So does newegg ACTUALLY raise prices automatically?

[Jax Omen]

Everywhere I see people making comments about Newegg's "Automatic Price Gouger" raising prices on items that get lots of clicks. Is there any real-world basis for this or is it just a general feeling of paranoia and distrust?

 

[JackMDS]

If they do it is despicable. :thumbsdown:

However I never buy automatically from one site, I always check prices.

So as long as their price is lower, I would buy there.:thumbsup:

 

[Jax Omen]

Perhaps I should post this on a different forum to get some answers?

 

[Urtho]

Unless someone who works for Newegg is a member of these forums here (probably true) and is willing to break silence concerning company policy/secrets (highly unlikely if they value their job) you're not going to get much else here beyond general feelings and speculation. Personally, I doubt they do price raising based simply on clicks to a webpage. Now ask about if they changes based on sales numbers instead and you might get a different answer.

 

[tcsenter]

I know they have raised the price of an item while it was in my shopping cart. Its happened several times. But it was always an item marked with some discount or sale price.

Add it to my cart, check the tally, and continue shopping. Go back to my cart after several minutes or whatever, and the discount or sale price is gone. The item's page has also been changed to reflect the higher price. i.e. for everyone, not just the one in my cart.

I think they should not change the price after its in your cart. If you haven't checked-out after two hours, fine, but remove the item automatically, don't change the price when its in your cart.

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: Urtho
I doubt they do price raising based simply on clicks to a webpage. Now ask about if they changes based on sales numbers instead and you might get a different answer.

That's the suspicion, that hot ticket items in terms of sales have the price raised automatically. Why people suspect this is whenever there's a super hot ticket item, the price goes up throughout the day until it is sold out. Sometimes the easiest explanation may be the truth.

 

[Winterpool]

It does seem rather unreliable methodology to change prices simply based on click-views. If lots of people look but elect not to buy, obviously raising the price is the last thing you want to do.

I don't quite understand why people find the practice of changing prices rapidly online so offensive. It's one of the things that modern technology (and especially online retailing) allows the seller to do. Supply and demand are the primary determinants of market price after all: modern tech just allows the price to move much more quickly. It's inconvenient for the consumer of course, especially when he's trying to plan budgets. Anyhow, fixing prices is what people who don't understand capitalism always seem to demand. (By the way, when the government starts trying to freeze petrol prices, that's when we'll get shortages and '70s-style queues again...)

 

[JackMDS]

An Associate in that I trust in a Famous Mega Store told me that in the morning they log to the competition's site (another Famous Mega Store few blocks away) to check prices, and sometimes declare few items on sale for a day or few just to beat the completion, and appear as the store with the better deals.

 

[Jessica69]

Originally posted by: Winterpool


I don't quite understand why people find the practice of changing prices rapidly online so offensive. It's one of the things that modern technology (and especially online retailing) allows the seller to do. Supply and demand are the primary determinants of market price after all: modern tech just allows the price to move much more quickly. It's inconvenient for the consumer of course, especially when he's trying to plan budgets. Anyhow, fixing prices is what people who don't understand capitalism always seem to demand. (By the way, when the government starts trying to freeze petrol prices, that's when we'll get shortages and '70s-style queues again...)

So, I guess you wouldn't mind if you were shopping in, say a grocery store, and while you were putting items in your cart, the prices went up from what you saw when you put the item in your cart to the time you went to check out.....like milk rising from $4.12/gal to $4.20/gal, or a dozen eggs going from $1.02/doz to $1.09/doz......

You'd complain but you get the explanation that the store's computerized dynamically controlled inventory and pricing software determined that sales of those items showed they were popular and hence needed a price increase dynamically to respond to suply and demand. The demand was there, so the price jumped in the last 5 minutes.

I don't think that you'd stand for that scenario yet you seem to think NE's pricing model is OK.....strange.

I have experienced Newegg's price increases first hand......last time was when NE had their first shipment of E8400 cpus in stock.

Put one in my cart.....was priced just around $200......and unfortunately, I messed around looking at some video cards and RAM.

Went to check out and mysteriously the cpu was up in price by $15......and by the next day, the cpu was well over $250......and did drop in price slowly over the next few weeks.

I do understand a retailer wants to set his price of an item to its highest point and still make sales.....to otherwise would be rather foolish on the retailer's part. But to raise prices minute by minute on that item just because sales of that particular item are strong.....sticks in my craw as simple gouging the consumer.

The original selling price set by the retailer must have been alright for the retailer......he chose that selling price after considering his cost for the item, and all of his other costs associated with operation of his "store", etc., which is why the price was set initially at that certain point.....he was getting the profit he deemed was what he wanted to get for the item. But to raise the selling price after noticing popularity, even when the consumer has put the item in his cart, or hand, or wherever the consumer puts the item he intends to purchase just prior to paying for it......that's gouging.

Yet we seem to overlook some places that do just that....Why? I don't know....maybe we have a soft spot in our hearts for a beloved store so much that any blatant gouging by that store is overlooked because they are "the best store around" and cannot do anything wrong...heaven forbid we criticize that store for anything.....

 

[chinaman1472]

Wouldn't it suck if gas prices just magically "went up" while you were waiting to get gas or even worse filling up your tank.

 

[Roguestar]

Originally posted by: Zap

Originally posted by: Urtho
I doubt they do price raising based simply on clicks to a webpage. Now ask about if they changes based on sales numbers instead and you might get a different answer.

That's the suspicion, that hot ticket items in terms of sales have the price raised automatically. Why people suspect this is whenever there's a super hot ticket item, the price goes up throughout the day until it is sold out. Sometimes the easiest explanation may be the truth.

Occam's razor. To be honest, it seems like pretty sneaky (though good from their perspective) business practice.

 

[Blain]

Originally posted by: JackMDS
If they do it is despicable. :thumbsdown:

However I never buy automatically from one site, I always check prices.

So as long as their price is lower, I would buy there.:thumbsup:

Originally posted by: Jax Omen
Perhaps I should post this on a different forum to get some answers?

OUCH... You're due a vacation for that kind of snubbage! :laugh:

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: Winterpool
It's inconvenient for the consumer of course, especially when he's trying to be an early adoptor.

FIXED!

Sorry, couldn't resist.

Note that many other retailers (or distributors) raise prices as well... just not with the frequency/suddeness of Newegg.

 

[Old Hippie]

If I was running a business, I'd try it.

 

[Jax Omen]

Wasn't snubbing JackMDS. He didn't give any info as to whether they do or don't price-gouge, merely stated that if they do, it's despicable.

 

[Roguestar]

Originally posted by: Old Hippie
If I was running a business, I'd try it.

newegg employee found

 

[Zepper]

I can understand if they have a special on an item to reduce inventory and when it gets to the preset number left, the price goes back up. Makes good business sense to me, but as others have said, once an item is added to your cart, you should have a reasonable amount of time to checkout before getting zinged with the new price.

.bh.

 

[LOUISSSSS]

i also heard somewhere they they raise prices (and lower them back to market price) based on page hits, or number of people adding it to cart