Monthly Amazon Prime membership fees are about to increase • Hacker News Board

Re: Monthly Amazon Prime membership fees are about to increase

#151

Post by vageli » Fri, Jan 19, 2018, 11:36 PM UTC

Shank wrote: post #38

wbond wrote: post #27

Walmart, 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…

> 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.

Why didn't you go to lowes.com or walmart.com? This isn't an apples to apples comparison.

Re: Monthly Amazon Prime membership fees are about to increase

#152

Post by natecavanaugh » Fri, Jan 19, 2018, 11:42 PM UTC

alexcroox wrote: post #139

natecavanaugh wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to feel this exact way, and I do still think there are more than a few of their services that are pretty paltry. But with Prime video, not only do they have highly praised original content, they fill in gaps that Netflix and Hulu have, with content from the HBO catalog, as well as TV shows that Netflix doesn't carry. Add to that, the shipping for me, while not perfect, any time I've done free same day shipping…

I use Netflix all the time, every time I check Amazon video the landing page looks the same, no new shows or movies. In fact my video landing page has looked the same for a good 2 months now. I'm not sure if they haven't added anything new or they just suck at promoting the new additions...

I 100% agree! Every app of theirs show the same stuff. I can't tell yet if theyre copying Netflix on their initial landing page on a consistent basis, but I feel like they've let some aspect of discovery escape them.

Overall, I do love their library, but they could evangelize it in such a better way.

Re: Monthly Amazon Prime membership fees are about to increase

#153

Post by ocdtrekkie » Sat, Jan 20, 2018, 5:18 AM UTC

ThrowawayIP wrote: post #15

I cancelled my Amazon Prime membership about a year ago and haven't looked back. I end up spending less money per month on things that I really don't need and my house is no longer filled with endless cardboard boxes.

This monthly hike hurts me because I don't use Prime most of the year either: I pick it up for Christmas shopping season, it pays for itself easily in terms of lightning deals I can take advantage of. And sometimes I'll pick up a month when I'm going to buy a game, since Prime users can get $15 off new games, which covers the cost of the month of Prime.

But in most cases, yeah: I spend less money without Prime, and am rarely in a hurry, and don't mind waiting to hit the $25 minimum for super saver. Not having Prime has also lead me to shop elsewhere more: I buy stuff from Walmart, Target, and Best Buy a lot more in addition to Amazon purchases.

Re: Monthly Amazon Prime membership fees are about to increase

#154

Post by thisacctforreal » Sat, Jan 20, 2018, 6:39 AM UTC

takeda wrote: post #146

kaspm wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, but I'm saying the processing (picking and packing process that occurs at the warehouse) before shipping is not first-ordered, first-picked. They've developed a prioritization process for picking which take items ordered _later_ via prime and picks them first. I suppose you could call that "artificial" delays but that's what I think is happening.

I have trouble understanding what you're saying here: > They've developed a prioritization process for picking which take items ordered _later_ via prime and picks them first. What I meant to say is that with prime the order is shipped within hours, when without it takes days and it seems to be calculated toward the end of of the time range, but still so it will arrive before the deadline. Actually any items that are…

His hypothesis is that Amazon will ship prime items first, even when the prime order is placed after non-prime orders.

Non-prime items won't see similar shipping priority until near the end of their deadlines.

It's to minimize prime-order shipping latency as much as possible. Incenticizing prime is a happy side-effect.

Re: Monthly Amazon Prime membership fees are about to increase

#155

Post by mark_l_watson » Sat, Jan 20, 2018, 9:05 AM UTC

Chaebixi wrote: post #127

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.

> 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. I have a realized this too, but my response has been to explicitly try to shop elsewhere, to spread my dollars around. I've found Amazon often isn't even really that competitive anymore, they're just coasting on people's habits. I also don't…

I agree about spreading purchases to different venders. I try to buy digital books from Kinfle, Google Play Books, and Apple. Losing my entire library due to an account problem seemed like a bad risk.

Re: Monthly Amazon Prime membership fees are about to increase

#156

Post by dawnerd » Sat, Jan 20, 2018, 9:12 AM UTC

takeda wrote: post #14

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 bas…

I'd say just order from jet. Can often find the same things for same price or cheaper - especially with coupons. I'm letting my prime expire this month because I got tired of all the low quality junk spamming the search results and not being able to easily tell whats the real product. The other day was trying to find a ge zwave switch and the same one is listed multiple times with prime shipping at different prices all sold by amazon. So like, which one is the real, most current one? Just spent the extra couple bucks and bought it at home depot instead.

All those other extras they throw in are just junk to me. Apart from The Grand Tour there's nothing on prime video I care about, have never used their music much because the interface is an absolute joke (same with video).

Prime Now is nice but for some reason my area doesn't get restaurants despite being in the Portland Metro.

So just looking at shipping costs, I think I've at best broken even. Rarely get things in two days anyways. Usually takes them 3 days.

Re: Monthly Amazon Prime membership fees are about to increase

#157

Post by dawnerd » Sat, Jan 20, 2018, 9:15 AM UTC

stinky613 wrote: post #141

intermittently wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

+1 on more late Prime deliveries than there used to be. FWIW, you can request a free month of Prime anytime you get a Prime order late (up to 12 times per subscription renewal, from what I've read). I've done it a few times already; once you find the customer service page, it's pretty painless.

Awesome tip, but I feel like I'm still shit out of luck with any Amazon purchase sent via USPS. Their drivers mark all their Amazon Prime packages as delivered if it's end of day. I've had multiple Amazon deliveries that were "delivered at 7:59pm at normal mail reception desk" that they then delivered the following day EDIT: Just want to make it clear that this isn't my isolated experience -- http://www.cbs46.com/sto…

Yeah same here - except with fedex who wont even try to deliver. They'll just sneak up and leave tags saying they attempted.

When I asked amazon about it they really didn't want to do much but I was able to get them to block using their own drivers who were completely clueless on what an entrance to a building looks like (tip: it's not the emergency exit door...)

Re: Monthly Amazon Prime membership fees are about to increase

#158

Post by dawnerd » Sat, Jan 20, 2018, 9:21 AM UTC

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"

I think it now means two days from when they hand it off to usps/ups/fedex. There has been considerable delay recently from when the package is "shipped" and when it's handed over. Probably due to them using their own trucks and simply using the other carriers as the last mile.

Re: Monthly Amazon Prime membership fees are about to increase

#159

Post by dawnerd » Sat, Jan 20, 2018, 9:24 AM UTC

vageli wrote: post #151

Shank wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> 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 conve…

And why not check the lowes/homedepot sites before bothering to go into the store? They both have pretty good stock indicators and they'll tell you exactly where the item is.

Re: Monthly Amazon Prime membership fees are about to increase

#160

Post by jlardinois » Sat, Jan 20, 2018, 9:59 AM UTC

ryanianian wrote: post #68

Many people in this and other recent threads talking about counterfeit items...please be aggressive about reporting these to customer service! It's only happened to me once, and customer service just refunded the ~$50 purchase without even asking me to send it back. A few days later I saw the seller was no longer on Amazon, so I suspect this is something Amazon is starting to take more seriously. Amazon really needs…

> I've not seen anyone say that a "Sold by Amazon" product is counterfeit.

I've had it happen to me with Levi's, and word of mouth tells me this is a problem in general with big name clothing.