Amazon to raise Prime membership from $99 to $119

@PlacidPenguin I don’t think I will renew. I don’t use any of the services, other than the occasional 2-day delivery that usually ends up being more. I do like saving shipping on Woot, but it’s not worth $119.

@heartny

I won’t miss the letters from them telling me that I’m not taking full of all the benefits.

Yes, they’re infrequent letters, but still…

@lichme hmmm, it says “If the recipient is already a Prime member, the gift can be exchanged for an Amazon.com Gift Card in the value of the original gift purchase price plus any applicable sales taxes paid.” However, it doesn’t list an expiration on the gift, so I guess you could just let your membership lapse, then apply the gift?

@lichme @smigit2002 I just ran out of ‘gifts’. Got a bunch for myself before the $80 price increase last time. Also look to buy discounted ‘Gift of Prime’ on Prime Day.

You have turn off auto-renew. Or remember to cancel your membership the week before it expires/renews.

Once your membership is canceled/expired, you apply your ‘gift of prime’. You don’t get a refund if you cancel. So cancel as close as you can to when it expires.

You’re good for another year. I’ve used codes 4 years after I bought them.

You can send the email ‘gift’ to just before your expiry date, or you can send them right away and save the codes (hope nobody pulls them from your email - save a local or offline copy you know will be there in 4 years if you buy 3 (you wont use ituntil your current subscription expires).

If you apply it while you have Prime, it will convert to a regular gift card.

I’m buying 3 or 4 years worth. Don’t forget cash back on credit cards.

@ponagathos I’ve done the occasional delivery for Amazon’s “plain car” service, which is called Flex. You are correct, Amazon offers explicit instructions to not ENTER any part of a customer’s house, which would likely include an enclosed porch, much like I’m not to enter a garage. However, they say to make sure the package is in a safe location. In the event of an enclosed porch, I would place the package just inside the door, much like I will place padded envelopes inside storm doors, when available.

My suggestion would be to add “Delivery Instructions” to your address under the “security access code” field of your address book and state that you explicitly want your packages placed within the enclosed porch. While some drivers may ignore it, this might at least help a bit, as these instructions are VERY prominent in the app we use.

I’m sorry you’ve had some inconsiderate drivers, and hope this might help!

@smigit2002
Thanks for the suggestion. Unfortunately, I do not see a “Security Access Code” field anywhere when I edit my address, despite it clearly mentioned on the help page. Maybe the addresses are “smart” and this only appears for apartment buildings?

I added to the second address line. Probably not as prominent in the app, but maybe will help.

@ponagathos I have Netflix & Prime. It is still much cheaper than cable.

Still trying to convince the Mrs. to add Hulu.(to cover the bases)

@phatmass its a good thing Meh allows you to turn VMP on and off… oh wait…

@thismyusername Prime monthly increased to $12.99 per month in January.

@2many2no ahh so it is a discount, of $36.88.

still if you use it rarely there is now an incentive to turn it off an on.

@capguncowboy The offer to share the shipping benefits only applies to the same household, but I’m guessing they probably have no way to really know that.

@MrMark we don’t even live in the same state and we’ve never had an issue with sharing the Prime shipping benefits

@capguncowboy @MrMark

I believe that Amazon allowing prime shared shipping benefits was basically wide open for years.

They changed that a few years ago. Now shared prime shipping benefits are (I think) only allowed for persons in the same household.

Previously setup shared shipping benefits arrangements were grandfathered in when the change was announced.

But I suspect that if your relative removed you from the shared shipping benefits list on their account, they would prob encounter a block on adding you back in later. Or something.

@Kawa paying the one time shipping surcharge for fast delivery could make a lot of economic sense if you don’t need it often.

And for the BF-Christmas stretch could turn on monthly Prime for a single month or two.

@RedOak customer service - I was amazed that theirs. Got a box at my apt addressed to a past resident. Small college town, had textbooks in it about nursing (small nursing program at school so I figured likely I’d be able to chase down whose it was). Called customer service. Talked them into calling the person and telling them the box was at their old apt. They put me on old while they did it and said no one answered. I told them well then leave a message. So they did. Box owner showed up at my doorstep about an hour later. Emailing got the standard instructions to send it back at their expense.

@Kidsandliz that’s a cool story. But in my experience, depends on the agent you get.

Amazon sent something to us that we did not order. Actually, it was from an obscure Amazon storefront I had no experience with. It wasn’t an expensive item. It was addressed to my name at our address.

Couldn’t find any signs of it on my Orders pages or anything from that seller.

Curiosity and concern over privacy got hold of me.

So I spent more time than was sane on the phone with Amazon customer service.

They said they could not determine why it was sent to me. And that “privacy” prevented them from exposing who sent it. Funny thing is, over the course of the conversation, they ended up disclosing enough info to expose the sender.

I think the agent sensed my frustration that Amazon had sent me something and I wanted to know if they had disclosed my info to a 3rd party without my consent.

I attempted to contact that sender but never heard anything.

Never figured it out. Must have been a gremlin in the Amazon sysyem.

@daveinwarsh You need to watch “Lost in Space” reboot.

@Barney Stuff from woot, maybe?

@Barney

If you had a smartphone, you could scan the labels on the boxes, and it would tell you what’s inside.

@Barney You know, you can probably go ahead and open those boxes to see what’s inside. Just a wild idea, just spit-balling here.

