I love Amazon and continue to use it despite a recent piece in the New York Times that revealed how awful it is to work there. But the piece seeded doubts. If Amazon was so awful to some of it’s employees, was it also treating me badly? I wanted to know if Amazon was quietly raising prices on my Subscribe & Save items.

If you’re new to Subscribe & Save, go here for deets then pop down to No. 11.

I reviewed the prices over the past year that I’ve paid for six items, laid out in a chart below.

So is Amazon secretly raising prices? You’ll be shocked by what I found.

Note, some fields are blank because I do not order every item every month. The most recent prices I paid are listed in the Sept 2015 column. Earlier prices are on the right side of the chart.

	Sept 2015	Aug 2015	July 2015	May 2015	April 2015	March 2015	Feb 2015	Jan 2015	Dec 2014	Oct 2014
Item	Price	Price	Price	Price	Price	Price	Price	Price	Price	Price
Aveeno Baby Daily Moisture Lotion, Fragrance Free, 18 oz	$6.49	$6.49			$5.99		$6.39
Bob’s Red Mill Oats Rolled Regular, 32 oz, 4-pack	$13.40		$13.93		$13.27	$13.96	$13.96		$13.96
Mrs. Meyer Clean Day Liquid Dish Soap, Lemon Verbena, 16 oz, 3-pack	$10.77			$10.77		$10.77			$10.77
Seventh Generation Free and Clear unbleached baby diapers, size 4, 135 count	$47.99		$49.98	$49.98
Earth’s Best baby wipes refill, 432 ct, 6-pack	$25.29		$22.99	$19.99			$21.66	$23.99		$21.54
Annie’s Homegrowns Variety Macaroni and Cheese, 12-box count			$21.48		$20.62	$21.48	$21.48		$16.14

So is Amazon Subscribe & Save quietly raising prices?

Of the six items I tracked prices for…

• Three items increased in price
• Two items decreased in price
• One item’s price never changed

So the answer is YES on 50% of the items I ordered. Of course, six items is not exactly a scientifically significant number of items to compare prices on. You would have to compare the prices on dozens, if not hundreds, of items over a year for consumers who purchased through the Subscribe & Save program.

Here’s why I’m pissed at Amazon

The Subscribe & Save program is designed to save you time. It’s incredibly convenient, and Amazon even reminds you a few days before you next shipment of the items you’ve asked to purchase, in case you want to cancel any items.

But never once have they showed me how my prices are changing. Yes, they include the price of each item in my upcoming shipment, but not my previous prices for that item. To log onto Amazon and compare the previous prices I’ve paid on every single item would erase all time savings of the Subscribe & Save program.

Amazon hooks you with the convenience, but then quietly raises prices (at least, on 50% of the items I’m consistently ordering) without making an honest attempt to show how prices have changed. With all the technology behind Amazon, it’s absurd that they’re not able to include a simple pricing statement in their monthly emails to Subscribe & Save customers letting them know how prices have changed since their last order.

Something like, the last time you ordered XXX, it cost $14.97. The current price is $16.92.

How do you feel about Amazon Subscribe & Save?