Amazon wants to Prime you.
12Amount you must spend to get free shipping if you don't have Prime has just been raised to $49.00.
I let them trick me into joining for Prime day last summer. I didn't buy anything, but didn't cancel after the 30 day trial. I wonder how many this happened to?
It's pretty nice to have, but I still feel kind of duped.
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Wow. The jump from $25 to $35 was bothersome, but it took more than a decade iirc to bump up the minimum order to qualify for free slow shipping. Now only three years later, they're raising the bar again, and in an environment where fuel prices have been slashed in half.
Just means I have to wait a little longer between orders. I add things to my cart periodically until the total qualifies for free shipping.
@hallmike the problem with that strategy - Amazon changes prices in your cart like the weather changes in Michigan.
If want to buy things at or near their CamelCamelCamel low that wait kills your savings. And those savings can be really huge.
@RedOak True. But I've seen some prices go down too. It's all evened out so far, but now with the new higher minimum it might not stay that way.
@hallmike anecdotally, it has been our experience, especially lately when we've been forced to wait due to those damned "add-on" items, that the net price of the cart tends to go up when waiting.
Not to be conspiratorial, but it seems intentional by Amazon. Amazon bets most folks won't notice. Not this yankee-thrift Scot!
When we can, we move those "up" items out of the cart and into to "save it for later".
@RedOak you are right, when I said "cart" I meant my "save for later" section. I add stuff there and when I'm ready to order I move just enough into the cart to get free shipping.
@hallmike I think you are also correct - I believe Amazon technically considers "save for later" as part of the "cart" - just not the buying-it-now part. ;-)
BTW, our "save it for later" list goes 4-5 pages long. We refresh the cart periodically and the prices up/down list typically goes 8-15 items! Most items tend to be penny swings but then there are those wonderful 20%+ swings. Paydirt!
We should more consistently use Camel but that can be a pain.
@RedOak @hallmike I keep movies and TV shows in my "save for later" section and add whichever is cheapest to my cart.
@RedOak what is camel?
@Kidsandliz
http://camelcamelcamel.com
It tracks the price history of items on Amazon in detail.
@FroodyFrog @Kidsandliz
Not only tracks the price history on a very nice graph (where some things drop 30-50%) but also allows you to set up alerts.
A popup shows you various historical price stats and you pick the price you want to target.
I leave a tab to it open at all times, right next to the Amazon cart tab.
Noticed this today, and was just about to come gripe about it here (great minds…).
I did the free trial of Prime when I wanted something on Prime day. Both parts of that experiment were a failure. I just can't see paying to be impatient. I know a lot of people love Prime, but it just isn't happening for me.
So, Amazon is about to get less of my money, less frequently. I'm sure that irritates me more than them.
I think this is going to hurt the third-party vendors and the Fulfillment by Amazon vendors- it's a lot harder to offer free shipping now, so you either have to eat the cost, or hope people want your item enough to pay for shipping.
Any Amazon sellers care to chime in here?
@dashcloud People buy my milk even though I've never offered free shipping. When they don't order expedited shipping I lose about 5 bucks to usps though.
@Pantheist Interesting- thanks for sharing!
@Pantheist You sell milk on Amazon??
@Pantheist - Wouldn't be the infamous Tuscan Dairy Whole Vitamin D Milk, would it?
(read the reviews, if you haven't already.)
@jqubed @KDemo. Yeah. My seller name is Yog Sothoth
@KDemo thank you for linking that. That is hysterical. Anyone wanting to spend some time laughing should read these "reviews" and the Q&A's.
@Pantheist - Then, at $74/gallon, I expect the shipping cost doesn't hurt too much. ;-)
@Kidsandliz check out the book about avoiding large ships too ( http://www.amazon.com/Avoid-Huge-Ships-John-Trimmer/dp/0870334336 ) Not me selling that, but it's another good one.
@KDemo I get by :p
@Pantheist @KDemo @Kidsandliz
I particularly like this one:
With the price of silver being horrible, it's important to look for a commodity which has a skyrocketing value.
@Pantheist - I love the avoiding large ships book! There are so many. Another I particularly like: "A Million Random Digits with 100,000 Normal Deviates"
Also the $1088.00 3.2' HDMI Cable
@KDemo
I'd buy that cable if it was smaller and twice the price.
