Scamazon Tanks on Prime Day

[bountyhunter]

The much ballyhooed Prime Day landed with a thud.

http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/garage-sale-disappointed-amazon-shoppers-slam-prime-day-n392476

Amazon Prime Day, which celebrates the company's 20th birthday, promised that Wednesday would be 24 hours of "more deals than Black Friday" with new discounts added every 10 minutes. Amazon teased a handful of the deals -- which are exclusive for members of its $99 per year free-shipping Prime program -- like a 32-inch TV for $75 and a Chromebook laptop for $199. Hordes of peeved Twitter users felt let down by the deals as of Wednesday morning. One joke echoing around the social network suggested Prime Day was nothing more than a garage sale for Amazon.

Besides all that, there are a few things I learned the hard way.

1) Amazon dumps spyware into your computer to track what you are looking at. Go there and look at stuff and then watch as it shows up on all the sites you visit afterwards. Why it matters? Amazon also does "regional pricing" which is a fancy name for tracking what you look at and jacking the prices up on it and related items. I remember looking at a watch that started at $68 and after checking the price a few times, I noticed it kept going up..... on my computer. Check the price on my sister's computer and it's still the "base" price on hers. Watch out for that.

2) Sales? Scamazon loves people who don't comparison shop or have no memory. Still looking at watches, was tracking one that based at about $70. I figure I'll be smart and buy it on their big "Black Friday" sale.... by which time it was up to $90. So I'll wait until the big after Christmas sale..... where the "SALE PRICE" was $110. A few months later I bought it for $60.

Their "sales" are where they discount a few things they want to dump and jack up everything else.

3) Amazon Prime was a total rip off for me. Free shipping? Well, no.... I look at a two pack of bulbs for my garage light and there are four sources: the two that DON'T have the "free shipping" price it at $6 and the two that have "Free Shipping" price it at $14.

Wait a minute....... you don't suppose they are putting the shipping in the price?

And the point is the "prime" is just an upgrade to faster shipping on items that EVERYBODY gets free shipping on anyway. For $100 a year? No thanks.

4) SALES TAX. My personal favorite and the reason I permanently boycott Amazon. If you live in california (and possibly some other states) Amazon takes part in an illegal extortion racket where they collect sales tax from you on an inter-state transaction.... and that's 9.5% here.

That is not to say Amazon is useless: I always use them to search for products then go anyplace else and buy them even including paying more like I did on the subwoofer I just bought.

Edited July 16, 2015 by bountyhunter

[DWFAN]

Yes, Primeday was a joke.

Clear your internet history and cache. The targeted ads will go away. Amazon, Midwayusa and some other electronic supply type websites all have targeted ads once I visit their sites. When I clear the history and cache, they go away.

I hadn't noticed prices on items going up after looking at them, but I'll have to watch out for that.

Amazon only collects tax from states where they have an office, distribution center, or subsidiary. Since they have ton's of offices in CA.. well.. that makes sense. All online retailers are like that. They have locations in 25 states, and collect tax in all of them.

[jester121]

You can turn off all tracking stuff, click on Your Account and scroll to the bottom.

[TennJeep1618]

I picked up a Fire TV stick for $24. That was the only sale item that even slightly interested me.

[DWFAN]

I would have bought one of those also.. but they were sold out by the time I looked at it.

[D.Hayden]

You can turn off all tracking stuff, click on Your Account and scroll to the bottom.

Nice.. thanks

I think the sales tax thing is going beyond companies with just a presence in that state now.. could be way off base but a lot of states are requesting that online retailers collect taxes for them.. didn't that go up through the courts somewhere.. calling it illegal is pretty funny.. all the bigger web merchants do it

I think someone took Amazon to court about their pricing and it was upheld.. they look at items you've looked at and items in your wish list and cart and will price things differently based on those.. like everywhere else, you need to be wary

Edited July 16, 2015 by D.Hayden

[Reshoot]

Oh shoot, I missed it!

Nah, not really. I see it as just a ploy to get one to purchase things they normally would not have. So, I didn't even look.

[Graham Smith]

I had a look-see and after scrolling through a couple dozen pages of stuff realized that they were unlikely to have anything that might interest me. And if they did, it wouldn't interest me enough. I did see a really good price on a couple things, but they were things so far down on my want list that I didn't bother.

