[akshaymahajan]

Originally Posted by AutoGalaxy

I was always thinking Prime members get priority delivery and price advantage. Anyone else noticing such difference ?

The seller in both cases is different and that's what determines the price and shipping I would imagine. But a prime delivery taking 9 days is rare these days.

[AutoGalaxy]

Ah, Thank you @akshaymahajan. Didnt notice the seller there. Will keep an eye for price changes across sellers.

Delivery schedule to Blr usually used to be a day or 2 max. May be due to festival season!

[Mortis]

This time I made a proper list of the items I wanted to buy and the prices a week before the sale started.

About 20% of the prices increased after the sale started.
Remaining 80% of the items were the same price or literally single digit Rs cheaper.

No doubt there are a few items which have good deals (mostly electronics) but by and large the sales are pointless.

Anyone else notice that nowadays the MRP on the box of everything except FMCG stuff is hugely inflated ?
Like a basic TV that sells for 20k will have a sticker price of 55k when there is zero possibility of it being sold for that much ? It seems to be a practice to enable e-commerce websites to "genuinely" have the tag of " - X% from MRP". I have also seen stuff selling at MRP claiming that they are discounted from MRP

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by Mortis

Anyone else notice that nowadays the MRP on the box of everything except FMCG stuff is hugely inflated ?
Like a basic TV that sells for 20k will have a sticker price of 55k when there is zero possibility of it being sold for that much ?

Yep. I really wish that sellers could just be honest and open about pricing. Doesn't look like there is any chance of that happening, or of any such laws being enforced. Amazon will quote their price as reduced from MRP: the manufacturers themselves will be selling at the same price as Amazon. MRP has become a joke.

[saket77]

^^ These inflated MRPs give sellers a lot of room to play with the margin. Also, it is a ploy to test the depth of water by manufacturers that if their stuff will be accepted and at which price point. Slowly the discount part and can be tapered off and the product can be sold at much higher prices. Even in some FMCG products, higher mark up is becoming a norm and finally being sold at some discount.

[Jaguar]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Yep. I really wish that sellers could just be honest and open about pricing.....MRP has become a joke.

Maybe that's not what the public wants. Remember the JC Penny sales experiment?

In early 2012, Johnson announced a major overhaul of the way JC Penney does business, with a new “fair and square” everyday low pricing scheme to replace the “fake prices” used commonly in the past. The idea sounded great—in theory. Didn’t everyone hate those “fake prices,” which were inflated only so that the inevitable discounts would seem tempting? Well, no. Johnson thought it made sense to cut to the chase by listing realistic prices from the get-go and foregoing nonstop sales. It does make logical sense, after all. But shoppers aren’t purely logical creatures. They’re often drawn to stores not by the promise of fair pricing, but by the lure of hunting for deals via coupons and price markdowns. It’s all a game, and a contrived one at that. But it’s a game that shoppers are accustomed to playing, and that many — consciously or not — like playing, with the “How Much You Saved” line at the bottom of the receipt serving as a score.
It didn’t take long for people to note that Johnson’s no-coupons, no-sales experiment was failing to attract shoppers. Sales collapsed through early 2012, and by the summer, even Johnson acknowledged the stores had made a big mistake.

Source: https://business.time.com/2013/04/09...-at-jc-penney/

[Mortis]

This might be true for stuff that has a somewhat intangible value, like clothes. The same shirt could be sold for 1000 in one shop and 2000 in another shop.

One could believe that an iPhone has an MRP of 2 lakhs and is being sold at a discounted price of 1.4 Lakhs. But the ridiculous thing is that they expect us to believe that some Lava feature phone being sold for 10k had an MRP of 70K and so on. It's the disparity between the category price vs the sticker price that I just find really silly and unnecessary

[Thad E Ginathom]

I was on a visit to England. I commented to a shop assistant that the sale price on something was the same as it had been on my last visit. She said, ahem, no. There are laws and we would not be allowed to do that.

I had forgotten! I lived my first fifty years there, and had completely forgotten this essential consumer law, and the fact that it does sometimes get enforced. The item must have been on sale at the "reduced from price, in that store, for something like six previous months.

[scorpian]

I recently purchase a vacuum cleaner from eurekha forbes on amazon on its big sale. Guess what the box gets delivered without the accessories and i am unable to use it for the core function that I needed it for.

Using the customer support has been a joke where in they need to do an investigation and need me the consumer who has paid money for a incomplete item to call back and check on what is the status of my complaint.

Overall an experience i would like not to have again. Better to pay 500 more and buy from brick and mortar store where atleast you can check everything physically and be sure of where your putting your money.

Amazon if your reading this, you need to stop acting like flipkart!

[vinu_h]

Originally Posted by scorpian

I recently purchase a vacuum cleaner from eurekha forbes on amazon on its big sale. Guess what the box gets delivered without the accessories and i am unable to use it for the core function that I needed it for.!

My experience with Amazon might help, do give it a try. We bought an expensive robot vacuum cleaner which turned out to be doing a sub standard job - bumping into walls, falling off steps, throwing tantrums for no reason and doing everything but clean the house.

We marked the item to be returned under the grounds "item not described" well before the return/replace date expires. We emailed a video of the malfunction to Amazon and asked to speak with a supervisor every 3rd day. Things finally turned 30-40 days later when my wife attempted with strong words via chat and threatened to sue. Amazon picked up the item the very next day and refunded as well.

Moral of the story - Let your wife have the 1st go, you get involved a little later

[meerkat]

Originally Posted by AutoGalaxy

Amazon Mobile App :

Logged in with Prime account
Cost Rs.512

Amazon Web App :

Logged in with regular account ( Not Prime )
Cost Rs.468

Originally Posted by akshaymahajan

The seller in both cases is different and that's what determines the price and shipping I would imagine. But a prime delivery taking 9 days is rare these days.

