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Originally Posted by warrrreagl
[...]if Amazon is charging $2 less for a book than BAM and then turns around and charges $2 more for shipping and handling in order to make up the difference, then that is a deceptive, corporate scam and is definitely checkout fraud.
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This isn't a scam nor would it be considered fraudulent behaviour. As far as I know, Amazon lets you know how much shipping costs before you agree to pay. It would only be a scam if you didn't know what you were getting into. A company is able to set their prices as they see fit so long as they aren't breaking any laws. I don't see a lower price tag/higher order-processing variance as something deceptive. It is up to the consumer to shop around if they feel they are paying too much for something. To call it fraud is a bit far-fetched because it would mean this is illegal. As far as I know, Amazon's practices are well-known in terms of their pricing and shipping details. Wouldn't it be easy for someone to point out anything illegal? You might want to cross-reference this practice with laws in the U.S., but it sounds okay to me. It's how they do business. You see variances like this in other retail places. Consider the variances between service fees. Do cell phone companies all have similar hook-up fees, system access fees, cell phone price tags, and other service fees?
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Originally Posted by warrrreagl
[...]Many of you have pointed out that their systems are too bogged down, too centralized, too outdated, too updated, and/or too understaffed to handle the mistakes. But, once again, that bolsters my assertion that this is a fraud at the corporate level - not at the local level. Corporate offices seem to be well-aware of these anomalies and they won't take steps to fix them unless a) they get caught, or b) they lose profits. And passive compliance = fraud.
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I doubt there is a culture of complete passive compliance. A company would rather have everything accurate, especially since it is so easy to spot these errors. The headoffices have the same problems as they do at store level: labour is expensive. The systems are typically managed at headoffice, yet the stores are all different in terms of stocking levels, sales, promotions, etc. These systems are ridiculously complex, I'm telling you. Didn't I read somewhere that the systems for Wal-mart are more complex than those of the Pentagon? The difference being that Wal-mart's errors won't destroy lives.