regular price is for standard. Two-day adds quite a bit to the standard shipping, and it would be more than $14.
I’ll go see if I can find something to test this.
I don’t have an example of the price being different for a Prime member than a non-Prime member, but I did notice something kind of sleazy just a couple of days ago.
This set of necklace clasps on the Beadaholique website is priced at $3.49 plus shipping. Beadaholique also sells their jewelry supplies via Amazon, with some items (including these clasps) being eligible for Prime. The Prime price for the clasps is $7.20, with free Prime shipping. But if you look carefully at the listing, you’ll see that there’s also an option to get the same item from the same vendor for $3.49 plus $2 shipping. So the total non-Prime price is $5.49…or $1.71 less than if you wanted the “free” Prime shipping.
Prime would be faster since Beadaholique ships through the US mail, but if you’re not in a hurry then you’re better off not going for the Prime option. Beadaholique also offers free shipping for orders of at least $25, so if you wanted to stock up then going with the Prime option would be an even worse deal.
This is also what I was saying I have seen. There are two affiliated Amazon stores, one uses Prime and one doesn’t. Both end up selling the product for the same cost because Store Non Prime’s Price + Shipping ends up equaling Store Prime’s price with free shipping.
As a side note, with or without Prime I have also seen myself (and have seen it also been complained about by others online) that Amazon charges higher prices for established customers vs. brand new ones. If you browse Amazon on a clean PC that has no cookies and then browse the same items on your normal PC you will eventually find your own examples of this.
In this case at least the total cost wasn’t the same for the two listings. The Prime price was more expensive than the non-Prime price plus shipping, although the Prime shipping is faster.
There isn’t anything weird about low weight items costing more to ship prime- while prime is “free” shipping to you.
- it isn’t free to the sellers- you have to ship the items to amazon in the first place, and they take a cut for both storage and shipping if you are using fulfilled by amazon
- items that are very light, can often be shipped USPS first class (or media mail for some items) for less than amazon’s cut for fulfilled by amazon, thus the lower price.
- The pricing of 3rd party items is totally within the sellers control, not amazons. If people are willing to pay a premium for prime items, the sellers are going to charge it, not take less profit out of the goodness of their heart.
I fail to see how any of that is either unethical, illegal, or even against what Prime promises you - you do get two day shipping, and there is no cost above the listed price.
Edit to add: as a seller, fulfilled by amazon (“prime”/super saver shipping for 3rd party sellers) is a hell of deal for really heavy items though, unless you are absolutely enormous and can drive a great deal with fedex or UPS.
I’m sorry if I was unclear. What I was saying is that if you compare prices of items that are sold on Amazon by affiliated stores very often the ones that use Prime and the ones that don’t end up charging the same total price because the Prime stores are more expensive and the difference usually equals the shipping.
/shrug, I’m keeping Prime.
I just received a 300lb generator from Amazon, with free shipping to my door by freight carrier. I could have purchased the same generator from a local store, plus paid sales tax, still wait for it to arrive at the local store, and then go pick it up myself.
I’ve never had an issue like is being described with ‘Prime’ prices are higher to cover shipping. I often shop on my work computer, (not logged in to Amazon), and if I see something I want, I order it through the iPhone app, and the price is no different.
Heck, I often order 4 or 5 things during the day (as separate orders) and never have an issue. Even when shopping at a B&M store, if I see something I’m interested in, I’ll check Amazon’s price before putting it in the cart. 8 out of 10 times, I just order it right there and have Amazon deliver.
Much love for Amazon here.
I don’t think there’s a different price for using Prime, but the vendors who ship free with Prime are charging more than vendors who don’t (at least that’s my understanding).
I love it, but will probably let it lapse now that we have to pay sales tax (and we have the highest sales tax in the country).
Can someone confirm this add-on work around. Someone I work with says if you want an add-on only item, just order it with an item that hasn’t been released yet (CD, video game, DVD), then cancel the second item and you still get the add-on shipped free. Not sure I’d go through that much trouble, but I was curious if it worked.