amazon is losing my love this holiday season

groovygrl

holy fleecing by amazon sellers this year....anyone else feel this way? It is like buying airline tickets, you go on to look and then go the next time to buy & the price has doubled. This has happened to at least 4 things I was hoping to buy & what is really killing me is I see the same item on toysrus for literally half the price or even less than that, but you can't get it online (and I even tried to go to a  TRU on a Saturday which is terrible in itself but then they were out of the 3 things I went looking for!). Ugh. I had no idea shopping the weekend of Dec 7 was going to be so 'late'?! Holiday season vent over. Back to merriness.

Cherryblossoms07

Amazon prices have been all over the place this season. I looked at a few toys and the price kept changing. I looked at Zoomer and the price was $79. Went back a day later and it was $99. Luckily I don't rely on Amazon like DH does. What helped me was that Walmart, Target, and Toys R Us all price match each other and Amazon this time of year. So if one place was having a sale and was out of it I went to the other and had them price match. Good luck!

ss+el

I knew exactly what you were going to have to say before I even opened the post. Ugh.
I waited until Cyber Monday for a few things, because Amazon has always had them on sale that day. Nope, actually jacked up over the normal prices.
I did manage to eventually get the one item I really, truly needed when it dropped briefly, but have given up on the rest.

meg1974

Have you tried Target? If you have their credit card, you can get free shipping online, with no minimum. You also get 5% back on most purchases (both in-store and online).

ambrvan

We bought everything from Amazon for Christmas this year, but we did so back in October. I so always browse, though, and I have noticed the prices.

hollyish

Yep.  This happened last year too and I forgot about how much it pisses me off!  I use prime and am a last minute type of shopper. Don't put anything in your basket unless you are ready to buy right away because they will raise the price.

groovygrl

Here's the best part- I sent an email expressing my disappointment at the prices the sellers were listing as compared to large retailers, and that I hoped in the future they would look at this as it causes people like me to shop elsewhere, etc.

I got a response that was so bizarre, I think maybe it was computer generated based on keywords or something. It was grammatically a mess and it had the overall feel of 'yeah yeah yeah we're going to feed you a bunch of lines about how we take your feedback seriously'  and it didn't even make sense, there was a line about how the writer of the email understands how convenient it would be if this 'feature' were implemented. I didn't know competitive pricing was a 'feature'...
Disappointment amplified, I would have rather gotten no response.

groovygrl

Yes I get that it is a free market but this has not been my experience in past years, maybe I just missed it or was looking at different things but honestly never noticed this & have always done my holiday shopping on there...I think amazon is using more 3rd party sellers than they used to and I just think it is a shame that they do that to the prices, but of course if ppl are willing to pay then that is great for them...I don't hold amazon 'responsible' for what their sellers do, but do think that they should know that it drives buyers away when it is so much higher than their competition.
I don't think expressing disappointment in the pricing this year is really unreasonable or hateful, just disappointed. I will still continue to shop there year round but will reconsider my plans next holiday season for sure.