Just got to experience how crooked Amazon is, folks. I know this isn’t exactly the forum for situations like this, but I just had to share.
So my husband regularly verifies prices when he receives his order, to make sure the price of merchandise hasn’t gone down. Some independent vendors, distributing their product through amazon, offer unconditional price matching, whereas items sold by amazon directly, often won’t.
He ordered a pressure washer (sold by amazon directly) and paid $166 for it, received it today and just now checked the price—it was now listed for $119. He contacted customer service to see if they’d price match—they wouldn’t. BUT...he could return the product and be issued a refund, so he could turn around and buy it again, at the lower price. Clearly, they’re hoping the average person is too lazy to jump through all these hoops, but we’re not talking chump change here, so he’s highly motivated.
Here’s where things get crazy sketchy: WHILE he’s chatting with the rep via live text (and it’s getting pretty heated), the MFers change the price BACK to $166—what he originally paid. Unfortunately for them, he had already screenshot the lower price, complete with timestamp, showing the switcharoo happening during their conversation.
At this point, he’s fit to be tied. We’ve bought so much stuff from these assholes, we should own stock. So I tell him to go back into his order history, to leave a review, because he can upload the screenshots he’s taken of the shady bait and switch......AND THEY’VE BLOCKED HIM FROM LEAVING REVIEWS, DUE TO A VIOLATION OF THEIR TOS!!!! I’m literally speechless.
Amazon is now the new Google, and if you’ve watched “The Creepy Line”, you know exactly what I’m talking about. These assholes knew they were doing some cooked shite and PREEMPTIVELY blocked him from showing other buyers what they did! They also went back into the customer service text string and WIPED the entire conversation, with the original complaint! Of course, he has screenshots of all of it, but I’m still blown away....
Anyone else experience anything like this BS before??
1
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Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.Do you want to disappear without a trace? Because this is how people disappear without a trace.
Uncle Jeff would never ever manipulate his market place.
Uncle Jeff loves you and only wants to bring you quality products at bargain prices.
Boardwine
Level 8
Apr 5, 2019
1
I know, right?! We might just get Clintoned! My crazy ass husband would take one for the team though, just to raise awareness.
Customer service cannot change prices on the website. Not possible. Fact.
Kindalibertarian
Level 6
Apr 5, 2019
0
Clearly you’re involved with amazon in some way, so please.....enlighten me on the rest of what happened.
Honestly though, it really doesn’t matter how you explain it, especially if you’re involved with the company. They were “saying” they weren’t doing what we were witnessing happen, AS IT WAS HAPPENING. We have photo documentation of everything. Customer service might not be able to directly change prices, as you claim, but customer service CAN SURELY cover up some shady business practices conducted by another department within the company, who can.
It's all code at the end of the day so anyone who has access or the ability of hacking/code editing can change anything at any point in time. Not only that algorithms can be in place already to deceive the buyer/commenter/any persons viewing a website/app when certain things are written/said. Anyone whose intelligent enough to use common sense and/or has any knowledge based in computers/code understands this. We are living out a science fiction novel/movie come true where technology is now our master. If you don't believe that you are not intelligent enough to see it or you choose not to.
Can they block you from commenting/leaving a review?
@RobBlair they absolutely can and absolutely did. He tried to warn other customers and couldn’t make it past the “review item” link. This is what he got. He’s never reviewed anything prior to making this attempt.
@thewaywayback79 "Comments about pricing, product availability or alternate ordering options are also not about the product and should not be shared in Customer Reviews or Questions and Answers." So that's pretty straight forward. The idea that they preemptively blocked him is suspicious though.
@RobBlair We figured the review would get taken down quickly, if it even got approved in the first place, but never in a million years expected they’d block him before he’d even attempted it. What did he violate exactly....asking about a price change? In the 8+ years he’s had a prime account, he’d never reviewed a single purchase and didn’t even know you could attach photos, until I mentioned it.
He’s been on the phone with several people higher up the food chain and come to find out, they DO price match (unless it’s a refurbished amazon warehouse item) and he shouldn’t have been told that all. Makes the behavior of the reps he chatted with even more sketchy, but just goes to show, The House always holds the cards.
@thewaywayback79 but you still get to choose the house.
@RobBlair This is true! Hopefully, we’ll have enough conviction to walk away from this one, but I fear the next will just be a case of “same shit, different house”. It’s probably time to go find a lonely mountain to live on.... ?
@thewaywayback79 - I was there for many years. I'm not, in any way, trying to diminish your experience. I don't know anything about the tracking or blocking of comments. I wouldn't doubt that is possible. When it comes to pricing, however, it is not nefarious in any way, it just changes alot. Given that, and significant internal control issues with allowing customer service to give discounts based upon that, I'm fairly certain what happened in that regard is standard (ie. Return the item and repurchase as suggested) Either way, I'm not an advocate for the company. Your experience sounds like a bad one.
Well, I hate to burst your bubble, but Amazon has dynamically changing prices that look all over the web and match reject competitors. This can happen literally every few minutes depending upon the popularity of the item. Often times these price changes are systematically driven with no human intervention whatsoever. They certainly didn't change the price because your husband was on the phone complaining about the price drop. Sure seems like you had a bad experience, but there is no conspiracy or company policy where they are trying to screw you.
Kindalibertarian
Level 6
Apr 5, 2019
0
I’m aware of the fluctuating prices. But a change in price, from exactly the lower to the previous higher price, within the same 5 minutes he was on live chat, a wiping of the entire chat history with customer service, of this SPECIFIC incident (all of the previous chats from months back were still there), and a preemptive block of making a review of that item, even though my husband has never before reviewed an item to even be in violation of their TOS policy, isn’t just a coincidence.....sorry to burst your bubble.
Thank you for sharing that, it could undoubtedly be helpful to others who may come across this post. I never went through such an experience as I never did business with Amazon, something about them and in particular the founder that rubbed me the wrong way, and now hearing about your interaction with them has me convinced I made a good choice to steer clear of them.
SpikeTalon
Level 10
Apr 5, 2019
0
We’re literally sitting here looking at each other like “WTF just happened? Did we really just witness this go down the way it did?” They (with a capitol T) can decide you’ve violated TOS guidelines, whenever and however they see fit, just like Google and YouTube did to Dr Peterson, and countless others.
It’s totally a David vs Goliath situation, but more people need to know this is now happening to average, everyday people. Preemptive censorship is terrifying. It’s happeneing everywhere...Google, Facebook, YouTube...now Amazon...and we’re inviting them into our homes to observe and report on our daily lives!
@thewaywayback79 Regarding the last part of your comment, precisely the reason why I don't use alot of this "smart" technology, all too easy for others to spy on you.
@SpikeTalon it’s so scary. We had an echo dot last year, that spontaneously recorded about 10 seconds of our conversation one morning, and played it back to us. No commands given, no warning...nothing. Needless to say, it was unplugged and banished to the garage!
@thewaywayback79 Smart move there.
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