Amazon Subscribe & Save percentages not adding up

jbd@lemmy.ml to Mildly Infuriating@lemmy.world – 197 points –

I only needed one more item to "unlock extra savings up to 15%", so I added an extra item to see what the savings would be. I didn't think the savings matched what was advertised, so I removed an item to see what the difference was (making sure to screenshot before/after this time). Turns out the price of 3 out of 4 items is the same after an extra 5% discount.

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That's not right at all! Ask customer service what they think and post their response.

The most frustrating thing about S&S for me is that the prices fluctuate wildly from delivery to delivery. I have to waste so much time combing through my subscriptions every time a new one is about to ship, just to make sure I'm not paying extra that week.

Eventually, I ended up having to cancel it all after a few times when I couldn't double-check and ended up paying more for a few items.

I found it better to simply set up a price alert, and buy non-urgent things when they are at a low price, stocking some extra if necessary.

I find it cheaper and more effective to subscribe and use the initial coupon (usually 25% off), then immediately cancel the subscription after they ship it. Most likely there will be another coupon next time I need the product

The only thing I had as a really reocurring subscription was my cat's kibble but then I noticed that on some deliveries the price was considerably higher so I switched to buying it at the store market

I have had great luck with chewy.com for cat stuff

I can't praise chewy.com enough. I have a dog, a cat, and parrots and I save so much money not going to PetSmart or PetCo.

Chewy is amazing. Price is very consistent and customer service is scary good. I once ordered food for my cat while sitting eating dinner. The next morning at 6am I opened my door to go to work and literally tripped over my cats food. I still have no fucking clue how the hell it got to me so quick, it was 12ish hours. When I moved and switched my auto subscription their system flagged my change of address as fraud and emailed me to call customer service. I called at literally 3am (because I'm a freakish night owl) expecting to work my way through an automated system and the phone rang twice and a very cheerful person answered. I almost hung up in shock and then almost was the jerk calling at 3am asking "why are you answering the phone at 3am?"

I find it cheaper and more effective to subscribe and use the initial coupon (usually 25% off), then immediately cancel the subscription after they ship it.

Does that actually work without raising any red flags on their end?

yup, no issues at all. that's how i get cheap syrup for my soda stream, every time. the last time it was more than half off, so i bought 5x my normal amount and cancelled the subscription, and then my prime account.

that’s how i get cheap syrup for my soda stream

Well, now I'm going to have to try this! LOL

EDIT: That was a bust :( Most of the flavours don't give the option for S&S, and the ones that do only give a discount on future deliveries (only 5%), not the current one. This is Amazon Canada, so... 😭

I tried doing subscribe and save when they first introduced it, but it doesn't lock in a price, and if it's out of stock one month when it's time to ship, it just cancels the whole thing even if it's back in stock a week later. And the discount isn't even that great. Frankly the whole program is shit imo and I'm amazed it's still so shitty however many years later.

I followed up with customer support. They said go ahead with the order and they will refund me the amount after. They gave me a $5 credit for my trouble. They said they would escalate this issue to the development team.

I roll with no tracking/cookies/accounts. I check out as a guest. Prices change depending on location and purchase history. The best pricing is when the site has never seen you before. This also works for things like ISP new customer promotions and stuff.

I do the same. Using VPN, proxy, Firefox container, tracker blocking, the whole 9 yards. I haven't seen price change based on location/purchase history. I've been looking for signs of this for a while. Prices do fluctuate quite a bit though. The site might have auto-selected a different "ships from" option for you, depending on how you're logged in.

That looks like the per unit price, not the savings from subscribing.

Edit: I'm an idiot, I see what you mean.

When you add another item they double your discounts capped at %15

They add to your 'discount' without changing the final price

Yeah that's weird

If it were pre discount that last product wouldn't change, and post discount these changes don't make any sense.

Is there an additional shipping cost that's bumping up the prices the exact amount as the discounts?

This isn't the first or even second case I've heard about this this week.

I always immediately cancel my subscriptions after I get the order in. For example, I get protein powder for usually much much cheaper than anywhere else and as soon as the order is processed, cancel.

See what you did there is, you thought a bunch of money-grabbing billionaires would give you a good deal

STOP USING AMAZON YOU FUCKING DONKEYS

STOP USING AMAZON YOU FUCKING DONKEYS

Then what do I use as an alternative?

Walmart? Ooo so much better lmfao

"Shop local"? Are you gonna subsidize my bank account for the 2x-4x premium it would cost me to "shop local"

Are you suggesting there are no other websites where you can buy what you need, or are you saying they cost a little bit more and have slightly longer delivery times, and that inconveniences you, so you'd rather not support smaller companies?

Thanks for that

There are plenty of websites for the things I want and won't mind shopping around for a few weeks, the things I need however, is a different story. My choices for something like toilet paper is 15 at Amazon, 15-17 at Walmart, or 20+ at a local store.

I and many others, can't afford to shop local, we can't afford it and Walmart is just as bad as Amazon soo Amazon it is

It's bad enough keeping up with brands to boycott, now people want others to boycott whole retail channels. Boycotting gets expensive.

Push for regulations, vote with your vote not your wallet

EBay, Walmart, newegg and others. I've never used Walmart online so I can't say how good of an experience that is.

For most things I just go to a store in person.

eBay is great for some things

Walmart is just slapping lipstick on a pig and calling it a chicken

Newegg can go fuck off, enshittification came for them LONG ago

You just need to be a good shopper. That's why online is always going to be problematic.