Great ‘Amazon Shopping Tricks’ Hunt

MSE_Jenny
MSE_Jenny Posts: 1,312
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edited 27 October 2009 at 6:44PM in Shop but don't drop
It’s not always cheapest, but most people with internet access have bought something from shopping giant Amazon. The Cheap Online Shopping guide shows you how to avoid postage costs and monitor prices.

But we want to tap MoneySavers for more sneaky Amazon tricks & loopholes they’ve discovered to slash the cost.

Please post below to share your top tips.

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Comments

  • This article in The Times last week says that in 2000, there was a scandal when customers discovered that if they deleted their cookies - the computer files that store information on a user's internet use - they could obtain a different price for the same goods on Amazon. This was because Amazon were offering different prices for the same things to different customers, depending on what their purchasing histories suggested they might be willing to pay.

    The article says that this is now common among internet sellers but invisible to the customer; and that Amazon was "unavailable for comment". The Office of Fair Trading is looking into this issue generally.

    So, it's not clear (to me, at any rate) whether Amazon are still tailoring prices to individual customers but it might be worth deleting your cookies and seeing what happens - you might get a cheaper price!
  • goingtothedogs
    goingtothedogs Posts: 117 Forumite
    edited 30 October 2009 at 12:45PM
    In case it's useful, Amazon has also just launched a new iphone ap. There's a thing on it called Amazon Remembers, where you take a photo of any item while you're out shopping, and Amazon sends you a link to buy it on the site.

    You would have to compare prices still, but it's quicker than typing

    http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000291661
  • Nile
    Nile Posts: 14,930
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    Just a word of warning..............if the price seems right to purchase goods from Amazon.co.uk..........be aware that Amazon.co.uk is not a UK registered company.;)

    The following is taken from the amazon.co.uk 'Conditions of Use & Sale'

    26. Governing law and jurisdiction
    These conditions are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, and the application of the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods is expressly excluded. You agree, as we do, to submit to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of the district of Luxembourg City.


    If the goods you've purchased from amazon develop a fault, [STRIKE]you will[/STRIKE] :rolleyes: you may struggle to get a satisfactory resolution...................and taking county court action is not an option.

    I must thank Crabman for his input.

    Read their terms and conditions before your purchase.;)

    Nile
    I’m a Forum Ambassador and I support the Forum Team on the 'I wanna' and 'In my home' and Health & Beauty'' boards.If you need any help on these boards, do let me know. Please note that Ambassadors are not moderators. Any posts you spot in breach of the Forum Rules should be reported via the report button, or by emailing [email protected] views are my own and not the official line of MoneySavingExpert.10 Dec 2007 - Led Zeppelin - I was there. :j :cool2: I wear my 50 (gold/red/white) blood donations pin badge with pride. Give blood, save a life.
  • Sui_Generis
    Sui_Generis Posts: 1,177
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    This article in The Times last week says that in 2000, there was a scandal when customers discovered that if they deleted their cookies - the computer files that store information on a user's internet use - they could obtain a different price for the same goods on Amazon

    I suspect this is still true - I looked up my saved items on the Amazon AppStore app on my iPod Touch today and it showed items at the price they were when added to the basket, but selecting an item pushed the price up instantly. Reverting to the saved basket showed the lower price BUT the same items viewed via my desktop show only at the higher price.
  • nuttywoman
    nuttywoman Posts: 2,203
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    Nile wrote: »
    Just a word of warning..............if the price seems right to purchase goods from Amazon.co.uk..........be aware that Amazon.co.uk is not a UK registered company.;)

    The following is taken from the amazon.co.uk 'Conditions of Use & Sale'

    26. Governing law and jurisdiction
    These conditions are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, and the application of the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods is expressly excluded. You agree, as we do, to submit to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of the district of Luxembourg City.

    If the goods you've purchased from amazon develop a fault, [STRIKE]you will[/STRIKE] :rolleyes: you may struggle to get a satisfactory resolution...................and taking county court action is not an option.

    I must thank Crabman for his input.

    Read their terms and conditions before your purchase.;)

    Nile


    I bought 2 watches in March from Amazon, one for me, one for hubby.My glass on the face broke in June, so i emailed Amazon." days later, a man from Amazon rang me and explained that as they did`nt have anymore of the watches they were refunding me £10 so i could get it fixed :T
  • jenniewb
    jenniewb Posts: 12,836
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    I have to say, for me Amazon have the best customer service in terms of faulty products. Twice now I have had items that have become faulty, one was a Sony MP3 player, the other a polar watch/HRM. With each, before they had even been posted/arranged to be collected by courier I had a replacement at my door within days. Few companies in the UK either trust or work that efficiently. Luxembourg or not, they put Comet, Argos, Play and many others to shame!
  • Cherry_Hinton_Blue
    Cherry_Hinton_Blue Posts: 32
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    edited 30 October 2009 at 12:46PM
    There is a way of calling up the items on Amazon with any discount you want, just by hacking the URL a bit. For example:
    http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/search/?node=283926&pct-off=75-99
    ...gives you the items in the DVD section with 75%-99% off at the moment. The only difficulty with this is that you need to know the "node" number for the department you want. You can find this out by looking in the URL on the home page for that department. But if there's a section you want to look up regularly, you can do this once and bookmark it.

    Inevitably, there are some sites which have automated all this, and I find them easy to use. One which has appeared recently is "The Discount Sorcerer":
    http://www.discountsorcerer.co.uk/

    This site also has a Twitter feed, which throws up some interesting looking bargains a few times a day.

    There seem to be a few sites performing the same service for Amazon.com in the USA, such as jangle.net.
  • goingtothedogs
    goingtothedogs Posts: 117 Forumite
    edited 28 October 2009 at 10:47AM
    Does anyone else find that they sometimes end up buying more than one of an item like a book or a dvd, because they put it in their basket before on another day and forgot it ? This has happened to me a couple of times. So it's always good to double check the quantities. (Obviously easy to spot if youre just buying one book, but you might miss it if you're buying a few things).

    There's also a facebook ap which makes your Amazon wishlist appear on your profile page. Don't know if that will win you any friends tho!

    http://apps.facebook.com/wishlist-it/
  • I used to find http://uk.jungleninja.com/ quite useful but the recent redesign has made the site a lot less user-friendly
  • Doc_N
    Doc_N Posts: 8,266
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    This article in The Times last week says that in 2000, there was a scandal when customers discovered that if they deleted their cookies - the computer files that store information on a user's internet use - they could obtain a different price for the same goods on Amazon. This was because Amazon were offering different prices for the same things to different customers, depending on what their purchasing histories suggested they might be willing to pay.

    So, it's not clear (to me, at any rate) whether Amazon are still tailoring prices to individual customers but it might be worth deleting your cookies and seeing what happens - you might get a cheaper price!
    I suspect this is still true - I looked up my saved items on the Amazon AppStore app on my iPod Touch today and it showed items at the price they were when added to the basket, but selecting an item pushed the price up instantly. Reverting to the saved basket showed the lower price BUT the same items viewed via my desktop show only at the higher price.

    Does appear still to be true. Just managed to get lower prices by going in on another PC with a different IP address with no Amazon cookies. Doesn't seem to work just by stripping out the cookies on your own PC, or another PC on the same network, because Amazon recognizes both the cookies and the IP address.
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