Good deals on Amazon.co.uk--updated regularly (Part Three)

Hello,

We're introducing some improvements to payments and authorisations in order to simplify your shopping experience on Amazon.

When you pre-order an item that is yet to be released, we charge you the full order amount when the item gets dispatched.
If the shipping date is set after more than five days, that charge occurs on the fifth day since your order was placed.

We’ll dispatch your item as soon as it gets released. You can check updates to your order status, or cancel your order anytime before it gets dispatched, by visiting Your Orders at Amazon Sign In .

Whenever you pre-order a book, CD, video, DVD, video game or software item from Amazon, the price you pay will be the lowest price offered by Amazon.co.ukbetween the time you place your order up to and including the end of the day of the release date. If your order qualifies for the Pre-Order Price Guarantee, you'll be refunded the price difference once your order dispatches.

Immediately after you place an order, we now request your bank to authorise the full order amount. At this stage you’re not being charged yet – your bank is reserving the funds until the transaction processes.

We only charge the full order amount when all the items included in your order have been shipped. Should an item require more than 5 days for dispatching, your payment method is charged on the fifth day since your order was placed.

This new experience will avoid processing multiple authorisations and charges for the same order.

I hope this helps. We look forward to seeing you again soon.

 

Not cool.

 

Seriously not cool.

 

Thanks for posting this information. I also think that this is bad business. Just think of the amount of money amazon.co.uk will sit on yielding interest. I won't pre-order stuff on amazon.co.uk anymore.
I have a lot of pre-orders via amazon.fr because you can really save money. So far they haven't charged the credit card until after the package had been sent.
I do hope that this policy won't be adopted by all the other local amazon stores.

Haha, what a load of...

 

I didn't ask her about other EU Amazon sites. Hopefully different rules? She didn't know about USA Amazon either. Maybe just testing the water in UK first?

 

Good to hear you got some level of satisfaction, but the fact is this "new" policy is no "improvement" on the previous policy, as your experince proved. It was all so unessessary. The fact this change of policy is not/was not mentioned on their own website before you placed your order is further evidence of their deteriorating, and ever increasing misleading website.

 

I’ve just gone to my preorders and cancelled over a hundred quid's worth of orders.

I can’t see how they can earn interest if the funds are simply 'earmarked'.

But earmarked funds nevertheless play havoc MY end.

I’m now debating cancelling Prime.

 

My thoughts exactly!
I find it strange that there obviously has been no communication. I'd have expected an e-mail informing the customers.

 

Me too! It was only when I saw a debit from my account I realized. Another manager just called and could not confirm if other EU or USA Amazon sites will or are doing this. Time will tell! I'm also not sure if longstanding pre-orders are effected. I have one from about 6 weeks ago not charged for as normal. So this must be very recent, with a cut off date for earlier pre-orders.

 

I can see them loosing a lot of advance pre-orders because of this.
I've got a few pending and will go and see if I've been charged already.
Just had a look and I haven't been charged for my pre-orders.
All is normal.

 

I've heard about this on bluray.com. If it happens to me, I'll complain and get a goodwill voucher, but what on earth are they thinking? Everyone should complain so the feedback is loud and clear.

I'm trying to use Amazon less at the moment and this kind of crap helps.

 

Me too.
I was angry with amazon.co.uk for cancelling an order telling me "that this item is no longer available" and then less than 24 hours later the item was in stock selling at about £15 more than I would have paid.
"Up yours too!" were my thoughts. I won't be buying there anymore.

Hopefully it will be exclusive for the UK.

 

I think that existing pre-orders seem to be honoured. But it's new ones that appear to be effected. I have one from over a month ago that's definitely not been pre-charged. But the pre-order from last week has. See what happens when you try a new pre-order. They say it's 5 days after that date you are charged.

 

Sorry for hijacking thread but as this is a deal thread, many deals are pre-ordered. I'd feel awful if I post a pre-order deal and people unexpectedly got charged up front. I'm happy to continue via PM or even start a new discussion thread if necessary.

 

Don't be sorry, this was a very important subject that is entirely related to sharing and buying deals at AmazonUK.

 

Wow, that really is a change. So if I preorder something that will be released in let's say 60 days my bank account will get earmarked for it right away. That would really give me pause to pre-order anything expensive from them in the future and I have ordered plenty over the years. I would imagine something like a big box set that may be $300 or more earmarked on my debit card for 60 days could cause problems if you have a limit on your card for no transactions over a certain amount without authorization.

 

Ahh think when it eventually arrives, though - it’ll feel like you’ve got it for free!

 

Unless you didn't check your bank statement and by surprise got clobbered with an unauthorized overdraft fee....

 

This change may not apply to Amazon USA or EU. So possibly only UK for now.

 

I've just got off the phone to Amazon UK and had a long conversation about this.
They have not changed anything pre-orders will only be charged for when they've been dispatched as per normal.

 

I beg to differ. I spoke to TWO senior managers not first contact customer services. I HAD been charged £20.33 for a new pre-order. Both told me its policy had changed and they were now alerting staff. One emailed me with the detailed letter I posted above. It won't effect all your existing pre-orders but will effect new ones. I had two very detailed conversations. I suggest you call again and speak to a senior manager.

 

Marc are you a prime customer?

 

No I'm not. Maybe this policy does not apply to Prime? But they didn't say this. Her email didn't even mention Prime. Best thing is to wait and see I guess. Or do a new pre-order, wait 5 days and see if they charge you.

 

Looks like they have got so big now that the left hand doesn't know what right hand is doing.

 

Here's the email again. Apologies again for no deal posting, I don't want to annoy anybody.....