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

Re: Monthly Amazon Prime membership fees are about to increase

#161

Post by skinnymuch » Sat, Jan 20, 2018, 2:21 PM UTC

ProfessorLayton wrote: post #26

While I’m not sure I get $156/year worth of value from Prime, or even $99, I share my account with 2 other close family members, and together we place enough orders for it to be worth it. Same with Costco etc. — so as long as These services remain easy to share, the price increases are aren’t too bad.

I think the new way is to only allow two other people in your household. So for people who cancelled and rebought Prime or got Prime in the last few years, they don’t get your perk.

I too am lucky to be grandfathered in. But can’t really say it is a current Prime benefit anymore.

Re: Monthly Amazon Prime membership fees are about to increase

#162

Post by skinnymuch » Sat, Jan 20, 2018, 2:23 PM UTC

fooey wrote: post #84

I wish Amazon Prime would break itself up into packages instead of raising their rates every 6 months as they throw more and more crap under the umbrella It annoys me greatly that I'm subsidizing Prime Video when I have zero interest in using it

Can you afford to pay yearly? Seems like they are trying to get people to pay yearly. They have really only raised that price once 3 or so years ago (otherwise they did a $5 increase).

Re: Monthly Amazon Prime membership fees are about to increase

#163

Post by skinnymuch » Sat, Jan 20, 2018, 2:25 PM UTC

donarb wrote: post #4

Except, nothing new if you pay yearly, still $99 a year.

I’m betting when they added monthly prices their plan all along was to push people to pay yearly as it’s cheaper. But the price difference must’ve not been enough. Now it is pretty significant so it’ll probably do the job they originally wanted from it. Obviously that’s not the only reason for them adding monthly. Just one reason in my opinion.

Re: Monthly Amazon Prime membership fees are about to increase

#164

Post by skinnymuch » Sat, Jan 20, 2018, 2:27 PM UTC

jlardinois wrote: post #160

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.

How obvious was the counterfeit? I’m worried That I’m oblivious enough to not notice something is counterfeit and just think the product is bad quality.

Re: Monthly Amazon Prime membership fees are about to increase

#165

Post by skinnymuch » Sat, Jan 20, 2018, 2:29 PM UTC

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 won’t stay that way. But yeah that’s surprising it’s still so cheap in Italy. Perhaps they haven’t cornered the market yet or have enough customers.

Re: Monthly Amazon Prime membership fees are about to increase

#166

Post by skinnymuch » Sat, Jan 20, 2018, 2:30 PM UTC

chrisseaton wrote: post #74

gmac wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not all of Europe. It's £8/month in the UK. But lots of things say they'll come next day, and then usually do. And the movie selection is arguably better than on Netflix.

Amazon Prime is great in the UK. I'm surprised that it's two-day shipping in the US. That doesn't seem like a good deal at all. In the UK I regularly get items from ordering to my doorstep in under twelve hours and I don't live near any major city.

The US is huge. You won’t get cheap one day shipping anywhere. Although if you’re in a major city or some other lucky area you will sometimes get one day delivery or same day on Prime items or when choosing two day shipping.

Re: Monthly Amazon Prime membership fees are about to increase

#167

Post by skinnymuch » Sat, Jan 20, 2018, 2:32 PM UTC

kregasaurusrex wrote: post #44

I've wondered why Amazon Prime charges tax in my state for what's essentially a yearly membership club fee. My guess is that since it's bundled with streaming services etc it counts as being entertainment even though I don't use those features.

That would be my guess too. And that is pretty lame for the, I’m guessing, majority of subscribers who don’t use their other features.

Re: Monthly Amazon Prime membership fees are about to increase

#168

Post by wkearney99 » Sun, Jan 21, 2018, 3:28 PM UTC

I'm fortunate to live close to one of their distribution centers. I regularly get things same or next day.

When I use other resellers online it takes upwards of a week to get things. For the few situations where they're less than amazon, their shipping fees and shipping times lose the sale.

Fedex seems to go out of their way to sit on packages. UPS, on the other hand, seems to go to extra lengths to get packages through their system as quickly as possible, regardless of shipping type. As in, things ordered UPS Ground regularly get here in 2 days. Fedex, though, when they say a week, it'll damned well be 7 days.

Re: Monthly Amazon Prime membership fees are about to increase

#169

Post by banderman » Mon, Jan 22, 2018, 2:30 PM UTC

aidenn0 wrote: post #41

Someone1234 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you don't mind waiting longer and have Prime, they often offer a "refund" credit. I currently have $5 in digital credits for items I didn't mind waiting a week for on Prime. Only downside is that the incentive rotates and some of them are simply terrible (prime pantry, women's fashion, and home services for example).

a lot of incentives are terrible, and you can't use two of them on the same order. If I could delay 2 or 3 orders and then get a free digital movie by stacking the credits, I'd do it a lot more often.

For digital movies/music the credits do stack.

Re: Monthly Amazon Prime membership fees are about to increase

#170

Post by jlardinois » Thu, Jan 25, 2018, 7:26 PM UTC

skinnymuch wrote: post #164

jlardinois wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

How obvious was the counterfeit? I’m worried That I’m oblivious enough to not notice something is counterfeit and just think the product is bad quality.

I was certainly fooled the first one or two times it happened; my initial thought was that Levi's provided the worst of its production to Amazon. The jeans were cut and sewn poorly, covered in sawdust, and fell apart within months. It's only upon doing further research that I realized they were counterfeit, and that many people have had this problem.