Amazon subscribe & save - is it just a massive con?

BlueC

BUYER BEWARE!!

I have used Amazon "subscribe & save" a bit and sometimes the savings seem ok at first but then of course the price hikes occur and it becomes expensive. I have always wondered if it was a bit of a con...

However I've never seen this before... my subscribe & save price for a long-standing subscription is actually higher than the standard Prime price I would pay if I just bought it today as a one-time purchase.

This is the same product, same delivery. £25.70 on my "subscribe & save" but £21.64 as a standard one-time purchase.

Anyone else seen this before?

dealyboy

I don't think its a con but Amazon marketing, we have to play Amazon at their own game. I see that applying a new Subscribe & Save (above) gives a price of £20.56 and applying the 20% off voucher, £16.48.

I Subscribe & Save and then cancel after the first delivery. Similar products are available for a new Subscribe & Save (with high discounts) and even initiating a new S&S on the original product will give a 5% discount plus possible vouchers.

BlueC

If they're promising (or even suggesting) that S&S will be cheaper than a one-time purchase but it's not then that seems like a con to me.

SaverRate

dealyboy said:

I don't think its a con but Amazon marketing, we have to play Amazon at their own game. I see that applying a new Subscribe & Save (above) gives a price of £20.56 and applying the 20% off voucher, £16.48.

I Subscribe & Save and then cancel after the first delivery. Similar products are available for a new Subscribe & Save (with high discounts) and even initiating a new S&S on the original product will give a 5% discount plus possible vouchers.

I do the same! never have my subscribe and save as reoccuring always cancel after the first delivery!

wild666

I was getting 48 200ml bottles of ginger ale every 3 months during the lockdown and even carried on after lockdown ended but put the delivery to every 6 months. When my card changed from visa to Mastercard  I didn't update the card details and the deliveries stopped. I was getting 48 bottles, 2* 24  packs, every 3 months, to have with whiskey.
I noticed too that the price, even with the discount, would vary every other delivery it went from £10.99 up to £16.49 per case of 24, the delivery that I didn't renew the card details for it was going to be £17.49 per case of 24. 72p per 200ml bottle was more than I wanted to pay when I could go to Morrisons and get 3 litres  for £3 or Lidl and get 3 litres for £1.05, the problem was that both Lidl & Morrisons didn't have any ginger ale in most of the time that's why I got it delivered. 

Mnoee

I've seen this with a vitamin I buy - price hiked, identical listing at a lower price, both sold by amazon. It just means double checking before your redelivery - I don't always cancel after the first one, but like dealyboy said, there's often vouchers on the same or similar products for new subscribers so every two months when mine is due I check there's not a better offer.

Like everything else, it takes a little time and effort to get the best deals, but the savings I get make that effort worth it for me. 

BlueC

You'd think it would be illegal for them to be claiming that I would save 5% when in fact I would pay ~20% more.

diystarter7

Hello

On the whole, I find shopping with Amazon excellent. I only joined up during Covid I think and their CS has surpassed my expectations.

I've taken advatage of deals and opt out free/etc once I've used them to my advantage. I don't pay for any deals like OP as IMO you can always get better, similar or close and not worth the trouble, but we are all different.
Thanks

BlueC

Thanks @diystarter7 what's that got to with the point of my post?

diystarter7

BlueC said:

Thanks @diystarter7 what's that got to with the point of my post?

Hi

Many thanks for querying my contribution here.

I posted in order to give a good balance of deals/etc this co gives and though as you have rightly picked up ie I've not used that exact deal. In no way is Amazon in my personal experience any of the deals, or services I have used and my family has led us to believe they were a "CON"   

If I used a company and felt they were a "Con,"  I'd pull them up A-Sap.

What I can say for almost any co is that deals are not always as great as they initially appear to be once you have been with the deal for a while.

By all means, you are at your liberty to have my post removed if you feel it is not helpful.

Many thanks

BlueC

It's got nothing to do with the topic mate. This isn't a thread about your general experience of Amazon. But thanks though.