@KDemo Too cheap, and too useful. How about a really nice rock for someone who has it all? Read the questions and reviews.
@rockblossom
Ooh! Put me down for 4.
@FroodyFrog And these Field Identification Guides are useful for identifying strays. Prime shipping, too!
I've had too many issues to justify keeping Prime. Thankfully someone else was paying for it for me, and even once the subscription is done (auto-renewal was stopped), I still have a few months of Prime free thanks to Amazon extending it for all the issues I've had.
Friends don't let friends shop Amazon
@Cerridwyn
Buy custom bumper stickers of that through Amazon. ;)
@FroodyFrog Actually had one that said, Friends don't let friends drink Starbucks that I got at a small coffee house in Central California on my last car. When I traded it in, I had custom ones made at Zazzle :)
@Cerridwyn Only Bumper Sticker I ever had or paid for was a "anybody but Hilary" Don't have the car anymore so no more sticker :(
@Foxborn And lucky you, your wish has been granted! Now you can vote for Trump!
@magic_cave Now Now we don't know that. LOL
@Foxborn All kidding aside, judging from tonight's outcome in Nevada, it's looking now as if he's going to be The Official Republican Nominee. I'm stocking up on popcorn.
@magic_cave Me too, No matter who goes head to head it's going to be interesting
Living in a rural area with only a nice but, working class town 35 miles away, there is just stuff we cannot get locally. So we order everything from semi exotic teas to a commercial countertop oven with our Prime account. I also went through most of what I wanted to watch on Netflix, so now we look at the free stuff with Prime video. I'm also an upper echelon Amazon reviewer and folks that send out stuff for review prefer Prime accounts, as it involves no shipping charges. I'm not an iTunes kinda guy, so Prime music works for me.
@radi0j0hn I love Amazon and Prime. I live in a smaller town also. Basically though I'm just impatient! I use it for TV shows, movies and music too. How do you become an upper echelon reviewer? I've always wanted to be upper echelon.
@radi0j0hn so that's how you get free stuff for reviews. I'd wondered, now I just have to become a top reviewer and spring for prime....... How do you get to be a top reviewer, just leave a lot of reviews or do they have to have a lot of likes?
@Foxborn Remember the old joke about the guy visiting New York who asks somebody, "How do you get to Carnegie Hall?" The local guy replied, "Practice, practice, practice."
I've fallen into the role as a "professional explainer," having written books, articles, and tutorials for tech beginners for years. You need good writing skills and the ability to distill down points for people who may know nothing about the product. The more "helped" votes you get, the higher your ratings. [For example, reviewing a Chromebook from the point of view of how easy it is to install Ubuntu using Crouton, and NOT writing about how good is the keyboard and speakers will not get you votes.]
Prime member here (of less than a year) - I'm less annoyed by the bump as I am with more and more items being "add-on items" only.
That said, I've used the same-day delivery option quite a few times already, even for stuff I didn't need right away. That's what they get for having such a shitty search engine!
@narfcake
This is how i feel when i see "Add-on items"
@narfcake Also, some of the prices of cheaper items are actually more expensive now as if they are trying to compensate for the loss in shipping fees if you bought it alone. Those add-on only items make me angry and many items that don't qualify for prime too. Then with the Amazon video that you get for free, nearly everything I tried to watch wasn't prime eligible and required that I pay to watch it anyway.
@narfcake My first thought was that they almost make the add-on items look less ridiculous by creating a larger gap between the minimum order amounts.
The add-on thing is truly maddening. Plus, every time I've actually needed two-day shipping, the shipping estimate has always been at least three business days. I've pretty much given up.
I'm seeing more and more items that are only available to Prime members now too. Prime might be worth it if Amazon hadn't let the low quality sellers and fake reviews overrun the place.
They have to subsidize all of the prime benefits somewhere. They seem to have chosen to do so on the backs of non-Prime shoppers.
@Thumperchick Which is OK with me! I've been a prime member for almost 5 years now... The trick is this... Do you have anyone in college? or are you taking college courses yourself? Sign up for Amazon student Save a BOAT load in Prime costs... Oh have a baby... (or an adorable @puppycat BTW does @puppycat like @PuppyMonkeyBaby? @stitch loves that commercial) Join Amazon Mom. There are a lot of cost savings which almost makes up for us not having a target in the whole state of Vermont.
