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The number of times I’ve gone through the dance of adding to cart, inputting all my information, and then bailing when I see $57 2-day shipping ($97 for next da

The number of times I’ve gone through the dance of adding to cart, inputting all my information, and then bailing when I see $57 2-day shipping ($97 for next day) and $40 for 5-7 days— it’s ridiculous. Amazon simplifies my life. To be blunt, I don’t care about the “cost” (fiscal or otherwise).

caturopath 5y ago
They put shipping quotes four screens in -- after requiring an email address -- in hopes of getting you committed and having chances to harass you to buy stuff after.
- reedjosh 5y ago
  I think this is the case. Otherwise, you could just input your zip and see quotes. Also, if this were hurting prices overall, then I should be able to routinely just click on `Other Sellers` and find price+shipping to be less than prime. Usually, if it is cheaper at all, it's for a week plus delivery and only a few percent cheaper in total. Most of the time though, it's actually still more expensive. I've also bought from sellers off of Amazon as they offered coupon codes and paypal purchases. It's not ideal, but it seems possible to get around this. I think it's easier for manufactures that sell direct than resellers though.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
- xmprt 5y ago
  I once bought $99.80 worth of stuff on this website after seeing an advertisement for free shipping on orders $99+. It was only after getting to the final screen that I found out it was only $99.99+ so I needed to add another useless item to my cart to avoid the $10 shipping. It's not a huge deal but what's the recourse to false advertising like that? I still needed the bulk of that order so I wasn't about to cancel the order but it also wasn't nice spending more than I wanted. Is there a simple place to report violations like this?
  - nacs 5y ago
    A similar situation I've run into is an online store I buy regularly from that has free shipping over $X amount. The item I buy normally costs over that but every once in a while they'll send a coupon that offers 15% off that literally drops the price to like $1 under that free shipping price. So the "coupon" ends up making it more expensive in total because the free-shipping is based off the post-discount price.
tchalla 5y ago
I know you probably didn’t mean it but I still want to state it. Your personal simplification of life or the amount you personally care or not doesn’t define monopolistic behavior. The entire population may not care about something but it could be disallowed.
- canjobear 5y ago
  > The entire population may not care about something but it could be disallowed. In a functioning democracy, not for long
  - stjohnswarts 5y ago
    Yeah, I agree, we may have bigger fish to fry with an entire party actively trying to redefine what voting is in America. It seems like if they didn't win that there certainly must be voter fraud and more minorities voters should be disenfranchised (or enough votes thrown out by 1 party lege committees so that they win) and if they do win then clearly voter fraud was no where to be found.
- SavantIdiot 5y ago
  Also, clearly that person makes a lot of money to not care about costs, they can afford convenience. Not everyone can, which is what makes the "I got mine, so what about everyone else?" attitude dangerous in any circumstance.
- jonas21 5y ago
  Modern US antitrust law is based solely on benefit to the consumer [1]. If the entire population doesn't care about something (by which I assume you mean they are not harmed by it or even benefit from it), then it's not prohibited. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_antitrust_law#Theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_antitrust_law#Th...
  - nrmitchi 5y ago
    > If the entire population doesn't care about something It is a huge leap to assume that the entire population doesn't care about the literal cost of something they are buying.
throwawayboise 5y ago
Many well-run ecommerce sites do let you enter a zip code and see shipping quotes. Some don't until later in the checkout process, and I'm more likely to abandon the checkout on those sites. I won't hesitate to bail at the last moment either if I don't like the final price on the deal. We're talking about a difference of seconds in the checkout experience. It adds to the perception of convenience, but but I don't see the miniscule time savings of the Amazon experience as being worth a higher price on the same item I could get for less elsewhere. I've wasted far more time with Amazon trying to decide if an item is legitimate, and dealing with returns of broken, counterfeit, or misrepresented goods, than I have saved in their checkout experience.
serf 5y ago
You only let Amazon simplify your life in that manner because you don't care about potential savings elsewhere. Many of us , myself included, after filling up a prime-enabled cart then go to walmart.com or some other such e-commerce retailer and then do exactly the same process you described still to check the price against Amazon. Many times I go with the other retailer due to cost savings. If Amazon prices things and incorporates shipping costs in such ways that people know they must double check them against other e-commerce vendors, where does the convenience and time savings come in? What i'm saying : You're taking for granted that your convenience comes at a cost, in most cases.
- monocularvision 5y ago
  If you can go to another site, fill up the same cart and end up spending less money, doesn’t that sort of disprove the point the article is trying to make?

