Amazon Subscribe and Save scam!

mac9091 · 16 March 2013 at 11:34PM

Not sure if this is the best place to put this as in my opinion this is quite a big deal and the more people on the look out the better.

Problem: you chose an item on subscribe and save 1st, 2nd and 3rd deliveries all ok, Just before the 4th delivery you get an email informing you that the price has increased by approx 20% (in my experience)

I think this is a deliberate tactic by Amazon to catch out buyers who slip into the 'i dont need to worry' frame of mind. Now this has happened 4 times to me over the past year and a half three being with dog food and once with razor blades. As the dog food was common i checked the price history of other dog food and noticed that they had not increased by 20% over the same period.

I contacted amazon three months ago and they said that it was a pricing error and then proceeded to deliver my next three dog food orders at the same price, then low and behold i get the same email saying that the price has increased. I have now contacted BBCs watchdog about this and am notifying everyone i can to be vigilant and on the look out for this trend.

Hopefully i am seeing things that aren't there but after so many times and always after the third delivery (regardless of how many months have passed) the price increases.

Please check your subscriptions if you do use it.

KxMx · 16 March 2013 at 11:47PM

I've personally found Amazon to be very clear that the price on subscriptions isn't fixed; and that what you pay for delivery number one may not be the same as delivery number two.

zenseeker · 17 March 2013 at 11:34AM

No scam here, just OP not reading the T&C's properly. Watchdog aren't going to care one iota about this XD

antrobus · 17 March 2013 at 1:35PM

I believe that what the OP is suggesting is that Amazon will, once they have hooked you up onto 'subscribe and save', later jack up the price of the product in the hope that you won't notice. Irrespective of whether or not this particular (alleged) practice meets anyone's particular personal defintion of the word 'scam', it seems to me a perfectly valid point worth raising on a money saving website.

pmduk · 20 March 2013 at 11:07AM

If they're emailing you to tell you the new price they're hardly hoping you won't notice the increase.

juliean · 22 March 2013 at 8:29AM

Oh, my god. I never pay attention to that. Hope you can find some ways to solve it.

wookie_2 · 22 March 2013 at 5:50PM

This is common practice for any business, suck you in with a tempting price and when your hooked, up the price..... Personally I always cancel the subscribe and save when the items have arrived as they always seem to up the price.....

Haffiana · 22 March 2013 at 8:27PM

How does it work though? Does the price go up for everyone, or just for you? Are you paying a different, increased price to every other Amazon user? -easy to check, just use another browser.

If you are not paying a special, higher price than everyone else, then you are being paranoid. Amazon price increases do not revolve around your particular buying habits.

Helix · 22 March 2013 at 10:38PM

I have had them go the other way, the hair styling product I have on subscribe and save has come down in price recently.

Money_maker · 22 March 2013 at 10:48PM

Amazon prices fluctuate wildly anyway. I have cat food on s&s, if price is high then I check mysupermarket.com to see if there are any offers on at the supermarkets. Then I put my amazon order back a month if need be. No sweat.

vauxhall1 · 24 March 2013 at 2:09PM

I order from Amazon allot and can't say I've ever had an email informing me of this, but I will keep an eye out for this in the future, thanks for the heads up though.

Amazon Subscribe and Save scam!

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