Amazon changes price while item in your cart

[growler]

Anyone else annoyed by this?

I've had it happen a few times as I am shopping & putting together an order.
Always a price increase. <GRIN>

I usually remove the item that just jumped in price due to annoyance.
I can see if you leave items in your cart for days but during a 30 minute to 1 hour shopping session? Sometimes I'll be checking reviews, different versions of BDs, etc. & it takes a while to complete an order of say 5-10 items.

[Eny-]

You must take quite some time placing an order. This never happened to me.

[MoulinBlu]

I've seen it happen before too. And it has nothing to do with taking a long time to checkout. For some reason, amazon fluctuates their prices on an almost hourly basis. So if you're checking out at that time... I assume it has either something to do with price trackers or just something to draw peoples attention. Usually they're tiny, pointless fluctuations, as small as 1 cent. Though sometimes they'll jump it up a buck or so, just to drop it back down a few hours later. I don't know if that's their way of manufacturing the misleading appearance of a pricedrop or if they're trying to get you to buy when it goes up for fear that it'll keep rising and you'll miss out, which sometimes is the case too, but not for most of their price fluctuations. I agree it can be annoying, if not rather rediculous. Just another game amazon plays with their customers wallets.

My prime membership hasn't expired yet, so I don't see it happen too much, being able to checkout rather quickly and not having to worry with minimum orders. I imagine once I lose prime and stuff starts sitting in my cart longer while I pad the order to $35, I'll notice it even more.

[growler]

Not all the time. I don't have Prime or I'd probably place many orders to avoid this. I find it extremely rude, for lack of a better word. It's not the amount of the increase. Can you imagine a B&M store & you're putting items in your actual cart & as you approach the checkout counter, some have gone up in price?

Sometimes I am looking through my want list on Price Tracker to get up to $35 for free shipping. Sometimes looking though my wish list on Amazon. Reading reviews of PQ/AQ or forum threads on different version of some BDs.

I'm probably the only one who cares about this.

[rdodolak]

I can see how it could be perceived as annoying but let's consider the opposite side of the spectrum. If the price were to drop while you have an item in your cart should Amazon keep the item in your cart at the higher price rather than dropping it to the new lower price?

Right now if the price drops while the item is in your cart your cart is adjusted to the new lower price.

[MoulinBlu]

Originally Posted by rdodolak

I can see how it could be perceived as annoying but let's consider the opposite side of the spectrum. If the price were to drop while you have an item in your cart should Amazon keep the item in your cart at the higher price rather than dropping it to the new lower price?

Right now if the price drops while the item is in your cart your cart is adjusted to the new lower price.

Oddly enough that just happened to me a week ago. Though it was a marketplace item, not anything sold by amazon itself. Based on the 50 to 100 items I have saved in my cart, amazon's prices go up far more than they come down. The annoyance is the priceing games they play in that most of their price fluctuation is completely unnecessary and unwarranted, thus annoying. I can see how it would be highly frustrating if you're trying to place an order on your lunch break, just to find the item price temporarily spike a buck or two after you put it in your cart, knowing it's going to come right back down later in the day or at most the next day when it may not be as convenient to place the order.

Imagine if Walmart did that: you see the price on the shelf, stick it in your cart, finish shopping, and by the time you get to the register it rings up a different price. You tell them hey it was X price on the shelf and they reply that it's gone up 10% for the next 5 hours, come back later. And such practices were routine, as amazon doesn't just adjust their prices once a week at best like most places. I've seen items in my cart change in price multiple times in a single hour. That kind of thing is unwarranted and even annoying if the price is going down. Imagine if it drops to 9.99. You jump on it, just to see it for 8.99 an hour later. Doesn't get much more annoying than that. Only at amazon.

[rdodolak]

Originally Posted by MoulinBlu

Oddly enough that just happened to me a week ago. Though it was a marketplace item, not anything sold by amazon itself. Based on the 50 to 100 items I have saved in my cart, amazon's prices go up far more than they come down. The annoyance is the priceing games they play in that most of their price fluctuation is completely unnecessary and unwarranted, thus annoying. I can see how it would be highly frustrating if you're trying to place an order on your lunch break, just to find the item price temporarily spike a buck or two after you put it in your cart, knowing it's going to come right back down later in the day or at most the next day when it may not be as convenient to place the order.