The Amazon tracking can be annoying, but often enough it has suggested things that I might never have seen that I tolerate it. However, I also use a different browser (Chrome in Incognito mode) to search stuff specifically to avoid it sometimes.

Regional pricing is strange but Amazon isn't the only site that does it. Superficially it could be explained as having to do with what's in what warehouse, but it's not that simple. I read an article a while ago about this and it bluntly stated that some online stores varied prices based on what else was in your location. For example, Staples may offer you a better price if you lived near an Office Depot than they might if you didn't. But even that didn't make complete sense to me because unless you had an account, they couldn't be that precise about where you lived.

Edited July 16, 2015 by Graham Smith

[bountyhunter]

You can turn off all tracking stuff, click on Your Account and scroll to the bottom.

Nice.. thanks

I think the sales tax thing is going beyond companies with just a presence in that state now..

You are correct. And it's illegal for state's to "regulate" interstate commerce which is why I boycott Amazon.

I have not tracked what (if any) court cases have upheld or have not, just pointing out that sales tax is a state incarnation and state's have no jurisdiction to try to tax interstate sales. But some do and I boycott them. If the federal government imposes a tax on interstate sales I will shut up and pay it but they have not. The states are just stealing money that isn't theirs and they can affix their lips to my skinny Irish backside because I'm not paying it..

As for why I say this tax is illegal:

In 1992, the Supreme Court, in the Quill decision, determined that a merchant is not required to collect sales tax unless the merchant has a "physical presence" in that state.. recently, states like California have required businesses with affiliates in their state (hence, the "Amazon" link, because of its many affiliates) to comply with these regulations.

Many "affiliates"? It has warehouses that they keep stuff in to reduce the cost of shipping across the country and shorten response times.

Edited July 17, 2015 by bountyhunter

[bountyhunter]

Regional pricing is strange but Amazon isn't the only site that does it.

You're probably right on that. My main warning was about how Amazon loudly announces some "SUPER SALE" and then jacks prices up on everything assuming people are too dumb to realize they are being had. Truth is you will get the best prices during "quiet" times and stay away from holiday or "sales" events.

[bountyhunter]

Nah, not really. I see it as just a ploy to get one to purchase things

Had to laugh. I was looking for a pencil drawer to put on my desk and (as always) I went to Amazon to use their search to find things I want before going elsewhere to buy it.

THE JOKE:

Amazon has the "Free Shipping on $35 or More" thing and guess what the price of the item was? $34.99

I'm sure that was a COINCIDENCE.....

Just for laughs I put it into the cart and when I looked at cart contents, Amazon is putting up messages that I can get the free shipping if I buy another "eligible item"......

[bountyhunter]

Regional pricing is strange but Amazon isn't the only site that does it. Superficially it could be explained as having to do with what's in what warehouse, but it's not that simple. I read an article a while ago about this and it bluntly stated that some online stores varied prices based on what else was in your location. For example, Staples may offer you a better price if you lived near an Office Depot than they might if you didn't. But even that didn't make complete sense to me because unless you had an account, they couldn't be that precise about where you lived.

I just figured their spyware tracked what you looked at and bought based on your IP address.

[Nik Habicht]

You can turn off all tracking stuff, click on Your Account and scroll to the bottom.

Nice.. thanks

I think the sales tax thing is going beyond companies with just a presence in that state now..

You are correct. And it's illegal for state's to "regulate" interstate commerce which is why I boycott Amazon.

I have not tracked what (if any) court cases have upheld or have not, just pointing out that sales tax is a state incarnation and state's have no jurisdiction to try to tax interstate sales. But some do and I boycott them. If the federal government imposes a tax on interstate sales I will shut up and pay it but they have not. The states are just stealing money that isn't theirs and they can affix their lips to my skinny Irish backside because I'm not paying it..

As for why I say this tax is illegal:

In 1992, the Supreme Court, in the Quill decision, determined that a merchant is not required to collect sales tax unless the merchant has a "physical presence" in that state.. recently, states like California have required businesses with affiliates in their state (hence, the "Amazon" link, because of its many affiliates) to comply with these regulations.

Many "affiliates"? It has warehouses that they keep stuff in to reduce the cost of shipping across the country and shorten response times.

All the Supreme Court determined is that a state can't require a merchant in another state to collect sales tax for them. The Supreme Court has not invalidated the chunks of the State Tax Code that require residents of a state to pay sales tax on purchases from out of state. So -- what's the issue -- if California requires you to pay taxes on the items anyway?