Slightly OT: Amazon overcharging for CD`s

Dear all

I thought I would let you all know what Amazon.co.uk is upto at the moment.

Yesterday I received my order from that which included a CD`s Single.

As usual they charged me £3.99 which is a normal price to pay, however when
I looked at the Cd their is a big red sticker that states 2 TRACK SINGLE
EXPECT TO PAY NO MORE THAN £2.

I then released that this was one of the new Cd`s that EMI is now selling
cheap with only 2 tracks to encourage more CD single sales.

I therefore sent an a-mail to Amazon to voice my concern that they are
charging TWICE the recorded companies RRP.

This Is Amazons Reply

Dear Customer

Thank you for contacting Amazon.co.uk.

Unfortunately we do not have a price matching policy at this time.

We realise that from time to time our customers will be able to
purchase items from another store at a lower price than ours.

We offer our customers consistently low prices on our entire catalogue
of books, audio books, music CDs, DVDs, videos, software, video games,
toys, Electronics and Photo products, Kitchen and Home items, gifts
and much more.

Though price is obviously a very important factor in any purchasing
decision, the best reason to buy from Amazon.co.uk is the quality of
customer service we provide.

We care about your shopping online experience and hope you'll take
advantage of our discounts on your next visit to our site.

Please let us know if this a-mail answered your question:


I therefore wrote back with this reply

Dear Amazon

I wasn`t asking you to price match a product that I had scene cheaper
elsewhere.

I was pointing out that you are selling a product at TWICE the
manufacturers/record companies recommended price.

The reason that the record companies have brought out these cheaper Cd`s is
to encourage more people to buy CD singles.

If is going to be Amazon`s policy to charge double for these products then
you will lose my custom along with many other disgruntled customers.


And again this was there reply

Dear Customer

Thank you for contacting us at Amazon.co.uk.

As stated previously, unfortunately we do not have a price matching
policy at this time.

We realise that from time to time our customers will be able to
purchase items from another store at a lower price than ours.

We care about your shopping online experience and hope you'll take
advantage of our discounts on your next visit to our site.

We regret that we have not been able to address your concerns to your
satisfaction. Unfortunately, we will not be able to offer any
additional insight or action on these matters.




Has anyone else experienced this blatant overcharging????

The Equalizer

> As usual they charged me £3.99 which is a normal price to pay, however when
> I looked at the Cd their is a big red sticker that states 2 TRACK SINGLE
> EXPECT TO PAY NO MORE THAN £2.

Try contacting a) the record company, and b) trading standards - they are
selling price-marked goods at above their stated price.

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* old email address "btiruseless" abandoned due to worm-generated spam *
--- My new email address has "ngspamtrap" & @btinternet.com in it ---

Colin Wilson

"The Equalizer" <311-555-> wrote in message
news:uGACb.33$...
> Dear all
>
> I thought I would let you all know what Amazon.co.uk is upto at the moment.
>
> Yesterday I received my order from that which included a CD`s Single.
>
> As usual they charged me £3.99 which is a normal price to pay, however when
> I looked at the Cd their is a big red sticker that states 2 TRACK SINGLE
> EXPECT TO PAY NO MORE THAN £2.
>
> I then released that this was one of the new Cd`s that EMI is now selling
> cheap with only 2 tracks to encourage more CD single sales.
>
> I therefore sent an a-mail to Amazon to voice my concern that they are
> charging TWICE the recorded companies RRP.
> Has anyone else experienced this blatant overcharging????

Well there's no law against it.
Your choice as a customer whether you buy it or not.
They aren't misleading you. Their price is clearly stated.

Loz

loz

"Colin Wilson" <> wrote in message
news: t...
> As usual they charged me £3.99 which is a normal price to pay, however when
> I looked at the Cd their is a big red sticker that states 2 TRACK SINGLE
> EXPECT TO PAY NO MORE THAN £2.

>Try contacting a) the record company, and b) trading standards - they are
> selling price-marked goods at above their stated price.

No law says they have to sell it at that or any other price.
If you think it is too much, then go elsewhere.

Loz

loz

"The Equalizer" <311-555-> wrote in message
news:uGACb.33$...

> Has anyone else experienced this blatant overcharging????

Come on, I'm sure you must understand how this happened and how to deal with
it. The price was generated by an inventory control program. For some reason
the SKU for the product still points to the standard list price. No human
being other than a warehouse drone ever actually saw that sticker. And your
e-mail was scanned by a 'bot that looked through it for keywords and
generated the automated reply that seemed to match.

You need to pick up the phone and call an actual human being.

