Edited to add very important detail: This is about THE VERY FIRST S&S ORDER. It is understood that subsequent S&S order prices may change but most SD veterans believe their first order is guaranteed at the price you signed up for S&S with. This is not the case as per Amazon.
tl:dr version:
You see a widget for $9 on Amazon Nov 24th.
Place S&S order for $9 on Amazon Nov 24th.
Amazon cancels $9 S&S item BEFORE YOU EVER GET A SINGLE WIDGET on Dec 11th.
Amazon re-enters the widget for you a week or two later for $18.
You receive your VERY FIRST WIDGET for $18.
You NEVER GOT your widget for $9. SHADY.
Comments below: Future S&S shipments are never guaranteed!
Replies below: Yeah we KNOW, this is about the VERY FIRST ORDER which is supposed to be guaranteed!!
Just a PSA. Check your cancelled orders. This is fishy and usually only about a few bucks but wth are they thinking...
I learned something pretty irritating today and thought I'd share with the SD commnity.
Why you should care: Your VERY FIRST S&S 'deal' may be deleted without notice and reinstated at a higher price without notice.
Edited to add: This is the VERY FIRST shipment that you expect to get at the low price you INITIALLY added the S&S item.
Why SD should care: Original orders made via SD click-thru are cancelled, and recreated via Amazon backend systems without referrer information.
Mod Note: Just to clarify - this is not a Slickdeals link-related issue. It can even possibly affect S&S orders placed simply visiting Amazon.com directly. We merely host/provide details about S&S deals on SD, but don't have any direct bearing over how Amazon processes customer orders. ~RevOne
OP Note: Thanks - SD has nothing to do with this, it's strictly an Amazon issue. It hurts the SD community/users and it hurts SD the site as legitimately earned commissions are getting wiped out by Amazon.
On 11/24 I ordered this S&S slickdeal on cat treats for $7.57+T:
https://slickdeals.net/f/12346951
Email confirmation:
Total Before Tax: $7.57
Estimated Tax: $0.66
Gift Card: -$0.00
Order Total: $8.23
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On 12/2 I ordered this S&S slickdeal on cat food for $10.97+T:
https://slickdeals.net/f/12390508
Email confirmation:
Total Before Tax: $10.97
Estimated Tax: $0.96
Gift Card: -$0.00
Order Total: $11.93
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These were the only 2 items that were set to be delivered via S&S on 12/18/18.
Hi Arcanlaw,
Thank you for setting up a new auto-delivery with Subscribe & Save.
SHIP TO 1234 MY ADDRESS
SUBSCRIPTION Purina One Tender Selects Blend With Rea...
AUTO-DELIVERED Every 6 months
FIRST AUTO-DELIVERY BY Tuesday, December 18
SUBSCRIPTION Temptations Cat Treats, Savory Salmon Fl...
AUTO-DELIVERED Every 6 months
FIRST AUTO-DELIVERY BY Tuesday, December 18
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Never thought anything of this order - obviously a low-priority "whenever I get them is fine" kind of thing, just ordered due to SD effect (I do have a cat mind you).
Edited to add: I never got the 12/18 shipment. Never noticed because it's Christmas season and I have a dozen other boxes arriving daily and didn't really remember about random cat food and cat treats, and frankly didn't care, figured they would show up eventually.
I got an email today about my January S&S with 5 items on the way and thought, "weird, I remember adding a couple more S&S items but 5 seems like a lot" so I check my Amazon account, order history, and see two items added to my order history on
12/25/18. I'm like, wth - Christmas day I was running between family homes opening gifts and drinking egg-nog, what's with these two orders? They were:
Purina One Tender Selects Blend With Rea $19.94+T - S&S Discount
Temptations Cat Treats, Savory Salmon Fl $14.98+T - S&S Discount
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Those two items were re-ordered at twice the price, without ever sending me a single email!! I searched my gmail for Purina and only see the original S&S order confirmation and same with Temptations.
I tried Amazon Chat to figure out what happened:
Me: Something is wrong with order 113-xxxxxx-xxxxxxxxxx - I never cancelled but it shows as cancelled, then someone added the item at twice the price on 12/25. This is fraudulent activity.
You are now connected to Senthil from Amazon.com
Senthil: Hello, my name is Senthil. I'm here to help you today.
Hi John
Me: Hi
Senthil: I understand your concern, I'll surely help you.
Me: I was reviewing my S&S items and I see something that is very strange.
On 12/2/2018 I submitted an order for this item "Purina One Tender Selects" ... it is cat food.
I see in my email:
Total Before Tax:
Estimated Tax:
Gift Card:
Order Total:
$10.97
$0.96
-$0.00
$11.93
total after tax $11.93
Today I looked under "Orders" and I see an order placed on 12/25/18 for that item, total of $19.52
This is strange because 12/25 is Christmas day - I was at a family party all day, never spent a minute on Amazon
Senthil: Let me connect you to a member of the team that will best be able to help you with this. It will only take a moment.
A Customer Service Associate will be with you in a moment.
You are now connected to Vishal from Amazon.com
Vishal: Hello, my name is Vishal. Please give me a moment to review the previous correspondence.
