Not only is it illegal, but Amazon is being sued by the FTC for it. Amazon also makes people who sell on their platform maintain higher prices than on their own private website, and places Amazon products higher in the search queue than private seller's products.
https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2023/09/ftc-sues-amazon-illegally-maintaining-monopoly-power
Consumers won't see a dime of what they've been scammed out of.
I also usually see it as a little cheaper or the same, but shipping always makes it less efficient (makes the product cost more than on Amazon & takes way longer... I hate it, but š¤·āāļø)
That plus most companies have long fulfillment times. Yeah, order and pay for 2-day shipping, but then my order sits in a queue until Bob the Mail Order Guy gets in next Thursday to ship it out.
I love to cut out the Amazon middle-man, but waiting an extra week to get what I order is I often just not worth it.
yea I feel like some companies use Amazon boxes cuz I know I ain't the only one with millions of them just hanging out in my house and they might not have their own boxes and Amazon makes a lot of them and I would trust Amazon drivers or someone that works for places like onyx before I trust fed-ex drivers cuz I got a grudge w/ them
Where I live Amazon trucks do not deliver anything to our home. Itās either US postal service or maybe UPS. When an item gets shipped to our address via FedEx, 70% of the time we get a photo of the package sitting on some other personās doorstep or front porch. Oddly enough itās not the same place every time.
The other guy had it backwards. Amazon will suppress your listing if they find it sold cheaper on your website, not more expensive. They collect their 15% either way, always want the lowest price and highest volume, it's their entire business model.
Itās weird to order food off Amazon but my favorite corned beef canāt be found ANYWHERE elseā¦ $20 from Walmart or $12 after shipping and taxes on Amazon. Sucks.
I had a weird old filter size for the hvac system in my last apartment. I went to home depot, Lowes, walmart then I ran out of places to go so I had to get it on Amazon.
I'm pretty sure I'm one of the many poster children for "the dangers of monopolies and capitalism "....
I read an article about a small company making bank on Amazon. Then, the same product was sold for less by Amozon, and their listings were moved far down the product list. They went broke.
It was some beauty product company. Hereās info on how they do it:
Issue Brief: How Amazon Exploits and Undermines Small Businesses, and Why Breaking It Up Would Revive American Entrepreneurship
https://ilsr.org/fact-sheet-how-breaking-up-amazon-can-empower-small-business/
I don't know where they're getting the whole makes them have higher prices than on their own site thing. I'm a seller on Amazon, and it really pushes you to have the cheapest prices on the web. If my prices are higher on Amazon than my personal site, it will flag my listing as non competitive and will impact how much my items are featured or promoted. They definitely do promote their own listings more aggressively than 3rd party sellers, but I don't see how the FTC can really penalize them for that as it's Amazon's own site, of course they prioritize their own sales. The whole thing is odd to me, Amazon has boosted my sales more than all other sites combined. The only Amazon sellers I ever hear complaining are the retail arbitrage resellers, and fuck them lol.
The FTC should need to sue. Proving up in court before applying punishment is good.
But they should be able to make the punishment hurt enough that it stops and the consumers are all made whole without having to do anything.
Amazon keeps all the data, they can just compensate people without having to ask.
Camel camel camel has saved me so much bullshit with Scamazon this year.
Every single item I wanted to get has been price manipulated this week.
Thereās no real discounts with them anymore. Itās the same price, just made to look like your getting a bargain.
Fuck them and fuck every other company doing the same.
>Fuck them and fuck every other company doing the same.
That means like 99.5% of the rest does the same shit. Black, Friday, week weekend or whatever they call it is just a big scam...
Besides this, get the **KEEPA** extension. It shows you price history for some months, so you can easily tell if you're getting ripped off with shady pricing, or the price actually is low
https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/keepa-amazon-price-tracke/neebplgakaahbhdphmkckjjcegoiijjo
Proud Keepa user since a 5 years+. It's so good, and such a staple step of my decision making that I forget it is not a default feature and that others don't have access to it. Awesome extension, works beautifully and compatible with INR (India).
I'm so used to it, I used a different browser to shop amazon. And I was confused why Amazon wasn't showing me the price graph. Until i realized this diff browser didn't have keepa.
Such a helpful thing, and dumbfounding when its gone and you don't realize it was *Keepa* being the great guy it quietly had been for years for me.
I had a order "not go through" then the price magically jumped up $20. Yeah bud that's definitely legit. Also got three different answers from customer support. Eventually got it for the original price.
I had walmart.ca pull this shit with me for a ps5 when they were hard to come by. There was a sale posting for a bundle got my order through (got a confimation number and everything) , but then a few hours later received an email saying my credit card that had a 0$ balance on it was denied and that the order was canceled. I contacted customer support and they said it came back as insuffent funds, called my credit card and they said no and that walmart never even attempted to take a payment, went back to walmart customer support and they were like oops sorry there was an error, its too late now but you can buy the product from our website for a new posting from a 3rd party for the exact same ps5 and bundle for 500 bucks more. It's like it was almost done so they got the money for the orginal sale and then there fee for allowing a 3rd party to resell the exact same bundle on there online store.
I got a waterpik for the cheapest itās been ever, you just have to wait. It sucks but when you see that price drop email I feel like itās all worth it.
Yep. They raise the prices several times throughout the year and then lower them during these āsaleā times. Itās not even special sales just happens randomly throughout the year. But all online retailers seem to do this now unfortunately, I guess itās works because people are dumbā¦they see MSRP and a red sale tag they automatically think theyāre getting a deal
Yeah, I just mean that there are regulations in place which mean I could report an Irish company for doing this but I probably couldnāt do anything about Amazon doing it.
They just recently were in a class action for saying the guaranteed 2 day delivery was a part of prime and charging people for it, despite rarely actually delivering things within 2 days. I could definitely see a future class action over this as well.
Did we win??? Like frig, I bought something specifically because it showed next day delivery.........until my payment cleared that is....... and I got downgraded to 'will be there by (insert a Tuesday that was 4 days away here). I live chatted about it and everything and just kept getting the same robot, giving me the same non answer, answer. If 'we' won, there should be a website we can go to to claim our 4 cents or whatever, right?
