Amazon UK new pre-order pre-payment policy

Discussion in 'Marketplace Discussions' started by imarcq, May 19, 2019.

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  1. imarcq

    imarcq Men are from Mars, I'm from Bromley... Thread Starter

    Location:
    Sydney, Australia
    Did you get pre-charged for this order? So far I ordered the exact same item on pre-order for July twice, one time I was charged and now this second time, 11 days later, and not charged yet. They obviously want to keep you guessing.
     
  2. garrincha

    garrincha Forum Resident

    Location:
    Plymouth, UK
    just checked my account for pre-order I made 8 days ago. I left it this long to take into account the bank holiday. anyway, I have not been charged for this one.

    must be a special customer or something!
     
  3. imarcq

    imarcq Men are from Mars, I'm from Bromley... Thread Starter

    Location:
    Sydney, Australia
    Who knows what they are playing at. There must be some hidden reason. Perhaps they are just testing this out and seeing who notices? Beta testing us! Maybe it's to do with card authorisation? Or serial cancellers? Maybe they have now stopped doing this for a while, or for good. It's still unclear isn't it?

    I'd guess that you were safe with your order now as when they did charge me, it was exactly as they said after 5 days.
    I allowed for the bank holiday on my last pre-order too. Still no charge as yet. But other normal orders have since been charged as expected on shipping.
     
  4. imarcq

    imarcq Men are from Mars, I'm from Bromley... Thread Starter

    Location:
    Sydney, Australia
    Last edited: May 31, 2019
  5. Dubmart

    Dubmart Senior Member

    Location:
    Bristol, England
    It's the one I recently changed the payment method for and got charged for my trouble, it's out for delivery so looks like if they charge you upfront you get delivery on day of release just like Prime, I'd rather not be charged and get a few days to see where the price settles and cancel my order if appropriate, it looks like I'll be ditching Amazon apart from marketplace sellers and crazy deals, been trying to do that anyway.
     
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  6. Dubmart

    Dubmart Senior Member

    Location:
    Bristol, England
    I just checked and my Massive Attack pre-order was placed on 11th January with a scheduled delivery for June 27th so if I'd been charged upfront for that I'd have lent Amazon £94 for six months interest free, that gives you an idea of why it works for them, a few million orders paid weeks or months in advance and their bottom line will really benefit, I bet an accountant had this bright idea.
     
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  7. imarcq

    imarcq Men are from Mars, I'm from Bromley... Thread Starter

    Location:
    Sydney, Australia
    Forum Cliché Warning.... ;)

    It's a no brainer for Amazon!
     
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  8. imarcq

    imarcq Men are from Mars, I'm from Bromley... Thread Starter

    Location:
    Sydney, Australia
    On this subject....my two identical pre-orders were from two different bank accounts, one charged in advance, and the other not. I have a vague memory of getting a request from Amazon to verify my card over the past few months. That was the same card that they pre-charged. Curious and curiouser...
     
  9. dastinger

    dastinger Forum Resident

    Location:
    Portugal
    Btw guys, the user @UchidaT recommended I checked Fnac.com over at the Tone Poet thread and I'm so glad he did. I've realised that they had the exact same prices as Amazon, at least on the items I pre-ordered, shipping is around €2 cheaper and they claim they only charge you at the time of shipping. So yeh, I'm not sure they have as many records as Amazon, but it will be my number one option for pre-orders from now on.

    Again, thank you @UchidaT !
     
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  10. Dubmart

    Dubmart Senior Member

    Location:
    Bristol, England
    Off topic, but my order arrived, looks like Amazon are packing 7" box sets in very flimsy Jiffy bags now, it survived, but I think it's a game of Russian roulette for vinyl in Jiffy bags.
     
  11. imarcq

    imarcq Men are from Mars, I'm from Bromley... Thread Starter

    Location:
    Sydney, Australia
    Oh no! That's what Music Magpie did to me once with a pricey CD box set which got trashed, and also a book from eBay got ripped recently too. They don't work! Not only do they now want to charge months in advance, they also want to skimp on packaging. I hope they don't do it to 12" vinyl. That also happened to me from some woman on discogs. It was NM cover that got so bent and dog eared it barely made a G grade. Some people have zero common sense. Amazon included!
     
  12. Dubmart

    Dubmart Senior Member

    Location:
    Bristol, England
    I have two outstanding Amazon orders, both vinyl box sets and one LP on order with Amazon France, once they've arrived I think I'm through with them, other than bargains of course:D I'll still check the marketplace, but a lot of those sellers are also on eBay for less and proper independents are also beating Amazon these days, ten years ago they were essential, that is no longer the case.
     
