Since I spend most of my disposable income on Amazon, I found this article on their pricing strategy somewhat disturbing:
Imagine this: You go to a bookstore, browse, choose a couple of volumes. But you don't want to carry the books around. So you ask the clerk to hold the tomes until Saturday, when you'll come back to buy them.When you return, the bookseller hands you the items but advises you that he's raised the prices. "I knew you were hot to buy them," the clerk says, "so I figured I could make a few extra bucks."
That's what it feels like online bookseller Amazon.com Inc. has been doing to me.
On Nov. 6, seeking to boost my dubious culinary skills, I decided to buy "The Cast Iron Skillet Cookbook." I went to Amazon and placed the book in my electronic shopping cart but got distracted and never finished the transaction.
The next day, I signed on to Amazon again. A pop-up message informed me that the price had increased from $11.02 to $11.53.
This isn't the first time Amazon has been caught fiddling with their prices. In 2000, they admitted to "randomly" charging different people different prices for the same DVD.
Comments (4)
I have had things go up and down by as much as a dollar or two. I've had really frivolous purchases stored in my basket for a year and watched the price go up and down both.
Posted by: Bob | January 2, 2007 11:59 AM