Amazon Price changes after purchase

Grantyy

Hi all

I wouldn't bother if it wasn't such a big difference but this is huge! Surely any change close to purchase will irk customers but I'm not sure where I stand on this.
On the 9th of Dec I ordered an Amazon Fire 8HD for my young boy, it was priced at £79.99, today (16th Dec but could have been earlier?) I noticed they had slashed the price by around 38% to £49.99 a difference of £30
Rightly or wrongly (thats why i'm here) I was a bit annoyed and felt ripped off so I searched the net quick to see this
http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-get-a-price-match-from-amazon-2013-12?IR=T

It shows that Amazons policy is to refund the difference up to 7 days after delivery, we have had the item a day and a half so I thought great, maybe we can afford one for our younger girl, we were holding off until March.

So I opened a chat and was told that basically that they cannot do that, after some questioning a rep admitted it was a US only offer, I asked isn't that discrimination? I ended up speaking to a manager who actually wouldn't confirm that there is a policy difference between the US and UK instead saying something such as we at .co.uk cannot provide details of the US Amazons policy. I have the full transcript of the conversation if its of use.

In the end I was advised to send the Tablet back and reorder it but is the price change a good enough reason?
Are they in the right to have different policies between nations?
If I send the tab back and reorder 1 or 2 is that OK?

Thanks for any advice on this.

BoGoF

Just send it back and reorder. No need for the "outrage".

Discrimination......really?

Grantyy

Does that really come across as outrage? I simply came here for advice, it's Christmas lighten up a bit!
I do think it's wrong for a company to have different policy between countries but if that's OK for them to do that then I couldn't care less, again I simply need that knowledge before I can accept that and I honestly thought that's what forums were about.
Not that bothered about sending it back aside from the small fact that its not in stock until 21st of December and despite being a prime member (next day dly) the original tablet took 5 days to arrive so as its for my 3 year old boy i don't want to risk him waiting until somewhere between Christmas and new year.
I did ask a question if it was OK to send it back with a price change as the reason as I thought they'd expect a reason amounting to a fault but I guess I am wrong there?

BoGoF

Amazon are very good for returns.

Argos have it on at same price.

Grantyy

I hope this won't be classed as outrage again but I do think consumers in general should question companies on these differences more to make it fair, I'm not big on business so maybe I'm missing something but they are selling the same Tab for $49.99 (£37.53) in the US aswell as offering refunds due to price changes.... Like I said maybe I am missing something but it doesn't feel right?
As for the tablet I am just going to buy a new one for our girl with it being cheap and keep the other, the content through prime and amazon Kids is worth hundreds to anyone with kids so principals aside it's actually a steal. I've already added a lot of kids content to it and least its def here for Christmas.

Grantyy

Thanks for that BoGoF maybe argos will have it in stock and therefore be faster, I will have a look now.

takman

Grantyy wrote: »

Does that really come across as outrage? I simply came here for advice, it's Christmas lighten up a bit!
I do think it's wrong for a company to have different policy between countries but if that's OK for them to do that then I couldn't care less, again I simply need that knowledge before I can accept that and I honestly thought that's what forums were about.

If you think about it then of course its ok for companies to have different policies between countries. For a start each country has different laws so companies need to have different policies to comply with the law.

Amazon US also has a policy that all returns have to be sent back to a US warehouse and they only accept payments in dollars. So do you think these are policies Amazon UK should also have?.

Grantyy wrote: »

Not that bothered about sending it back aside from the small fact that its not in stock until 21st of December and despite being a prime member (next day dly) the original tablet took 5 days to arrive so as its for my 3 year old boy i don't want to risk him waiting until somewhere between Christmas and new year.
I did ask a question if it was OK to send it back with a price change as the reason as I thought they'd expect a reason amounting to a fault but I guess I am wrong there?

The law states you can return something bought online for any reason within 14 days of delivery.

Carrot007

It is regularly price reduced and a little bit of research would have shown that.

The US Pprice is likely to not incluide tax as it varies so is not compariable. convert to UK and add on our VAT and then it's not even a comparison as our laws vary. We have a requrement of a years warrenty. The US do not. etc etc.

Grantyy

The law states you can return something bought online for any reason within 14 days of delivery.

Thanks Taxman thats good info, I thought there was something along those lines but I was thinking 21 days.

The difference between the US and UK prices has always been at the back of my mind way back from when I was younger and into console gaming, I'm sure there was a fair bit of coverage on the difference on the price of games back in the 90's but I can't say I was that bothered back then, if it's an understood and reasonable difference and the people who know accept it then who am I to disagree.

I must say though that the big discounts only a week and a half or so to Christmas caught me out a bit, isn't that quite an unusual move? Though a welcome one.
I guess it is a new tactic as I posted this around 10pm UK time and it was actually on the news that many retailers are holding quite big sales, showing signs of 40% and 50% off as examples. If this is a new move by companies then I can see a late rush next Christmas, I'll certainly be holding off though must admit that I say every year I'm going to buy some presents in the Jan sales and it never happens.

LilElvis

Use camelcamelcamel to check price fluctuations on Amazon. You can also use it to send you a message when the price drops. In fact the Fire HD 8 was also on sale at £49.99 a couple of weeks ago too for Black Friday.

https://uk.camelcamelcamel.com/Fire-Tablet-Alexa-Display-Black/product/B01J94T0XU?context=search

agrinnall

Grantyy wrote: »

I guess it is a new tactic...

I'm not sure it's a new tactic, I seem to recall that many retailers started their traditionally Boxing Day sales before Christmas last year, and possibly in earlier years too (I'm a bit vague as I don't like shopping at the best of times, and during sales is particularly horrible).