Are Amazon’s Price-Matching Policies Cheating Customers?

As anyone following this website knows, I had a great deal of trouble getting the permafree relaunch of my ebook Chronicles of the Undead price matched by Amazon. This was solely due to the fact I distributed the book though Draft2Digital and not KDP (and that in itself raises serious questions of shady favouritism and discrimination, but that’s another post).  I did in the end get the price match on the US site and in Canada. Or so I thought. Amazon US has it listed once again at 99 cents. I don’t know what happened or why it happened as they won’t tell me. They certainly didn’t inform me. I found out about it through being notified the book did not qualify for a free ebook newsletter promotion. I lost out on that promotion because of Amazon’s whims.

That in itself made me angry, but what really infuriates me is that they have made me a liar. Because who knows how long I was promoting this book as free on the American site, when it was not. And you may say, well why didn’t I notice the price change. Here’s why: I’m Canadian. The book is still free on Amazon Canada. So when I go to the American site to view my book, I’m seeing the Canadian price. I’m still seeing it for free. This ridiculous viewing they have only compounded the problem. So I shake my head at Amazon’s policies, the cavalier way they have of ignoring both authors and fleecing their customers, and I sincerely apologize to any American reader who paid money to buy a free book. If you did, I recommend you return Chronicles of the Undead to Amazon and complain about being cheated out of a free book. Then head to Instafreebie and download the freebie that should be available on Amazon.

 

Chronicles of the Undead