The first time I encountered this situation, it cost me 7 or 8$.

You put a featured item, discounted with free shipping, in your basket. Then you click on "return to shopping". Presto: you discover to your dismay that the product has been "deactivated", and would you please select from these higher-profit-margin alternate products, please?

Can somebody tell me what "deactivated" means, aside from "we want a higher profit margin from your purchase"?

It doesn't mean the product is not in stock, or that Newegg won't sell it to you. I ordered 3 different "free shipping sale price" items from Newegg early this morning. Upon being told they were "deactivated", I went ahead and placed the order anyway - and all three orders ( one item per order) sailed through, no problemo. (I ignored this message on my last Newegg purchase as well, and the order arrived on Newegg's normal shipping schedule.)

I would have placed the three "free shipping" items on one purchase, and Newegg could have shipped me one package. As it is, I'm gonna get three packages (all with free shipping) so in this case "the product has been deactivated" means "boy, shipping more boxes is gonna cost us some money!".

Does "deactivated" have some mystical or meaningful implication that I'm overlooking?

Have you thought about contacting Newegg customer service by email? In my experience, they respond pretty quickly, although you might have to wait until Monday for a reply.

I'd contact Newegg if I thought they had made a mistake or something. This seems to be a carefully thought-out plan on their part - a sort of legal bait-and-switch. I don't think I'm entitled to dictate Newegg policy or sales strategy. I do think I'm entitled to call others' attention to it, however.

Id say what this boils down to is a case of subtle price discrimination:

Newegg is treating customers differently, in one case the free shipping it offered to those customers who would only purchase a single item as Newegg elicits an impulse buy. The second case where the free shipping is not offered to those trying to order multiple items.

New egg is walking a fine line, and probably is leaning to the wrong side. I'm not trying to jump on Newegg, I like their site and order from them often, but price discrimination in any form no matter how subtle is a no-no.

newegg shipping calculations have ALWAYS been lame. For example, order two different smaall things (fans maybe). You would think it would cost little to throw that extra fand in the box, right? NO. They will charge you the sum of the shipping of the two amounts.

Their shipping pricing policy for multiple items is worse even than many ebayers!

I have had a wierd instance where I ordered two items, both had free shipping. Once was not available right then, so both items were held. I canceled the order, and ordered them both seperately so that I only had to wait for the one item. This too seems pretty silly to have to do.

Puddnhead, I have bought multilpe items several times, and gotten a reduction in the amount of shipping. I can not predict when that will happen though. Sometimes, if I need a small item, I will add that, see the shipping for that item, and sometimes it is way less than by itself, so I will leave it in the order. Other times, the shipping is full rate, and I have paying $5 to ship a couple dollar item, so I will cancel it.

Yeah I should have clarified, sometimes I do get a discount for multiple items. That seems to happen more nowadays than years ago (for example just bought two items other day & did get about a 50% discount on 2nd shipping rate). But not always, and there seems to be no rhyme or reason to it. Like you, I just add the item & see what happens, then go from there.

I wonder if the combined shipping discrepancies has to do with whether or not the items are shipping from the same warehouse. One of their warehouses is in Ca, and the other (I think) is in Tn.

Hello,

One is in Edison, New Jersey, and the other in Baldwin Park, California.

A couple of days ago, I followed Ralf's advice and inquired just what "deactivated" meant. One day later I got the automated message that they got my inquiry. Yesterday I got the first-level response saying the question had been bounced up one level. It'll be interesting if I really get an answer on this from Newegg.

Just a few minutes ago, I googled "newegg deactivated" and read the first 15 or so replies. My experience, and initial confusion, is evidently very common. I didn't see anybody else who recognized that if you go ahead and place the order, it flies through just fine. This obviously does not mean "out of stock", and it does not mean "we won't sell it to you".