caturopath 5y ago

They put shipping quotes four screens in -- after requiring an email address -- in hopes of getting you committed and having chances to harass you to buy stuff after.

reedjosh 5y ago
I think this is the case. Otherwise, you could just input your zip and see quotes. Also, if this were hurting prices overall, then I should be able to routinely just click on `Other Sellers` and find price+shipping to be less than prime. Usually, if it is cheaper at all, it's for a week plus delivery and only a few percent cheaper in total. Most of the time though, it's actually still more expensive. I've also bought from sellers off of Amazon as they offered coupon codes and paypal purchases. It's not ideal, but it seems possible to get around this. I think it's easier for manufactures that sell direct than resellers though.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
xmprt 5y ago
I once bought $99.80 worth of stuff on this website after seeing an advertisement for free shipping on orders $99+. It was only after getting to the final screen that I found out it was only $99.99+ so I needed to add another useless item to my cart to avoid the $10 shipping. It's not a huge deal but what's the recourse to false advertising like that? I still needed the bulk of that order so I wasn't about to cancel the order but it also wasn't nice spending more than I wanted. Is there a simple place to report violations like this?
- nacs 5y ago
  A similar situation I've run into is an online store I buy regularly from that has free shipping over $X amount. The item I buy normally costs over that but every once in a while they'll send a coupon that offers 15% off that literally drops the price to like $1 under that free shipping price. So the "coupon" ends up making it more expensive in total because the free-shipping is based off the post-discount price.

tchalla 5y ago

I know you probably didn’t mean it but I still want to state it. Your personal simplification of life or the amount you personally care or not doesn’t define monopolistic behavior. The entire population may not care about something but it could be disallowed.

canjobear 5y ago
> The entire population may not care about something but it could be disallowed. In a functioning democracy, not for long
- stjohnswarts 5y ago
  Yeah, I agree, we may have bigger fish to fry with an entire party actively trying to redefine what voting is in America. It seems like if they didn't win that there certainly must be voter fraud and more minorities voters should be disenfranchised (or enough votes thrown out by 1 party lege committees so that they win) and if they do win then clearly voter fraud was no where to be found.
SavantIdiot 5y ago
Also, clearly that person makes a lot of money to not care about costs, they can afford convenience. Not everyone can, which is what makes the "I got mine, so what about everyone else?" attitude dangerous in any circumstance.
jonas21 5y ago
Modern US antitrust law is based solely on benefit to the consumer [1]. If the entire population doesn't care about something (by which I assume you mean they are not harmed by it or even benefit from it), then it's not prohibited. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_antitrust_law#Theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_antitrust_law#Th...
- nrmitchi 5y ago
  > If the entire population doesn't care about something It is a huge leap to assume that the entire population doesn't care about the literal cost of something they are buying.

throwawayboise 5y ago

Many well-run ecommerce sites do let you enter a zip code and see shipping quotes. Some don't until later in the checkout process, and I'm more likely to abandon the checkout on those sites. I won't hesitate to bail at the last moment either if I don't like the final price on the deal. We're talking about a difference of seconds in the checkout experience. It adds to the perception of convenience, but but I don't see the miniscule time savings of the Amazon experience as being worth a higher price on the same item I could get for less elsewhere. I've wasted far more time with Amazon trying to decide if an item is legitimate, and dealing with returns of broken, counterfeit, or misrepresented goods, than I have saved in their checkout experience.

serf 5y ago

You only let Amazon simplify your life in that manner because you don't care about potential savings elsewhere. Many of us , myself included, after filling up a prime-enabled cart then go to walmart.com or some other such e-commerce retailer and then do exactly the same process you described still to check the price against Amazon. Many times I go with the other retailer due to cost savings. If Amazon prices things and incorporates shipping costs in such ways that people know they must double check them against other e-commerce vendors, where does the convenience and time savings come in? What i'm saying : You're taking for granted that your convenience comes at a cost, in most cases.

monocularvision 5y ago
If you can go to another site, fill up the same cart and end up spending less money, doesn’t that sort of disprove the point the article is trying to make?