Amazon is the sprawling shopping mall of the internet, where we can impulsively buy everything from a banana slicer to a life-size inflatable T-Rex costume at 2 am. But for those of us who have pledged our allegiance to the mighty Prime overlord, here we are, potentially discovering that our cherished membership might be more of a “kick me” sign than a badge of honor.
A TikToker by the name of @thatschaalfolks has uncovered something that might make you question the value of your Prime subscription. @thatschaalfolks was trying to be a good sibling and buy something for his sister, who doesn’t have a Prime membership. The item in question was priced at $80.15 for the sister, plus a $3 shipping fee, totaling $83.15. The catch? It would take two weeks for the item to arrive. But when our TikTok hero went to purchase the same item with his Prime account, the base price suddenly jumped to $89.95 with free same-day shipping, bringing the total to $96.92. I’m no math genius, but that’s a price difference of $13.77, which is enough to buy, like, a whole extra item from the dollar store!
The TikTok community was quick to react to this revelation. Some praised @thatschaalfolks for his detective work, while others shared similar experiences of price differences between Prime and non-Prime accounts. One user even mentioned that they and their fiancé have separate Prime accounts, and they have noticed different prices and delivery dates for the same items being shipped to the same house.
Another TikToker, @fl0wilty, is already envisioning the sweet, sweet justice of a class action lawsuit. They have been a loyal Prime member for years, and are now questioning if they have been unknowingly lining Jeff Bezos’ pockets. If it turns out that Amazon has been intentionally inflating prices for Prime members while offering cheaper deals to non-subscribers, well, let’s just say someone might have to postpone their next space trip.
To be fair, we can’t jump to conclusions. Many users in the comments section of the original TikTok video raised valid concerns about the price comparison made by @thatschaalfolks. They pointed out that Amazon allows multiple sellers to offer the same product, and when a user is a Prime member, the platform defaults to the seller who offers Prime shipping. This means that the price displayed for Prime members may not always be the lowest available. To determine whether there is a genuine issue with Amazon’s pricing practices, it would be necessary to verify that the price comparison was made using the same seller in both instances. Without this confirmation, it is difficult to draw definitive conclusions about whether Prime members are being unfairly charged.
That being said, this isn’t the first time a delivery company has faced accusations of unfair pricing. Last year, DoorDash was hit with a $1 billion lawsuit for allegedly charging iPhone users higher fees than their Android counterparts. If there’s even a possibility that Prime members are being charged more for the same products, it’s worth investigating further. At the end of the day, we all deserve fair pricing and transparency.