Amazon is price gouging big time HUGE!

Does anyone shop on Amazon, especially for consumer electronics like PC's and peripherals and gadgets?

If so, have you noticed the way that Amazon, in the most cunning way imaginable, suddenly alter prices, sometimes by hundreds of dollars (upward)?, and how they have these resellers (could even be Amazon sock puppets), selling the same product for hundreds, even 1000's of dollars over the lowest price, to play on the stupidity of people with too much money to spend and who lack the good sense to do some checking before they click through their shopping cart.

They know that people get certain ideas in their heads about having a certain thing (attachment), and that there are a lot of ignorant rich folks who impulse shop at the click of a button.. say forgetting what the price was when they placed in on their wishlist.

I've seen this happen in my wish list, basically the shopping list I make as I await more work pay etc to get the nice things I really want or have always wanted (in this case a gaming PC and super ultra wide 49 inch Samsung gaming monitor). Previously I waited for prices to drop, then suddenly and decisively blew about 5500.00, and I got really good price points by checking and rechecking.

I hadn't become a big spender yet ie: it could have been just a "wish" list without intent to purchase.

So as I built my wish list, the prices began to drop, with Amazon honestly reporting drops in price, which happened both on the monitor (dropped 300 from 1500 to 1200) and the gaming rig (dropped a few hundred on what was once a 2800 machine).

However, once or twice, they gave me a changed price that was much higher than what it was when on my wishlist, in the case of headset, by about 60 bucks and now on a TrackIR device, like 100 bucks more.

But once I made my purchases, and struck, things got worse in this regard..

There seems to be another level of trickiness to this price game and back and forth struggle with Amazon, soon to be the most successful company and the most influencial (CIA, Washington Post, etc) in the world today.

It's like I'm wrestling with a pricing algorithm that hopes to trip me up if I were to let my guard down.

Others are not so discriminating, which brings me to my point.

If Amazon are running price gouging algorithms against their customers, particularly on larger ticket items like consumer electronics, then just think about this for a moment, running across the board...

I'm just one person, and if I wasn't smart about things, I could have ended up getting screwed by 100's of dollars, easily!

And they're SNEAKY about it, they will try to dupe you into buying the thing you wanted before, based on a perceived value and impulse, at a much higher price, as if they can determine the price based on nothing but a whim or a well educated guess say on the part of the AI algorithm.

An AI crook and criminal at the heart of the interaction. "Oh, we really took that guy, let's try it again, but up the price by 500 or 1000.00, or 1000's and see if they might still buy it some of them and if so who and how many" - can the human behavior towards buying stuff be anticipated by the algorithm?

If they can get away with it, they'll put one past you and price gouge you.

When considered in the largest context of their entire inventory, my God, that's the crime of the century. It's criminal!

Very easy to detect and prove as well.

But nobody even bothers, because it's just Amazon selling stuff and if you're dumb enough to throw away your money to their tricky algorithm, well that's your own fault - but it's just not right to prey upon people and unwittingly dupe them into giving you way more money than the value of the product - and if this is distributed across the board..?!

Shopping on Amazon, can make you feel like you're stocking a criminal who's stalking you as potential financial prey, if you'll let them get away with it.

This is like big time criminal, if true, and it is true.

I can't be the only one to feel like getting a reasonable deal at amazon is like trying to avoid falling into a den of thieves and a pit of snakes.


Best regards,

Ankh

a reply to: AnkhMorpork

When I buy on amazon I usually just send a message to a smaller seller "Why is this so expensive?"

Their reply: "I don't know it's just what everyone else is asking for."

Me: "Will you sell it to me for $_____ instead?"

Them : "Sure, it's been sitting here forever!"

a reply to: AnkhMorpork


Well you don't have to buy from amazon

a reply to: norhoc


True, but what are you the devil's advocate, like hey, it's on you if you let them rip you off, you don't have to shop there..

a reply to: AnkhMorpork

I've had luck with something I stumbled over a couple of years ago. I go look at prices on Amazon, then look at other sites for the same item. The next time I log on to Amazon I often then see an ad with a much lower price on Amazon. Helped me a couple of times.

a reply to: NarcolepticBuddha

He is not referring to people who do their due diligence.

Impulse buyers , drunk buyers, .

You wont get much support from Ats on the topic OP .

They seem to love Bezos and Amazon, left and right.

SnF

a reply to: AnkhMorpork


No, it is market forces at work, they will charge whatever people are willing to pay. You don't have to pay it if you don't want to, now it is another thing entirely if you could only shop on Amazon and there was no other competition or choice. But you do have choice, shop elsewhere

When I'm looking for something big ticket, I check multiple sellers, including Amazon. Occasionally, they win. Often, someone else comes out with the best price.

a reply to: Blaine91555


Vly interesting. Thank you! But just think about what they get away with?! Ho-LY! That's crazy. Maybe the Trump admin could look into this one, anyone got a connection?

