Amazon Blocking Non-Prime Members From Buying Certain Video Games

Megalith

Megalith

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I like how Amazon’s response to this is to just buy a Prime membership.

Amazon has extended its "Prime-Exclusive Items" initiative to block non-Prime members from being able to purchase certain video games. The change was spotted by customers this morning, with the PS4 versions of GTA 5, Rainbow Six Siege and Assassin's Creed Syndicate now only available to Prime members, along with the PS4 and Xbox One versions of FIFA 16, Far Cry Primal, Battlefield Hardline and more. If you aren't a member of Amazon Prime, you will now see a box with a blue border on the right of the page "identifying the item as Prime-Exclusive", and will not be able to add the item to your basket.
 
pretty shity thing to do, but there are plenty of other places to buy video games
 
This makes sense since they are discounting the titles. However, I thought that Amazon had dynamic pricing models (offer different people different prices for the same items) so it would seem to make more sense to offer the full price item for non-members and the discounted one for prime members, rather than just blocking the non-prime members. It was amusing to read comments on one of the sites reporting it though, with one person saying video game purchases were a basic human right (need to raise that bar a little higher there) :)
 
Same thing happened to me. I had star wars force awakens in my cart an they removed it because I was not a prime member. So I bought it from walmart.
 
Redmud said:
Same thing happened to me. I had star wars force awakens in my cart an they removed it because I was not a prime member. So I bought it from walmart.
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That's a real dick move to pull off on their part. You already had it in your basket, that sucks.
 
If the alternative was no access for that period for anyone then there's nothing wrong with this.

If part of my prime membership is going towards making the exclusive period, then tough shit for everyone else. Although that may not be where I want my fee to go, that's a separate discussion.
 
They were doing this over a year ago with Blu-ray movies as well. Tried getting a movie for my kids, ended up being the same price at Walmart.
 
why not make amz like a club, maybe a prime light version? x orders a year no music ect but cheaper.
 
Quix said:
This is really stupid, it's basically like saying. No prime? Shop elsewhere. It doesn't so much entice you to get prime as it does entice you to not shop at Amazon.
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Exactly, if I saw this my first move would be to just hit google for what I'm looking for. Not even out of spite or anything, I'd just be like "welp, they dont have my product, gotta find someone who does".
 
My opinion of Prime is the free shipping is not free. the cost on most prime items is 2-3 bucks more than other sellers.Prime ia beginning to feel less and less of any real value
 
zalazin said:
My opinion of Prime is the free shipping is not free. the cost on most prime items is 2-3 bucks more than other sellers.Prime ia beginning to feel less and less of any real value
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But the other guys charge you for freight and you won't get it as fast.
 
I hope this doesn't lead to other stores that price match Amazon to adjust their policies to only match prices on items that are available to non-Prime members.

Before these Prime exclusive products and prices, I had this (approximate) conversation with a manager at Best Buy on a tax-free weekend a couple years ago:
me: I'd like to price match this [Canon battery] to amazon.com.
BB: [Looks up the item on amazon and finds a match, shipped and sold by Amazon.] That [the free super saver shipping icon] means that the price is only for Amazon Prime members.
me: Then why does it say right there on the product page that there's free shipping over $25 [or whatever the FSSS amount was back then]? There's no mention of needing to be a Prime member to get that price.
BB: Well, you can only see the price if you're logged into Amazon Prime.
me: Are you logged in to a Prime account? How are you seeing the price then?
BB: No. I guess you don't have to be a Prime member. Why don't you just go buy it on Amazon then?
me: Because you guys price match items on Amazon.
BB: Well, I can't price match it because it's only that price for Amazon Prime members.

Then, I just left. It's hard to argue with that kind of logic, and it was like 15 minutes from store closing on the Sunday. I ended up going back a couple days later and getting it price matched with no issue, except I had to pay sales tax, which was exactly why I wanted to buy it during the weekend. That, and I had a rewards certificate to use, hence why I didn't want to just buy it on Amazon.
 
"One of the many benefits of Amazon Prime is access to exclusive selection on a number of great products. Customers who are not Prime members can sign-up for a 30-day free trial of Amazon Prime, or they can purchase those items from a Marketplace seller."

WTH Amazon, are you trying to turn it into an online version of Sams club or Costco? Allow for me to take MY money and shop elsewhere. Walmart's online shopping has become increasingly better and you get free shipping to any of the Walmart stores for pickup.
 
