Trusting, loyal, Amazon shoppers might think twice about ordering from the online store giant after current changes hide “special” pricing.
As one of those loyal customers, who prefers the ease of free shipping — rather than braving the local brick and mortar store fronts. I have had only one bad experience with Amazon and I have learned my lesson: I don’t buy from third party vendors.
Amazon had a really terrific deal on KitchenAid Mixers and I have always wanted one. I purchased a very sturdy, well-made cover to protect it and a shield that was recommended for purchase, with my KichenAid Professional Mixer. Well, someone goofed and the shield didn’t fit my mixer. The funny part (not really) is that I bought it at the same time, just to be sure I got the right one.
The shield cost around $12.00 plus shipping charges, the company I purchased it from wanted me to pay shipping again, to ship it back to them. I decided to forget the entire thing and just give the shield away on Freecycle. It just wasn’t worth it to pay to ship it back again and pay for shipping for a new one to be sent.
Just today, I followed a link to a Samsung LN40C530 40-Inch 1080p 60 Hz LCD HDTV but the price did not display. Amazon displayed a list price of $749.99 and a note, “Price available at final checkout.” No big deal. I’ve seen this before.
I added the television to my shopping cart and went to “check out,” only to get another message that I had 1 item in my cart, proceed to check-out, which I did. I was sent the “Sign In” page, so I signed in. I was then asked to select the shipping address – I was getting a little frustrated by this time, because I still had no clue how much I was expected to actually pay for this television.
I selected an address — finally the price magically appeared on the “Shipping Details” page, where you select shipping options. Talk about frustrating. I guess they are hoping customers forget that they added it to the shopping cart; continue shopping and never give it another thought. I think this is an under-handed tactic intended to confuse and frustrate shoppers.
If Amazon finds that people are not buying their hidden price items, maybe they will be encouraged to change their selling policies. Consider this a heads up to wary Christmas shoppers.
I must admit. We’ve ordered quite a number of things from Amazon this year and they are doing an amazing job of moving those packages. Many of the items I’ve ordered online this year have arrived in 2-days.
Stay away from Walmart.com — their site is messed up, you can’t reach their customer service department — they don’t respond to email inquires and you can’t get a person on the phone. I give them an F.