Amazon shipping scams / buying Descent CD

Ned · Post by **Ned** » Mon Sep 12, 2005 10:53 pm

So I go on Amazon to buy a Descent3 CD. It says:

Descent3 CD new (etc.) $1.05

so I'm like: cool! I'll get like four, but I wonder how much shipping will be?

so Amazon screens says like: $4.20 plus estimated shipping "shown below".

Problem: there is NO shipping estimated, mentioned, or clickable ANYwhere I can find, but a total price is showing, about $4.20 if you look at the whole order (I got stuff from other vendors too). So, I'm like: ok, here goes.

I immediately get a f$^king email confirmation:
$4.20 + $20 Shipping.

Now mind you, I bought a 'heavy as crap' textbook that was charging like $4.50 for shipping.

I was steamed and wrote the vendor back saying: cancel order. They cancelled.

So here are my questions:
1 WTF?
2 WTF?
3 did I mention, . . WTF?
4 Why are we being so good about buying, not hacking Descent3 when it is not putting revenue anywhere good? Aren't they all out of business? Hack it, add better menus, fix bugs, and make it shareware. Or else Parallax, etc, etc, etc. should rent a basement with a postal meter and VISA machine and take orders properly.

5 Anyone else had Amazon "issues" before?

I like BUYING good software and supporting good programers, but this is getting F'ing insane. Very old, out of date software, yet still somewhat fun to play, that only can be bought from markup-happy toads?!? Gimme a break

Rant over

PS - I still want to buy a copy for my teenage friend getting the new PC we're building. . . Back when D3 was popular on the shelf I used to buy extras and give them to friends, so I even more think all this "Buy" don't hack" is BS. I have paid the franchise at least 8 times for this stuff.

will_kill · Post by **will_kill** » Tue Sep 13, 2005 11:24 am

I would'nt let it bug ya'...those 'toads'(lmao,good1

)will get there due justice eventually.
Meanwhile, search the DBB boards for cheap retail copies these brothers have dug up or happened upon and were nice enough to post links too

Mobius · Post by **Mobius** » Tue Sep 13, 2005 1:52 pm

Hoist by your own petard I'm afraid Ned.

I've worked on ecommerce code a lot. Sites that take in over 20 million USD a month. The code for these things is horrendous. It often does not work correctly 100% of the time.

It's your responsibility to check the freight before ordering. If the site won;t give it to you, then you email the vendor asking how much.

I did this recently for a very rare (out of manufacture for 20 years) Kershaw knife. Some Italian place has 'em for sale for 81.00 Euros. No freight shown. So I emailled, and they want to charge 45.00 Euros for SURFACE MAIL. Given that 45.00 will actuially cover air freight for a 2 kilo object, I told them to pull their head in, and now I'm concentrating on ebay.

Vertigo 99 · Post by **Vertigo 99** » Tue Sep 13, 2005 2:09 pm

was it just the CD, or the whole box? if the guy had to ship 4 old school full boxes to you, i can picture it being $20.

Plebeian · Post by **Plebeian** » Tue Sep 13, 2005 2:11 pm

It's not Amazon you're buying from, but a third-party vendor. It's not Amazon's responsibility to have the shipping data there, they just show whatever they got from the third-party (if anything, as in this case).

Some vendors are pretty messed up, and get you in with a low base price, and make it up with shipping. (And some shippers are just messed up.)

Buying from Amazon on the "Buy New & Used" items where Amazon doesn't stock the item is more or less like going to eBay. It's not eBay's problem if sellers are stupid about shipping notices and such. They should make sure that the field was entered, or let you know that shipping may not have been provided by the third-party, or something, but in the end, you have to check with the third-party if you have questions/problems.

Now, if you bought from Amazon itself, then you'd be able to complain about "Amazon shipping scams".

Iceman · Post by **Iceman** » Tue Sep 13, 2005 3:55 pm

I have never had a problem with Amazon.com