amazon.co.uk prices differ when checking out

sjkelly

Went to purchase the following on amazon.co.uk and noticed a price difference on what they advertised and when I went to checkout.

Microsoft Flight Simulator X: Deluxe Edition - £41.96 checkout price £43.21
X52 Pro Flight Simulator Controller - £139.99 checkout price £144.16
Pro Gamer Rudder Pedals £99.99 checkout price £102.97

In total, it's a difference of £8.40p

Wrote to them and this is the response I got. (Anyone know if what they are doing is illegal?)



Thanks for writing to Amazon.co.uk.

I realise that you have been greatly inconvenienced by this
situation. Please accept my most sincere apologies for this
inconvenience.

The price and availability of items at Amazon.co.uk are subject to
change. Placing an item in your shopping basket does not reserve the
price of that item at the time you added it to your basket, nor does
it reserve your copy of that item. Your shopping basket will always
reflect the most recent price and availability information for an
item, as displayed on the item's product detail page.

There are several million titles listed on our website, some of
which have never been ordered from us and may not have been ordered
by any retailer for quite a while. It would be impossible for us to
regularly check on the price of each item, and so we must rely on
the data supplied by publishers and other suppliers. We update our
website regularly with data from many sources, but occasionally this
information is out-of-date or incorrect.

The current price and availability of an item in your shopping
basket may differ from its price and availability at the time you
first placed it in your basket. Some discounts are particular to the
time that an item is a featured selection on our site; these
discounts are limited-time offers.

It is also possible that an item's price may decrease between the
time a customer places it in the shopping basket and the time he or
she chooses to purchase it. As the discount we are able to offer for
any item is dependent upon its availability, Amazon.co.uk's price
will necessarily change on occasion.

Again I apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused you.

Thank you for shopping at Amazon.co.uk.

jor el

There's also a difference when you go to the checkout and select Ireland as your country. They charge Irish VAT rate to us, at 21%, where as the prices on the site are inclusive of UK VAT at 17.5%. Could this account for the difference?

Beano

Its difference in VAT rates like Jor El said. If you divide the price on the site by 1.175 to get the price ex VAT and then multiply by 1.21 to get price with irish vat you will see that their figures are spot on.

Their reply to you sounds like they misunderstood your question. Their reply to you is about items that you add to your basket but dont checkout for a week or more. In cases like this the price can change but you dont see the latest price until you checkout.

sjkelly

You really saved me a lot of time and effort; I was ready to cancel the order in protest and demand a full refund.. nice one..

TheDriver

The only time this is differrent is from Amazon Jersey I believe when there is no UK VAT added on and you get hit for the full 21% (correct me if I am wrong)