Mar 17, 2024 05:36 PM
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After the initial days of its launch, when many people have gained a lot of benefits out of the massive sale days when big e-tailers dump their merchandise massively at steep discounts, this is no more the reality as of now. The big sale days have turned into massive sham and loot days for the e-merchants.
Below are some of the techniques used in particular by Amazon, a form of AI-based deception.
1. Your browse history and wishlist are tracked by Amazon and the price listed when opened from your account will generally be devoid of any promotions when it is time for you to place the order. I have observed drastic changes in prices the more number of times I check the product to take another look at the specs.
2. The front page banner will show ultra low prices which are deceiving and to trap you into clicking on it. It is a method to lure users.
In my personal experience, I was looking at how much steep discount was being offered on Tecno Pova 5 Pro. Given that its specifications matched phones nearly double that price, I thought I could procure the same as a spare phone.
When I clicked the offer link, the method cited by Amazon to arrive at the star marked discounted price was to apply a coupon of Rs 1700 and there would be additional 1500 festive discount on a variety of credit cards.
I wasn't yet ready to punch the details as the cards on which the discounts were applicable were not available with me. Right when I went home, I was in for a surprise as the coupon offer reduced from 1700 to 1500. But the main banner still continued to show the price at the discounted price meaning that offer was still applicable for the entire period of the festival days sale. I thought I will wait and see if I was doing something wrong, but no, a while later when I opened the link again, the coupon was completely gone.
Fearing that the card offer will vanish, I went ahead with placing the order and took at least the credit card discount. The festive days got over.
Imagine what happens the next day. The credit card discount remained there, in fact even higher discounts were available on some cards. But magic! The coupon discount was back with 1700 Rs. This was AFTER the sale period. And Amazon so conveniently did its rapid fast delivery of the phone and given it was 'delivered', I could only exchange with no refund.
To sum up, they are so thieving and manipulative to indicate you are being granted a great treasure at throw away prices, then they totally remove all discounts, violating the advertisement banner offer and in the end I only find out that I got robbed of an extra 2000 Rs in the name of festival sale. (I lost the 1700 discount for no reason). I raised this matter and requested that for this deception, I ought to be given a coupon in a different form so that I can buy something else, but you know how it goes "we have shared the feedback with our team". They've been sharing this "feedback" since years and given that it is being repeated implies that it is an intentionally done scam.
Add to all this, Flipkart and Amazon seem to be having some sort of underground tie-up wherein neither of these companies will offer discounts on a product that the other company offers. So one can't opt for the competitor's product if deceived by the other.
