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Monthly Amazon Prime membership fees are about to increase

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Re: Monthly Amazon Prime membership fees are about to increase

#11

Post by AlexB138 »

From many conversations, and my personal experience, the reliability of prime for two day deliveries has gone way down. It's generally a day or two before the item even ships in my region. Amazon is also failing to handle rampant knock-offs mixed in with legitimate products.

It seems pretty brazen to increase the cost of Prime in light of those issues, even if it is only the monthly subscription. I'm sure it won't actually hurt them since they have such a strange-hold on online retail, and even with these issues they do still offer the best service by far, but it really seems like Amazon needs some competition.

Re: Monthly Amazon Prime membership fees are about to increase

#12

Post by TearsInTheRain »

tvanantwerp wrote: post #9

Especially now that Amazon owns Whole Foods, the vast majority of my disposable income is theirs. It would be very difficult for them to make Prime no longer worthwhile for me.

That doesn't at all scare you? Is there anything that they could be doing with your data or money that would make you think twice about using prime?

Re: Monthly Amazon Prime membership fees are about to increase

#13

Post by icebraining »

antirez wrote: post #3

Never understood why prime is so cheap in Europe. In Italy is 20 euros, and was 10 a few years ago. Sure, prime video here has a very weak offer, but still free shipment for 20/year is a good deal.

It varies quite a bit; it's 50€/year in Belgium/Netherlands/Luxembourg, and 70€/year in Germany/Austria, for exemple.

Re: Monthly Amazon Prime membership fees are about to increase

#14

Post by takeda »

untog wrote: post #2

Amazon has done what many others dream of: I basically forget that I'm paying for Prime every year. And I perceive that it gives me enough value that I don't mind, but I've never actually checked how many orders I place each year vs. the delivery cost for them if I didn't have Prime. By comparison, Google sends me an e-mail every month reminding me how much I'm paying for Google Play Music. I don't mind it, but I won…

I actually quit it, because most of the times I'm perfectly fine waiting extra time, and am ok with holding certain items in my cart until I accumulate $25 to get a free shipping.

They seem to artificially add delays to processing to discourage me, but I don't really order anything that I need immediately.

Not having prime also prevents me from impulse buying.

Also, majority of things that you purchase on regular basis, such as cleaning supplies, vitamins etc are often much cheaper in local store and are less likely to be knock offs.

Re: Monthly Amazon Prime membership fees are about to increase

#16

Post by samsonradu »

antirez wrote: post #3

Never understood why prime is so cheap in Europe. In Italy is 20 euros, and was 10 a few years ago. Sure, prime video here has a very weak offer, but still free shipment for 20/year is a good deal.

Terrible offer for Prime Video in Europe indeed, but also very cheap as standalone, around 3EUR/month. I’m not sure what the long term plan is. I’d assume they will add live streaming content (football, olympics etc)? That’s what really brings people in front of the screen.

Re: Monthly Amazon Prime membership fees are about to increase

#17

Post by wil421 »

untog wrote: post #2

Amazon has done what many others dream of: I basically forget that I'm paying for Prime every year. And I perceive that it gives me enough value that I don't mind, but I've never actually checked how many orders I place each year vs. the delivery cost for them if I didn't have Prime. By comparison, Google sends me an e-mail every month reminding me how much I'm paying for Google Play Music. I don't mind it, but I won…

I just load up my cart and when something is needed right away I buy Prime for the month. Sometimes I forget but usually I cancel right away.

My amazon activity is much less than it used to be. Too much cheap and down right counterfeit products.

The 2 day Prime shipping is great...but it’s been taking forever to just get my stuff shipped out.

Re: Monthly Amazon Prime membership fees are about to increase

#18

Post by dsacco »

TearsInTheRain wrote: post #12
tvanantwerp wrote: post #9

Especially now that Amazon owns Whole Foods, the vast majority of my disposable income is theirs. It would be very difficult for them to make Prime no longer worthwhile for me.

That doesn't at all scare you? Is there anything that they could be doing with your data or money that would make you think twice about using prime?

> Is there anything that they could be doing with your data or money that would make you think twice about using prime?

Realistically speaking, probably not, no.

Re: Monthly Amazon Prime membership fees are about to increase

#19

Post by aurelienb »

antirez wrote: post #3

Never understood why prime is so cheap in Europe. In Italy is 20 euros, and was 10 a few years ago. Sure, prime video here has a very weak offer, but still free shipment for 20/year is a good deal.

Other comment are right but you also forget about salary (which are lower, so purchase power is smaller)

Re: Monthly Amazon Prime membership fees are about to increase

#20

Post by nashashmi »

ibdf wrote: post #7

It's still worth it. The amount of money saved with shipping, and the comfort of last "minute" shopping is priceless. Plus you get a few extra things like storage, movies, and music. This past week I paid $12 for ground shipping at another site and was reminded about how much shipping added to the price of the product. Update: Also forgot about the convenience of using Amazon lockers.

Comfort is the premium you pay for. What is sleazy about this is that before I never needed such a thing and now I do.

But I also don't order as much I did. So I might cancel.

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