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eBay 'flexible pricing' (CO monitors as an example)


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Following the 'interest' in gas alarms on here recently, over the weekend I ordered two Kidde 7COD units from Amazon. These were accepted and processed. In the morning the order was cancelled and completely removed from Amazon (no trace, no reason)  - Except an order for one at a new  and much increased price....

Tried eBay - I found several offers at a better price than the original Amazon offer, so I bought two. This morning (Monday) I find the original price of around £11 had risen to £31 and one order had a message to the effect that the quality was not good (these are new and boxed Kidde items with a 10 year guarantee - so why should the retailer bother?), so he was not sending it. His price is now £31, to follow all the others....

 

A friend of mine who spends more time 'looking around' generally - said 'ah, yes, its demand pricing'. With so much business being conducted online it's now practicable to flex sales prices (invariably upwards) minute by minute - and that's what is clearly happening here.

Modern lifestyles may find that acceptable, but for orders that have been accepted and paid???

I was brought up 'in the City' to abide by the principle of 'dictum meum pactum' - which seems to me to be a reasonable concept and practice.

 

Thus, has anyone been caught by rapid price increases?

Do you feel that this pricing style is reasonable?

 

  

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The brother in law uses Amazon the other way - sticks an item in his basket and then waits for price notifications. Quite often someone inputs something incorrectly or very low - and he snaps it up for a song. I am talking technology, phones, drones laptops etc. 

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2 hours ago, OldGoat said:

Following the 'interest' in gas alarms on here recently, over the weekend I ordered two Kidde 7COD units from Amazon. These were accepted and processed. In the morning the order was cancelled and completely removed from Amazon (no trace, no reason)  - Except an order for one at a new  and much increased price....

Tried eBay - I found several offers at a better price than the original Amazon offer, so I bought two. This morning (Monday) I find the original price of around £11 had risen to £31 and one order had a message to the effect that the quality was not good (these are new and boxed Kidde items with a 10 year guarantee - so why should the retailer bother?), so he was not sending it. His price is now £31, to follow all the others....

 

A friend of mine who spends more time 'looking around' generally - said 'ah, yes, its demand pricing'. With so much business being conducted online it's now practicable to flex sales prices (invariably upwards) minute by minute - and that's what is clearly happening here.

Modern lifestyles may find that acceptable, but for orders that have been accepted and paid???

I was brought up 'in the City' to abide by the principle of 'dictum meum pactum' - which seems to me to be a reasonable concept and practice.

 

Thus, has anyone been caught by rapid price increases?

Do you feel that this pricing style is reasonable?

 

  

As I said I nearly got caught on ebay, did a search and the cheapest was £14 something, clicked "Buy Now" and luckily noticed the price had changed to £22

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The latest Waterways World, out last week, had a feature on the new CO alarm requirements which might have prompted a flurry of interest which demand pricing might follow.  Expect another surge when the BSC regs come out.

Note demand pricing will react to views, not just sales.

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Despite it being against T&C's for the site, if they cancel post order and stick the price up, they were likely drop shipping. After receiving your order, they went to place it with whoever they use and went 'oh, feck' when they spotted that they would be making a loss as the supplier had increased prices. In response they cancel and stick own prices up.

 

 

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11 hours ago, wiltshirewonderer said:

Despite it being against T&C's for the site, if they cancel post order and stick the price up, they were likely drop shipping. After receiving your order, they went to place it with whoever they use and went 'oh, feck' when they spotted that they would be making a loss as the supplier had increased prices. In response they cancel and stick own prices up.

 

 

That's business - if you don't have stock - heavens - or a guaranteed purchase price, you shouldn't be listing.

I bid and won three separate Kidde monitors at their then current prices. Later (at various times) they all cancelled the order with the same bull*** message  about quality. One of had actually listed it as having been shpped. They all stood to double their price by dumping my order.

Ebay probably won't take any action if I complain as potentially these sellers will produce more income than mine.....

 

I've never, never seen that sort of behaviour in all my xx years of buying on eBay - thus naturally I'm teed off.

 

It's all Rob at BSS saying fit a CO monitor now or you'll be exterminated....  

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18 hours ago, ditchcrawler said:

The amazon one which was still in my basket has shot up by £10

My point precisely

Ordered from Amazon last Saturday 2 @ £11 ish Amazon bumped price  to £16 but dropped one of them so I cancelled the order

Ebay had them for around £13 - so ordered two -  Dealers said (in identical wording) sorry items faulty and cancelled order

Price doubled (nearly all sellers)  - current price around £31.

Managed to buy one yesterday for £16 - dealer said posted - but I'm expected the order to be dropped soon....

 

I'm complaining about   eBay order being accepted and paid - then refunded, but records available to the customer disappearing.

No wonder purchasers behave badly - if that's how suppliers behave...

 

 

16 hours ago, David Mack said:

Last week I orderd 2 Kidde 7DCO alarms from https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Kidde-2-x-Carbon-Monoxide-Alarms-7DCO-Batteries-Included-10-Years-Operation/202613564939 for £29.99 with free delivery. I paid the advertised price, and they arrived on time this morning.

 

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If I "watch" an item, I now make sure to add a note of the price it was when I saw it. As sometimes I "shelve" things and go back maybe weeks or months later and just want to buy the item without re doing all the research - that's when they get ya.

If the price goes up, no one mentions it, but ebay is quick to let you know about any reduction!

 

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Just bought a couple of CO-9X monitors.  Confirmed as complying with EN-50291-2 for boats.  Googling for CO-9X gives plenty of suppliers with prices much less than Amazon and with stock and free delivery.  So it shouldn't be difficult to get a good deal.

I'm always dubious about items that appear very cheap on Ebay these days as too much stuff is counterfeit these days.

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