The seller doesn't necessarily have to be different for such price differentials! As I had reported earlier somewhere, there could apparently be a 'Prime' premium one needs to pay sometimes (presumably in order to recover part of the cost of extending Prime benefits)!

Also, large-city prices could be less than the corresponding small-town prices for the same items sold by Amazon themselves.

And 'Prime' shipping to small towns could sometimes run into weeks, -- irrespective of the season!

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

...

I had forgotten! I lived my first fifty years there, and had completely forgotten this essential consumer law, and the fact that it does sometimes get enforced. The item must have been on sale at the "reduced from price, in that store, for something like six previous months.

In US too, there are laws that require that an item must have actually been sold previously at the advertised 'list price' that sale prices are based on.

In contrast, Indian consumer protection laws (if there are any) and their enforcement are indeed a joke.

Originally Posted by scorpian

Amazon if your reading this, you need to stop acting like flipkart!

It's a myth that Amazon are much better than Flipkart always. In some respects they are indeed better, -- in some others, decidedly inferior. One just needs to be aware of things, and make informed purchases.
.

[Jaguar]

Originally Posted by meerkat

Also, large-city prices could be less than the corresponding small-town prices for the same items sold by Amazon themselves.

Very true. A packet of Surf Excel liquid ordered from Amazon fresh and delivered by the nearby More supermarket cost me Rs. 100 more in Kerala when compared to Bangalore. I accidentally noticed it because I had the wrong delivery address selected.

[varkey]

Ordered two home appliances during this sale, felt got a decent deal. A front load washing machine and a dishwasher. The washing machine order did have its own drama though, but it all ended well.

Noticed a decent discount with a good exchange deal for the LG 9kg Front Load machine on Amazon. It was listed for 39,990 with around 10250 as instant discount (as coupon and credit card offers). On top of this there was an exchange bonus, where they were offering 7.5k for my LG 6 kg top load washing machine (I paid 10k for it in 2018). Also made use of the No Cost EMI trick to get more upfront discount even though I didn’t want to pay in EMIs. All said and done, it came to Rs 21300 or so after all discounts/EMI cancellation charges for SBI. Till now all good.

On delivery day, two Amazon agents arrived at the door, said they’ll first inspect the exchange item. As per the Amazon website, the condition for successful exchange was No Rust/Cracks and Powers On. My LG top load was in decent condition, 6 year old, with some wear and tear. No rust or cracks, works fine. The agents come in and starts a spin cycle, starts recording a video from the top lid, waits a mere 5s and says spin speed is not good enough, and stopped the spin cycle. I’m like, wait, it takes some more time to reach full speed. They were least bothered, yet on our insistence, repeated the same spin test, but this time for 10s. 😂 It was like they wanted to show the exchange item was faulty by any means. They added, we have inspected innumerable such exchange items, so we know how things work, and on asking again, they said they will check with their supervisor and let us know, and left the house.
Few minutes later they called, and were saying everything else is fine, but spin is not good so we can’t take it. Then they were beating around the bush a bit, and was indirectly asking for a bribe to process the exchange. We straight away told them, this would be escalated to Amazon, and if you cannot do the exchange, we don’t want the item and disconnected the call. They called again trying their luck once again, but we were firm. They then marked the new washing machine as damaged in transit and cancelled the order.
Honestly, I was a bit disappointed, was looking forward to the new washing machine. I reached out to Amazon, and explained the ordeal, they asked to place a new order and they’ll ensure it’s delivered this time and any price difference they’ll refund as Amazon Pay balance. I was happy and got it in writing as well. The price difference was around 5k as the offers had changed. So I placed the new order, and this time the exchange and delivery went smoothly, no drama.
I also reached out to Amazon after the return window got closed for the price difference, and they promptly processed the Amazon Pay balance credit. There is a slight mismatch in the credit amount, which I’m in talks with Amazon, hopefully should be resolved soon.

The dishwasher, I ordered from Flipkart and it was pretty straightforward, no hiccups at all. Had ordered a Midea 13 place dishwasher, after all discounts came to 15k which I felt is a decent price. I was looking at LG models earlier, but that was 3x the price, didn’t seem worth that much and I don’t think the LG will give 3x the performance.
Here too used the No Cost EMI trick, with an Axis CC. I must say, Axis and ICICI are the best cards to use the NoCostEMI trick, as EMI cancellation is a zero drama process and all charges are reversed.

[binand]

Does anyone have experience of buying (minor) furnishing items off woodentwist.com or woodartcity.com? There's something I want that I see on both (similarly priced too); but thought I'd check here before placing the order.

[mpksuhas]

Originally Posted by varkey

We straight away told them, this would be escalated to Amazon, and if you cannot do the exchange,.

Had faced something similar with Flipkart for a mobile exchange couple of years back.
The person who came to check the phone mentioned that my screen edges have become dull due to overuse of LED. Asked him how only the LED on edges light up on a screen when its in use, for that he didn't have any answer. Also, though he was mentioning the same, there was no issue with my mobile. He was standing silent for couple of minutes after saying this, as if he wanted me to make an offer to get over this issue. Said not going with the exchange and cancelled the order. Had escalated this to Flipkart and didn't get any proper reply back from them, unlike the damage control which Amazon did in above post.

After few weeks, ordered again, same phone exchange and it went fine.


Had a peculiar incident with laptop exchange in Amazon this way also few months back. Based on processor and brand it was a flat rate for exchange (IIRC ~ 16K INR). It was mentioned that laptop should be working, but can be either windows or Linux.

Some 4 days after the exchange someone called me up saying from Amazon and was asking me for the laptop password saying its required for them. It was on a dummy account that I had created, not the login I was using. Still said wont be able to share and asked them to format.