Under Scrutiny, Amazon Kills Price Parity Policy

by: sellerchick

Walmart is absolutely the worst at this! I hope they are put under the microscope as well. I didn't see much enforcement personally on Amazon, but Walmart has a bot that deactivates listings constantly based on what it THINKS is a competing product at Amazon. I am constantly getting items deactivated from both accurate and inaccurate comparisons.

by: mcposty

Its about time Amazon starts to get looked at, hopefully the look goes deeper and deeper and then moves on to other venues like Ebay. These monsters have gotten away with way to much.

by: TomH

I've consistently ignored Amazon policy regarding that. I offer the same items often on Amz, eBay, my website and others -- all, often, at different prices. Some at, higher, lower, matching prices. Never received any problem from Amazon or any other marketplace.

by: sasikat9

Does not fleecebag have the same policy or something similar to it?????

by: Snapped

Here's a question to scrutinize a bit: How can a venue perform what is essentially compulsory price control on inventory they don't own and then argue for the right to charge whatever fees they deem without oversight?

by: The End

Ya, "Uncle" Griff of Ebay once told me I had to have my Best prices on Ebay or they'd take down my listings.
Turns out, the left hand didn't know what the right hand was doing, so I reaped the gains  :o)
Our business is nobody's business.
Amazon, Ebay, and the rest need to shut up.
You don't see eCrater flappin' their gums.  

by: shut1968

I can confirm with @sellerchick, Walmart is 100X worse when it comes to this.. I've always ignored Amazon's "rule" about that but with Walmart you have to give them your seller ID for Amazon when you sign up so they can constantly monitor it.. God forbid you list an item on Walmart that you don't have on AZ.

What they need to do is go after them for cutting sellers throats with under pricing.. AZ is constantly pricing down to less than 25 cents over wholesale cost.. Walmart (I ran a test on this a couple years ago) will reprice you down to a penny no matter what the wholesale cost is.. I took a couple of items that I knew 100% what Walmarts wholesale cost was and ran both of them down in $1 increments to see just how far they would go (luckily no one ever bought one of them while I was doing it) but they cut the price down each time to a penny below what I priced them at.. all the way down to 1 cent.
What I should have done was run the price down then have someone else come in and buy up all of Walmarts inventory.. but I figured somehow I would screw myself so I didn't.
To me that's what they should be going after them for.....  

by: Rexford

Snapped, you nailed it.

And speaking of Amazon, another brand was gated yesterday.  

by: RKTOYS

I don't recall that rule when I signed up but wouldn't have followed it if I had.  Scamazon fees and shipping shortages and sponsored fraud are just too high.

by: geoffreymason

The End: You also don't see ecrater getting many sales.

by: Paul W

Agreed that eCrater is no eBay but I have had over 2000 sales on eCrater, so there is some activity there, much better than eBid or Bonanza.

by: Dellthorpe

Amazon, Ebay and the other sites r going to do whatever they want to the smaller sellers because they know that they can get away with it. Our elected officials will do nothing because even if it violates any laws for they r only worried about campaign contributions. They make the USDOJ and the FTC b quiet. Amazon, Google, Facebook, Apple should b broken up but no one will do it for fear of losing campaign dollars. They r all at the bottom of the swamp.  When the big get going the small get flattened.

by: Chicago48

Thank goodness for the Europeans.

by: thehosst

Love Warren, at least she looks after some small guys. The next one should be to break up Amazon because they COPY all the Top Sellers, after they trick brands into STOPPING sales to resellers and forcing them to sell only in the Amazopoly marketplace. Once they gather enough stats, they know what sells and what does not sell, they simply contact a bottom-feeder-penny-making "manufacturer" and copy the top sellers. When a user performs any search query, their COPIES show on the top, sides and bottom, offering them as "better", "more popular" or "more affordable" "suggestions". Always cheaper. Try to compete against Amazopoly INSIDE Amazon, if you think is hard to compete with Amazon in your world, just think about the kind of nasty tricks Amazopoly uses to kill the little guy. When are those greedy Amazon rats will say " I have enough yatchs and ferraris, I think I will give a break to the small slaves for a week or two"?

by: hawk

throughout history the dictators , rich and powerful , the presidents , the kings and queens have taxed and stolen and monopolized so much from the hard workers , the peasants , and not so lucky people , that all that is left is war on whatever. when faced with starving and death , what is left for the people to do. no one ever learns from history.

by: WhatsUp2656

Bull****. Amz caused me to lose over 10K a few years ago. I found some nice and unusual items that were selling quickly. They bought the same one, dropped their prices below wholesale, ran me out, sold elsewhere, then they jacked up the price from 50-100%!!

by: ignatz

To those people who say "It's their sandbox/company/website - so they get to make the rules."

Can you see how that is NOT the case?  There is a myriad of law, rules and regulations - and political whims - which a company must comply and deal with.

by: The End

@geoffreymason:
"You also don't see ecrater getting many sales. "
True, and, oddly, I got a sale from eCrater about 10 hours after I posted here.
Maybe I should do it again  :o)
I learned to have Several "revenue streams".
And that doesn't include my Real World revenue streams.
God Bless America.

by: Whatever

I have a website - I call it "storage" my items are cheaper on the website but I really don't think eBay is worried much. My sales are barely paying the monthly fees to have a website. Why do I have it then? Well at this point in time I'm glad to have it. I'm going to need that storage spot to mirror my product once GTC kicks in. As for Amazon I could care less what the heck their doing. My main category is gated and it seems that regardless of the fact that I've sold $20 mill ( yes millions ) retail over the years Amazon doesn't want me. I NEVER shop there either. AND with the divorce pending - who knows what's going to happen to Amazon - thinking the Ex is going to have a really big greedy hand in matters soon.

by: donald

How does scAmazon know sellers offer their items for less elsewhere?   Unless you are too big to be missed.

I have always gotten away with it.  But I use a different handle.