Yeah, Amazon can keep doing this and I'll just stop buying from Amazon. This is the slippery road to "Amazon used to be cool" for me. I'm not a Prime member and never plan to be. Fuck 'em. I'll get stuff somewhere else if they pull that shit or keep increasing "Prime-only stuff". The internet is much, much larger than Amazon no matter what they may think of themselves.
 
Yeah, I heard about this a while back. I don't like the policy, but it really doesn't bother me enough that I won't shop there if they have a good deal that I can get as a non-Prime member.

Still, I've been complaining for years that Amazon has gone downhill... they used to have really good prices and no sales tax. Now they charge sales tax, increasingly restrict their best deals to Prime members, try to push you to buy stuff from this eBay-like Marketplace from private sellers that may or may not be trustworthy, and have such a high threshold for Free Shipping that you're unlikely to hit it unless you're buying a big ticket item anyway. Not to mention this "add-on item" policy where you can't get smaller items even if you're willing to pay full price on shipping, and they force you to buy something else in order to get that smaller item.

The main reason I don't really want to sign up for Prime is because it's a bad deal for anyone that doesn't buy a ton of stuff from them. I feel like they're starting to work more like one of those warehouse places like Sam's Club that prioritizes commercial and high-volume customers while basically gouging people who can only afford to buy a few things at a time. And don't get me wrong, I like it when someone who has a Sam's Club membership is willing to take me down there to take advantage of the deals, but for most people it's not worth the cost of maintaining that membership.

For a while after Amazon went downhill, Newegg was better, but even they're getting worse. These days it seems like I'm better off going back to my local Fry's or Microcenter for good deals if the item I want is in stock. I really only want to buy stuff online these days if I have no alternative, because online stores have awful prices unless you buy in bulk and have a paid account.

The amount of items in stock anywhere is a lot worse than it used to be. First, it got to the point that brick and mortar stores only stocked the most popular items, and anything remotely obscure meant driving all over town on a wild goose chase, or else buying online and waiting a week. After that, it got to the point that online stores had poor inventories as well, but tried to bolster them by basically turning themselves into Marketplaces where you deal with individual sellers. Now on top of that, their prices aren't even better than brick and mortar stores.

Even outside of Amazon, though, everything online seems to have gone from being high-quality, centralized, and decent, to being some kind of rip-off with a limited selection. It's like the way it used to be when I was helping people in third-world countries like Malaysia or Panama put computers together... they didn't have access to the best stuff, and overpaid for what they could get. Only now it's getting that way here.

Given the way sites are operating these days, you're better off just shopping on a forum like this or even going on eBay.
 
Azrak said:
Yeah, Amazon can keep doing this and I'll just stop buying from Amazon. This is the slippery road to "Amazon used to be cool" for me. I'm not a Prime member and never plan to be. Fuck 'em. I'll get stuff somewhere else if they pull that shit or keep increasing "Prime-only stuff". The internet is much, much larger than Amazon no matter what they may think of themselves.
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The success of retail is almost never a result of being "cool". If Amazon can maintain their selection, low price, and reliability then they will have loyal customers, and these kind of promotions won't hurt them, and might help them as well (the Amazon equivalent of a Black Friday sale or Groupon limited item). If they can't maintain selection, price, and reliability then, and only then, will they fail.
 
I am all for having exclusive offers, i.e discounts, priority processing, etc., for prime members but straight up saying you can't buy this game because you don't have prime is a little messed up imo.

But as part of the PC master race this affects me very little, mostly because steam, humble, and GoG are a way better places to get PC games. Also in the spirit of full disclosure I do have a Prime Membership.
 
This will backfire. Big time.

I love Amazon but man you are acting the fool Amazon. There are TONS of other places to buy games and for less.
 
WTF? Amazon... Good thing I don't buy games from you or I'd be super pissed. :mad:
 
athenian200 said:
Now they charge sales tax...
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I agree that Amazon has been going downhill with pushing everything to prime, but why does this false rumor persist? Amazon does not charge sales tax. No store does. States do. Just like how we have to pay sales tax on stuff from newegg and whatnot. I think the only place left in CA that doesn't is Tiger Direct.
 
