Ugh, I hate lawsuits. Amazon often clearly states under the price "Note: This item may be available at a lower price from other sellers that are not eligible for Amazon Prime."
No this is about it being available from the same seller for a lower price not on Amazon Prime. This means that Amazon Prime is getting you no benefit on this purchase. Amazon are saying it gives you free shipping and charging you money for the that service therefore IF true Amazon is defrauding customers.
So are you saying that there are cases where you have a choice like this?
1. Buy the item from Vendor X for $19.99 with Prime "free" shipping (fulfilled by Amazon)
2. Buy the item from Vendor X for $14.99 with $4.99 shipping (not fulfilled by Amazon)
If so, then I would still choose the Prime option. Items that are fulfilled by Amazon fall under Amazon's support and return policies, which are excellent. Third-party sellers not selling under those terms tend to have much less favorable customer protections.
Obviously those protections (and the integrated shipping) come at a cost, but my point is that there is more to it than just "free" vs. non-free shipping.
Amazon is offering 2 day shipping at no additional cost. You can purchase an item for cheaper through a third party, who will probably charge you for shipping which more than likely will bring the total in line with what you would pay if purchasing using Prime through Amazon. Except, they'll probably ship it standard 3-5 business day (possibly taking 7-14 days to arrive) where Amazon is going to ship it 2 day DELIVERY. (Yes, I realize it doesn't always arrive in 2 days. Blame the weather or carriers. I can't remember a prime order that wasn't picked and shipped the same or next business day).
The issue is that they are encouraging vendors to artificially inflate the prices of products to cover shipping costs. Essentially, the shipping cost is hidden in the price of the product. The losses Amazon would normally incur as a result of Prime usage are reduced as a result of this.
Lawsuit and legality aside, for those of us that use Prime primarily for the shipping this reduces the value of the service while reducing the cost to Amazon of providing the service.
They do that NOW. They did not for a long time. At one point it was bad enough that I could look at an item as a prime user, and see the lowest listed price. Then open the same product page in an incognito browser, and the lowest listed price has changed, to one approximately lower by the price of shipping.
Further, the new notice (and it really is new, it came sometime in the last 4 months) does not in any way absolve Amazon from cheating its customers.
They promised me that I could pay an upfront fee of ~59 dollars, and get free shipping on a wide variety of items for a year. Instead they took the 59 dollars, raised the prices of the items by approximately what shipping would have cost, and called the shipping free.
Unless I'm crazy this lawsuit seems pretty idiotic.
> “The bottom line is the free shipping that Amazon offered to its Prime members wasn’t free,” said Kim Stephens, attorney for one of the plaintiffs, adding that he was “shocked” by Amazon’s alleged pricing practices.
No kidding it isn't free, it costs $79/year (now $99).
> "For example, if the price of an item is advertised for $10 with $3.99 shipping and the [vendor] wishes to match or top their price, the [vendor] would charge $13.99 or higher," Burke alleges in the suit.
Exactly.
If you are selling something for $5 as a non Prime seller, and Amazon charges $3.99 for you to ship it (which they reimburse you for BTW), then why would I as a Prime seller not list my product for $8.99 due to the fact that I will be maximizing my profit, and have the benefit of having my merch sent to the customer in 2 days? I could just list it for $5 to be sure I can sell the item by undercutting, but I'd like to barely undercut the current highest price.
Also I see others complaining about shipping, it seems you all must live in the worst cities for mail carriers. I've had Prime for the last 3 years, and have been ordering from Amazon since 1999. This year I have 31 orders placed, 2013 I placed 86 orders, 39 orders in 2012. I can only remember one item in all this time which missed a delivery date (by a day).
That $79/year was intended to REPLACE the price of shipping on individual items.
If the price of those items increases by the cost of shipping, after you've payed the $79, Prime is now a sunk cost of $79 that has ZERO returns.
This is the basis of the lawsuit, this is very easy to understand.
Amazon should be covering the shipping cost associated with Prime items, Instead they collude with sellers to make them "Prime eligible" and those sellers increase prices by the cost of shipping. That's a scam.
I've had prime since it's inception, I have 500+ orders on my amazon account. It used to be a great deal, it's basically just a scam to get you to use their video service now.
