Something isn’t right, here. $3.99 for shipping? He should be eligible for the free, Super Saver Shipping since the price is over $25.
A man in the U.S. has ‘bought’ an item on Amazon with a price tag of nearly three billion dollars – just to see what would happen.
Brian Klug spotted the copy of the Discovery Channel’s ‘Cells’ CD-ROM for sale at $2,904,980,000 (£1,800,979,540). Out of sheer curiosity, convinced the price tag was a mistake, he put in his credit card details to buy it and stepped back to see what would happen next.
First off, Mr Klug from San Mateo, California, was charged $3.99 for posting and handling. [...] Mr Klug had Amazon’s Visa three per cent rewards card, thus entitling him to roughly $87million in rewards.
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In possible anticipation of such instances the Amazon website does state: ‘Despite our best efforts, a small number of the items in our catalogue may be mispriced.
He inadvertently checked “Defense Department” for special pricing.
Alas – he wouldn’t have gotten his credit card ‘rewards’ until after he’d paid the bill …
Free shipping is not available through 3rd party sellers.
Last, I’m surprised the sale was tentatively accepted by his CC company. It doesn’t give me any confidence that they are looking out for fraud.
Third party sellers have the option to offer free shipping but are not required to honor Amazon’s $25 minimum. Perhaps the seller is operating on a tiny profit margin and missing the 3.99 would cause things to dip into the red. CD-ROM’s tend to seem over-priced, but a lot of work goes into creating them.