If they don't fix this soon then there will be so much backlash. I was lucky and got the lowest prices when I have ordered, but others will not. This is a BAD idea. I can see why they'd want to 'survay' what they sell, but this is definitly the WRONG way to do it.

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

Curse them for attempting to make money!

I have an idea.

Geoff has links to the online e-tailers including one for Amazon.

Why can't Amazon provide a special link to DVD Talk so that all DVD Talk members get 40% off everything! This way we will not have to suffer through the random % off that everyone now has to contend with.

All DVD Talk members get 40% off, Geoff gets more referrals and Amazon sells more DVDs.

Sounds like everyone wins to me! http://talk.dvdtalk.com/ubb/smile.gif

DeepSleep, welcome to the fourm... I'm just going to hold my comments in...

Uh... this sucks. I was just checking each and every one of my orders, it seems that in every two orders, there is a price change. I've fired off three e-mails to amazon.com about price adjustments http://talk.dvdtalk.com/ubb/smile.gif

The thing is, I have an order shipping tomorrow and I wonder if they will honor the change then http://talk.dvdtalk.com/ubb/frown.gif (nah... actually I'm not sad, I'm mad as hell http://talk.dvdtalk.com/ubb/mad.gif ... F*CK! F*CK! F*CK! )

Also a lot of items in my shopping cart have to go through the cookie-clearing.

If you do a search, you'll find that Amazon has been doing this target pricing for quite some time. There are also a few anti-Amazon websites that clearly outline what they're doing.

Personally, I'd like to see just one price (though it's not a deal breaker) , but Mail order companies have been doing "target pricing" for years. Lilian Vernon catalogs mailed to the northeast have higher prices than those shipped to the midwest.

Yeah you guys were right. It's not really target pricing... well only to a degree.

It's really arbitrary/random pricing. But once it's cookied/cached, the prices stick, to create the illusion of static pricing. Until they change prices again, at random, but usually after a couple of days.

Doing what some of you have said (setting 0/0 in netscape and disabling cookies), I've been able to get different prices from Amazon every time I open and close the browser.

Same here dodobird!

I have been checking my recent orders, 8/29 was very heavy release date for me and everyone else. There are quite a few items that I paid 5% more than I should have!!!

All of a sudden, the complimentary Braveheart DVD I received from Amazon doesn't seem "free" now! I paid for the stupid thing by being charged more for other DVDs! http://talk.dvdtalk.com/ubb/frown.gif

I called Amazon to change the prices on some of my pre-orders and the csr told me that if I had my cookies disabled that I was not logging onto their site and that sice her computer showed the higher prices that she would not change the prices. So I reordered all the stuff at the lower prices and called them and they finally changed them. They also told me that they usually dont do price changes and that 'this time' they would do them.

I am so sick of Amazon now.

Nate

How many of you are Jabooming to get GCs to use at Amazon? I'm feeling double sucker-punched right now!

RVN

Nate - I think they know now that we know... and are quickly trying to cover this up. Just imagine those poor csr-people working their buts off trying to adjust all those prices from orders placed during their "pricetesting"!

btw, I see that in the recent light they have a hilarious statement in their price policy:
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>We offer you consistently low prices on our entire catalog of books, CDs, videos, DVDs, toys, electronics and much more.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

[This message has been edited by Count Zero (edited September 05, 2000).]

I just got an e-mail from amazon saying they updated thier Privacy Policy. I don't know if this has anything to do with it. I scanned it quick, and didn't see anything.

Just to add something here..

test #1:
1) lynx http://www.amazon.com/
2) always allow cookies
3) search dvd & mib
4) 30% off
5) quit
6) rm .lynx_cookies

test #2:
1 to 3 as in test #1
4) 35% off
5-6 as in test #1

test #3:
1 to 3 as in test #1
4) 30% off
5) quit

test #4: (cookies on from prev. visit)
1) lynx http://www.amazon.com/
2) search dvd & mib
3) 30%
etc. (incl. rm .lynx_cookies)

repeated #4 three times -> 30%

test #5:
1) lynx http://www.amazon.com/
2) never allow cookies
3) search dvd & mib
4) 35%
etc.

So no matter if I had visited them earlier or not, cookies or not, I never reached 40%. Don't know if it is a survey, random pricing or if their system learns quickly.

Unfortunately I had no proxy so now they can figure out quite much about me, don't think they have that many lynx users http://talk.dvdtalk.com/ubb/smile.gif


[This message has been edited by DVD_fan (edited September 05, 2000).]

I just tried it at work. Different ISP and this pc has never browsed Amazon.

All versions of MIB are 40% off!!!

Can anyone verify how long this has been going on??

Have we been screwed over since day one??

Are all pre-orders listed @ 40-35-30-25% off??

I'm guessing this has been going on since the price spike a few weeks ago.

DVD_Fan: you will get 40% if you don't use cookies/cache, and keep on trying. As far as I know, the % off is random, but once a price is given, it sticks.

