Amazon has recently started classifying certain smaller and cheaper products as "Add-On Items." These are items that are inexpensive and not cost efficient to ship individually so Amazon will now only ship add-on items with other items if the total cost is over $25. If your order is less than $25 they won't ship any items that are marked as add-ons. On one hand I could see how this could save the company money and if they save money they can offer lower prices and better products and services. However this is also frustrating for customers who don't understand and don't like this new policy.
Personally I think this is a good idea in theory but I don't like it how it is right now. I think that they should offer a discount if you ship with other items or even charge a premium for shipping add-on items individually. I was searching for a cable that was about $5 and was marked as an add-on item. I tried to checkout but when I was in my shopping cart I couldn't understand why there was no way for me to check out yet. It seriously took me about 20 minutes of going back and fourth, trying different items, different browsers, I even tried using another computer! Then I finally actually read what it said for add-on items. Since this cable was so cheap I couldn't even order it by itself. I either had to order $20 worth of more crap or buy a more expensive cable! This is pretty frustrating when you spend a while finding the best item at the best price and then finding out you can't even buy it. I wish they would just let me buy it and even charge me a little more for shipping and handling. It's almost like a teaser price saying "this product is cheap - so cheap you can't even buy it!" If they just offered the option to buy it on its own and pay a little more I would have bought it already. But since they don't allow me to I will look for a better deal elsewhere. I might end up buying from Amazon but I doubt it after this. I might think twice about buying from Amazon next time because of this. And I am an Amazon affiliate so I don't like talking negatively about them, but when I see something I will comment how I feel about it no matter what. It just goes to show that any thing that looks too good to be true, usually is. Any time you are shopping, either online or in a store, always look out for deals that are too good and prices that are too low. Most times there is either fine print that you need to know about or the product is inferior. Amazon is a great retailler and most of their products and deals are the best anywhere, but this is one thing that I do not like about Amazon.
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