TalkAwhile - The Folk Corporation Forum

I don't know if this is the right forum, but I'd thought I'd share this.

Music Magpie..appropriate name..have an algorithm that alters the price of it's product so that it offers it at the cheapest amount available at any one time. It's usually slightly cheaper on it's own site than eBay, but the eBay price is usually a penny under that of the next nearest..World Of Books. Both of these will offer a discount so that if you buy one, you get one at 5% off or whatever.
Watching the price fluctuate is interesting...I saw a Siouxsie And The Banshees album go from around £2.38 to approx £4.58 over a few days. If people purchase a copy being offered for a little more money, the Magpie price will rise to undercut the next nearest, so that they always have the cheapest, but the cheapest by as little as possible.
Fair enough, it's a business, and they want to make as much money as they can, but they will have paid a couple of pennies to whoever they have bought the CD off, and the fact that they are out to make as much as they can get, leads to the next bit.

Several times now, I have purchased two albums in the above named offer.
One of the two has been dispatched, marked as dispatched, a notification e-mail has been sent, and I have received the CD, no problem, within three or four days.
The other one just sits there and nothing happens.
Eventually I send them an e-mail, and they send ME a lie.
They tell me it was dispatched in good time, but the courier must have lost it, and they give me a refund.
It is a lie because they never mark it as dispatched and don't send a confirmation e-mail.
The reason they do this ?
In the latest case - which I knew was going to happen, based on previous times - I purchased a CD for £5.20. The next cheapest copy was £30.26.
Although I'm sure that if they offer it for sale at a certain price and someone gives that money then that is a contract, I don't believe it's a coincidence that this happens every time there is a bigger difference than a few pennies between their price and the next cheapest....this is the fifth time now.
The lack of dispatch e-mail is a bit of a give away.
I certainly won't be using them again.

 

Trading Standards may well be interested.

If there's any way to contact EBAY to complain, I'd do that too.

I keep my Wish Lists private on Amazon, because I don't want friends buying me an overpriced out-of-print CD thinking that's what I want. It isn't. I maintain these so I can check regularly for newly-listed items at a more reasonable price than the eye-watering ticket for some used titles.

And it works, over time. No CD is really worth £50 or more. Just listen to something else and wait, right?

So that's what I do, with regular visits to see what might be cheaper this week/month.

This means I get a steady trickle of cheap (often very cheap) music on which I could have spent silly money, had I been hasty. But sometimes, the seller (usually one of the bigger used names from the Amazon Marketplace) tumbles that I'm buying something rare for an absolute knockdown price, and following the initial confirmation of my order I get a message along the lines of "This item failed our rigorous quality checks and so your order has been cancelled."

I'm sure there are genuine cases of this, but it only ever happens to me after clicking Buy for what looks like a real bargain.

Anyone else had this experience?

You do exactly what I do. I could have written this same post, word for word.

And yes, I've experienced this many times and oft over the years. It never fails to make me feel both disappointed and angry that I'm being told utter lies.

Jules

Thought I wouldn't be the only one!

Should also add that there have also been times (This Woman's Work box set by Kate Bush for £33, for example) when I was expecting that weasely message but received what I had ordered instead.

Have you looked at your Amazon wish lists lately, Jules?

Mine no longer show the price offered by Marketplace sellers for each item unless I click through to each item's page. This is very frustrating for me, but it must be disastrous for Amazon Marketplace sellers.

I have complained to Amazon, for what it's worth, and hope they will change this back.

I have been noticing the very same. It's happened before, but then it reverted. I am hoping it does so again.

Jules