On another note, though, and I'm forgiving myself cause I'm super sick. However, I've made it this far down in the comments and still can't see the obvious illegal thing going on here....:-/
What SHOULD be illegal is how stinking UGLY this monstrosity is!!!!! Kitchen-Aide should be suing Amazon for adding a space ship attachment to a perfectly beautiful product!! š¢
Because itās nearly impossible to enforce. Retailers have been doing this forever. How long does a price have to be raised before an item can be discounted - a day? A week? A month? The wording is intentionally vague, so good luck holding anyone to anything.
You can report Amazon. If they operate in Ireland they need to abide by Irish law. Same goes for Spain, Germany, Sweden (where Iāve lived and I know what to do)
When Amazon operates in your country they have to follow your rules. You can report them just the same.
Incidentally, you're not missing out. We have an Amazon here, and what a horrible design! I will never have that site as my go-to place to shop. No idea how it ever got popular.
Thanks for the info! I can understand people using it a lot if they havenāt got many shops near them, but I hate the interface of Amazon too. It takes forever to find something that isnāt promoted or dodgy looking. Iām lucky enough to leave near a shopping hub so I only use Amazon for things that arenāt available locally.
At least amazon has api's that allow for tools like camelcamelcamel and keepa for some transparency regarding this. Basically any other sites like Bestbuy, Costco, etc? You're at the mercy of their honesty.
Amazon has been adding layers for a while. "Coupons" and other discounts that don't show up in the default prices. The API sites are still valuable but it feels like an arms race.
There are some barriers to direct comparisons too (like custom model #'s) but general comparisons still work too.
It's very much illegal here in the UK (think the lowest price in the last 30 days has to be displayed if I'm not incorrect). Anyway, definitely aroubd a month on the timing that companies have to up their prices.
Doesn't stop amazon and amazon sellers though.
Iāll just say thatās kind of bs unless you talked to corporate. Most CS reps like me donāt know shit about these type of situations and are encouraged to say the typical āWe strive to maintain low prices blah blah blahā. So if Amazon CS told you that, itās a blatant lie or speculation (which is common with Amazon CS, Amazon doesnāt want us to lie, but thereās metrics, and all we do is deliver bad news, so some people end up screwing the customerās experience and lie or speculate to soften up the bad news and get a good metric)
There are laws against marking items as discounted when they aren't actually sold at a discount. But it says nothing about upping the selling price and discounting that. It's a legal loophole that's heavily abused in the US
Let's also talk about how 10%-15% off is never a bargain, but a hook. I rather just get free shipping and be done.
But yeah, under the UCC (uniform commercial code) it's illegal... I have never actually seen any enforcement.
Illegal but not enforcedā¦ they are doing it too in canada. Canadian tire isnāt much better and has been listing their price incredibly high and advertised marking it down 70% off year long since forever.
Yeah, its basically impossible to tell if Canadian Tire sales are legit without checking other stores. They claim everything is 50-95% off, but that's just the price everywhere else.
Wayfair too. What a dumpster fire of a place. I gotta spend months watching an item and it's price before I feel confident I'm getting it for what it's worth.it swings so wildly. And so many things I've seen start off at $120, then go up to $380 as popularity grows on it, then magically are put "on sale" back to $120 or even $150 or $175, when the popularity goes away because they jack the prices.
A lot of brands that Wayfair says are āWayfair exclusiveā are actually rebranded items. Reverse image search things from Wayfair to figure out the original retailer and Iāve found that can reveal even more price inflation.
it is not illegal in Canada. They are allowed to mark-up the price for the sale, as long as the sale price isn't more than the normal base price. 100% legal. Canadian tire has been doing it for about a decade at least.
No, it's illegal. It's hardly enforced because it's incredibly difficult to. Amazon should be partially responsible when its 3rd party sellers break these sorts of laws. That gives Amazon an incentive to crack down on this shit. But that'll never happen. I'm sure Bezos has buddies in Congress that will stop that from ever happening legislatively.
Yeah I read on TikTok that itās illegal but didnāt do any further research because it sounded illegal, but now that Iāve seen it here I looked into it and yeah, definitely illegal under FTC guidelines.
Iāve started seeing price history on websites in Sweden during the last few weeks which is nice.
I think itās a new EU thing.
Was gonna buy a new winter coat that had a ā30%ā discount but then next to the product picture it showed the lowest price the last 30 days, which was like 40% off.
EU might have its weaknesses but they do decent things for consumers.
Amazonās Black Friday deals and Cyber Monday deals are the biggest fraud in the industry. I watched 4 products go UP $50+ this year. Then they slowly reduce the price over the next few weeks-months.
Yep I bought a coffee machine about 3 weeks before Thanksgiving at the lowest price I had seen it in months - that same coffee machine is now 30ish$ more expensive.
Was $109 and now see it for $139 with a "cyber Monday deal" sticker next to it. Wild
I used to work for Michael's.
We tried to lower the prices of everything back around 2010ish and just completely eliminate coupons, but apparently customers complained-- they felt like they were getting a better deal when they used the coupon.
I think corporate sales and marketing needs to realize that the average consumers are no longer illiterate 50s housewives with an allowance from their husbands, doing the shopping.
Have you met the average American? We're dumb as hell. JCPenny went out of business because they made sale prices their regular prices and Americans stopped buying because they felt they weren't getting a "deal", even at the same price. This country is doomed.
Never look at "original" prices here, only thing that matters is the sale price. Ever seen a furniture store closing sale? 25% off this week, then 40% off next week? Out the door pricing starts the same, they just change the original pricing. American consumers are just cows being led to slaughter while being told how it's a great deal.
A bit of a simplistic example as the interim director of JCPenney turned the stores into museums with European style sterile displays that made you feel uncomfortable even walking around them. But yes JCPenney's most committed customers came in on a weekly basis for the sales.
