AlterNet: Is Amazon.com Screwing You Over?

[marmar]

Is Amazon.com Screwing You Over?

By Steve Brown, AlterNet. Posted November 25, 2009.

Amazon is charging -- and pocketing -- exorbitant shipping and handling fees, and someone somewhere is getting rich from it.



Do you trust Amazon.com? I did -- until recently -- when a friend went online at Amazon to buy a hair color product called Touch of Gray. It was selling on Amazon for $7.56, and an order was placed for 6 pieces, total $45.36. However, on the last screen just before clicking acceptance, my friend noticed that shipping and handling was being billed at the incredible rate of $28.50 (about 64% of the cost of merchandise!).

This seemed ridiculous, especially for items that weighed only a few ounces. But it was even more ridiculous when one went to the website of the company from whom Amazon would be getting the item, AmericaRx.com. On that website shipping and handling was only $6.48 (or $22.02 less) to deliver the same 6 items within the same 3-5 business days time frame.

So we called Amazon.com, thinking this was an error. I mean, Amazon.com wouldn’t deliberately soak its trusting customers this way, right?

The first Amazon customer service representative said that Amazon had no control over shipping costs, that these were determined by the third party providing the item. When we informed him that this third party was charging only $6.48 to deliver those same items from its website -- not the $28.50 that Amazon was charging -- he said, “Sorry, nothing we can do about that.” ........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/workplace/144139/is_amazon.com_screwing_you_over

[Rabrrrrrr]

1. For $75 a year, Amazon ships everything to me, no matter what I order.

So, no, Amazon isn't screwing this customer.

And I've never seen any shipping charges on Amazon that are anywhere near as outrageous as what they are at other places, like Wireless or Land's End or Levenger or Gaiam.

[hlthe2b]

5. Nor have I....

I suspect this may have been error on the part of the customer--perhaps he let it default to expedited shipping without checking?

And, yes, Levenger is incredible, in terms of shipping. All beautifully packaged, mind you, but geebus!

[PVnRT]

8. That would be my guess

Plenty of online retailers do that - default to the most expensive option, rather than standard delivery.

[ixion]

7. yeah, I have that as well... it's fantastic

and I definitely get my money's worth.

[cbdo2007]

9. Even from Third party sellers? I think that was the problem here.

I have had several instances where I'll search for an item, even narrow my search results by "Free Super Saver Shipping" and then the item will pull up with $9.00 shipping from J & Q Discount World (example) or something. It takes me a few more minutes to search around and find the same item actually being sold BY Amazon with the free shipping.

I think these third party sellers actually do a disservice to Amazon but I don't think they're ripping anyone off. Merely people aren't paying attention to the details when the place the order so they are inadvertently buying from a third party person rather than from Amazon itself.

Here's an example of how these third party places are bad....do a search on Amazon for "Wii Games" and then click on "See all 6,397 items". Now under "Sort" choose from "Price - Low to High"

This pulls up a list of wii games and accessories but you will see that many of the items are selling for "$.01" so they can be at the top of the search results. Now, if you click on one of them you'll see the actual "price" of the item is the shipping charge from whatever third party it is selling from.

See "Kidz Sports: Ice Hockey" for instance. New price shipped free from Amazon is $31.99. Available from third party sellers for $17.99 with anywhere from $4 - $8 shipping.

[Rabrrrrrr]

13. From third party sellers? No, of coure not. But they aren't Amazon, now, are they?

You are correct that some third party sellers are utter assknobs, though. But that's not Amazon's problem.

[cbdo2007]

14. Actually it IS Amazon's problem. Whether you are dealing with

a third party seller or not, Amazon acts as the representative party for the seller and are therefore rightfully subject to any negative criticism the third party seller receives.

I know those of us at DU are obviously more intelligent that the rest of the world, but the average internet user has no idea the difference between Amazon and their third party sellers. To them it's all one big store and they're probably going to get ripped off for shipping charges at some point, and their going to complain to everyone they know that "Amazon" ripped them off.

I personally enjoyed and shopped at Amazon more when it was less convoluted with all these other sellers. Same thing with Ebay...I can do a search for something and get 50 pages that pop up for people selling items only at a "Buy It Now" price or with minimum bids and Ebay has become more of an Antique Mall than a swap meet (Antique Mall = too many booths of overpriced sh*t where you have to look far and wide for a bargain, swap meet = people put their own personal stuff out there and you can really come across a lot of cool random stuff at great deals.)

[Neecy]

11. Amazon Prime is awesome

I live in a small town and it keeps me from having to shop at Walmart.

[TheCowsCameHome]

2. That happened to me recently on four books I purchased....

..from an Amazon third party vendor. There was no option to combine shipping. I paid full shipping on each item, even though they shipped together. I left a comment in the feedback for the seller expressing my dissatisfaction with that part of the transaction.

On the other hand, stuff directly from Amazon usually ships free if the order is over $25 - you can beat that.

[Brickbat]

3. I don't order from them, because of their union-busting several years ago.

I just made an order from Powell's, which is union, and paid no shipping. Woot!

[marmar]

4. Yep. If order books online, I order from Powell's

nt

[HopeHoops]

6. I always select the free shipping and always get the items in a couple of days.

They usually ship the same day or the next day whether you pay for shipping or not. It usually comes UPS and in 2-3 days.

[Echo In Light]

10. Yrs back they inexplicably edited some of my reviews & changed the votes re 'controversial' topics

... in favor of downplaying the dissident side and increasing 'negative' votes.

Amazon Reviews has many 'official' disrupters who, if a review that casts our corporate/state nexus in an unfavorable light begins to receive many pos comments/votes, will immediately launch into attack mode w/the typical sort of blow-hard, RW assholery one is accustomed to encountering online. Aside from the easily identifiable personality traits and characteristics, what also gives those types away (although it's been a few yrs since I've reviewed much of anything there) is that they haven't any other reviews at all, or just one, which will usually be for a completely non-related topic ... yet, all of a sudden, they're VERY interested in weighing in against any reviewer espousing any credence for criminal/conspiratorial endeavors of govt/big biz/military

[ljm2002]

12. I wonder if the shipping was calculated...

...as a per-piece shipping rather than as total weight. That is, if it cost $4.75 to ship one of these items, maybe the automated system simply calculated 6*4.75 to get $28.50.

Anyway I have not had that experience with Amazon, but then I generally just order one item.

[budkin]

15. I have Amazon Prime and order a ton of stuff so it's not a factor for me... but this sucks!