Unless I'm crazy this lawsuit seems pretty idiotic.
> “The bottom line is the free shipping that Amazon offered to its Prime members wasn’t free,” said Kim Stephens, attorney for one of the plaintiffs, adding that he was “shocked” by Amazon’s alleged pricing practices.
No kidding it isn't free, it costs $79/year (now $99).
> "For example, if the price of an item is advertised for $10 with $3.99 shipping and the [vendor] wishes to match or top their price, the [vendor] would charge $13.99 or higher," Burke alleges in the suit.
Exactly.
If you are selling something for $5 as a non Prime seller, and Amazon charges $3.99 for you to ship it (which they reimburse you for BTW), then why would I as a Prime seller not list my product for $8.99 due to the fact that I will be maximizing my profit, and have the benefit of having my merch sent to the customer in 2 days? I could just list it for $5 to be sure I can sell the item by undercutting, but I'd like to barely undercut the current highest price.
Also I see others complaining about shipping, it seems you all must live in the worst cities for mail carriers. I've had Prime for the last 3 years, and have been ordering from Amazon since 1999. This year I have 31 orders placed, 2013 I placed 86 orders, 39 orders in 2012. I can only remember one item in all this time which missed a delivery date (by a day).
That $79/year was intended to REPLACE the price of shipping on individual items.
If the price of those items increases by the cost of shipping, after you've payed the $79, Prime is now a sunk cost of $79 that has ZERO returns.
This is the basis of the lawsuit, this is very easy to understand.
Amazon should be covering the shipping cost associated with Prime items, Instead they collude with sellers to make them "Prime eligible" and those sellers increase prices by the cost of shipping. That's a scam.
I've had prime since it's inception, I have 500+ orders on my amazon account. It used to be a great deal, it's basically just a scam to get you to use their video service now.
> “The bottom line is the free shipping that Amazon offered to its Prime members wasn’t free,” said Kim Stephens, attorney for one of the plaintiffs, adding that he was “shocked” by Amazon’s alleged pricing practices.
No kidding it isn't free, it costs $79/year (now $99).
> "For example, if the price of an item is advertised for $10 with $3.99 shipping and the [vendor] wishes to match or top their price, the [vendor] would charge $13.99 or higher," Burke alleges in the suit.
Exactly.
If you are selling something for $5 as a non Prime seller, and Amazon charges $3.99 for you to ship it (which they reimburse you for BTW), then why would I as a Prime seller not list my product for $8.99 due to the fact that I will be maximizing my profit, and have the benefit of having my merch sent to the customer in 2 days? I could just list it for $5 to be sure I can sell the item by undercutting, but I'd like to barely undercut the current highest price.
Also I see others complaining about shipping, it seems you all must live in the worst cities for mail carriers. I've had Prime for the last 3 years, and have been ordering from Amazon since 1999. This year I have 31 orders placed, 2013 I placed 86 orders, 39 orders in 2012. I can only remember one item in all this time which missed a delivery date (by a day).