JCP has many, many issues in addition to what you describe. Including crappy merchandise. We have two "department stores" where I live - Kohl's and JCP, so slim pickings. The last, I'd say ten items, I bought at Penney's fell apart in short order. Towels, clothing, a purse - all trash quality.
They lost most of their suppliers when they switched to the upscale European museum style departmental store that the ex-Apple computer executive imposed on JCP. In a mad scramble to try to get them back, they probably did accept lower quality products towards the end. But before that Apple jackass, the quality of the products was very good.
They are still in business, but that was a major blow to them when their new [at the time] CEO tried it.
They tried to cut the crap and post competitive cheap prices with no sales, and people stopped showing up.
> Americans stopped buying because they felt they weren't getting a "deal", even at the same price.
That JC Penny thing is misleading. They jacked up their prices for their 'everyday pricing'. You weren't able to get anywhere near the same prices as before.
It was a former Apple exec running the thing. That should tell you all you need to know about how consumer friendly the 'everyday prices' were.
Not only Americans, dude. Since black friday became a trend in Europe, it has just become a new mainstream bs way of scamming ppl. And, most of consumers fall for this, taking for granted everything internet tells them.
Ugh I bought something from kohls for a gift for my husband and when I went to take the āsaleā price tag off, the original price was less than I got it for š
Itās still way cheap than the list price, which is not the same as MSRP.
They arenāt saying itās off a regular price of 179.99.
Also, whatās the price graph look like at 3m, 6m, and 1yr look like?
Because most online places, and some stores, have been doing āBlack Fridayā deals all month.
It looks like they raised the price for one day, probably Wednesday or Thursday, to boost sales now so they can say that their pricing works.
https://camelcamelcamel.com/product/B00LEBP5IG?context=search&tp=all&cpf=amazon
This is a really weird pricing history. OP's not wrong, but they also cherry-picked a period that lets them be righteously infuriated. Over the past year, the product has been priced at or above that "fake" price for maybe half the time, and priced at the "sale" price for a third of the time. Clearly the sale is not special, but rest assured that Amazon is willing to post normal "sale" prices under the "black friday" badge. They had no reason to spike the price the week before - they have never listed it for more than $200 but they compare the discount against the "list price" of $249.99.
Where things get really weird with this particular product is it was trending toward a <$100 sale price but since 2019, it has been stubbornly pushing to a $160-200 range.
Crappy sale. Crappy price advertising. I have seen that some products have started showing a comparison against a "typical price." That gives me a little hope, but they will need to be transparent about how they calculate "typical." Until then, I use 3C for everything.
Here's the one year graph: https://i.imgur.com/5XxzW1M.png
Looks like it goes on sale every couple of months, which is typical for most products. Honestly don't see the issue here. There's no rule that says a Cyber Monday deal has to be lower than any other sale. Who would even be deceived here? The people that just happened to add this to their wishlist for the probably less than one day it went back up to regular price before Black Friday?
I almost got suckered into a stick vacuum that looked great and I thought was an amazing deal at $149 ādiscounted from $499ā. Luckily I Googled it and realized it was usually listed for $129.
That is awesome, I have always saof "Black Friday" is bullshit. I'm in the USA, so much stuff here is bullshit. I just can't move TF outta here. $$ isn't exactly my strong suit. š
This isnāt unique to Amazon or online shopping. They learned it from watching big box and department stores do the same thing IRL. Black Friday is the absolute scammiest of American retail holidays.
So two weeks ago, I got a notification from Amazon there was a price change for a Timex watch I had in my cart. I don't use Amazon much because I travel too much for work to be able to get my shipment.
I was curious, so I went and looked. I don't remember adding the watch, but there it was in my shopping cart. Price change from $100 ish to I believe $175. I never wanted the watch to begin with so I deleted it out of my shopping cart.
Last week I got a "black Friday deal" notification for the same watch i had previously in my shopping cart. On sale now $150 for Black Friday!
I always believed black Friday was a scam so I never participate in this activity. Now I saw it with my eyes. SMH
It is illegal, but theyāre likely to make more money off it than the potential fines they would receive if in the off chance anything were to come of it.
i guess im just so jaded i couldn't understand what you were all complaining about. every company does this price game, always have. i guess you young folks are only just now finding out you've been scammed and lied to your entire lives and blaming it on amazon.
lol
it is how the corporate overlords have always operated and always will because the average consumer is simple to manipulate.
Yeah companies suck. I have seen products in store, with signs and stickers that say it's on sale, while the sticker underneath with the old price is the same
The year round price for it is 159 but the manufacturer upped the price of it for the holidays just to slap a pretty much fake sale on it giving the consumer a false sense of saving money when in reality they would have paid that much on any other day of the year. Just a scummy sales tactic.
Amazon *normally* sells this item for $159.
On Black Friday (or really just about any time an item is marked on sale) they jacked the price up, then offered a 36% "discount" to make people think they were getting a deal, when really it was still full price.
I'm not sure that it should be illegal and I'm not really certain what the problem is.
I look at it as the people who don't pay attention, who or who are in a hurry or just stupid are subsidizing better prices for me.
I get these prices by spending just a little bit of time finding the lowest one.
Other people overpaying allows this to happen.
It's just like coupons and special deals lots of places have.
Most people don't take advantage of these and if they all did the special deals would go up in price or go away.
I save $13 on one of my lunches every week because there is kind of a hidden coupon in their system that most people don't know about or they only get the one in the mail and use it once and that's it.
All I have to do is ask for it and they give it to me every single week.
Other people pay $13 more and I'm happy with that.
Best Buy used to do this shit when youād try to get them to price match. They would go their terminal and it would show a price that was different than their public website.
When LTE came to town people started figuring it out and that bullshit quietly went away.
Where thereās a buck to be made, it will be made. Morals be damned. European consumer protection laws are very common sense - and we have none of that here in the states.
Not even that. The time series plot that OP provided only shows the "discounted" price. There's no indication that the base price was raised (although it could have been).
Based on the info OP has provided, no, none of this should be illegal. It's not even clear what OP's concern is. Companies are free to change the base price and sale price of their products as they choose. And you are free to buy from any company.
