A reason not to do free now and then

[LilyBLily]

Today I got a "sale" of one of my books that was free in Spain. Problem is, that book isn't free anywhere now and hasn't been for months. It's also listed on Amazon in Italy and Mexico as free. I've already checked my other titles, which are okay, and emailed Author Central asking Amazon to fix this. My pricing on my Bookshelf is correct and doesn't show free anywhere.
(Recently, Amazon suddenly had wrong prices for many international stores--but those were listed incorrectly in the Bookshelf and I checked them all and fixed them all.)

This is the only book I have ever set to free even for a brief period of time. My belief is that Amazon made this error because somewhere in its computers that title's history as free still exists--and the computer twitched in a weird way, so suddenly that old price appeared on random Amazon stores.

I guess the safe stance is to never do free, or conversely, do permafree, and no waffling back and forth over a couple of years.

It's not a title that sells well, so I'm not out any serious money. I did ask Amazon to pay me my royalty for the "free" book that someone bought but I'm not holding my breath over that.
 

[Simon Haynes]

It's likely Amazon.es price-matched with another retailer who had the book free in that zone, and never updated the price later.

I don't usually notify amazon about every single store I want to price match/un-price match, because I can't be bothered specifying all the URLs. If I don't bother, I assume some will stick at free but I remind myself that the occasional freebie in those countries almost certainly wouldn't have been a sale anyway. Most likely it was due to someone browsing the free lists.

[notthatamanda]

Yet when you want free they won't move it there with out a hassle either...

Currently waiting on my book to come back up to full price from 99 cents. I got an email 12 plus hours ago that the change would go through in 24 hours.  So I don't know if it hasn't happened yet, or is price matching to somewhere.

ETA - four stores where the price didn't change, and in Germany it didn't have a price at all. (????) I emailed them and asked them to fix everything.

[notthatamanda]

Not trying to take over your thread, hope this is okay.

I got an email from Amazon saying that the price changes went through and it could take 24 hours to see them.  I know they are price matching because instead of saying 99 cents it says full price 99 cents.  So I am waiting 24 hours.    I should go check and see if it is available on Germany at all now.

[Joe Vasicek]

What Simon said.

I get a couple of erroneous freeloads every month from the more obscure Amazon stores, but since I hardly ever sell on them, I doubt it cannibalizes sales.

If only Amazon would give us full control over our own pricing, instead of this price-matching mess that technically violates their own TOS. All the other platforms give us that level of control. Come on, Amazon, catch up with the times!

[notthatamanda]

Where's the like button?

[LilyBLily]

Amazon said they'd fix it, but here's their pusillanimous denial that they did anything wrong:

"Please note that we retain discretion over determining our retail prices and at the time of this sale, our website was functioning correctly and as much as it was unintentional or overlooked, this is not something we can reimburse you for or credit you in full for the royalty."

"Functioning correctly"--ha! Amazon doesn't give authors much leeway when something is "unintentional or overlooked."

[angela]

Are you sure it wasn't a free Matchook ebook that went with a paperback sale?

I get those sometimes and it's a head scratcher. :-)

[notthatamanda]

I got them to call me (new feature through KDP help now?) and they looked it up and said my price was 99 cents at B&N.  I double checked (it wasn't) and they double checked and my book was back up to full price in an hour.  I realize Lily and Angela are talking about free, but my point is that they can tell you exactly why they price matched and update it if it isn't correct.  So you might want to try the phone route.  All my prices are up to full now, except India, I'll deal with that tomorrow.

[LilyBLily]

Are you sure it wasn't a free Matchook ebook that went with a paperback sale?

I get those sometimes and it's a head scratcher. :-)

No, I definitely had gone wide with that novel and set it free last summer, but then I canceled wide and free and put it in KU again. At the time, I did my due diligence, but apparently Amazon can't be bothered to do its share internationally and likes to claim it is always right.

I really hate fronting like this. I don't like to deal with people who would rather pretend there is no problem than solve it. 
 
(I discovered the price thing late at night before I was about to be away from my office for an entire day, so an email seemed the correct choice.)

[notthatamanda]

No worries.  I just didn't know that they would call you (right away!) so I wasn't sure when they started that.

I kind of prefer email but in my case this was definitely faster.

[LilyBLily]

No worries.  I just didn't know that they would call you (right away!) so I wasn't sure when they started that.

I kind of prefer email but in my case this was definitely faster.

I actually do not want to talk to these guys. I've talked to too many of them over the years and it's as if they can't hear. I try to simplify my emails so even a blithering idiot can understand what I want. Even then...