@therealjrn @narfcake @PlacidPenguin I did open them and one of them is kind of, um, unusual. Do you guys know anything about this?

@Barney
/giphy interesting

I wonder what it could be?..

@Barney

Huh.

@Barney I have nothing to do with any of this.

@Barney

Don’t look at me…

I mean, I’m a marvel to look at, but the words “plausible deniability” keep coming to mind regarding the packages.

@Barney

Then again, many words constantly pass through my mind.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

@Barney You don’t just give your address to anyone who asks, do you? Because that could be a bad idea.

@Barney @sammydog01

I’ll amend that for Meh:

“Because that could be IS a bad idea.”

@Barney If you shake the boxes, does one have a ‘meowing’ sound?
If it does, maybe poke some holes in the box & drop in some cat food.

@Barney @daveinwarsh
/wootstalker https://shirt.woot.com/offers/the-cat-in-the-box

The Cat in the Box
Price: $19.00
Condition: New

@Barney @narfcake @PlacidPenguin @therealjrn

I am terribly innocent of, and ignorant of, any recent Amazon shenanigans.

@sammydog01

You don’t just give your address to anyone who asks, do you? Because that could be a bad idea.

But… But… I just thought you were going to send me some of your awful tasting cookies. You and I are gonna have to have a chat, young lady.

@Barney

@PlacidPenguin That looks bigger than just a stick. Poor purple penguin.

@narfcake

Maybe it’s a cat or bunny in disguise.

@narfcake

@PlacidPenguin Unlikely.
/image pancake bunny

/image stuff on a cat

@narfcake

@PlacidPenguin

@narfcake

Are the “Stuff on my cat” books any good?

@PlacidPenguin I have no idea. I only know this because of the internet.
/wootstalker https://shirt.woot.com/offers/the-internet-defined

The Internet Defined
Price: $12.00
Condition: Probably New
This deal is currently sold out

@kdemo

I’ll just save stuff in my cart until I have enough for free shipping, as I used to do.

That’s honestly the only thing I’d have to deal with when I let mine lapse.

Oh well.

@kdemo @PlacidPenguin I would have pushed back on that - wait for your cart to fill - concept before this year.

Previously, Amazon prices were a lot more turbulent. And you could get screwed by waiting.

I have probably 35-50 items in our save for later “cart” - to price watch. Since Camel^3 misses a lot of price adjustments, having stuff in the save for later cart means that every time you click on your cart, a list of all the price changes for those things pops up.

For me that list used to frequently be 10+ items with price changes. For some odd reason, this year the number of price changes has trickled to 0-3 items per cart click. And those price changes are no where near as dramatic as they used to be.

It’s anecdotal, but my conclusion is Amazon changed their pricing agorthm to be less aggressive with price changes.

Either that or their dramatic increase in warehouse space (we have three new ones in our state alone) means Amazon no longer has to get as aggressive with excess inventory-driven price changes - to keep the turn rates in line and prevent warehouse overflows.

@PlacidPenguin @RedOak - I have many pages of save-for-later stuff as well. Prices seem to go both up and down, usually a minimal change. In my case I really feel I will save the most by dropping Prime. I can always go monthly or re-up if it becomes prudent.

@kdemo @PlacidPenguin But he volatility of those price changes very dramatically fell for my cart sometime early in 2018. Number of items in my save for later cart was unchanged.

@Ignorant I wish. I don’t care about the bonus services that I don’t use either.

@heartny @Ignorant and yet people pay $100+ per month for cable, and don’t ever watch hundreds of channels.

@sammydog01 SweeeT!

@sammydog01 isn’t that a Hulu original?

@djslack Oh, yeah. Never mind.

@djslack - I think you’re right - I knew there was some reason I couldn’t get it.
Has Amazon obtained rights to stream the first season, perhaps?

@kdemo I was thinking of Man in the High Castle. Sort of. But I just watched A Handmaids Tale. I have Amazon and Hulu and got confused.

@djslack @sammydog01 I was thinking you meant amazon had it also and got excited. They do but only season one. I hate you for that false excitement since I don’t have Hulu

@sammydog01 Both are good shows.

@mfladd I’m sure @shahnm will come tell you he’s sorry.

@mfladd I can give you a weekly summary since you waste your money on speakers instead of Hulu. Let me know.

@djslack @sammydog01 Not sure if it applies, but I found out that Sprint give a free (commercial) Hulu account to unlimited subscribers. I only found out a month or so ago, but it’s been going on for a while.

@djslack @mfladd @sammydog01 I’m sorry.

@kdemo Over time I’ve found CNET to be fairly stupid and more so recently. It has reached the point where I only read their crap for entertainment and the amusing comments pointing out the folly of their opinions.

@RedOak (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

@kdemo I frequently choose Prime eligible items over slightly lower priced identical items for two reasons:

Prime shipping is (usually) 2 day delivery. Non-Prime Marketplace sellers typically use “best way” shipping which can take a week or more.

Free returns for Prime items. If something is DOA, or just a POS, I can send it back on the seller’s dime. No fussing with a seller to get return authorization, no restocking fees, no return shipping fees.

When I order something that’s Prime eligible, I always check prices for Marketplace sellers though. Often Marketplace sellers offer the same (or lower) price, but without sales tax. That can save a couple dollars, even on a smaller order. All the benefits of Prime, lower total price.

@ruouttaurmind - Helpful info, thanks.