Flogger23m said:
I agree that Amazon has been going downhill with pushing everything to prime, but why does this false rumor persist? Amazon does not charge sales tax. No store does. States do. Just like how we have to pay sales tax on stuff from newegg and whatnot. I think the only place left in CA that doesn't is Tiger Direct.
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Well, technically speaking, it's because Amazon has a warehouse in Texas. That means it's cheaper to buy from smaller companies that don't have warehouses here. I certainly did not mean to suggest that Amazon was collecting their own personal sales tax as though they were a government (even if I phrased it poorly enough that you could have gotten that impression).

Obviously, a tax is collected by the state, but I don't see why that should change my purchasing decisions. It's the same fee added to my final price no matter whose responsibility it is. When you factor in sales tax and shipping, Amazon isn't that competitive with local retailers on a lot of items unless you have Prime anyway.

I don't really mind paying taxes at local retailers because it's offset by the fact that I don't have to pay shipping. Originally, with online shopping, you had to pay for shipping, but it was offset by not having to pay taxes, so most of the time it balanced out. But now they expect you to pay tax AND shipping when you shop online, and I think that's generally a bad deal. Especially considering that if they do have a local presence, then chances are that I'm essentially overpaying them to ship something 2 or 3 miles and get routed around in circles for a couple of days. LOL.
 
LOL. Or buy from the Sony or Microsoft on-console storefront. Yeah, you don't get a shiny disc. I don't care. Amazon can suck it.
 
ianken said:
LOL. Or buy from the Sony or Microsoft on-console storefront. Yeah, you don't get a shiny disc. I don't care. Amazon can suck it.
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Amazon Prime offers 20% off for every new game and the discs can be traded in when you finish with them. The Sony PlayStation Store can suck it as far as I'm concerned.
 
Pretty sure Amazon knows what it's doing. It has the data...you don't.
 
This would make sense if people with prime got early access to a videogame or a series on amazon video, but not being able to buy a game that is already old like AC Syndicate is ridiculous.
 
bertkelmer said:
This would make sense if people with prime got early access to a videogame or a series on amazon video, but not being able to buy a game that is already old like AC Syndicate is ridiculous.
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They are not able to buy it because it is discounted. Amazon needs to figure out a way to sell the title without discount to non-prime members rather than a total block.
 
kbrickley said:
They are not able to buy it because it is discounted. Amazon needs to figure out a way to sell the title without discount to non-prime members rather than a total block.
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Ah I see. Yeah that could be a fix, lol. If prime = $*x% If no prime = $. Boom!
 
I can't see this going well.

Maybe it's just me over thinking things but I remember a story about a very high up lady in Amazon suddenly being kill in an accident. I cannot remember her name or title but I think it was directly tied to sales. It seems like shortly after that Amazon started having a long (still going) string of odd behavior that I do not like. They send me too many email about things I may have looked at, sales on things that don't make sense for me to buy and even inform me about buying related items to items that were even gift wrapped!

I recently compared a few vacuums so I looked at them over and over and asked a few people I knew and looked at what they had or bought. Bought a rather expensive one (two actually as the first one was not complete to the listing and they went on sale two days later) however Amazon sent me for a week emails about two of the other ones I looked at Why! I've bought two Nikon cameras from Amazon and they send me emails about Cannon lenses! The reminders to "get a little something for yourself" is just too much . They also have completely hidden the information to be contacted directly if you have a issue. It's a maze that tries to get you to use one of the automated options. I do not like having to hunt for help.

In short: Amazon is getting to money grubbing and even as a prime member they are going down in my eyes.
 
Amazon think it's a warehouse club. Pay for the right to shop here. The problem is that their prices aren't all that special.
 
Amazon is convenient. There are hard to find items listed. Closeouts and clearance items. Should you price elsewhere? Yes. Prime two day shipping (if you have someone to receive items or drop off is safe) is great.
Walmart ship to store works, just include drive cost, wait in line, impulse purchases in cost.
Costco, BJs, Sams re very good for the items you want they have.
Amazon had free two day shipping for carb O-rings for my 03 motorcycle, starter motor for my 81. Other odd items. Lowest price on a decent computer power supply.
We are all seeing more cost containment measures, expect more in more places.
 
I don't use them anymore, not since they started to use amazon logistics and my last 2 expensive purchases disappeared shortly after leaving the warehouse.
 
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