May 23, 2007 | Quick Tips
This is for everyone who got in on the crazy toy deals at Amazon yesterday. I’m reading on several discussion boards that inventory was off and some items are being canceled from orders. These things happen, and that’s fine.
What you need to know is that if they remove something that causes your order total to fall below $25, shipping will be added back to your order without your notification. Check your order status in the “Account” section of the site, and if this happens to you, do contact Amazon to have the shipping removed. You can reach them through email or by calling them at 800-201-7575.
There’s nothing you can do if they claim to be out of stock of an item or if they say the price was incorrect. But you don’t have to pay shipping retroactively because of an adjustment they made after you ordered. They’re counting on you not noticing or not caring; make sure you’re not overcharged.
May 23rd, 2007 at 5:51 pm
Hunh. Here I was thinking everything was fine and dandy because I have not received any notification of anything, but I check my account and the order has mysteriously disappeared with not a word of explanation. Oh, well, it was too good to be true. Thanks for the heads up!
May 23rd, 2007 at 6:38 pm
My two orders have both disappeared completely–even the full price items have gone. It would have been nice to at least be notified. Bummer.
May 23rd, 2007 at 7:37 pm
Wow, they did it to me too. Only 2 items were removed, but it was just enough to bring me under $25 and now my total is even higher than before because of shipping. I sent an email - hopefully that will do the trick! Thanks for letting us know about this, because Amazon sure didn’t!
May 23rd, 2007 at 7:41 pm
Yup, did it to me too, only got two of the items that I ordered, and $7 shipping. Sent an email, we shall see…Thanks for letting us know!
May 23rd, 2007 at 7:52 pm
I just called and they didn’t agree to remove the shipping charges - though the rep said they probably would - but will review it and let me know in a couple days. This is pretty finky, if you ask me.
May 23rd, 2007 at 9:14 pm
Ditto for me — they charged me $13.89 shipping after canceling two items in my order. Mir, thank you so much for letting us know about this. I don’t know why I expect more from Amazon but I truly do.
May 23rd, 2007 at 10:50 pm
Did anyone get the dollhouse?!? I really wanted that one! I did get the castle, and I signed up for the Amazon Prime free trial so I still got the free shipping - and will cancel the Prime thing ASAP!
May 24th, 2007 at 2:48 am
I just called and Amazon said they are going to send an email out in a day or so with an adjusted shipping charge. They said there had been a computer problem? I had four of my items dropped, and new big shipping charges. Thanks for the heads up!
May 24th, 2007 at 7:46 am
I got the email this morning that said my items were cancelled due to incorrectly displayed pricing. I noticed that they charged me shipping on my other item so I cancelled it promptly — didn’t want to risk it getting shipped. Thanks for the heads up - if I wouldn’t have noticed it, I would have really appreciated this!
May 24th, 2007 at 8:28 am
Thank you for the heads up. They emailed me to say they’d canceled one of my items because of a “pricing error” (I understand a few of these, but it seems like there were a LOT in this particular sale). I checked my order, and indeed, this small change made me dip just below $25 so the shipping had been added back in. I emailed them to ask them (okay, TELL them) to remove that shipping charge.
One reason I’m glad you mentioned this is that Amazon.com USED to include a note with cancelation notices, saying that if the total dropped below $25, shipping might be added back in automatically by the computer, but that it should NOT be and so you should contact them to let them know so they could fix it. This time, that warning/reassurance was not included. I wouldn’t have thought I’d need to check, since they’d made it clear before that they intended not to charge the shipping, and so I wouldn’t have checked. Thanks.
May 24th, 2007 at 10:50 am
If anyone actually gets them to remove the shipping charges, please post back here? I’m wondering if I’ll have to just cancel my order and redo it with something small added on to make the total $25 again…. but it’d sure be nice not to since none of this was our fault!
May 24th, 2007 at 11:07 am
Ugh. I feel just sick about this. They left a few items - the Plan Toys stacking ring and train puzzle - but I just cancelled the whole order.
Waah. I was really looking forward to the dollhouse and castle.
May 25th, 2007 at 9:41 am
I’m unsure of WHAT I will receive in my order from Amazon. After this post, I checked on my account and all looked fine (part of my order were 2 Plan Toys flower sorters). Those shipped on May 23, but then last night (May 24) I got an email that they cancelled that part of my order. I don’t get it. Luckily the rest of my stuff was over the $25 threshold so I’m okay on shipping. Hmmm.
May 26th, 2007 at 9:35 am
Stinky Amazon! I send them e-mails yesterday (after calling on Wednesday) to ask that they remove the shipping charges and today I got a message canceling the last two items in my order. Ah, well. Easy come, easy go!
May 26th, 2007 at 11:16 am
I still haven’t even hear back from Amazon. I emailed them on the 23rd requesting they remove the shipping charges. I have since gotten the notification that the items they removed were canceled from my order, but the rest of my order is sitting there still being processed I guess. I sure would like to know about the shipping charges - there are still 2 of the discounted items on my order and I’d really like to get them. I’m not willing to pay an extra $15 for the abacus though so I’m really hoping they just remove the shipping. I’m losing hope though….. should I just cancel it and call it a loss?
May 26th, 2007 at 3:52 pm
I haven’t heard back from Amazon yet, either, though I suspect they’re SWAMPED with emails about this and now it’s the long weekend. I’m letting my order stand, since all the items were really good deals (like, $3 down from $15) and I DO want them. As I see it, I am NOT going to be paying the shipping, because it is not right to have to pay it. They can even charge it to me, but I will write to them relentlessly until they remove it. And I think they WILL remove it: their old policy was to in fact mention in a cancelation email that the shipping should not apply, and that if it did you should contact them. My guess is that they still feel this way but are dealing with massive computer glitches right now. I have faith!
May 26th, 2007 at 11:53 pm
All of the items I ordered (from the toy sale) ended up getting cancelled. So I guess Amazon decided this would be a quick fix for the problem of shipping. Too bad they wasted so much of my time.
May 29th, 2007 at 9:12 am
Okay, I have no clue how this happened, but I was the one that slipped through the system. No dollhouse or castle, but everything else under the virus infected Amazon sun. I managed to get almost 2 dozen items. 75-83% off every toy that I could throw into my cart. Fisher Price, Leap Frog, Tonka, you name it…They tried to cancel them with emails, but in the end they have all been shipped!! Christmas for the kids? Finished. Thank you LAC, you made this all possible. Your little munchkin will be greatly rewarded this holiday season. Oh yeah, did I mention no shipping on anything?? VICTORY.
May 30th, 2007 at 12:50 pm
Just stopping by to say that Amazon.com DID cancel the shipping charges that got added to my order after their item-removal caused it to dip below $25. So my order is below $25, and I’m not happy to have lost the “mispriced” item, but at least they’re shipping it free, as they should.
May 30th, 2007 at 3:01 pm
Just stopping by to say that I got my 2 Plan Toys Flower Garden baby toys for $1.93 each! I got the box today. It was shipped on May 23 and then I got an email on May 24 saying it was cancelled. Guess I slipped through too!