Amazon Prime Sale, You’ve Got To Be Kidding, Big Online Retailer Jacks Up Prices
Amazon’s big Prime Day sale seems to have hit a road bump with the big US retailer jacking up prices after initially promoting them as being “heavily discounted”.
In what appears to be bait marketing a practise that is used in the USA the big US retailer has hours after advertising products lifted the price on several initially discounted goods.
A pair of Bose Quiet Comfort 35 Series II Black noise cancelling headphones that at 3.30pm today were selling for $329 by 6.00pm had been jacked up an additional $90 to $419.
Amazon Products and Pricing As They Appeared at 6.00pm.
A PS4 PRO 1TB Console with Bonus Fortnite Content which at 3.30pm was being advertised at $379 as part of their “giant” Prime Day sale was by 6.00pm back up $140 to $519 by 6.00pm.
A Logitech G903 Lightspeed Wireless Gaming Mouse which was advertised at $139 suddenly went up to $169.
A Black + Decker WDB215WA-XE Wet and Dry Lithium-ion dustbuster Cordless Hand VAC which was initially advertised as being on sale for $54 dollars mysteriously rose in price to $71 despite Amazon advertising their sale as 36 hours and running into tomorrow.
Amazon Products on sale at 3.00pm today.
[Amazon AU]
[Amazon AU]
[Amazon AU]
Now it appears that they failed to tell consumers that there were either limited conditions or that they intended to change the price of goods in what their PR advisors said could have been a “flash sale”.
When it was pointed out that the Australian Competition rules dictate that consumers need to be told about “flash Sales” or bait promotions they said that they would come back to ChannelNews with a comment.
Amazon kicked off Prime Day deals at midday on today with a big flashy undercutting of retailers pricing but that now appears to have been a charade as the big retailer lifts prices just when consumers are getting home and have time to shop online.
The biggest discounts initially were on Amazon devices such as Echo Plus and Echo Dot speakers, which were reduced by 50 per cent, Amazon’s Fire TV stick, discounted by 29 per cent, and Kindle e-readers, down 28 per cent.
Amazon claimed that they were also cutting the price “dramatically” on big brand name brands such as Bose, Sony, Sonos, Braun, Huggies, Lego, Nike, Puma, Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, Fossil and Lorna Jane, in some cases offering discounts of as much as 70 per cent.
The Bose Quiet Comfort 35 Series II wireless headphones which were initially advertised for $329.99, compared with its 6.00pm price today price of $415 compared with $459 at Kogan.com, $504.90 at Catch.com.au and $496 at JB Hi-Fi.
Quick Observations.
Bose QC35 II launched with Black only on promotion at $329.99 – price returned to normal $ 471.99 before 5pm and was switched with lower volume silver variant at $329.99.
Nintendo Switch – promoted as prime lightning deal $315 starting at 5.00 pm sold out in about 1 minute 60 sec (It would be interesting to find out who the buyrs and how much stock was held).
Sony PS4 Pro 1tb Fortnight Bundle $379– promoted on website as running for duration of Prime sale (Countdown clock promoting deal duration) has since been reverted back to normal sell $519