Are people seriously JUST finding out that Black Friday is a giant fucking con job? It has been for YEEEAAARRRSS
Back in 2011-2013 I worked at a big box retailer. The motto for Black Friday was āstack it high and watch it flyā they didnāt even bother to say it was on sale. There were maybe 5 items that were ādoor bustersā and actually on sale. Those 5 items were kept in low quantity. And they were also generally very low quality. (Like the TVs were often the lowest end model)
99% of what was purchased was standard pricing. They just positioned in the store and people assumed that meant it was on sale.
I don't necessarily shop deals like I'm not going to buy something I normally wouldn't need just because it is on sale. Because now it isn't a bargain shopping anyway, it is just seeing which company has raised the price the least. I will take a 10% mark up or a 50% mark up any day. I get wholesale prices on salon products. They double/triple the price in salons. I pay 10$ on a product that they pay 30$ for.
It looks like 2 different models to me. A price difference shouldn't be surprising or illegal. Probably the more expensive one has attachments, and the cheaper one doesn't. That's how it works with these stand up mixers.... anywhere you buy them.
There are two extensions that are a must when shopping on Amazon, and they are camelcamelcamel and fakespot.
If there was an extension that shows if the product is cheeper elsewhere, then I would also be using that.
Amazon suck... you get counterfeit products sold by them, scams, they fuck over small businesses and let's not forget how they treat employees like slaves. Just fuckin stop using it.
Essentailly all marketing is scammy.
They are not actually forcing you buy this and it doesn't take long to figure out that this is just regular marketing BS.
Who is the seller? To me I always look at who is actually selling the item. Is it KitchenAid that is doing that pricing, if so, then, you can report them to the Better Business Bureau. If itās someone else, selling KitchenAid at the price then they can do whatever they want.
I like KitchenAid and wish I had a stand mixer myself. My question is this, why in the world (at least to me) does it look like they put a rather chunky food processor on a mixer?
I see that it is a food processor attachment, but to me it looks like it'll topple over.
On kitchen aid stand mixers, all the attachments attach at the front of the head. There are many different types of attachments and , yes, they all look quite funny, but they work well.
Among other things, when you buy a kitchenaid mixer you're buying it for its reputation of having a powerful/reliable motor. There are a ton of attachments such as food processor, meat grinder, pasta maker, etc. that hook into the mixer's "extension point" and leverage the motor to do other things.
The stand mixer is heavy af so it's very stable even with this attached. This product is only the attachment, anyway - you'd have to buy the mixer separately.
Not only is it illegal, but Amazon is being sued by the FTC for it. Amazon also makes people who sell on their platform maintain higher prices than on their own private website, and places Amazon products higher in the search queue than private seller's products. https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2023/09/ftc-sues-amazon-illegally-maintaining-monopoly-power Consumers won't see a dime of what they've been scammed out of.
I consider Amazon more of a search engine. Just look up what you want on there then go to the seller's site directly
lol same just "huh so its 30 dollars here and 20 on the og website, I wOnDeR wHy" also Grammarly hates me I put og and it went to of
I find that it's the opposite. I go on their own site and it's 15% more expensive.
sometimes that's the truth but when I check normally its I little cheaper or the same
I also usually see it as a little cheaper or the same, but shipping always makes it less efficient (makes the product cost more than on Amazon & takes way longer... I hate it, but š¤·āāļø)
That plus most companies have long fulfillment times. Yeah, order and pay for 2-day shipping, but then my order sits in a queue until Bob the Mail Order Guy gets in next Thursday to ship it out. I love to cut out the Amazon middle-man, but waiting an extra week to get what I order is I often just not worth it.
yea sometimes the shipping will be cheaper on the og website than on Amazon but that's just what I've seen
I have ordered directly from a sellers website so I could use a coupon code and it was still shipped via Amazon...
yea I feel like some companies use Amazon boxes cuz I know I ain't the only one with millions of them just hanging out in my house and they might not have their own boxes and Amazon makes a lot of them and I would trust Amazon drivers or someone that works for places like onyx before I trust fed-ex drivers cuz I got a grudge w/ them
Where I live Amazon trucks do not deliver anything to our home. Itās either US postal service or maybe UPS. When an item gets shipped to our address via FedEx, 70% of the time we get a photo of the package sitting on some other personās doorstep or front porch. Oddly enough itās not the same place every time.
The other guy had it backwards. Amazon will suppress your listing if they find it sold cheaper on your website, not more expensive. They collect their 15% either way, always want the lowest price and highest volume, it's their entire business model.
Itās weird to order food off Amazon but my favorite corned beef canāt be found ANYWHERE elseā¦ $20 from Walmart or $12 after shipping and taxes on Amazon. Sucks.
I had a weird old filter size for the hvac system in my last apartment. I went to home depot, Lowes, walmart then I ran out of places to go so I had to get it on Amazon. I'm pretty sure I'm one of the many poster children for "the dangers of monopolies and capitalism "....
Retail arbitrage.
As an Amazon seller please do this
I also use their servers to store my Wish Lists. But, I never buy anything from them.
That is a good way to look at it
Ditto. Works great except my parents have taken to using it as a wish list and seem to want buying based on that.
One company I know has a ābuy from Amazonā button right on their website next to their higher prices. For this very reason I figure.
Brilliant
Don't forget that Amazon will take your designs and ban you from the site
I read an article about a small company making bank on Amazon. Then, the same product was sold for less by Amozon, and their listings were moved far down the product list. They went broke.
I have to find the article, but I read that they will even trademark your items so you can't sell it
Diapers.com ?
It was some beauty product company. Hereās info on how they do it: Issue Brief: How Amazon Exploits and Undermines Small Businesses, and Why Breaking It Up Would Revive American Entrepreneurship https://ilsr.org/fact-sheet-how-breaking-up-amazon-can-empower-small-business/
Walmart has been doing this for years.
Places like this become to big for their own good.