Imagine if Walmart did that: you see the price on the shelf, stick it in your cart, finish shopping, and by the time you get to the register it rings up a different price. You tell them hey it was X price on the shelf and they reply that it's gone up 10% for the next 5 hours, come back later. And such practices were routine, as amazon doesn't just adjust their prices once a week at best like most places. I've seen items in my cart change in price multiple times in a single hour. That kind of thing is unwarranted and even annoying if the price is going down. Imagine if it drops to 9.99. You jump on it, just to see it for 8.99 an hour later. Doesn't get much more annoying than that. Only at amazon.

There are pros and cons to both sides. I just checked my wish list and out of 14 items seven decreased in price while the other seven increased in price. Overall there was a decrease in price of $13.71 based on the original prices.

I just end up leaving the item in my wish list if Amazon raises the price.

[Mr.Terry]

I have hundreds of items in my wish list and in saved for later and the prices go and they go down.That's the Amazon way.When I actually check out items I do it right away but always check the price because if it increases what I consider to be more than I am willing to pay at that time then I save it for later when the price comes down again.I have a target price of around $10 but am willing to go a bit higher.I usually order in the hundreds of dollars.If the BD is one that I want asap then I pay whatever is the going rate at that time.Price increases are not what I want to see but I accept it because if it's too much for me then I just wait till it comes down.

[Leonidas King]

OP I thought I was the only one. It happened to me just the other day when I had a Canon printer in my cart at $29.99 but I left it there without Checkout. I come back a few hours later its gone up to $36. Removed it from my cart and few hours later it dropped to $32.99

Not sure if it was pure coincidence or the fact that it was in my cart but I never checked out.

[growler]

I consider wish list price changes very different vs. change it in your cart. I would not be annoyed if price dropped & I didn't get the new price. I like the analogy of having items in your physical shopping cart at a B&M store. Once I select it & place it in my cart can't they give me a break?!

I also have many items in my wish list, it is a way for me to bookmark items I may be iterated in buying. For some items, I'll add a comment with date & price so I can have a reference.

[fronk777]

I also hate it when Subscribe and Save items increases in price and you aren't notified..another sneaky way Amazon gets you. I check this monthly now and compare.

[MoulinBlu]

Originally Posted by rdodolak

There are pros and cons to both sides. I just checked my wish list and out of 14 items seven decreased in price while the other seven increased in price. Overall there was a decrease in price of $13.71 based on the original prices.

I just end up leaving the item in my wish list if Amazon raises the price.

Monitoring prices in your wish list is different from items saved in your cart. Wishlist price reflects marketplace sellers too, not just amazon - which marketplace sellers frequently have MUCH better prices than amazon itself, and marketplace prices seem to only go south. About the only time they climb northward is when something goes OOP. Cart items no longer take into consideration marketplace vendor prices like they used to, with the exception of if you added the item to your cart from a specific vendor, not from amazon, in which case you're only monitorying that particular vendors price for the item too.

Originally Posted by fronk777

I also hate it when Subscribe and Save items increases in price and you aren't notified..another sneaky way Amazon gets you. I check this monthly now and compare.

Tell me about it. Their subscribe and save program has turned into a joke. I used to subscribe to about a dozen items when they started the program. Everything was 15% off then and they had more competitive prices than buying locally even before the discount was applied. Now it's only 5% off AND the prices are cheaper in local stores even after the 5% discount has been applied. It's become pretty clear in recent years that amazon isn't content with their shipping prices or $80-$100 for prime, they want to tack on a little to the item price to offset shipping too. Not to mention half the items I subscribed to are only offered via marketplace vendors now and thus not part of the subscribe and save program. I haven't figured out yet whether or not amazon charges food tax for subscribe n save or full retail tax, now that they charge tax in NC.

[obssessive]

Wow...
Sneaky move I bet a bunch of people have overlooked when checking out!

[rdodolak]

Originally Posted by MoulinBlu

Monitoring prices in your wish list is different from items saved in your cart. Wishlist price reflects marketplace sellers too, not just amazon - which marketplace sellers frequently have MUCH better prices than amazon itself, and marketplace prices seem to only go south. About the only time they climb northward is when something goes OOP. Cart items no longer take into consideration marketplace vendor prices like they used to, with the exception of if you added the item to your cart from a specific vendor, not from amazon, in which case you're only monitorying that particular vendors price for the item too.

I used the wrong terminology and incorrectly stated wish list and should have said the items were "saved for later" in my cart.