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90% Off Groceries at Amazon? Ho, Ho, No!

[Note: the next Mouse Print* posting will be January 3.]

MrConsumer recently came across a website that helps people find deeply discounted items on Amazon. What a great idea.

When checking what items in Amazon’s grocery department were supposedly 90% off, Mouse Print* found some startling savings claims.

They claim savings of 93%, yet they are still charging over $1.50 for each regular size pack of gum. How is that possible?

*MOUSE PRINT:

Amazon claims the list price for those 12 packs of gum is a whopping $284.52 — that’s $23.71 for a single package! Was this gum previously chewed by Elvis, thus accounting for its premium price? The full price for one pack of Trident Layers is $1.49 (at Kmart), so 12 packs should be about $17.88 full price, not almost $285. Clearly something is not right here. Is this an isolated incident? Unfortunately no. Item after item listed in the 90% off section had grossly exaggerated list prices that bear no relation to real world regular prices.

Twelve packages of gummy bears marked right on the package “2 for $1” list for $6, not $95 as Amazon claims. A two pound can of Folgers coffee is not $146 anywhere, just over a pound of Pringles doesn’t list for the $159 the site claimed, and less than six pounds of Twizzlers doesn’t have a value of over $271.

How could Amazon put such exaggerated list prices on its site in order to claim savings of over 90%? We asked Amazon’s PR department to comment, but no response was received. Miraculously, however, two weeks after contacting them, the exaggerated regular prices of most of these and other groceries disappeared.

Of course, this doesn’t explain why Amazon’s 90% off page for groceries still shows more than 300 items most of which are not actually 90% off.

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If you find examples of hard goods, such as electronics, cameras, or appliances with a stated list price on Amazon that is higher than the actual suggested list price, please send those examples to Mouse Print* ( edgar [at symbol] mouseprint.org ). Thanks.

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Fry’s (Not So) Free Shipping

One of the biggest attractions online sellers can offer is free shipping. And that’s what Fry’s does for some items.

MrConsumer recently purchased Norton Internet Security (plus Norton Utilities and Norton Ghost) for about $75 from Frys.com because a full price rebate was offered, as well as free shipping (instead of the usual $6.98). In the same order, he added on another software program that was also $75, but it was not labeled as coming with free shipping.

Sure enough, their computerized ordering system charged $6.98 for shipping the order, despite the fact that Norton was supposed to be shipped free. How can the company get away with this?

*MOUSE PRINT: If one clicks the “free shipping” logo, there is this disclaimer:

1. If your order contains “eligible” and “non-eligible” items, shipping will be charged for “non-eligible” item(s).

The policy is understandable if the non-free shipping item is sent separately or adds weight to the box that contains the free shipping item causing the company to pay more for postage. But that was not the case here. As you can see from the picture above, Norton is a rather large product and it came shipped in a carton roughly 12″ by 12″ by 12″. In the same carton, was the other software — a box that weighed a mere three ounces.

The carton with just Norton weighed 21 ounces and with the added software box, it weighed 24 ounces. That additional three ounces did not push the shipping cost into a higher bracket, according to FEDEX’s shipping chart. So, Fry’s charged $6.98 for shipping a carton that otherwise would have shipped free, and which cost them no more to send because of the added three ounce software box.

Customer service was unsympathetic, and only after speaking to a supervisor did the company agree to refund half the shipping cost.

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Don’t Let the Juxtaposition of Deals Fool You – Part 1

Some advertisers make you think you are getting a better deal than you really are by clever (or unfortunate) juxtaposition of the price with a statement of benefits.

Example 1: Clear Internet Service

A flyer in the paper recently promoted “4x faster internet” for as little as $35 a month:

This deal certainly is designed to attract attention by seemingly combining a fast speed with a low price. Immediately, MrConsumer wondered “4x faster than what” because the tiny dagger after the claim was not explained on the front of the flyer.

The back explained the comparison:

So the Internet they are selling for $35 is 4G Internet, which they say is four times faster than 3G. Let’s put aside for the moment what speed they are actually selling, which is not disclosed anywhere in the flyer.

When visiting the Clear website using the link provided in the advertisement, and you click on the $35 logo found there, you are taken to a page only showing a $45 offer! Clicking an inconspicuous tab labeled “Base Home” reveals the real $35 offer.

*MOUSE PRINT::

The download speed is stated as “up to 1.5 Mbps” — which is more in the range of what 3G speeds are, not four times 3G, and certainly not full 4G speed. A 13-city study of carriers’ 3G speeds by PC World published earlier this year showed that AT&T averaged 1.4Mbps, while Sprint, Verizon, and T-Mobile averaged 800-900Kpbs (1000Kbps = 1Mbps).

So how can Clear advertise “4x faster Internet” for $35? The juxtaposition of the $35 price on the flyer above likely has nothing to do with the “4x faster” claim. Their $35 service, which the company says is 4G, really appears to be 4G ramped down to 3G-like speeds. My guess is that the four times faster claim actually refers to their more expensive $45 service, which does in fact appear to be full 4G speed.

But what reasonable consumer would understand there is no connection between the “4x faster” claim and the adjacent $35 price?

To add insult to injury, when visiting the Clear the website to find out exactly what speed they are selling on their 4G network, claimed to be four times faster, you find this for their $45 service:

*MOUSE PRINT:

What? Unlimited download speed? The sky is the limit? Of course not.

*MOUSE PRINT:

Buried in the FAQ: “CLEAR supports average download speeds up to 3-6 Mbps and upload speeds up to 1Mbps.”

Mouse Print* asked the company why they don’t advertise (in the print ad) the actual speed they are selling to avoid confusion, why they juxtapose the four times faster claim right next to the $35 price, and whether now that the potentially misleading nature of the ad was pointed out to them, would they consider modifying it.

A spokesperson for the company from their PR agency said, in part:

ON SPEED: “The speeds are detailed on our website, and the information is readily available. Many consumers may not understand technical terms pertaining to Mbps, so many of our ads in print, radio, and TV tend to put the language in simpler terms.”

ON JUXTAPOSITION: “The ad simply indicates that home plans start at $35, which is accurate. We use the term 4X faster as a general comparison to 3G wireless plans offered by conventional cellular carriers.”

ON CLARIFLYING THE AD: “I’ll look into this, but I do not believe that we have plans to change the ads at this time. “

Additional follow-up questions posed to the company related to the fact that their 4G $35 plan really was offering speeds only in the 3G range went unresponded to.

For a company with the name “Clear”, they certainly have chosen to make their advertising anything but.

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Stay tuned for another example of “Don’t Let the Juxtaposition of Deals Fool You”.