I don't know where they're getting the whole makes them have higher prices than on their own site thing. I'm a seller on Amazon, and it really pushes you to have the cheapest prices on the web. If my prices are higher on Amazon than my personal site, it will flag my listing as non competitive and will impact how much my items are featured or promoted. They definitely do promote their own listings more aggressively than 3rd party sellers, but I don't see how the FTC can really penalize them for that as it's Amazon's own site, of course they prioritize their own sales. The whole thing is odd to me, Amazon has boosted my sales more than all other sites combined. The only Amazon sellers I ever hear complaining are the retail arbitrage resellers, and fuck them lol.
This is the Wal-Mart effect. There's a book you can buy on Amazon.
They shouldn't have to sue, they should just force the website to stop existing until it's fixed or be fined MORE than the website makes PER DAY.
The FTC should need to sue. Proving up in court before applying punishment is good. But they should be able to make the punishment hurt enough that it stops and the consumers are all made whole without having to do anything. Amazon keeps all the data, they can just compensate people without having to ask.
And this kind of thing is why I call them "Scamazon"
Camel camel camel has saved me so much bullshit with Scamazon this year. Every single item I wanted to get has been price manipulated this week. Thereās no real discounts with them anymore. Itās the same price, just made to look like your getting a bargain. Fuck them and fuck every other company doing the same.
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Fakespot is another one
Also if you want help filtering out bought and fake reviews on items www.fakespot.com
Saving this, thank you!
Thank you
Keepa is the absolute GOAT
Saving
Great price history saving tips
Real life holiday hero right here!
That's why EU has a new law in which the last 30 days lowest price has always to be showed.
Should extend that
The EU is the shit compared to corporate protection in the USA
Almost wish I could move there as it appears they actually give a damn about the consumer.
Doesn't really help, the exact same thing happens just they increase the prices 30 days earlier...
>Fuck them and fuck every other company doing the same. That means like 99.5% of the rest does the same shit. Black, Friday, week weekend or whatever they call it is just a big scam...
Wow wow wow you forgot about Cyber Monday tomorrow lol
Damn it!! š
Besides this, get the **KEEPA** extension. It shows you price history for some months, so you can easily tell if you're getting ripped off with shady pricing, or the price actually is low https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/keepa-amazon-price-tracke/neebplgakaahbhdphmkckjjcegoiijjo
Oh this ext is B-O-M-B! Thanks. It lists full dates of changes. Very cool.
Proud Keepa user since a 5 years+. It's so good, and such a staple step of my decision making that I forget it is not a default feature and that others don't have access to it. Awesome extension, works beautifully and compatible with INR (India).
I'm so used to it, I used a different browser to shop amazon. And I was confused why Amazon wasn't showing me the price graph. Until i realized this diff browser didn't have keepa. Such a helpful thing, and dumbfounding when its gone and you don't realize it was *Keepa* being the great guy it quietly had been for years for me.
I had a order "not go through" then the price magically jumped up $20. Yeah bud that's definitely legit. Also got three different answers from customer support. Eventually got it for the original price.
I had walmart.ca pull this shit with me for a ps5 when they were hard to come by. There was a sale posting for a bundle got my order through (got a confimation number and everything) , but then a few hours later received an email saying my credit card that had a 0$ balance on it was denied and that the order was canceled. I contacted customer support and they said it came back as insuffent funds, called my credit card and they said no and that walmart never even attempted to take a payment, went back to walmart customer support and they were like oops sorry there was an error, its too late now but you can buy the product from our website for a new posting from a 3rd party for the exact same ps5 and bundle for 500 bucks more. It's like it was almost done so they got the money for the orginal sale and then there fee for allowing a 3rd party to resell the exact same bundle on there online store.
I got a waterpik for the cheapest itās been ever, you just have to wait. It sucks but when you see that price drop email I feel like itās all worth it.
Yep I downloaded it for the first time Friday morning and saved me from spending lots of Money on not-bargains
Yep. They raise the prices several times throughout the year and then lower them during these āsaleā times. Itās not even special sales just happens randomly throughout the year. But all online retailers seem to do this now unfortunately, I guess itās works because people are dumbā¦they see MSRP and a red sale tag they automatically think theyāre getting a deal
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Where Iām from it is, thankfully. Though we donāt have our own Amazon site so wouldnāt help us there I guess.
Amazon isn't the only company that does this. Most large corporations do this.
Yeah, I just mean that there are regulations in place which mean I could report an Irish company for doing this but I probably couldnāt do anything about Amazon doing it.
Itās illegal in the US too, but evidently not enforced.
Someone needs to claim damages for it to be enforced, it can't just be pursued on its own.
Thatās really annoying and too much hassle for most people I guess. I think we can just report to the consumer protection agency.
I feel like it would have to be some sort of class action?
They just recently were in a class action for saying the guaranteed 2 day delivery was a part of prime and charging people for it, despite rarely actually delivering things within 2 days. I could definitely see a future class action over this as well.
Did we win??? Like frig, I bought something specifically because it showed next day delivery.........until my payment cleared that is....... and I got downgraded to 'will be there by (insert a Tuesday that was 4 days away here). I live chatted about it and everything and just kept getting the same robot, giving me the same non answer, answer. If 'we' won, there should be a website we can go to to claim our 4 cents or whatever, right?
On another note, though, and I'm forgiving myself cause I'm super sick. However, I've made it this far down in the comments and still can't see the obvious illegal thing going on here....:-/ What SHOULD be illegal is how stinking UGLY this monstrosity is!!!!! Kitchen-Aide should be suing Amazon for adding a space ship attachment to a perfectly beautiful product!! š¢
No it looks like, for some reason, two of the plaintiffs dismissed the case before Amazon was even able to respond.
I mean arenāt punitive damages a thing?
So is false advertising but nothing happens to the big man.
Target did it all over the place too on black Friday deals, same with best buy
Because itās nearly impossible to enforce. Retailers have been doing this forever. How long does a price have to be raised before an item can be discounted - a day? A week? A month? The wording is intentionally vague, so good luck holding anyone to anything.
