pOpus

I just went to my order history on Amazon.com to track a recently shipped order. I noticed that another order had the "Approval Required" link next to it. I clicked the link, and was taken to a page where Amazon is asking for my approval to raise the price of an item.

I had ordered Scrubs season 3 for $27.96. Now Amazon wants my permission to raise the price to $29.99. There is a notice saying that the order cannot be processed without my approval. Since it seems pretty obvious that this wasn't a price mistake (it's only $2 after all), how can they do this? I realize that they can correct or cancel any item or order if the pricing is wrong. However, I don't think that this is a very customer-friendly thing to do.

I have emailed their customer support. In the interim, I am really glad that I didn't take them up on the Amazon Prime offer. Crap like this makes me want to shop elsewhere.

darkside

If you buy in at a price they should honor it as long as its not some obvious pricing error. I don't like this policy at all

marty888

Agreed ..... and that's why Amazon gets less and less of my business each year.

Numanoid

Amazon is raising and lowering prices all the time. I've had some stuff in my "save for later" area of my shopping cart for a year or so and pretty much every time I check it I get a notice that one or two things has gone up in price and that one or two things have gone down in price. Nothing to get all bothered about.

Your situation seems a bit different, though. If you indeed finalized an order, they should not be able to change the price ex post facto. Had you indeed finalized it?

fujishig

Didn't someone else on this thread mention the same thing happened to them? Amazon (or any retailer, for that matter) adjusting the prices on finalized orders is just wrong... did they send you an email about it, or did you just happen to check when you browsed their page.

cmleidi

Now, they are charging $39.99.

Sweet Baby James

Of course they are-after all, it's a Disney title. Amazon is really going down the drain.

pOpus

I still haven't heard back from them. The order was finalized; I just happen to notice the "Approval Required" message when I was checking on the status of another order. I just checked my email, and found this:

"Hello from Amazon.com.

We have new information about your order and need to hear from
you before proceeding.

It has come to our attention that
the price of the following item has increased:

Zach Braff "Scrubs: The Complete Third Season" [DVD]
OLD PRICE NEW PRICE
$27.99 $29.96

We hope you will understand that, with several million items listed on
our web site, it is unfortunate but inevitable that some items will
occasionally be mispriced. In accordance with the pricing policy posted
on our website, we are contacting you to obtain your approval of the new
price before proceeding with the order.

Please follow the link below to the approval page on our web site.
From here, you will have the opportunity to approve the new price
or to view your Order Summary where you will be able to cancel
items from your order. You may also approve or cancel this item
by reviewing your order history from the "Your Account" link on
our home page.

Please be aware that if you do not approve the new price within
15 DAYS, the item may be cancelled from your order."

Anubis2005X

A difference of two dollars and they're saying it's been mispriced? Ridiculous.

dago2727

Got the same e-mail from them on my order of the Golden Girls Season 5. I called them up and complained. We went back and forth for a good 5 minutes and then they told me fine and left the price the same. I think they just wanted to get me off the phone. Obviously for a few dollars, these titles werent mispriced. They are actually the normal 30% off the list price. They told me that the 30% isnt their normal policy off of preorders, which is obviously incorrect because it is usually always 30%.

Just Lurking

I received an e-mail about Little Mermaid pre-order in October. Old price $20.99 - New price $19.96 but its listed on their website at $29.99 (MSRP).

Crazy stuff.

pilot

It appears to me it's all Disney related stuff..and there appears to be some sort of spat going on between disney & amazon (check store forum) ....amazon should just eat the cost as it's not a "price mistake" .. they simply just want to get more $ from the customer because of whatever dispute they're having with amazon ..

Liquid Death

I was in the same situation with Scrubs Season 3 (which I preordered in Feb) - I called and the person insisted it was an actual price mistake (which is just asinine on several levels), though after 10 minutes and putting me on hold 3 times, decided to finally honor the $27.99 price. What a guy.

JustinCleveland

I noticed this a month ago... such a pain! I'm avoiding buying from Amazon.

http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=459091

OwlAtHome

I was checking an order that partially shipped that contains Crimson Tide UR. It was $12.99. I clicked on the title because I wanted to check the edition details (there was no info when I ordered in Jan.) and it's now priced $19.99. Hopefully my ordered price remains.

dx23

Amazon.com is only supposed to send you emails about price changes when the MSRP for the DVD or set changes, but when you do a pre-order for any article with the correct MSRP listed, they are supposed to honor that price. What would be the point of pre-ordering at a lower price if they wouldn't honor it when its time to ship?

silentbob007

That's funny ... I ordered Firefly at the beginning of the year, and about a month later, the price dropped $15. A quick email to Amazon and they refunded me the difference. From that, you'd think they'd honor it when people buy at the low prices ....

Sweet Baby James

As pilot already pointed out, all of the problems revolve around Disney titles. Amazon and Disney have some sort of ongoing dispute and Amazon is now charging full price on all Disney titles. Amazon is now trying to get full price on all Disney pre-orders that were made when they were still offering a discount on Disney titles.