• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Canada: Amazon Reduces Prime's 20% Video Game Pre-Order Discount to 10%

CazTGG

Member
EDIT #1: It has been brought to my attention that the Prime discount on AmazonBasics products is also no longer being offered in Canada.

EDIT #2: Apparently America also got hit with the Amazon "Discount No More Stick™" as their 20% discount will only apply to pre-orders:



Original Post: In today's latest first world problems news, Amazon Canada is no longer applying a 20% discount to pre-orders for video games. Going forward, the new discount rate will be 10% for video game pre-orders. Collector editions, as before, will not receive any discount.

This isn't the first time Amazon has made an unfavorable change to their Prime offerings, so them changing their terms is not in of itself an issue. The fact of the matter is that there was no notification in regards to the change for anyone who holds a Prime membership while the current promotion listed on their website still states it is 20%, including people who recently purchased or renewed Prime specifically for this discount. Moreover, while Amazon has stated that previous orders will not have their discount dropped, Amazon Canada is notoriously bad at applying its discounts to pre-orders, often requiring one to contact customer service to have a discount applied properly.

If you would like to file a consumer complaint and reside in Canada, you may do so at the following links for the province/territory of your current residence:

British Columbia: https://www.consumerprotectionbc.ca/contact-us/start-a-complaint
Alberta: https://open.alberta.ca/publications/filing-a-consumer-complaint-with-service-alberta
Saskatchewan: http://www.fcaa.gov.sk.ca/Consumer-Protection-Division
Manitoba: http://www.gov.mb.ca/cca/cpo/complaint.html
Ontario: https://www.ontario.ca/page/filing-consumer-complaint
Quebec: http://www.opc.gouv.qc.ca/en/consumer/complaint-against-merchant/how-to-file/
New Brunswick: http://www.fcnb.ca/consumer-affairs.html
Nova Scotia: https://novascotia.ca/sns/access/individuals/consumer-awareness/making-complaints.asp
Newfoundland & Labrador: http://www.servicenl.gov.nl.ca/consumer/consumer_affairs/
Nova Scotia: https://novascotia.ca/sns/access/individuals/consumer-awareness/making-complaints.asp
Prince Edward Island: http://www.gov.pe.ca/jps/index.php3?number=20629&lang=E
Northwest Territories: http://www.maca.gov.nt.ca/consumer-affairs/how-to-resolve-a-business-or-service-complaint/
Nunavut: http://www.gov.nu.ca/community-and-government-services/information/consumer-affairs
Yukon: http://www.community.gov.yk.ca/consumer/cp.html

Again, I am full aware this is the epitome of first world problems but the lack of notification is simply not acceptable for a corporation with as many resources as Amazon does to notify their customers about a notable change in policy.
 

Bronetta

Ask me about the moon landing or the temperature at which jet fuel burns. You may be surprised at what you learn.
giphy.gif
 
What the fuck

It took them forever to add this feature to Canadian Prime and now they're reducing it? They already adjust the MSRP on games according to exchange rate so what's the reasoning behind this?
 

jholmes

Member
Thanks for gathering these links. It's inexcusable how Amazon got people to pay for Prime and then steadily made it worse.

Man if that happened in the US I would stop my Prime membership for good and be exclusive with Best Buy for their GCU.

Yeah, imagine if you didn't have anything like the GCU available in your country and you start to get how much this sucks.
 

Madao

Member
oh shit. the beginning of the end.

but even 10% savings would still be cheaper than the insane prices in my country.

still, i hope they don't do this for the US site.
 

Gitaroo

Member
I filed a complain to the competition bearau, please help spread this and blow it wide open. This need to be on the news.
 

Savitar

Member
Reducing it?! That was about the only benefit prime had in my area, I sure as hell didn't get two day shipping or anything.
 
Oh wow. I use GCU and don't have prime but didn't realize that their 20% off didn't apply to collectors editions. That's pretty bad
 

senj

Member
Prime continues to be less and less worth it in Canada. You can't even reliably count on the 2-day shipping at this point.
 
It sucks, but is there a better alternative? I haven't found one.

Not one. Canada fucking sucks as a consumer: everything is a monopoly and everything has shitty parity on prices.

Best Buy Canada tried but they suck. Need GCU rivaling US deals. In fact, if BB is smart, they'll strike while the iron is hot and kill Amazon's game sales.
 

npanciroli

Neo Member
It's seeing some titles not have release day deliver that really bugs me the most. This is like kicking me while I'm down.
 
Man, the value prospect of Prime in Canada just keeps dropping. This was one of the last reasons why I even bothered. The 2 day shipping isn't even reliable because Amazon loves to use couriers like FedEx that do the ol' 'we don't actually ring the buzzer, we just leave a note on the door and peel out' bullshit.

Speaking of, my membership was set to auto-renew yesterday. Luckily, a 2-day package took almost a week to arrive because aforementioned bullshit, so I complained and they extended my membership for a month. So yeah, nice timing. Canceled. Boy will I miss the quality selection on Prime Video!
 
Got my Prime refunded because of this. I'd rather just pay up the extra $8 to a retailer that isn't consistently screwing me over in one way or another.
 
Thank you for getting the word out about this.

They get people to sign up for a yearly subscription, then more than halve their benefits 8 months in. To those who are still subscribed: Make sure you unsubscribe if you're not okay being treated like this.

We've received no justification and no notification - unacceptable.
 

Bronetta

Ask me about the moon landing or the temperature at which jet fuel burns. You may be surprised at what you learn.
It sucks, but is there a better alternative? I haven't found one.

Next time a store has a sale, buy from them instead of waiting for Amazon to match them.
 

Kuro Madoushi

Unconfirmed Member
Has it gotten that bad that anything we complain about will have people coming in saying it isn't a big deal compared to problems in 3rd world countries? :(

This is absolutely ridiculous and I was actually thinking of getting Prime too. I'm sure there's something in the contract that states they can change it anytime they want though it should at least come with notice.
 
Next time a store has a sale, buy from them instead of waiting for Amazon to match them.

I've never seen sales on new titles on par with Amazon's.

And as for blu ray movies they are pretty much the only decent retailer I've found to buy them from. You can get almost anything.
 

SlickVic

Member
Not sure they'll do this in the US, but Prime's game discount has always been a half-assed response to Best Buy's GCU. They limit the discount to pre-orders and 2 weeks after release to try to pressure you to buy the game in the release window or 'lose the discount'. It never seems to stack with any other sales (which makes sense since by the time a game goes on a decent sale you're typically out of the 2 week release window). Now GCU doesn't stack with Black Friday sales, but pretty much any other sale they run stacks with the 20% GCU discount.

I still have Prime for the other perks, but at $30 for 2 years, GCU has been essential for me for buying physical games.
 
lol, wasn't the whole point of that to match Best Buy? What's to stop them from just going back? Hell, we still have the 20% in the US and I still go to BB.
 
Now we can look forward to next E3 when they advertise a double prime discount as mega savings............

I feel like this should be applied only to new sign ups but I guess if they are going to prorate refunds then whats it matter to them. In any case this is a major piss off
 

Lexxism

Member
Yup. This is bullshit. Amazon is treating us like shit. I'll unsubscribe later. There's no way I'll let them get away with this.
 
Top Bottom