[Obsolete; new HN title is fine]
Monthly Amazon Prime membership fees are about to increase
31–40 of 170 posts
Re: Monthly Amazon Prime membership fees are about to increase
#32It'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.
I originally got Prime for video when Netflix annoyed me by splitting out DVD and streaming. (Of course, I ended up back with Netflix too :-))
I always figured I could just pool purchases and get free shipping. I didn't anticipate my change in behavior. So many things that I could spend 30 minutes to pick up at a local store, I can now order from Amazon and get them before I'd make it to the store anyway.
I also travel a lot. So having confidence that I'll get a package before I take off on a trip is worth a lot.
It's also the case that a lot of the fillers I used to use to get free shipping like books, CDs, and DVDs, I don't order much any longer because of online content.
Re: Monthly Amazon Prime membership fees are about to increase
#33I've stopped shopping at amazon, but the prime subscription I expected to expire annoyingly auto-renewed itself. There seems to be an (intentional?) lack of prime account management features. The only user facing options seem to be "cancel now" or "email me right before auto-renewal". I don't see a way to simply turn off automatic renewal.
On the other hand I think prime was a useful influence on other e-commence sites. Shipping times have become dramatically shorter in recent years.
So, thank you Amazon for forcing your competition to ship faster while allowing your own site to become overrun with fake reviews and crappy knock-off products!
Re: Monthly Amazon Prime membership fees are about to increase
#34Recently Amazon upped its minimum order for Prime Now (2 hr delivery) -- used to be 20 euros, now it's 40. I cancelled my subscription because of that, but the customer service was courteous and refunded the unused months fairly quickly.
Re: Monthly Amazon Prime membership fees are about to increase
#35Until I read this article I didn't even realize I could get Prime monthly. Back in the day when it started it was a one time fee, $70? I paid it, and Amazon has been charging me since then. Like all subscription services, you are supposed to deiced once and forget about it. I worry about the concentration of power in the hands of Amazon. But I love my Kindle and I love Prime.
Re: Monthly Amazon Prime membership fees are about to increase
#36From 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 ac…
I'm going to guess you're in the minority.
Re: Monthly Amazon Prime membership fees are about to increase
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 bas…
I'm not sure if they're artificially adding delays or just prioritizing Prime orders over yours, that has always been my assumption.
UPS does weird things with their ground orders. I went to Purdue (West Lafayette, IN). Many packages would ship from Louisville, and for UPS those would go through Indianapolis (about 90 minute drive from West Lafayette). If I shipped UPS ground, my packages would consistently sit in Indianapolis for 2-3 days. While it's possible that their truck was just always full, it was so consistent it felt to me like they were intentionally delaying it.
Re: Monthly Amazon Prime membership fees are about to increase
#38Walmart, Jet.com and Target offer free 2 day shipping if you order $35, $35, or $25 respectively. It so happens in my area, all three use Fedex ground, which tends to be more reliable than UPS. Additionally, most items that cost less than $6-8 each tend to be significantly cheaper at Walmart or Target, or you can by a single item rather than a 3-pack, which is a common Amazon strategy. If you buy a decent number of h…
The biggest thing is probably convenience. Even Amazon regularly reminds me of this, by saying I saved > 50 trips to the store for 1-off items that I've ordered on Prime. From shipping speed to not having to go blunder around a store looking for an item, Prime makes sense.
It makes even more sense if you comparison shop. With Amazon, you can pick the _exact right item_, whereas a big box store like Walmart or Target will only stock a few options at best, 0 at worst. I was looking for a specific light bulb at Home Depot the other day. Didn't find it. Went to Lowe's. Didn't find it. Ordered the exact item from Amazon while walking out of Lowe's. I only went to stores for the time convenience (I obviously needed it urgently), but they failed for lack of stock. That's what Amazon offers to me -- instant availability of a huge range of items, and ridiculously fast shipping on the smallest of those items.
Re: Monthly Amazon Prime membership fees are about to increase
#39From 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 ac…
Prime has only gotten better in my area, but that's a little biased, since I'm in Seattle. They can definitely jack up rates here with no issue.
Re: Monthly Amazon Prime membership fees are about to increase
#40It’s still the best deal in all of retail ecommerce.