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Original poster

to wonder if Amazon think we're stupid?

27 replies

StealthPolarBear · 04/04/2012 22:47

How come you buy something, then a week later you get an email offering special deals on that thing?
I already spent my damn money.
This happens all the time, and it's very annoying.

OP posts:
lalaland3008 · 04/04/2012 23:11

Don't get me started on Amazon.

My dad's just ordered ds some lego for his bday, he's paid £44 when it's only £32 in the shops but he just jumps in and buys the first thing he sees.

ohdearwhatdoidonow · 05/04/2012 08:54

If you look at an item, put it in your basket and leave it there, sometimes, just sometimes, it comes down in price (miraculously) of course. This must be purely accidental Wink

Whatmeworry · 05/04/2012 08:59

Thing Just on the news, Amazon are Luxembourg based so pay no UK tax.

And they are not the only ones.

IMO the government needs to crack down on this.

Doyouthinktheysaurus · 05/04/2012 09:01

That's happened to me a few times ohdear. I did it with an expensive running watch, kept dropping the price just a few quid. I bought it after about 2 weeks of thiswhen the price had dropped by £30. The price went back up the same day I bought itHmm

I love Amazon but it's not always cheapest and they change their prices all the flipping time!

IShallWearMidnight · 05/04/2012 09:01

you can't make a company base itself somewhere you want it to be, just so you can get the tax money!

Whatmeworry · 05/04/2012 09:05

you can't make a company base itself somewhere you want it to be, just so you can get the tax money!

No, but you can make them pay tax on revenues earned in your country. If you don't, then any company in your country that does pay tax is at a major disadvantage and eventually your national companies go offshore to avoid tax, or collapse.

Oh wait.....

HalfPastWine · 05/04/2012 09:27

Amazon is made up of lots of independant sellers who do pay tax on their sales.

Whatmeworry · 05/04/2012 09:38

Amazon is made up of lots of independant sellers who do pay tax on their sales

Independents pay a cut to Amazon and are a small % of Amazon revenues.

AfricanExport · 05/04/2012 09:46

Got to agree with Whatmeworry

I don't buy stuff from amazon since I discovered they are not paying tax in the UK, they are not supporting the UK in general and they are not cheaper than anywhere else.

I think if we would support our local sellers we would be far better off as a country.

PooshTun · 05/04/2012 12:53

"in general and they are not cheaper than anywhere else"

In my experience they are. Definitely cheaper than Currys, Comet and their friends.

As for supporting "our local sellers" I take it that none of your clothes are made in China and that the TV, DVD player, PC etc are all British made.

Re putting an item in your basket and waiting for Amazon to email me with a price to drop is an interesting tip that I will have to try.

suburbandream · 05/04/2012 12:59

I think you have to shop around. I've got lego cheaper on Amazon than on the lego website, plus I do buy quite a lot from them so I've got Amazon prime which means you get free postage on lots of items and next day delivery. Also, if you buy a lot on line, please consider using a charity site like Easy Fundraising, where you can register a charity which gets a donation every time you buy.

HalfPastWine · 05/04/2012 13:15

I think if we would support our local sellers we would be far better off as a country.

Many of the sellers on Amazon are local, based in the UK.

HappyMummyOfOne · 05/04/2012 13:24

Amazon employ a lot of people in the uk, its only for tax purposes they are registered elsewhere.

There are always threads on here re SE people looking to maximise expenses to avoid paying tax so no different to that and nobody gets up in arms over that.

CervixWithASmile · 05/04/2012 13:30

I don't think the fact it's in your basket us the reason for the drop. Amazon themselves sell certain products and so do vendors via their site. They all compete for the 'buy box', e.g. To be the cheapest and first choice given when searching on Amazon.

That's why you get good prices - the competition is constantly driving price movements.

As for the tax issue - if we offered more favourable corporation tax deals we might have more companies basing themselves here from a tax perspective.

