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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

#91

Post by cryptoz »

AlexB138 wrote: post #11

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 ac…

In both Oakland and Colorado, I have also seen very poor rates of successful 2-day Prime delivery. Often indeed, the item ships about 5 minutes before the "Item will arrive by 8pm today" commitment (and that message will continue to show well after 8pm and the item has not arrived).

I order things like food from Amazon (Soylent), and I have relied on the shipping. But it is awful. I would say about 50% of the time my package arrives late, by a day or even 3-4 days. It's insane to pay $100 a year for a service that absolutely does not meet its promises. Just call it 4 day delivery and we'll be good.

Amazon Prime is a scam. I'm a loyal customer because there are few alternatives, but they do not deliver the service that you pay for.

Re: Monthly Amazon Prime membership fees are about to increase

#92

Post by tombrossman »

underbluewaters wrote: post #59
lutorm wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Hawaii, Prime isn't two day, it's "free shipping within sorta 5-7 business days, for most of the stuff marked Prime". And even that has gotten unreliable. When there's a range of delivery dates specified, it often seems designed to show up on the very last day of that range. A significant fraction of the time they haven't even shipped the thing by the first day of the delivery estimate. There are also an increasin…

I couldn't get them to send me an xbox controller in Hawaii. It's just infuriating. They could at least have the decency to let you filter items you can't get. The mismatch between their listed terms and what you actually get as a Prime customer in Hawaii is borderline fraudulent. I'm considering putting together and sharing a script that could check your order history and delivery dates. They tend to give a free mon…

I also live on an island, and have the same problem getting random items shipped. My workaround is to order from a Marketplace seller listed in the sidebar instead. Normally I avoid them and buy direct from Amazon, but this works surprisingly well.

I've purchased all kinds of 'restricted' things this way, high-power magnets, chemicals, flammable aerosols, commercial-grade fire extinguishers, etc. I think Amazon's rule is mostly based on what can't go by air, since they want all options (ground/sea/air) available. I have no idea what method the third-party sellers actually use but everything shows up in plain brown boxes no problem. Try it some time, and just pay a couple bucks extra for shipping and avoid the hassle.

Re: Monthly Amazon Prime membership fees are about to increase

#93

Post by praneshp »

michaelper22 wrote: post #50
praneshp wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> my house is no longer filled with endless cardboard boxes. You can throw in in the trash, you know :) Cancelling Prime is probably good for the same reason I shouldn't have gotten a Moviepass. I now have one less thing blocking me from watching a mediocre movie.

Trees were killed to make those boxes in the first place (do they have 100% recycled boxes yet?). Better to not order than to dump or even recycle the boxes.

> Better to not order than ...

Sure, but trees are not a good reason for that. I'll try to edit and add a better citation[0], but making cardboard boxes is more efficient than going into forests and cutting down trees.

[0]: http://www.internationalpaper.com/company/regions/north-amer...

Re: Monthly Amazon Prime membership fees are about to increase

#94

Post by sesutton »

lutorm wrote: post #47
AlexB138 wrote: post #11

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 ac…

In Hawaii, Prime isn't two day, it's "free shipping within sorta 5-7 business days, for most of the stuff marked Prime". And even that has gotten unreliable. When there's a range of delivery dates specified, it often seems designed to show up on the very last day of that range. A significant fraction of the time they haven't even shipped the thing by the first day of the delivery estimate. There are also an increasin…

Prime shipping is 3-7 business days for Hawaii, Alaska and Puerto Rico. So 5-7 days is within what they promise.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/help/id=201118070

Re: Monthly Amazon Prime membership fees are about to increase

#95

Post by rb808 »

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.

They're still breaking into the market. Same with non-prime free shipping in Europe, its very good. Once Amazon becomes dominant online and local shops close you'll see Amazon prices rise and quality slip like it is in USA (1-2 weeks to deliver non-prime boxes).

Re: Monthly Amazon Prime membership fees are about to increase

#97

Post by user5994461 »

Spivak wrote: post #42
TearsInTheRain wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

The only thing I think he should be afraid of is what to do in the case of prices increases or service shutdowns. They are probably mining his data to sell him more things but that seems like it's welcome.

The thing you should worry are your little sisters and nephews who have low skill jobs and might end up at Amazon. They have terrible work conditions.

Re: Monthly Amazon Prime membership fees are about to increase

#98

Post by [deleted] »

robteix wrote: post #70
AlexB138 wrote: post #11

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 ac…

Here in my area, 2-day Prime means 3-4 days. Their guaranteed delivery date is always 4 days away, but about half the time you'll get it in 3. But they still call it "two-day delivery"

[deleted]

Re: Monthly Amazon Prime membership fees are about to increase

#99

Post by jrochkind1 »

EpicEng wrote: post #79
foobaq wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not like they're living on the moon, Hawaii is a U.S. state and they decided to accept customers from there.

Yeah, it's a state... which is an island in the middle of the ocean. Be at least a little realistic with your expectations. Also, their terms do not guarantee 2-day shipping to Hawaii or Alaska. https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=...

If their terms _guarantee_ 2-day shipping to contiguous US, does that mean there's some recourse to a customer when that is not met? Cause it is routinely not these days for many people I know.

Re: Monthly Amazon Prime membership fees are about to increase

#100

Post by vm »

AlexB138 wrote: post #11

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 ac…

What?? Amazon Prime is a killer value! Netflix is $11/month and Spotify is $10/month. Sure, those services are definitely better than Prime Video and Music, but I still use Amazon's offerings a similar amount so the $13/month bundle feels like a great value at 40% lower cost. And this doesn't even count the services I don't use like free Kindle books or Twitch game discounts.

Not to mention the faster delivery times... The real benefit there has been changing the way I shop and think about shopping. I think I save massive amounts of time by almost never going to stores again. Even if the time savings is moot in the end, the psychological benefit of never having to go to stores has been wonderful. How much is that worth? I don't know, but it feels like almost zero cost given the value I get from Prime Video and Music (again, I admit that those services aren't "great").

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