There have been vast numbers of investigative stories and reports (that you can easily find) that purchasing online can come with some traps. For years, it’s been known that shopping online with an Apple product, such as your Iphone, will show you higher prices for lots of retailers – most notably on travel related websites.

There have also been stories related to Amazon (and/or their re-sellers) playing with their pricing. I’ve read them, but it was only two weeks ago that I found it out for myself. Amazon is no longer (and hasn’t been for some time) the least expensive place for a vast number of categories and products. We’ve talked about, that and it’s been discussed everywhere by consumer advocates. Amazon is now about convenience and those people are typically not price sensitive. OK, their money to blow – not mine.

Three months ago I purchased a Microsoft Surface mouse for $44 on Amazon. It was the best price available for a specific product I needed. Fast forward to two weeks ago, I needed another one. On Amazon I found my old invoice and clicked “buy again.” It did get me to the same/right product but now $65 or almost 50% higher!

Clearly that wasn’t going to happen and I was somewhere between LOL and WTF. I found the product on Best Buy for the correct full retail price of $44 and purchased it. (Now, however, on day 10 of getting Best Buy to stop sending junk email promotions that I did not sign up for as guest and that three tries haven’t stopped. Shame on them for spamming!)

The next day I wanted to test what had happened to trigger this “rip off” pricing. So, I deleted all my history and cache and went back to Amazon without logging in. I searched for the same Microsoft Surface Mobile mouse and…ta da: Back to the “real” price of $44.

Buyer beware! If you love Amazon and chose to have Prime and like the convenience of re-ordering and dislike the few minutes of price shopping – they don’t love you back!!