Amazon prices can change within seconds of your placing items in cart
by jdonahue62 - Written: Jun 23 '06 (Updated Jun 25 '06)
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I put a battery in my Amazon shopping cart, along with another item. About two or three minutes later, I went to check out. The price appeared correctly in my cart, and even in the breakdown of my order, but when you did the math to get the total amount, it was obvious they were DOUBLING the price of the battery. Then I clicked on the link back to the battery from the cart, and the price had doubled. But when I did a fresh search on the battery, the price was the original dollar amount I found.
I did not finish the order and sent a query.
The response I got was that prices change, and if they change before you've checked out, you have to pay the new price. When you check out within a couple of minutes???? (I can understand if the time lapse were days or maybe even hours, but two or three minutes???) And no explanation of both prices appearing live on the site, either.
So I canceled the order and started over. This time, the battery came up only with the higher price. But the other item I had wanted, which came up with the free shipping option originally, now not only didn't have free shipping, it had an extra charge of $7.99 for shipping. The explanation? Extra charge for large or heavy items. What was the item? A memory card for my camera! On what planet is that large or heavy?
So I called. The woman firmly explained that prices can change at any moment, so if you see something you want at a price you want, you should use the one-click buying option.
At what point did Amazon become eBay, for pete's sake? How on earth is it even legal for them to change the price that quickly? It's like going to the supermarket, picking up milk, and getting charged twice as much 30 seconds later when you're at the checkout.
Oh, and she had no good answer for the $7.99 shipping fee for a memory card that weighs about one ounce.
To her credit, she gave me the original price on the battery and waived the $7.99 shipping fee.
But her explanation for what happened is unacceptable.
SMALL UPDATE: The original e-mail I received from Amazon asked if the response was acceptable. When I said "no," I was given this phone number to contact customer service: 1-800-201-7575. I don't see the number on the site anywhere, so I guess you have to complain first.
Recommended:
No
What product did you purchase or try to purchase? A battery from Amazon
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