Iambaboon · 05/04/2012 13:35

I thought this thread would be about their £7 bln of sales and £0 corporation tax
Shock

NiniLegsInTheAir · 05/04/2012 14:10

I've sold a few things on Amazon down the years and yes competition between sellers drives down prices to often ridiculous levels. And the fees they charge sellers is a much higher percentage than somewhere like Ebay.

I don't buy anything off Amazon these days since they changed their shipments to come from Jersey (tax avoidance hurrah Hmm) as their deliveries take a lot longer than they used to.

vonnyh · 05/04/2012 14:34

I bought a tv from mazon about 2 years ago. The day it was delivered, I viewed it on Amazon for £75 less than I paid for it. I emailed them to ask if I could return the tv, and re purchase it at the new lower price. They replied there was no need, and that on this one occasion, they would "refund" me the £75. You've gotta love that!

HalfPastWine · 05/04/2012 14:36

I don't buy anything off Amazon these days since they changed their shipments to come from Jersey (tax avoidance hurrah ) as their deliveries take a lot longer than they used to.

That depends from who on Amazon you're actually purchasing from.

Amazon is a marketplace of many retailers so items are shipped from hundreds of locations.

uruculager · 05/04/2012 14:51

Luxembourg has a higher corporate tax rate than Britain so presumably they are there for other reasons I don't understand.

A little bit rich coming from a newspaper with such a history of tax dodging though.

BlingLoving · 05/04/2012 14:53

Sheesh. This is normal economics. We're so used to huge stores where price changes are long planned that we've forgotten that in any real market prices go up and down according to supply and demand. So it's not unusual for prices to drop or go up pre or post purchase. I put things in my wish list and then when they are at a price I'm happy to pay, I purchase them.

And Amazon is often cheaper than other venues and is almost always more reliable. If I can buy the same thing for the same price on Amazon, I will always choose to purchse from them as their delivery is free, they're reliable and they respond quickly and easily to requests for information or any problems.

No one is holding a gun to your head. If you don't like amazon's pricing methodology, don't buy there.

NiniLegsInTheAir · 05/04/2012 14:53

*That depends from who on Amazon you're actually purchasing from.

Amazon is a marketplace of many retailers so items are shipped from hundreds of locations.*

Yes - but if you buy from Amazon themselves and not the marketplace section, their shipments come from Jersey.

NiniLegsInTheAir · 05/04/2012 14:54

Whoops! No bold!

HipHopOpotomus · 05/04/2012 14:57

As a ft working parent (the one who organises everything in our family) my life would be so much more difficult without Amazon.

I look/browse/shop.
I order.
I wish list.
Someone else orders :)
They deliver - to work!!
Sorted.

What's not to love about that?

HalfPastWine · 05/04/2012 15:01

Nini the marketplace runs alongside the Amazon sales so you can always purchase from the UK supplier although it may cost a few quid more. Most of the time the retailers out do Amazon anyway ime.

WhereYouLeftIt · 05/04/2012 16:15

I use www.find-dvd.co.uk/ to see who's cheapest for DVDs, books, CDs or games - TBH it's usually not Amazon.

I have seen prices drop repeatedly, not for items I had in my basket but just on the wish lists. Generally, this would involve two Marketplace sellers trying to undercut each other to be the cheapest - it was my impression that this was due to them both running programs that ran through their inventory and tried to make them the cheapest. Except two were running the same program. Some items came down from £10 plus to < £1!

It pleases me enormously to not use Amazon. I used Marketplace to sell DVDs etc I had already watched, which went OK until a buyer claimed he didn't receive it in the post. So Amazon refunded him. He then posted positive feedback for his purchase. I queried the buyer, he responded he must have received it since, I passed this to Amazon, they never refunded the refund back to me. Never felt my emails were read by an actual person, just dealt with by automated system. So, I cancelled all my listings (half a dozen, no great loss to them) and have only bought from them if there really isn't anyone else selling the item elsewhere (e.g out-of-print book on Marketplace) - and yes this has meant paying more for the item. So probably a loss of several hundred pounds a year to them that way. But play.com are usually cheaper for DVDs, or at the very least match Amazon's prices.

So I guess them not paying any tax in the UK came as no surprise.