RichC

Rich Clark

"The Equalizer" <311-555-> wrote in message
news:uGACb.33$...
> Dear all
>
> I thought I would let you all know what Amazon.co.uk is upto at the
moment.
>
> Yesterday I received my order from that which included a CD`s Single.
>
> As usual they charged me £3.99 which is a normal price to pay, however
when
> I looked at the Cd their is a big red sticker that states 2 TRACK SINGLE
> EXPECT TO PAY NO MORE THAN £2.
>
> I then released that this was one of the new Cd`s that EMI is now selling
> cheap with only 2 tracks to encourage more CD single sales.
>
> I therefore sent an a-mail to Amazon to voice my concern that they are
> charging TWICE the recorded companies RRP.

This may be a manner of Amazon chargine some customers different prices than
everybody else. They're well known for it. Do a google search for
something like 'amazon charges different prices'...
http://www.macworld.com/2001/03/opinion/desktop/
http://www.computerworld.com/industr...,49569,00.html

If this is the case, sometimes deleting all amazon cookies will get you back
to the 'actual' price. (which can sometimes be *higher* so beware!)

Jeeters

On Sat, 13 Dec 2003 09:45:07 -0500, "Jeeters" <>
wrote:

>
>"The Equalizer" <311-555-> wrote in message
>news:uGACb.33$...
>> Dear all
>>
>> I thought I would let you all know what Amazon.co.uk is upto at the
>moment.
>>
>> Yesterday I received my order from that which included a CD`s Single.
>>
>> As usual they charged me £3.99 which is a normal price to pay, however
>when
>> I looked at the Cd their is a big red sticker that states 2 TRACK SINGLE
>> EXPECT TO PAY NO MORE THAN £2.
>>
>> I then released that this was one of the new Cd`s that EMI is now selling
>> cheap with only 2 tracks to encourage more CD single sales.
>>
>> I therefore sent an a-mail to Amazon to voice my concern that they are
>> charging TWICE the recorded companies RRP.
>
>This may be a manner of Amazon chargine some customers different prices than
>everybody else. They're well known for it. Do a google search for
>something like 'amazon charges different prices'...
>http://www.macworld.com/2001/03/opinion/desktop/
>http://www.computerworld.com/industr...,49569,00.html
>
>If this is the case, sometimes deleting all amazon cookies will get you back
>to the 'actual' price. (which can sometimes be *higher* so beware!)



I remember reading about this a few years ago. I'm pretty sure that it
only affected those in the US, e.g those who bought from Amazon.com
(not co.uk, etc)

I did read in the It press that soon afterwards when Amazon were
caught doing it they did say that it was just an experiment and that
they would stop doing it. If they are still doing this then they
blatently lied previously!


As for the original poster, you may want to try using Play.com for
music and DVDs. Overal they are generally cheaper and offer free
shipping in the UK. And their Customer Service is decent as well and
easy to contact.


I've had major problems with Amazon UK as well. About two years ago I
returned some damaged items to them for a replacement and they sent me
the replacements which I received so all seemed fine.

Then sometime later when another item I had ordered failed to arrive I
tried logging onto my account to see what had happened. I couldn't log
in so gave them a call. I was told that my account had been closed
because I had failed to return some items which I had been sent
replacements for!

And no matter how much I tried to convince them that I had returned
the items they just said I was lying and said my business wasn't
welcome! They screwed up somewhere and rather then accept that they
were at fault they blame the innocent customer.

ZC TGS

> >Try contacting a) the record company, and b) trading standards - they are
> > selling price-marked goods at above their stated price.
> No law says they have to sell it at that or any other price.

I seem to remember there is as the goods are price-marked.

--
Please add "[newsgroup]" in the subject of any personal replies via email
* old email address "btiruseless" abandoned due to worm-generated spam *
--- My new email address has "ngspamtrap" & @btinternet.com in it ---

Colin Wilson

"Colin Wilson" <> wrote in message
news: t...
> As usual they charged me £3.99 which is a normal price to pay, however
when
> I looked at the Cd their is a big red sticker that states 2 TRACK SINGLE
> EXPECT TO PAY NO MORE THAN £2.

Try contacting a) the record company, and b) trading standards - they are
selling price-marked goods at above their stated price.

--


Unless Amazon agreed with EMI not to sell the product for more than a
certain price, they can put whatever price tag they want on it.

That's why the label says EXPECT TO PAY, not THIS IS WHAT THIS COSTS

Mark W

>Has anyone else experienced this blatant overcharging????

Not with Amazon.com, per se, but with music and book stores, I've run into this
quite often. A lot of independent record labels purposefully set their MSRPs
lower than major labels, and some labels print that low price directly on the
packaging... which many stores ignore, and often don't even cover up with the
store's price.

One punk label even puts a warning on their CDs saying something like "If you
pay more than $8 for this CD, you're getting ripped off!" which helps tip off
the consumer that perhaps the $14.99 Borders or Sam Goody is charging might be
a bit high.

Robert Morgan