What a ridiculous measure. Good thing I let my Prime expire. I'm not in Europe but you're kidding yourself if they don't try to do this elsewhere.
-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
Amazon now charging on order, not dispatch, for pre-orders across Europe (UP: policy appears to have been reverted)
- Thread starter Winstano
- Start date
I dont' even buy games from amazon anymore i find places like base.com, shopto, thegamecollection and various other smaller online retailers offer better price.
They also offer free first class shipping.
They also offer free first class shipping.
Great for you, but you could see why this would be a problem for others, so show solidarity for your fellow consumers. Yeah?
When PS5 pre-orders go up and we don't know how much it'll be you used to be able to pre-order at Amazon to largely guarantee at launch and save up for 6 months. And if they didn't dispatch, you could cancel and source elsewhere at launch. Now people will take that $500 hit immediately, and be locked in. Sure they could cancel, but you have to wait for those funds to return before you can spend them elsewhere. It creates problems. It's anti-consumer.
I must have just missed this with my Megadrive mini pre order. Made it on the 17th.
Phew!
Really sucks though, I used this sometimes when my budget didn't stretch to items like this that might have shortages on launch if I didn't sign up.
Hope it gets reversed, but i doubt it.
Phew!
Really sucks though, I used this sometimes when my budget didn't stretch to items like this that might have shortages on launch if I didn't sign up.
Hope it gets reversed, but i doubt it.
Are they charging on orders made before the change? If so I will cancel all.
Sucks that all our new game pre order discounts are going away and pre ordering is getting even worse
Sucks that all our new game pre order discounts are going away and pre ordering is getting even worse
If you're pre-ordering a game from Amazon you're making a mistake to begin with. Use one of the many other sites that are usually cheaper and deliver the game at a minimum one day early.
Damn, this sucks. I usually preorder a lot of stuff like really early (like say... consoles and elite controllers), then pay for it them at the begginning of the month it comes out by buying gift card credit then applying it to the order.
I guess I can't be too mad about this though.
I guess I can't be too mad about this though.
Funny you take it there. As if I'm holding up a sign saying, "Think about Amazon!!". I don't care about their pockets. Preordering and cancelling after you get whatever for free is no noble deed and it gets abused everywhere. If that was a factor for the change, I completely understand and remain unaffected.
Looks like I'm done with amazon
I could pre order a console right and then I'd put money on my card to buy it as I only have a debit card and not a credit card
This sucks
I could pre order a console right and then I'd put money on my card to buy it as I only have a debit card and not a credit card
This sucks
If you preorder and cancel you have received nothing for free. It's allocation of potential stock. There are no guarantees either way. Consumers changing their mind about a future transaction is not abuse.
And yes, oddly that is exactly the sign you are holding. With a smaller sign vilifying consumers for exerting their right to choose prospective purchases. What a weird take.
Edit: Access to a timed demo/beta is a promotional tool, not a product. The solution to this problem is to stop doing pre-order access, not charge at the point of preorder across the site. And even then people can still preorder and play the beta and then cancel for their money back. So this decision likely has nothing to do with "abusing" preorder betas at all.
Last edited:
They're making it really easy for me to go all in on Best Buy now. I plan to stick with them even post GCU now.
Ditto, if I even preorder.
I guess this is a good thing in a way as some people probably preorder the same item from multiple retailers and then cancel afterwards, preventing others from preordering due to limited stock allocation.
This is why I don't buy it as the sole reason, but I suppose if they over-order a specific LE SKU they may have to discount it in the future to shift the stock - thereby potentially costing them a fair bit.
+1 they went from one of the most convenient companies to being worse and worse with time.
I'm okay with this as long as it isn't an immediate thing: keep a 2-5 days window in case of orders created by mistake and for people who may not have enough money on their cards at the time a limited edition is available.
Hopefully this will speed up the whole day one shipping process, usually my payments are finalized late on launch day and stuff takes always 2-3 days more to arrive.
Hopefully this will speed up the whole day one shipping process, usually my payments are finalized late on launch day and stuff takes always 2-3 days more to arrive.
There is no reason whatsoever to assume this change will alleviate stock allocation issues. Except now Amazon will have taken money from the people whose order they can't fulfil on release day.
Don't care since I would prefer they take the money straight away so I'm not having to worry about keeping money in my bank for it.
If there is a price reduction then they can just refund me it after they dispatch it.
If there is a price reduction then they can just refund me it after they dispatch it.
Has this been confrmed? Who's to say they won't stop preorders once their initial allocation has been met? I'm sure during the Switch preorder period back in 2017, there were times we couldn't preorder because they'd already met their allocation.
Yeah let's just assume they'll do us a solid!
Like they'd never take preorders before they know their allocation! Because psychologically speaking, people are less likely to cancel an order on release if they're going to be without the money or an order for 3-7 days.
Yeah as mentioned earlier this has been discussed a lot in Cheap Arse Era over the past number of days. I got hit by it when ordering two Switch games last week. I got charged early for one, but not the other. I cancelled both and complained to Amazon. They basically gave me the same spiel as everyone else that they're trialing improvements to pre-ordering where you either get charged on dispatch if your order comes out within the next 5 days, or you get charged on the 5th day after ordering if it comes out later. They apologised, gave me £5 Amazon credit for my troubles and said they'd pass on my complaints but I'm not expecting much from that...
Either way I'm not pre-ordering anymore from them if they continue with this policy. They're very rarely cheaper, so literally the only reason to pre-order from them was the fact it was easy to shove in a pre-order which you don't have to pay for, and then either cancel or keep it later nearer the time when you've decided.
Either way I'm not pre-ordering anymore from them if they continue with this policy. They're very rarely cheaper, so literally the only reason to pre-order from them was the fact it was easy to shove in a pre-order which you don't have to pay for, and then either cancel or keep it later nearer the time when you've decided.
It's not gone from what I was told.
They said to me that they'll refund you the difference after dispatch.
Also if you think tis is bad i ordered from Domino's Pizza the other day and they charged me a £2 delivery fee.
When i exploded they explained they were trialing new models in certain stores.
the food was no cheaper btw.
Everything is awful now.
When i exploded they explained they were trialing new models in certain stores.
the food was no cheaper btw.
Everything is awful now.
Then I will just stop pre-ordering on Amazon because that is just disgusting.
I pre-order on the basis of convenience and the chance that I might change my mind not to for Amazon to charge me and I have nothing and pay more for items. Plus with Amazon being big, you can bet that other retailers are going to copy this shit.
I pre-order on the basis of convenience and the chance that I might change my mind not to for Amazon to charge me and I have nothing and pay more for items. Plus with Amazon being big, you can bet that other retailers are going to copy this shit.
Totally understandable.
People have stolen too many pre order bonuses and BETA access codes by buying and cancelling.
People have stolen too many pre order bonuses and BETA access codes by buying and cancelling.
...But you can still do that
Betas are usually way before release and you can easily still cancel your order
Barely use them either for basically the same reason as Amazon, rarely ever cheapest.
If that's true then they're also off my list I guess, lol.
Do you know any good ones for book and comic books? Amazon is kinda my only bet at that department. :(