Amazon Prime Day is turning into one big scam, says this TikToker. Here’s how to protect yourself from fake deals.
Every year Amazon does “Prime Day,” a two-day sale supposedly offering deep discounts on a whole bunch of popular items from headphones to home goods.
The event brings in a ton of money for the retail giant. Last year, Prime Day racked in record-breaking $12.7 billion (with a b) in sales, and people bought more than 375 million items, Vox reported. This year Amazon is expected to make at least an extra billion with a $14 billion sales estimate.
But this Black Friday-esque extravaganza comes at a cost to both consumers and workers.
Deal or no deal?
Like with Black Friday deals, shoppers are catching on to companies trying to bamboozle them into thinking items are on sale when they’re really the same price they’ve always been.
Last year, people exposed Target, Best Buy, and Amazon for listing fake deals. Many chose to not even buy anything since the “deals” were virtually nonexistent.
Now people are catching on that Amazon is doing the same thing with Prime Day. What used to be a seemingly reliable shopping event is now littered with trickery.
In a viral video, TikToker Jaymes (@semyajnotsemaj) showed exactly what to do to avoid getting scammed by Amazon “deals”. And this trick works year-round.
“It’s Prime Day on Amazon so you think, ‘Yeah, everything’s on sale, right?’ Wrong,” Jaymes said.
How to check if you Amazon Prime purchase is a deal or a ‘scam’
To illustrate his point, Jaymes pulled up a wireless phone charger that shows the original list price as $26.98, but it has a 41% discount for Prime Day, making it $15.98. That’s supposedly an $11 savings.
Here’s the kicker: Jaymes has a way to verify the item’s price history to determine whether this is really a good deal.
He puts the item’s link into the camelcamelcamel.com site.
It reveals that the item usually costs $16 to $18 (sometimes even $20). Ahead of Prime Day, the price got jacked up to $24.98, only to be dropped back down to $16. So it seems like buyers are getting a huge discount when they’re paying the regular price. This is rather deceptive.
Checking the camelcamelcamel.com site can also help you see when an item is really discounted, like the Apple AirPods Max, which was being sold for about $50 less than usual.
Commenters slam Amazon
People in the comments section came after the retailer.
“I took snapshots the beginning of the month on things I wanted to buy. today most of them were the same price but in a different font. I’m so tired of being scammed,” a top comment read.
“All my saved items went up in price last night,” a person said.
“I wanted this exercise stepper, been eyeing it and it was $49.99 it’s now on sale for $55 originally $64.99,” another shared.
@semyajnotsemaj WATCH OUT FOR SCAMS ON AMAZON! Shop smarter this Prime Day #Amazon #PrimeDay ♬ original sound – Jaymes
How Prime Day affects Amazon employees
And the ones suffering the most from Prime Day are Amazon workers. A Senate investigation found that Amazon workers were more likely to get injured on the job during peak shopping days like Prime Day, the United Business Journal reported.
In 2019, 45% of warehouse workers suffered an injury from minor things like bruises and small cuts to severe issues like concussions, UBJ reported. Even outside of Prime Day, injuries are common, but there’s heightened pressure, severe weather, and longer hours for big sales events.
Though Amazon insists they adhere to federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration guidelines and said the federal investigation “ignores our progress and paints a one-sided, false narrative using only a fraction of the information we’ve provided.”
“Same-day delivery, lifetime of injury,” a speaker said during a New York City protest.
The Daily Dot reached out to Jaymes for comment via Instagram direct message and to Amazon via email.
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