I just checked and whoa this is all true. I get 30% on my first system, 35% on the second and 30% again on my third. It appears that once you get a certain percentage cookie you keep it for good until it is clear. This is ridiculous. Who should we email to expose this bs?
wired.com anyone?

I have emailed Amazon..... will post what I get back. I searched for a variety of movies on both systems, case in point Rock Horror... came up at 33% of on both so the next question is..... is there more than just percentage cookies?????? And how do yo know you are getting the best price for your purchase???



[This message has been edited by pgodden (edited September 03, 2000).]

Well i have to say I am very happy to know about that. I just ordered Fight Club and ID4 at 35% each off instead of the 25% I thought I was gonna have to pay. Saved Me around 5$, or a few days of Freeride.

Oddly enough, I checked this out and got the opposite results from most everyone else. I surfed to amazon and checked out MIB:LE and MI2 both through my account like normal and through that cloaking site. Through my account MIB was $23 something and MI2 was $17 something...through the cloaking site (with everything selected as being disabled) MIB was $27 something and MI2 was $20 something. I also checked Braveheart both ways (I bought Braveheart from Amazon) and it was the same price both ways....perhaps this means that amazon is just playing these games with pre-orders?

I have very limited understanding of some of the technicalities discussed herein. Habitually, I flush cookies before every logoff, so I may never have experienced these bizarre gyrations. One thing I have always known about Amazon: the worst company on the internet for me, bar none. Oh, they may get their shipments out on time, they may charge you exactly what they are supposed to according to your order page, but their pricing practices qualify them as the shysters of the internet. These pricing practices are nothing less than opportunistic and deceitful.
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Do you see what a can of worms this portal is? I don't think I can go on living my life as I have lived it.

[This message has been edited by Hal2000 (edited September 03, 2000).]

Hahahah I've been a very recent customer of Amazon, in fact I've never even ordered anything off the internet except Amazon.

I'm surprised no one else noticed Amazon's little price manipulation scheme before heheh I guess you long time users of Amazon get too used to paying their high prices and don't mind it

Anyway, I still like Amazon! If you Amazon guys are reading this maybe I shouldn't have posted about this topic You guys have never made a profit and I don't want you to go bankrupt!

Sorry! But once this gets out (which I am sure news folk would love to jump on) you guys are going to have to end it.

After reading this I went back to check on my last order placed on friday. I found that four of the DVDs I ordered at 30% off had the price-range 25-35% off.

The DVDs:

The Hurricane
Jaws - Dolby Digital
Chasing Amy - Criterion Collection
Ghost Dog - The Way of the Samurai

I sent them an e-mail and they adjusted the prices, so I got $5.60 off



The reply I got from Amazon:

Thank you for writing to us at Amazon.com.

>From time to time, we test and re-evaluate various aspects of our web site
to determine which characteristics drive customer purchases and
satisfaction. We've learned that certain aspects of our site resonate
with customers in different ways, and we are continually fine-tuning our
presentation--site design, layout, price, customer reviews--to provide our
customers with the greatest value, selection, and information for their
online purchasing decisions.

These tests are conducted for a brief period during which certain sections
of our web site will appear differently to randomly selected Amazon.com
customers. Price is one aspect we may test, and accordingly, that means
that some customers may pay a different price for select items. However,
please bear in mind that the discounts we offer on items in our catalog do
vary even when we are not testing our site.

I have adjusted the prices on your order for the items you have listed. I
apologize for any confusion or misunderstanding this has caused.

Please don't hesitate to contact us again should you have any further
questions or concerns, and thanks for shopping at Amazon.com. We look
forward to serving you again in the near future.


Best regards,

Dan K.
Amazon.com

THAT has to be the most incredible BULLSH!T that amazon has thrown us ever !!!

[This message has been edited by Count Zero (edited September 04, 2000).]

Getting 40% off on Men In Black, MI2, American Beauty, X Files Season 2 with cookies cleared.

For a company like Amazon that’s built it’s reputation on honesty and excellent customer service at the expense of having the lowest prices on the net, this is a very dangerous game to play.

quote:<HR>For a company like Amazon that’s built it’s reputation on honesty and excellent customer service at the expense of having the lowest prices on the net, this is a very dangerous game to play.<HR>

Ooops... Or was it the highest prices? It seems you never know with amazon anymore. My trust with them is fading away...

I checked a past order of mine. 3 different prices listed on 3 different computers ( $15 difference ).

I always considered Amazon.com to be one of the most reliable internet sites but no more.

I will now watch Amazon.com very closely.

This is a very strange business model, to charge customers more when they buy more or come back to the site more.