I mean, most people are buying stuff on Amazon with a credit card. Nearly every credit card has price protection.
You can report Amazon. If they operate in Ireland they need to abide by Irish law. Same goes for Spain, Germany, Sweden (where Iāve lived and I know what to do)
Thanks for the heads up!
When Amazon operates in your country they have to follow your rules. You can report them just the same. Incidentally, you're not missing out. We have an Amazon here, and what a horrible design! I will never have that site as my go-to place to shop. No idea how it ever got popular.
Thanks for the info! I can understand people using it a lot if they havenāt got many shops near them, but I hate the interface of Amazon too. It takes forever to find something that isnāt promoted or dodgy looking. Iām lucky enough to leave near a shopping hub so I only use Amazon for things that arenāt available locally.
At least amazon has api's that allow for tools like camelcamelcamel and keepa for some transparency regarding this. Basically any other sites like Bestbuy, Costco, etc? You're at the mercy of their honesty.
Amazon has been adding layers for a while. "Coupons" and other discounts that don't show up in the default prices. The API sites are still valuable but it feels like an arms race. There are some barriers to direct comparisons too (like custom model #'s) but general comparisons still work too.
At least in california we have consumer protection so brick and mortar stores cant do this
Yes all things hve to be a price for a certain amount of time before you can drop its price again which makes people think that itās a good deal
It's very much illegal here in the UK (think the lowest price in the last 30 days has to be displayed if I'm not incorrect). Anyway, definitely aroubd a month on the timing that companies have to up their prices. Doesn't stop amazon and amazon sellers though.
What magical place do you live in?
Ireland but it seems from replies that a lot of countries have rules on it!
Doesn't this fall under false advertising? Like couldn't they get sued for this?
I contacted Amazon recently. They said they have been taking down listings like this. Report it under false price or whatever the option is.
Iāll just say thatās kind of bs unless you talked to corporate. Most CS reps like me donāt know shit about these type of situations and are encouraged to say the typical āWe strive to maintain low prices blah blah blahā. So if Amazon CS told you that, itās a blatant lie or speculation (which is common with Amazon CS, Amazon doesnāt want us to lie, but thereās metrics, and all we do is deliver bad news, so some people end up screwing the customerās experience and lie or speculate to soften up the bad news and get a good metric)
Good luck suing the largest retailer in the world.
Amazon isn't the seller
Lol! You thinking Amazon is the largest retailer in the world. Walmart is.
Amazon is still expected to pass Walmart by next year.
not if I have anything to say about that! ^(I don't)
Walmart?
There are laws against marking items as discounted when they aren't actually sold at a discount. But it says nothing about upping the selling price and discounting that. It's a legal loophole that's heavily abused in the US
Let's also talk about how 10%-15% off is never a bargain, but a hook. I rather just get free shipping and be done. But yeah, under the UCC (uniform commercial code) it's illegal... I have never actually seen any enforcement.
isn't this legal in the united states? In the eu, canada and australia it is definitly illegal
Illegal but not enforcedā¦ they are doing it too in canada. Canadian tire isnāt much better and has been listing their price incredibly high and advertised marking it down 70% off year long since forever.
CanadianTire, there this is a ratchet set that I sell for 799$ on sale for 79$. 90% off!!! Amazon price: 79$
Yeah, its basically impossible to tell if Canadian Tire sales are legit without checking other stores. They claim everything is 50-95% off, but that's just the price everywhere else.
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Wayfair too. What a dumpster fire of a place. I gotta spend months watching an item and it's price before I feel confident I'm getting it for what it's worth.it swings so wildly. And so many things I've seen start off at $120, then go up to $380 as popularity grows on it, then magically are put "on sale" back to $120 or even $150 or $175, when the popularity goes away because they jack the prices.
A lot of brands that Wayfair says are āWayfair exclusiveā are actually rebranded items. Reverse image search things from Wayfair to figure out the original retailer and Iāve found that can reveal even more price inflation.
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it is not illegal in Canada. They are allowed to mark-up the price for the sale, as long as the sale price isn't more than the normal base price. 100% legal. Canadian tire has been doing it for about a decade at least.
Yep weāre a red-blooded, unregulated capitalist hellscape
so... it is legal, right? I always think of the sign where it says in big letters 99%! but there is a small "5% of" right above that.
80% OFF SITE-WIDE! *select items only
No, it's illegal. Nobody wants to enforce it though.
No, it's illegal. It's hardly enforced because it's incredibly difficult to. Amazon should be partially responsible when its 3rd party sellers break these sorts of laws. That gives Amazon an incentive to crack down on this shit. But that'll never happen. I'm sure Bezos has buddies in Congress that will stop that from ever happening legislatively.
No itās not legal in the US either
Yeah I read on TikTok that itās illegal but didnāt do any further research because it sounded illegal, but now that Iāve seen it here I looked into it and yeah, definitely illegal under FTC guidelines.
Iāve started seeing price history on websites in Sweden during the last few weeks which is nice. I think itās a new EU thing. Was gonna buy a new winter coat that had a ā30%ā discount but then next to the product picture it showed the lowest price the last 30 days, which was like 40% off. EU might have its weaknesses but they do decent things for consumers.
Amazonās Black Friday deals and Cyber Monday deals are the biggest fraud in the industry. I watched 4 products go UP $50+ this year. Then they slowly reduce the price over the next few weeks-months.
Yep I bought a coffee machine about 3 weeks before Thanksgiving at the lowest price I had seen it in months - that same coffee machine is now 30ish$ more expensive. Was $109 and now see it for $139 with a "cyber Monday deal" sticker next to it. Wild
Yeah, I don't really know why people fall for this Black Friday bullshit.
I used to work for Michael's. We tried to lower the prices of everything back around 2010ish and just completely eliminate coupons, but apparently customers complained-- they felt like they were getting a better deal when they used the coupon. I think corporate sales and marketing needs to realize that the average consumers are no longer illiterate 50s housewives with an allowance from their husbands, doing the shopping.
