Amazon Black Friday scam

Fella

Amazon are being blatantly dishonest with their offers. Here's a simple example:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00DBCHBUG/ref=gb1h_tit_c-3_2147_319c5780?smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_s=center-3&pf_rd_r=0GY4NJY5X3XA2RDMJSJ7&pf_rd_i=161428031&pf_rd_p=560262147

"£45.49 (55% off) Philips Sonicare AirFloss HX8211/02 "

However a quick look on camelcamelcamel & we see that in fact the same item was £44.99 a week ago:
http://uk.camelcamelcamel.com/Philips-Sonicare-HX8211-02-Rechargeable/product/B00DBCHBUG

Just been through a bunch of their supposed huge reductions & the same story over & over. A complete scam on the public. No problem for anyone clued up enough to know about camelcamelcamel but a total ripoff for the very many people who don't, as evidenced by the % of these deals that has gone.

MSE should do an expose on this.

JReacher1

Still seems quite a lot cheaper than RRP and other retailers. The fact it was a bit cheaper a week ago doesn't really have any relevance. It's the comparable price of other retailers today that would bother me if I wanted to buy it.

Andy_L

Its fairly obvious its "you save 55%" compared to the RRP, Not a sale price compared to their previous price.

Who actually pays RRP for anything not bought from the manufacturer these days anyway?

kaya

I didn't expect anything different to this but have never seen the camelcamel site before good link there thanks :-)

Fella

Clearly it's not obvious at all. If the general public knew the same item was cheaper a week ago 88% of them wouldn't have sold.

Although it's nice to see the tradition of this board continues, no matter what anyone posts there are people wetting themselves to find a reason to disagree

Anyone sensible sees this for the scam it is.

meer53

Ah, there's that word again - Scam

In order to not be "scammed" it's your responsibility to do your homework before parting with your cash. Different shops sell the same stuff at different prices, it's always been that way, no expose needed really.

Fella

meer53 wrote: »

Ah, there's that word again - Scam

In order to not be "scammed" it's your responsibility to do your homework before parting with your cash. Different shops sell the same stuff at different prices, it's always been that way, no expose needed really.

No that's not correct. You & I may do our homework, which is why we don't buy stuff-that's-not-really-on-sale on Black Friday, or Timeshares, or Pyramid schemes, or boiler-room schemes etc etc. All of those things are scams designed to catch out anyone vulnerable/stupid/lazy enough to fall for them.

The fact that a clued-up person can avoid them doesn't stop them being a scam. You might as well say anyone wandering around some dodgy East London street at night deserves to get mugged because someone clued-up would have known better.

I'm all for personal responsibility. That doesn't make it OK for Amazon to pretend that goods which are actually more expensive than they were a week ago, are "reduced by 55%".

PILES

Fella wrote: »

Amazon are being blatantly dishonest with their offers. Here's a simple example:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00DBCHBUG/ref=gb1h_tit_c-3_2147_319c5780?smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_s=center-3&pf_rd_r=0GY4NJY5X3XA2RDMJSJ7&pf_rd_i=161428031&pf_rd_p=560262147

"£45.49 (55% off) Philips Sonicare AirFloss HX8211/02 "

However a quick look on camelcamelcamel & we see that in fact the same item was £44.99 a week ago:
http://uk.camelcamelcamel.com/Philips-Sonicare-HX8211-02-Rechargeable/product/B00DBCHBUG

Just been through a bunch of their supposed huge reductions & the same story over & over. A complete scam on the public. No problem for anyone clued up enough to know about camelcamelcamel but a total ripoff for the very many people who don't, as evidenced by the % of these deals that has gone.

MSE should do an expose on this.

Not a scam though. You know what the prices are and you choose whether to buy or not. Are they factually incorrect in their pricing?

lovinituk

Fella wrote: »

Clearly it's not obvious at all. If the general public knew the same item was cheaper a week ago 88% of them wouldn't have sold.

Although it's nice to see the tradition of this board continues, no matter what anyone posts there are people wetting themselves to find a reason to disagree

Anyone sensible sees this for the scam it is.

But Amazon are not claiming them to be cheaper than a week ago - they are saying it is cheaper than the fictitious RRP.

Are you expecting people to jump in their time machine to go back and get the better deal? It's still a deal for all those buying now who obviously missed the previous sale.

Fella

PILES wrote: »

Not a scam though. You know what the prices are and you choose whether to buy or not. Are they factually incorrect in their pricing?

The definition of a scam, is not, and has never been "something it's impossible to see through". It's pretty easy to see through most scams. The perpetrators rely on the fact that not everyone will.

Fella

lovinituk wrote: »

But Amazon are not claiming them to be cheaper than a week ago - they are saying it is cheaper than the fictitious RRP.

Are you actually seriously saying you don't think Amazon are deliberately advertising this as 55% in the full knowledge that plenty of people will assume it's a genuine 55% off the USUAL price, regardless of whether it says RRP.

Personally I don't believe you are that stupid.