I have no problem with coupons for first-time customers as marketing enticements, but I thought the idea was to attract customers first and then work hard to keep them. This is definitely not going to earn customer loyalty. It is doubly disappointing to see this gimmick practiced by a supposedly top tier store like amazon.

quote:<HR>Originally posted by Count Zero:
[b] Ooops... Or was it the highest prices?<HR>

Count, that’s what I meant - That previously all that they had going for them was their perceived honesty because they chose to opt out of the pricing war. Now they don’t even have their good name.

jonathan, I hear you man... This makes me so !MAD!

I think someone needs to press amazon hard with this matter. They can't get away with this. Absolutely unforgivable!

Wonder how long they have been doing this?!?

[This message has been edited by Count Zero (edited September 04, 2000).]

If I was a stockholder...I would be seriously considering cashing in all of my shares and going elsewhere on the stock market!!! First they raise their prices and now they are caught scamming the consumers!!!!

Just tried erasing cookies and got a $4 "discount" on Men in Black LE. Thanks.
I will also be sending an e-mail to Amazon about this

quote:<HR>Originally posted by kuroiinu:
This is a very strange business model, to charge customers more when they buy more or come back to the site more.

<HR>

They are not necessarily charging more to return customers. The way it is working is if you go to their site and have no cookie from them they will assign one at random. That cookie determines the amount of discount you get. On MIB it's 30%, 35%, or 40%. Once you get your assigned percentage it will stay with you until you clear your cookies or access them from another machine.

It doesn't matter whether you're a current customer or not because when they issue you a cookie it's random. A new customer could get any of those percentages and a previous customer could get any of them if he has cleared his cookies since his last visit.

Apparently the reason they're doing this is to see at what % off are they making the most money. In other words, do they enough sell more MIB at 40% to make up for the extra money off they're giving you. I must add that most of the % differences were on pre-orders but not all. Leon the Professional had different prices for instance.

I can see why they would do this but I sure haven't heard of anyone doing it before. Hard to believe they thought we wouldn't find out with all the price information swapping on boards like this.

There is a thing called a survey which they could issue to see what prices people are more willing to pay for dvds etc.....the way they are going about it is wrong!!! If this reaches the wire, this could definitely hurt their business in the near future!!! I think they better offer all of us here at dvdtalk a $100 GC to keep our mouths shut!!!

John,can you edit your cookie to ensure that you always get the 40% discount?

Time to fire off some emails to Cnet.com and other places. Lets see how Amazon likes some bad press

quote:<HR>Originally posted by ElNino:
John,can you edit your cookie to ensure that you always get the 40% discount?<HR>

Originally I thought the first 3 numbers of the cookie determined what percentage you got but it turns out that's not true. What you could do is once you get the 40% cookie copy it to another folder somewhere (the cookie, not the address bar number). Then if you clear your cookies for some reasom you could paste it back in the cookie folder.

I suppose you could send that cookie to another computer if you wanted to. Don't try just copying the address in the address bar because you get a "browser failure" notice if the number in your address bar doesn't match the cookie number in your cookie folder.

I can see it now, a black market for selling 40% off cookies developes on ebay. Who woulda thunk it

Oh, just to make one thing clear since I reread your question, once you get the 40% cookie you will keep getting the 40% off as long as you don't delete your cookies. I'm not sure if that was what you were asking.

I just got off the phone with an Amazon price specialist over a price dispute on a recent order I placed. I ordered the Hurricane and Erin Brockovich at 30% off on their site last week, both titles are currently being shipped. This morning they were listed at 35% off. I called customer service and they claimed both titles were only 30% off and wouldn't honor the lower price since it didn't show up for them. They treated me like I was either lying or making up the the price difference. I than reordered both titles and was charged the lower price. I called customer service again and when they compared both orders there was no arguement, and gave me the order at a lower price. I also tried going through Amazon at http://www.anonymizer.com/ and the Hurricane and Erin Brockovich are listed at 25% off.

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My DVD and Laser Disc Collection

[This message has been edited by LASERMOVIES (edited September 04, 2000).]

[This message has been edited by LASERMOVIES (edited September 04, 2000).]

[This message has been edited by LASERMOVIES (edited September 04, 2000).]

Hahah the **** is starting to hit the fan.

Since it is labor day my contact at Amazon isn't going to be in the office, but I will call him on Tuesday and find out what is going on.

Geoff

quote:<HR>Originally posted by gkleinman:
Since it is labor day my contact at Amazon isn't going to be in the office, but I will call him on Tuesday and find out what is going on.

Geoff<HR>

This should be good!!!