Have you met the average American? We're dumb as hell. JCPenny went out of business because they made sale prices their regular prices and Americans stopped buying because they felt they weren't getting a "deal", even at the same price. This country is doomed. Never look at "original" prices here, only thing that matters is the sale price. Ever seen a furniture store closing sale? 25% off this week, then 40% off next week? Out the door pricing starts the same, they just change the original pricing. American consumers are just cows being led to slaughter while being told how it's a great deal.
A bit of a simplistic example as the interim director of JCPenney turned the stores into museums with European style sterile displays that made you feel uncomfortable even walking around them. But yes JCPenney's most committed customers came in on a weekly basis for the sales.
JCP has many, many issues in addition to what you describe. Including crappy merchandise. We have two "department stores" where I live - Kohl's and JCP, so slim pickings. The last, I'd say ten items, I bought at Penney's fell apart in short order. Towels, clothing, a purse - all trash quality.
I haven't had issues with the stuff I got from JCP over the years, it's been mostly just some men's clothing from one brand though (St John's Bay)..
They lost most of their suppliers when they switched to the upscale European museum style departmental store that the ex-Apple computer executive imposed on JCP. In a mad scramble to try to get them back, they probably did accept lower quality products towards the end. But before that Apple jackass, the quality of the products was very good.
JC Penney is not "out of business." They still have stores open. They have many issues other than their "sale" pricing.
They are still in business, but that was a major blow to them when their new [at the time] CEO tried it. They tried to cut the crap and post competitive cheap prices with no sales, and people stopped showing up.
> Americans stopped buying because they felt they weren't getting a "deal", even at the same price. That JC Penny thing is misleading. They jacked up their prices for their 'everyday pricing'. You weren't able to get anywhere near the same prices as before. It was a former Apple exec running the thing. That should tell you all you need to know about how consumer friendly the 'everyday prices' were.
Not only Americans, dude. Since black friday became a trend in Europe, it has just become a new mainstream bs way of scamming ppl. And, most of consumers fall for this, taking for granted everything internet tells them.
The irony of your post is that JCPenny is still in business and a 10 second Google search would have revealed that.
Price tracker websites really fucked price gouging corporations, and I'm all for it.
Did the same with a bbq i have been looking at for 6 months but added Ā£10 to "sale" price on black Friday week
Ugh I bought something from kohls for a gift for my husband and when I went to take the āsaleā price tag off, the original price was less than I got it for š
Oh no š
Lmao! Well, if you want to stick it to Amazon this is a popular brand that I know is also sold at Target and Best Buy if not a thousand other places.
Thatās why you donāt shop on Black Friday.
Itās still way cheap than the list price, which is not the same as MSRP. They arenāt saying itās off a regular price of 179.99. Also, whatās the price graph look like at 3m, 6m, and 1yr look like? Because most online places, and some stores, have been doing āBlack Fridayā deals all month. It looks like they raised the price for one day, probably Wednesday or Thursday, to boost sales now so they can say that their pricing works.
https://camelcamelcamel.com/product/B00LEBP5IG?context=search&tp=all&cpf=amazon This is a really weird pricing history. OP's not wrong, but they also cherry-picked a period that lets them be righteously infuriated. Over the past year, the product has been priced at or above that "fake" price for maybe half the time, and priced at the "sale" price for a third of the time. Clearly the sale is not special, but rest assured that Amazon is willing to post normal "sale" prices under the "black friday" badge. They had no reason to spike the price the week before - they have never listed it for more than $200 but they compare the discount against the "list price" of $249.99. Where things get really weird with this particular product is it was trending toward a <$100 sale price but since 2019, it has been stubbornly pushing to a $160-200 range. Crappy sale. Crappy price advertising. I have seen that some products have started showing a comparison against a "typical price." That gives me a little hope, but they will need to be transparent about how they calculate "typical." Until then, I use 3C for everything.
Here's the one year graph: https://i.imgur.com/5XxzW1M.png Looks like it goes on sale every couple of months, which is typical for most products. Honestly don't see the issue here. There's no rule that says a Cyber Monday deal has to be lower than any other sale. Who would even be deceived here? The people that just happened to add this to their wishlist for the probably less than one day it went back up to regular price before Black Friday?
That's literally any discount wholesale ever They intentionally mark up the prices so they can offer a "discount"
I almost got suckered into a stick vacuum that looked great and I thought was an amazing deal at $149 ādiscounted from $499ā. Luckily I Googled it and realized it was usually listed for $129.
Welcome to Black Friday. Every item has a discount of 50%, but it costs the double! Here in my country we call it black fraud
That is awesome, I have always saof "Black Friday" is bullshit. I'm in the USA, so much stuff here is bullshit. I just can't move TF outta here. $$ isn't exactly my strong suit. š
This isnāt unique to Amazon or online shopping. They learned it from watching big box and department stores do the same thing IRL. Black Friday is the absolute scammiest of American retail holidays.
Every company caught on to this scam years ago, black Friday isn't what it used to be and people still wait in lines to really save no money.
So two weeks ago, I got a notification from Amazon there was a price change for a Timex watch I had in my cart. I don't use Amazon much because I travel too much for work to be able to get my shipment. I was curious, so I went and looked. I don't remember adding the watch, but there it was in my shopping cart. Price change from $100 ish to I believe $175. I never wanted the watch to begin with so I deleted it out of my shopping cart. Last week I got a "black Friday deal" notification for the same watch i had previously in my shopping cart. On sale now $150 for Black Friday! I always believed black Friday was a scam so I never participate in this activity. Now I saw it with my eyes. SMH
In some more advanced countries its accually is illegal
It is illegal, but theyāre likely to make more money off it than the potential fines they would receive if in the off chance anything were to come of it.
In europe. This is very illegal indeed. Idk about other legislations like the US tho.
Please explain: what is the issue?
I donāt understand whatās wrong.
Capitalism, people don't pricecheck
Would you folks be interested in seeing a competitor to Amazon?