Amazon is pretty quirky.

I have put items in my cart before without checking out... then the very next day it'll be out-of-stock, only to find them at higher prices. And their little timer on next day shipping is all fudge up too.

originally posted by: notsure1
a reply to: NarcolepticBuddha

He is not referring to people who do their due diligence.

Impulse buyers , drunk buyers, .

You wont get much support from Ats on the topic OP .

They seem to love Bezos and Amazon, left and right.

SnF

Yeah, everyone's like ho hum, just shop around. Whoosh, right over the head.

I'm talking about an algorithmic grifter of sorts, but in the order of many tens of BILLIONS of dollars, with impunity, which is probably why Bezos is up the CIA's yin yang. It may be a criminal enterprise, unless they were to quickly alter their algorithms and make them lean towards lowest price honesty and integrity.

Amazon doesn't adhere to MSRP principles for items, as a business model they can gouge prices in relation to demand.
It is something very common when it comes to computer video cards.

Other stores adhere to the recommended prices, I would recommend Newegg if you are looking for computers or computer parts.

I've never had them change prices on me like that and I'm a pretty diligent best-price shopper. However, I have seen items that are waaaay more expensive than elsewhere. To me it just seems to be the particular item and how many vendors compete to sell that product on Amazon.

All in all, though, a significant portion of my online purchases are on Amazon due the quick shipping and the fact that I can almost always get a free return if something doesn't work for me. I'll always be willing to pay a little extra for the convenience of free, no-hassle returns.

originally posted by: scojak

I'll always be willing to pay a little extra for the convenience of free, no-hassle returns.

Just so long as your avatar isn't [snipped]. JK!

Maybe because you're a new customer or due to different buying habits, but I'm surprise that you haven't noticed what I have about their "floating" price points, what I'm referring to as intentional price gouging.

I've been otherwise happy with their service except to the degree that other people are falling for their ruse on certain items that they think or know you want.

I need to stop using their wishlist - maybe that's where I erred..?

a reply to: AnkhMorpork

No, that's not what's going on in my avatar thank god lol.

I've been a member since '03 so if anything, it's my seniority that gives me consistent pricing.

One thing to note is that I do not use the wishlist.

I will occasionally save items in my cart to buy later, but the prices almost never change while on the saved list.

It's no amazon conspiracy. Making money has always been shady for shady people.


I fall victim occasionally, assuming ebay or Amazon will have the lowest price on an item, i dont bother checking elsewhere. Then the item will arrive, shipped from Harbor Freight or Homo Depot, and on the invoice is half the price I paid. Its just another "work from home" business model: Find out what people can't find, reword it so they can find it on ebay, and drop ship it for 200% markup.


I paid 30 dollars for a 17 dollar cartridge roll kit because I couldn't find them anywhere and forgot that Summit Racing sells "port and polish" kits for 17. Every other kit on eBay was 50 bucks so i thought i was getting something better than Harbor freight quality for a good price. I wasn't. Happens a lot.. Even ordered stuff off ebay and it shipped from Amazon. Which might implicate Amazon in some type of shady practice now that I think about it.

a reply to: AnkhMorpork

Amazon might be worried, despite their super success. Retailers like Target and even Macys are doing better and have finally started to build up their web presence.

So maybe Amazon will get a taste of their own medicine.



But they're ruthless

originally posted by: Blaine91555
a reply to: AnkhMorpork

I've had luck with something I stumbled over a couple of years ago. I go look at prices on Amazon, then look at other sites for the same item. The next time I log on to Amazon I often then see an ad with a much lower price on Amazon. Helped me a couple of times.

Amazon is monitoring what you’re doing

If you go on the web and look up buying stocks the next time you log into YouTube you’ll get commercials about stocks

In that case its google watching you

a reply to: AnkhMorpork

I've stopped keeping a list of movies I want to watch on Amazon Prime Video. Not long after I added movies to my Watch list they would go from Prime to Pay.

Definitely playing games with us, greedy bastard. He's a multi-billionaire and he's still greedy for more.

a reply to: AnkhMorpork

I asked a vendor on Amazon who I did a great deal of business with why his product was $268 a week after I bought the same thing for $198. He basically told me that Amazon "suggests" the market price to them that people are willing to pay. I told him I am willing to pay not a penny over $200, and gave him a day to think about it. In the end I actually found a local vendor for less and no longer do business on Amazon for those devices. Price gouging is an understatement.