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  13. imarcq

    imarcq Men are from Mars, I'm from Bromley... Thread Starter

    Location:
    Sydney, Australia
    Apparently, the new Canadian owner of HMV Records in UK are committed to much better vinyl options as a unique selling point of difference. I heard an interview with him. It will be interesting to see if that works.
     
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  14. Dubmart

    Dubmart Senior Member

    Location:
    Bristol, England
    Mark, I still find my local store quite depressing and they closed our Fopp which was better, I used to buy from their website, but since the takeover that's not returned,I really hope HMV works this time because both consumers and labels absolutely need a high street chain like HMV and vinyl has to be the way to go for them.
     
  15. imarcq

    imarcq Men are from Mars, I'm from Bromley... Thread Starter

    Location:
    Sydney, Australia
    Yes my local HMV is the same as yours is Mart. Not quite sure how long they are going to take improving them. Otherwise it will just bomb again. Plus it's still quite pricey for vinyl. I found a few articles about Sunrise Records, the new owner of HMV.

    Canadian music store mogul Doug Putman joins battle for HMV

    HMV's new voice is relishing the fight to save all the stores

     
    Last edited: May 31, 2019
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  16. jimod99

    jimod99 Daddy or chips?

    Location:
    Ottawa, ON
    The owner of Sunrise talks a good game.......

    ..........just talks mind you!
     
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  17. imarcq

    imarcq Men are from Mars, I'm from Bromley... Thread Starter

    Location:
    Sydney, Australia
    Yes the website is supposed to be up and running, but it's still only news and release info, no sign yet of online ordering again!
     
  18. Dubmart

    Dubmart Senior Member

    Location:
    Bristol, England
    I popped into my local HMV this morning, it does look more like a record shop or at least the HMV of old, better, but the specialist non mainstream vinyl selection seems very poor, still plenty of room for improvement, they did have some titles I worked on though so I'll give them a bonus point for that.:thumbsup:
     
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  19. imarcq

    imarcq Men are from Mars, I'm from Bromley... Thread Starter

    Location:
    Sydney, Australia
    I'll check out my local hmv later this week and see if anything is different from my last visit a while back. :)
     
  20. richierichie

    richierichie My glass is always full.

    I agree with you @imarcq re: Amazon using a beta system to see how things work out. Couple of examples;

    I changed my CC to an Amazon Card (I know but it actually pays more back and Inalways pay in full every month), anyhow I changed my pre-orders over to my Amazon Card. This was just before this payment upfront tomfoolery and when I checked my old card account I found that Amazon had charged me on both cards for the same item on 3 different orders. Got them to call me back, explained what they had done and was told I'd be refunded. So I asked on which card would I be refunded, no answer other than "can you stay on the line while I talk to my supervisor". They come back to me "don't worry sir you will be refunded", I ask how will I be refunded and who is going to actually do the refunding. By this I asked would a human or a computer be doing it. They had no idea, I gave up and contained my former card company who are now investigating, I'm not worried because my former card company are obligated to refund me.

    I am still dealing with Amazon, there is an HMV close by but they don't have what I want in stock 90% of the time and the nearest independent store is a 50+ mile round trip. I do buy a lot of music and will be followed the advise given by some above ^^^^^
    Anyhow 11 days ago I pre-ordered the Pretty Things 2 upcoming LP &. live CD sets, both pre-orders and late July release. So after 5 days I expected to be pre-charged by Amazon, when I checked yesterday I had not been pre-charged.
    Maybe there's been a rethink, maybe not. I imagine that lots of pre-orders have been cancelled so hopefully they have had a rethink but more likely they don't know what they're doing.
     
  21. imarcq

    imarcq Men are from Mars, I'm from Bromley... Thread Starter

    Location:
    Sydney, Australia
    Sounds crazy. Those Amazon reps are pretty shocking. I hope that you are right and people complained about it. Let's hope it is a rethink. I'll find out next preorder, although as it's not consistent it won't be conclusive. Fingers crossed they've stopped it!
     
  22. Billy Hunt

    Billy Hunt Forum Resident

    Location:
    Cardiff, Wales.
    Received a few emails from Amazon this morning regarding my open orders:

     
  23. culabula

    culabula Unread author.

    Location:
    Belfast, Ireland

    My brain hurts !
     
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  24. Dubmart

    Dubmart Senior Member

    Location:
    Bristol, England
    Just got the same email, Amazon either messed up or more likely are backtracking from a change they planned.
     
  25. dastinger

    dastinger Forum Resident

    Location:
    Portugal
    What in the f......

    I honestly can't understand what Amazon is up to. That email is written as a mistake/a bug in the system charged customers wrongly. They either realised this was not a good idea (which I doubt) or they're still completely ignorant about the whole thing.
     
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