Amazon problems...beware
 

In case you are wondering why this isn't in the Amazon coupons thread (since it does relate to coupons), I have 2 reasons. The first is that the thread has gotten pretty long and this important piece of info may be missed in there. Secondly, this could apply to a lot of people. So...

In the past 3 - 4 weeks, I have had 4 different orders ship from Amazon. Being the extreme bargain hunter that I am, alll of these orders were loaded with Share the Love and coupons. So, when I received my orders and noticed that the prices were higher than I remembered, I decided to look into things.

After talking with several customer reps and order specialists, I was able to get things resolved. Essentially, the problem is is that, for some reason or another, many promos are being "dropped off" orders. To further the problem, I actually have 2 additional unshipped orders which currently show no promos (though they did just a week or so ago). Again, after talking with a few order specialists, I was able to get the problem resolved. But the fact remains that Amazon is having some issues on their ordering backend.

Being a programmer myself, I can understand how this is happening, but this demonstrates pretty bad programming technique on Amazon's side. I, as the consumer, shouldn't have to police all my orders this closely. However, if I hadn't, I would have been charged around $100 extra that I had in various promos.

So, for those of you who use STL and coupons with Amazon, you may want to take a closer look at those invoices. Amazon is having issues right now, and though they are more than willing to fix them if you talk to them, it could slip by unnoticed if you aren't paying close attention.

Hope this helps some of you. It's hard work being a bargain hunter sometimes...

David

Yes, this has been happening to lots of people. I've had my past 5 orders ship with various overcharges from Amazon.

On the last one, even though they credited my card, they had the nerve to actually blame me for the error.

There's a long thread about this in the Store forum:

http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthr...hreadid=145217

I can certainly understand that mistakes happen, but this is clearly a major (and by this time, well-known) problem. And, contrary to what they say about it being only for select orders, it seems to be covering just about every order that I still have open -- things that were ordered 2 weeks ago as well as things that were ordered back in June.

Amazon should be sending out an e-mail to everyone who has placed orders asking them to check the totals. That would be the polite and honest thing to do... since I'm sure there are a few people out there who never bother matching up their credit card statements to the initial order totals.

Me too

To date I've had to get over $50 worth of overcharges refunded....


Rule of thumb for the moment appears to be make sure you keep all the e-mail confirmations and ensure to print pre and post order summaries for time you combine / change orders

BTW: To drindustrial and bboisvert - Thanks for all the STL

-M.

Ahhhh...I had no idea that this was in the store forum (as I don't generally visit it). So maybe this thread should be closed, though it could be useful to people like me who don't visit the store forum.

And no prob on the STL....I enjoy receiving it as well (and I do receive a ton).

David