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Not Amazon's fault (Reply to this comment)
by bruddaman
The way the feeds work from sites like Amazon, ebay, Narnes and Boble, etc are by crawlers and other software programs that pull the info directly from each individual web site. If those crawlers are lazy or out of date, so will the prices be out of date.
Your review should be about shopping.com, not Amazon. If an item like that is listed on Amazon's Marketplace, the crawler hits it and sees the price is $50 then it gets posted on shopping.com's web site. If 10 minutes later someone finds that item and purchases it, it will completely disappear from Amazon's site and anyone else that goes to shopping.com and sees the $50 will not be able to get it. Generally I've found that it doesn't work that way on the retail site. Prices can change with little or no notice on Amazon, but Marketplace prices are even more volatile.
Want proof? Try any site that compares prices with ebay sellers. They are the most out of date because ebay bids by buyers change quickly. As with Amazon, not ebays fault if a comparison shopping site is too slow to update.
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Apr 23 '06
11:31 am PDT
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Fair enough, but... (Reply to this comment)
by punchytoad
But this wasn't an isolated incident. I just listed 1 as an example. :) I went down this road *many* times before I wrote an opinion. The fact is, if you are using a service like shopping.com, pricegrabber, or whatever; the prices are ALWAYS out of date. Sometimes in your favor, sometimes not. But in almost all cases (in my personal experience, considering I'm normally shopping for tech stuff, whose prices DO fluctuate), they ARE wrong. To me, this negates the advantage of using a shopping.com type service. So I just don't look at Amazon anymore.
What I *will* try to make clear in this reply, if I didn't in my original opinion, is that my opinion relates primarily to people who *do* avail themselves of competitive pricing services like shopping.com. It does not in the least apply to people who simply go there to shop, which is what I assume you mostly do. :) That's a whole different ball of wax. Sorry if I wasn't clear there.
However, what I said about always using Amazon's 1 click shopping, or at least paying through the Amazon cart *absolutely still applies however you came to be shopping at Amazon.*
Unfortunately there are some unscrupulous folks out there. And they certainly aren't unique to Amazon. But it's true that Amazon can't help you if you don't pay through their system. This is all intended merely as a word to the wise, not as a slam against Amazon. It seems there are *still* people who haven't heard of this scam, I know because unfortunately I have a cousin who fell prey to it just recently. [sigh]
To recap: If you are using a competitive shopping service to shop for anything that prices change rapidly on (such as technology), don't pay any attention to prices shown by Amazon, because odds are very good that the price listed does not reflect the current market at Amazon.
If this is not how you shop, then the former does not apply to you.
Thank you for this chance to (hopefully) clear up any misunderstandings about my opinion. I know many people feel strongly both ways about marketplaces Amazon, Yahoo, and eBay, my intention was only to give my personal experiences regarding Amazon, and why *I* will never shop there again. By all means, take my opinion for what you will. I often find I can learn just as much from a bad review as I can a positive one. Especially if the reviewers situation and attitude seem similar to mine. As I'm sure you know, *always* try to take other peoples opinions both in context and with a largish grain of salt. :-)
punchytoad
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Jul 16 '05
2:46 pm PDT
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More information needed (Reply to this comment)
by grandgram
You did not discuss just what the Amazon Marketplace really is all about. This price you quoted may have been the lowest price at one time but probably was sold when you checked it out. These low prices do not last long and shopping.com was outdated.
Do not give a bad review on just this one incident as I found Amazon Marketplace a reliable place to sell and buy things at a reasonable price and Amazon handles all the money. All the seller has to do is make sure you mail it to the buyer in record time.
Sure there are scams in every business and it happens here as well. Amazon.com will help you retrieve your money if you feel you were ripped off. This happened to me when I purchased a camera that the seller did not even have and I got my money returned. You take a chance here but all in all it is a great site.
grandgram/Letta
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Jul 15 '05
6:12 am PDT
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