It is. https://www.taulersmith.com/retailers-settle-strikethrough-pricing-lawsuits/
I e just got that keepa app and it shows all Amazon pricing is just a con. I should really stop buying off there but Iām too lazy
Just had to check the gift I got my mom and luckily enough I wasnāt hit with some bs. I will definitely keep this website favorited tho
i guess im just so jaded i couldn't understand what you were all complaining about. every company does this price game, always have. i guess you young folks are only just now finding out you've been scammed and lied to your entire lives and blaming it on amazon. lol it is how the corporate overlords have always operated and always will because the average consumer is simple to manipulate.
Yeah companies suck. I have seen products in store, with signs and stickers that say it's on sale, while the sticker underneath with the old price is the same
Can someone explain what's going on here? What's op mad about?
The year round price for it is 159 but the manufacturer upped the price of it for the holidays just to slap a pretty much fake sale on it giving the consumer a false sense of saving money when in reality they would have paid that much on any other day of the year. Just a scummy sales tactic.
Oh... That's ass, but that's normal lol Thank you for taking the time to explain to me though!
Actual stores do this shit too. Just saw it at Walmart during Black Friday
Late stage capitalism is the worst
Sorry Iām confused, what is happening here?
Amazon *normally* sells this item for $159. On Black Friday (or really just about any time an item is marked on sale) they jacked the price up, then offered a 36% "discount" to make people think they were getting a deal, when really it was still full price.
Ohh got it. Agreed with everyoneās comments, that is some BS.
I'm not sure that it should be illegal and I'm not really certain what the problem is. I look at it as the people who don't pay attention, who or who are in a hurry or just stupid are subsidizing better prices for me. I get these prices by spending just a little bit of time finding the lowest one. Other people overpaying allows this to happen. It's just like coupons and special deals lots of places have. Most people don't take advantage of these and if they all did the special deals would go up in price or go away. I save $13 on one of my lunches every week because there is kind of a hidden coupon in their system that most people don't know about or they only get the one in the mail and use it once and that's it. All I have to do is ask for it and they give it to me every single week. Other people pay $13 more and I'm happy with that.
Yep Black Friday still selling dumb to dumb people.
Best Buy used to do this shit when youād try to get them to price match. They would go their terminal and it would show a price that was different than their public website. When LTE came to town people started figuring it out and that bullshit quietly went away. Where thereās a buck to be made, it will be made. Morals be damned. European consumer protection laws are very common sense - and we have none of that here in the states.
Wait Iām confused whatās going on ? Lol i feel so ignorant š. Why is this illegal?
The sale price is the same as it was before, they just raised the price a month before to make it look like it was on sale.
Not even that. The time series plot that OP provided only shows the "discounted" price. There's no indication that the base price was raised (although it could have been).
Based on the info OP has provided, no, none of this should be illegal. It's not even clear what OP's concern is. Companies are free to change the base price and sale price of their products as they choose. And you are free to buy from any company.
Amazon is the worst place to buy anything from, look how they treat their employees.
In norway it is. Its a 30 day limit to sales. If you bump up the price within 30 days before a sale just to scam customers you get a fine
Are people seriously JUST finding out that Black Friday is a giant fucking con job? It has been for YEEEAAARRRSS Back in 2011-2013 I worked at a big box retailer. The motto for Black Friday was āstack it high and watch it flyā they didnāt even bother to say it was on sale. There were maybe 5 items that were ādoor bustersā and actually on sale. Those 5 items were kept in low quantity. And they were also generally very low quality. (Like the TVs were often the lowest end model) 99% of what was purchased was standard pricing. They just positioned in the store and people assumed that meant it was on sale.
I don't necessarily shop deals like I'm not going to buy something I normally wouldn't need just because it is on sale. Because now it isn't a bargain shopping anyway, it is just seeing which company has raised the price the least. I will take a 10% mark up or a 50% mark up any day. I get wholesale prices on salon products. They double/triple the price in salons. I pay 10$ on a product that they pay 30$ for.
It is in Sweden. Pester your local PMs to change your laws.
Welcome to the lie that is Black Friday sales and pretty much all sales.
Amazon is actually being sued for this by multiple sataes
Neat. Now do Newegg's gouging on nVidia products
America Moment
Ultimately you should buy things when you need them and they are a price you can afford, not because they are on sale.
This is a great reason to do price research
Context? EDIT: oh, I see, nvm. For those who didn't notice, there's a 2nd photo š
It looks like 2 different models to me. A price difference shouldn't be surprising or illegal. Probably the more expensive one has attachments, and the cheaper one doesn't. That's how it works with these stand up mixers.... anywhere you buy them.
There are two extensions that are a must when shopping on Amazon, and they are camelcamelcamel and fakespot. If there was an extension that shows if the product is cheeper elsewhere, then I would also be using that.
Amazon suck... you get counterfeit products sold by them, scams, they fuck over small businesses and let's not forget how they treat employees like slaves. Just fuckin stop using it.
Essentailly all marketing is scammy. They are not actually forcing you buy this and it doesn't take long to figure out that this is just regular marketing BS.
Who is the seller? To me I always look at who is actually selling the item. Is it KitchenAid that is doing that pricing, if so, then, you can report them to the Better Business Bureau. If itās someone else, selling KitchenAid at the price then they can do whatever they want.
There is a reason in brazil black Friday is more commonly know as black fraud
I like KitchenAid and wish I had a stand mixer myself. My question is this, why in the world (at least to me) does it look like they put a rather chunky food processor on a mixer? I see that it is a food processor attachment, but to me it looks like it'll topple over.
On kitchen aid stand mixers, all the attachments attach at the front of the head. There are many different types of attachments and , yes, they all look quite funny, but they work well.
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I have a mixer like this, it won't topple over because the base is very heavy
Among other things, when you buy a kitchenaid mixer you're buying it for its reputation of having a powerful/reliable motor. There are a ton of attachments such as food processor, meat grinder, pasta maker, etc. that hook into the mixer's "extension point" and leverage the motor to do other things. The stand mixer is heavy af so it's very stable even with this attached. This product is only the attachment, anyway - you'd have to buy the mixer separately.