I read through their Privacy Policy a few days ago, but couldn't find anything related to prices and amazon.com giving out our information to third parties. Anyone know what they've changed?

u2hibby - I don't know just how long they've been doin' this, but I doubt that it has been longer than couple of months...

As for the preorder titles, it seems that only a few of them are included in this "price experiment" being eg. 30%, 35% or 40% off. (American Beauty, MiB, X-Files 2nd Season...)

Some in-stock titles are also ranging from 25%, 30% or 35% off. (Big Lebowski, Erin Brockovich, Fargo,Fight Club, Green Mile, EaglesHFO-DTS, Leon, Matrix, Saving Private Ryan DD&DTS ...just to name a few.)

*****Edited to add few titles*****

[This message has been edited by Count Zero (edited September 05, 2000).]

Amazon has been doing this for months. You guys should pay more attention.

They did not steal anything from you. You saw 30% or 35% off and placed the order. If you felt the price was too high perhaps you should have shopped elsewhere. I have read this tired thread from top to bottom. I do not see what they have done wrong. They offer different prices and keep stats on those sales to help them identify the best price to sell their products.

-Rick

------------------
May it ever be so humble

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by rickwalz:
Amazon has been doing this for months. You guys should pay more attention.

They did not steal anything from you. You saw 30% or 35% off and placed the order. If you felt the price was too high perhaps you should have shopped elsewhere. I have read this tired thread from top to bottom. I do not see what they have done wrong. They offer different prices and keep stats on those sales to help them identify the best price to sell their products.

-Rick

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

True, we agreed to pay the price shown. But say you just bought a DVD at a B&M for 19.99. You end up shopping there the next day and you see the same DVD stuck in the back of the shelf for 16.99. Wouldn't you be pissed that you didn't grab the one priced lower when it was readily available for purchase?

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by asabase:
True, we agreed to pay the price shown. But say you just bought a DVD at a B&M for 19.99. You end up shopping there the next day and you see the same DVD stuck in the back of the shelf for 16.99. Wouldn't you be pissed that you didn't grab the one priced lower when it was readily available for purchase?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Nah, I think he'd just tell himself to "pay more attention" next time, and just let it go (wuss!) http://talk.dvdtalk.com/ubb/wink.gif

As far as I can tell, there are 3 "levels" of cookies. This is just a small observation using a sample size of 4 movies.

MIB:LE AmerBeaut ChasAmy Leon

C #1 30% 30% 25% 25%

C #2 35% 35% 35% 35%

C #3 40% 40% 30% 30%

C#1=Screwed
C#2=Non-preorder (~Universal 35%)
C#3=Preorder or Special


So it's at least true that there is no ONE optimum cookie. It seems to me that if you are wanting to preorder a movie, you would want cookie #3, while cookie #2 is best for most other purchases. Special priced DVDs such as MIB:LE are also cheaper using the "preorder cookie." Of course, since this experiment only consists of 4 DVD movies, it's far from exhaustive and discovers only 3 "types" of cookies. In reality, there could be a thousand different cookie "types" that affect prices on the whole site. But for our DVD purposes, these are the only 3 relevent cookies "types" i could find.

The amusing thing is, even if you have the cookies that give 30% or 35% off, movies such as MIB:LE and MI2 still show as 40% on the jpg images they advertise on the DVD frontpage.

My advice: Get cookie #2 for ALL DVD purchases that aren't specially priced. Anything that has a potential for 40% off (preorders and specially priced), get cookie #3.

These little experiments are really, really cool! http://talk.dvdtalk.com/ubb/cool.gif

Thanks!

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by asabase:
True, we agreed to pay the price shown. But say you just bought a DVD at a B&M for 19.99. You end up shopping there the next day and you see the same DVD stuck in the back of the shelf for 16.99. Wouldn't you be pissed that you didn't grab the one priced lower when it was readily available for purchase?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>


If they had a 30 day price guarantee I would take it back. But many places do not have such guarantees. Even Mcdonald's charges different prices depending on what part of town you are in.

A seller has the right to set his/her price. If you do not like it shop elsewhere. Amazon is trying to see how many people will pay at each price point. If you were willing to buy a DVD at 30% off then they mark you down as a sucker. If you chose to buy from Buy.com or elsewhere they will see that in their numbers. "not enought suckers out there boss, perhaps we should lower the price" This is not a new pratice. Look at the automobile market. You would be lucky to find a new car priced the same 2 days in a row.

------------------
May it ever be so humble

For what it's worth, my attempts after erasing cookies, logging in from multiple ISP accounts etc. continued to yield the same price-point (35% off) on the MIB DVD. Perhaps they've fixed the pricing until they figure out a strategy to outbugger us.

I just tried it again.

All versions of MIB are still 40% off.

American Beauty is also 40% off.

I think I am going to hold off ordering from Amazon for awhile until this is resolved.