Me: Thanks
Vishal: You are welcome.
Please allow me a moment to connect you with right team.
A Customer Service Associate will be with you in a moment.
You are now connected to PAOLA KARINA from Amazon.com
A Customer Service Associate will be with you in a moment.
You are now connected to Raiyan from Amazon.com
Raiyan: Hello, my name is Raiyan. Please give me a moment to review the previous correspondence.
Me: ok...
Raiyan: This issue requires additional troubleshooting which is easier and faster over the phone.
If you'd like to give us a call, visit https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer...(See full link) and follow the prompts. We're available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Me: Can someone call me at 555-867-5309
Raiyan: Just a moment pleas
To contact us by phone, visit https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer...(See full link) and follow the prompts. Choosing the Phone option when asked "How would you like to contact us?"
(Here, I called)
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I then spent 62 minutes getting transferred from one rep to another before finally escalating to someone that told me the following:
Amazon may, at their discretion, cancel a S&S order(s) if the price is lower than Amazon would like. They may do this at any time and without notification to the customer.
Amazon may then re-enter that S&S item(s) to a customer's account at the then-current price. They may do this at any time and without notification to the customer.
Please check your order history, especially S&S orders, and verify the price you are being charged is the price you agreed to pay. The price in your order history should be the same as the price you see in your initial email confirmation from Amazon.
Also keep an eye on your cancelled orders - even orders that are automatically cancelled without notifying you should show up there, so if you see something you didn't personally cancel, start investigating:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/your-ac...=cancelled
Edit: Adding this note from JVGeneration which shows that the cancellation tab may not help you either. Stay vigilant and keep your email confirmations!
Amazon cancelled a S&S order and removed it from my cancelled orders page. They tried to ship it with my S&S at full price. The only proof I had for the lower price was an email confirmation - they had removed all traces of the original order from my account.
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Final edit: received apology via email (attached) of the escalated CS rep that I spoke to.
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Then 2nd month subscription kicked in and automatically placed a new order based on the new price.
"Your VERY FIRST S&S 'deal' may be deleted without notice and reinstated at a higher price without notice"
I need to review all of my orders for what has been described as my experience has been slightly different. Most of the Amazon orders are shipped by Amazon Logistics in my area, so the game they have been playing here is that they will mark items/shipments as "Package damaged and will not be delivered" for some Subscribe & Save items including and typically the FIRST S&S shipment (almost always any item the order price is greatly discounted from the current price). This has happened 11 times to me in the past several months, all starting in September. In many cases, NO notification is provided, items simply don't show up and then the "Package damaged and will not be delivered" / "It can't be delivered" / "Undeliverable : Damaged" / "Lost in transit" reason is given in the order history. In each case I then need to contact Amazon Customer Service to get a response and they don't handle it the same way each time. It seems that in the case of the largest discounts, they automatically just refund the original order and close the case, sometimes they state that the order can be placed again and then I need to request the difference in price and in very rare cases they will setup a replacement order themselves. It is getting VERY frustrating. S&S is becoming a huge pain in the butt, especially on deeply discounted deals and items placed early in the month and then forgotten.
Recent examples of "undeliverable" or "damaged" or "lost in transit" for FIRST Subscribe & Save orders from recent Slickdeals:
Cameron's Coffee Roasted Ground Coffee Bag, Fireside Blend, 10 Ounce
"Your VERY FIRST S&S 'deal' may be deleted without notice and reinstated at a higher price without notice"
... This has happened 11 times to me in the past several months, all starting in September. In many cases, NO notification is provided, items simply don't show up and then the "Package damaged and will not be delivered" / "It can't be delivered" / "Undeliverable : Damaged" / "Lost in transit" reason is given in the order history. In each case I then need to contact Amazon Customer Service to get a response and they don't handle it the same way each time...
+1 rep!
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Isn't that the whole point of this post
People would need to gather their initial order confirmation emails showing what price they originally submitted the orders at; then match that against what Amazon is actually charging them on their bank/credit card statements and Amazon invoices for those transactions. No one in this thread has done anything like that yet and/or shared records to prove there are definite shenanigans going on, so that would need to be the first step I'd think.
Otherwise, I don't see what evidence there would be to present that would benefit anyone saying they've been affected adversely by this. My thoughts anyway
edit - For example, a person earlier in the thread mistakenly thought/posted that Amazon changed and increased the prices of their S&S orders; but it turned out the person wasn't looking in the right place on their account. Once they checked the right place, they found they'd made an honest error, Amazon wasn't charging them more after all and the orders were fine. So you'd need a group of people with solid enough evidence to back up the class action lawsuit.
Edit:
On the Invoice page, there is this link: "Print this page for your records."
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Amazon needs to publicly respond to this thread in a reassuring way (or at least issue a press release) if they don't want it to go viral that S&S is a scam (not saying it is, just that one could reasonably draw that inference from the content of several posts here, and if I were Amazon I would nip this in the bud fast by clarifying that S&S prices for the first shipment are in fact locked in).
For the record I'm not an Amazon hater. I'm a Prime member who spends thousands of dollars a year there and a relatively early shareholder who wants Amazon to succeed. But it doesn't need this kind of press.