Amazon Prime - No Rush Credit - Deliberate Scamming?

Dischordant

Hi all - I would like to know if not letting someone know the price of something until after they've purchased it is on the Internet is legal.


My wife and I have Amazon Prime - we have made some orders delivered with the option of no rush credit - in which you are given £1 credit each time you use it towards digital purchases such as streamed video, audio and ebook purchases.

Sounds great.
Until you want to use it, or even check how much credit you have accumulated.

There seems to be no way for customers to check credit - suddenly the only credit shown is Amazon Video credit (sorry I can't post link yet). This means it is not possible to see credit accumulated that might be used for kindle books for example.
Btw. when purchases are made it does not distinguish which type of e-credit is being given, it makes out it is credit that can be used on any of the 3 digital mediums.

So upon contacting Amazon they then told me that we had £7.00 of credit available. My wife then wanted to use it against a kindle purchase - a new Lee Childs book at 9.99 on Kindle.

They tell my wife this will cost £3.98. And tell us the credit they can use against the purchase is £5.01. ...even though 3.98 is 6.01 difference. And there is no explanation why the discount cannot be £7!

This is told to us by two different representatives 1 via web chat 1 via phone chat.

It gets worse.
Upon ordering the book and being told that after checking out it will confirm the price is £3.98 her order details show the book is being charged to her at £8.24!

Oh yes - not only can you not see how much discount credit you have accumulated, you cannot see how much discount credit will be used of your discount credit until AFTER you have already made a purchase!

I cannot believe a company this big can have such an awful system without it being a deliberate way to raise profits.

So I dug a little deeper - it seems at their end they have a set offer price that is possible for each item. Customers are not able to automatically get the amount they are charged below that amount to ensure Amazon are always making a profit on each item. The £5.01 discount they had been talking about that seemed to come from nowhere was due to the minimum amount they were allowed to discount that ebook to. This information is always hidden from the customer who can only find out how much money they have to pay after they have already paid it.

Any way - sorry to rant but I haven't found much on the Internet about what seems a massive con by Amazon to maximise their profits through getting prime customers to order no rush (saving them delivery money) and then hiding that credit from them and preventing them from using that credit in very under hand ways.

So I thought I should make a post so others frustrated with the system would at least feel they are not alone!

Many thanks,

DB

wealdroam

Dischordant wrote: »

Hi all - sharing my frustration..

My wife and I have Amazon Prime - we have made some orders delivered with the option of no rush credit - in which you are given £1 credit each time you use it towards digital purchases such as streamed video, audio and ebook purchases.

Sounds great.
Until you want to use it, or even check how much credit you have accumulated.

There seems to be no way for customers to check credit - suddenly the only credit shown is Amazon Video credit (sorry I can't post link yet). This means it is not possible to see credit accumulated that might be used for kindle books for example.
Btw. when purchases are made it does not distinguish which type of e-credit is being given, it makes out it is credit that can be used on any of the 3 digital mediums.

So upon contacting Amazon they then told me that we had £7.00 of credit available. My wife then wanted to use it against a kindle purchase - a new Lee Childs book at 9.99 on Kindle.

They tell my wife this will cost £3.98. And tell us the credit they can use against the purchase is £5.01. ...even though 3.98 is 6.01 difference. And there is no explanation why the discount cannot be £7!

This is told to us by two different representatives 1 via web chat 1 via phone chat.

It gets worse.
Upon ordering the book and being told that after checking out it will confirm the price is £3.98 her order details show the book is being charged to her at £8.24!

Oh yes - not only can you not see how much discount credit you have accumulated, you cannot see how much discount credit will be used of your discount credit until AFTER you have already made a purchase!

I cannot believe a company this big can have such an awful system without it being a deliberate way to raise profits.

So I dug a little deeper - it seems at their end they have a set offer price that is possible for each item. Customers are not able to automatically get the amount they are charged below that amount to ensure Amazon are always making a profit on each item. The £5.01 discount they had been talking about that seemed to come from nowhere was due to the minimum amount they were allowed to discount that ebook to. This information is always hidden from the customer who can only find out how much money they have to pay after they have already paid it.

Any way - sorry to rant but I haven't found much on the Internet about what seems a massive con by Amazon to maximise their profits through getting prime customers to order no rush (saving them delivery money) and then hiding that credit from them and preventing them from using that credit in very under hand ways.

So I thought I should make a post so others frustrated with the system would at least feel they are not alone!

Many thanks,

DB

Is there a consumer rights issue you would like help with or did you mean to post this on The Praise, Vent & Warnings Board?

Dischordant

Sorry, I would like to know if not letting someone know the price of something until after they've purchased it is on the Internet is legal.

Edited to reflect question.

JJG

Amazon let you know how much the item will cost excluding voucher discounts before you confirm the purchase.

GreatBeyond

Was just going to say that you sometimes find that you get a credit for a specific thing (like app store or something) by ordering things. It could be that some of your credit was made up with a voucher for something different.

It sounds like the people you have spoken to haven't understood what you were asking or have just told you anything to get you off the phone/chat.

[Deleted User]

You could always google it, then you'd find this page that lets you check your current balance:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/?docId=1000811661#gc.

I've used the credit before, and it worked exactly how I expected it. I've also found that the delivery is usually only delayed a day or two.

I do believe that there are sometimes different things you can/can't use this credit against and there's sometimes different promotions for some products.

Dischordant

Thank you for the replies. I know you can check MUSIC credit, as I said in my post..though it wouldn't allow me to post the link, which I also mentioned. I have used google before thank you.

As Amazon will not let you see how much credit will be used or even what exists the actual cost is not known.

Even if you DID know how much credit you have (which you can't unless it's music credit) - it still doesn't let you know how much will be used as each item has a maximum amount of credit that can be used on it that is also hidden from the customer.

You have to confirm your purchase before knowing how much money it will cost and even then you are not shown straight away.

SuperHan

It's annoying, so I write mine down every time I opt for the no rush delivery.


You can cancel the Kindle order quite easily if it's too expensive when you see what it's come out at in the end.


Your point about minimum selling prices also doesn't apply to all items, I've had best sellers at £6 ish that I've got for free using the credit.

Ivrytwr3

It is ridiculous, but to check your digital balance:

Add a digital purchase to your basket.

Under the button "buy this app" - you will see another option "Redeem a gift card or promotion code"

Click this and you will see your balances.

Ant555

Just to confirm that this link works for my Amazon account
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/feature.html?docId=1000706783#gc

Although it says 'CHECK DIGITAL MUSIC CREDIT' at the top of the page, when I click the link and put in my Amazon credentials it shows me how much 'Promotional Credit' I currently have and how much 'Gift Card Balance' I have - listed separately.

I have no experience however on Kindle purchases as I use mine for buying music but thought i'd post my experience on checking credit.

DCFC79

Ant555 wrote: »

Just to confirm that this link works for my Amazon account
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/feature.html?docId=1000706783#gc

Although it says 'CHECK DIGITAL MUSIC CREDIT' at the top of the page, when I click the link and put in my Amazon credentials it shows me how much 'Promotional Credit' I currently have and how much 'Gift Card Balance' I have - listed separately.

I have no experience however on Kindle purchases as I use mine for buying music but thought i'd post my experience on checking credit.

Works for me, will it be suitable for the OP ?