Prime for 8 years.. Get student discount as long as you have education email and if an order comes late or poorly packaged, a simple chat either gets months of prime extension or money back immediately. Their customer support is what keeps my dollars flowing.
They have the best deals on dog food, and random house stuff. Ordered napkin holder and sink scrubber holder today, will be here wendesday. No driving to local store and being stuck w small selection.
Their vessel sinks are also a steal btw.
@Catdad Are you feeding your cats dog food?
@Catdad Random House, that's books, right? They still sell them too?
@jqubed no, but they do try and eat it. Those little... angels get wet food with urinary tract dry food on top and distilled water to drink... Amazon wet food is same as store, but their UT dry food is lowest price.
@blaineg made me giggle
@Catdad What brand of UT dry food do you get?
@hallmike Purina One
After emergency surgery on one of my meowers, I compared ash content, and all kinds of other stuff for various food. They wanted me to use hills science diet, very costly and poor ingredients. Found main issue was water (used distilled now and add a little apple cider vinegar). I use meaty bits from friskers under a small mound of the Purina One UT. Also used UroMAXX Urinary Tract drops for awhile after surgery, now add a scoop of cranberry exact to their food once a week.
@Catdad We had one that needed surgery too. The vet prescribed Hills but we got tired of the exorbitant price and recently switched to Purina. Will look into the cranberry extract now too. Thanks for the info!
Share prime with like five other people, and I do order a lot, but the add on items bullshit has become more and more annoying over time, and wow god amazon nice job having fun minting money
@legendornothing They have made this harder to do... but yes it's still an option. My MIL and my wife are on my account and it's an old grandfathered family account... now I did make it when we were all living together... so....
My wife decided to get prime, so I am opted in. I was a bundle for free shipping kind of boy.
I just ran a report - we spent over $5,000 with amazon in 2015. for some idiotic reason, the report generator does not include digital items, we bought several hundred dollars worth of music & kindle books too. Probably pushing $6k.
I should get the Amazon credit card for the cash back.
@danpritts defiantly get the amazon CC. 5% is better then nothing. I only use my points from it on small things from amazon, under $10.
@Catdad are you really getting 5%? they advertise 3%.
@danpritts ah you are correct, when I first open an Amazon CC years ago thought it was higher :/ boo
@Catdad the amazon store card only works on Amazon and you do get 5pct on that one. I have it.
I joined Prime last year when they had a special reduced rate. I did enjoy the 2-day delivery, but was finding less things that I wanted to order had a Prime advantage. I decided not to renew. However, I got my credit card statement and saw that they had auto-renewed me without notice. I checked my account and there was a mysterious box that was not checked requesting notification when Prime was renewing. I cancelled my membership, but the refund was pro-rated. I sent an email to customer service asking why I wasn't notified and what's up with the pro-rating. They apologized for the lack of notification and gave me a full refund. At least the customer service was good.
@heartny Amazon's CS is quite good, which only makes Woot's look so much shittier.
@narfcake Truth.
@heartny I will say this: Woot's in-house CS was okay before they exploded with a bazillion items. When they outsourced the CS, that's when things got shitty.
They offered me 25% off Prime a couple months ago, so I succumbed for the first time. I was having a hard time meeting the minimum for things I have trouble getting locally.
I mostly use subscribe and save -- for cat food and dishwasher soap. But they have been decreasing the items available for that too and making them add-on items. Grrr.
Pro-tip. Before your monthly order is finalized, look at the coupons. You may find your item w/ a discount . Cancel your current subscription and start a new one at lower price. I wish they would just give you the savings. But that would be too easy.
I probably won't renew it. Their business model in some ways makes me think of them as the walmart of the internet. Low prices and convenience pull you in, then they screw with you.
@ceagee I use to do more subscribe & save but they are always cancelling them. I have less and less now. I live in a small town with little transport and usually combine grocery shopping with my one doc appt every three weeks.
Hate shopping anywhere now it just is such a hassle no matter what.
Oh, except for meh, but if the crap we get is really crap!
@ceagee I live near Walmart HQ and my shopping experiences on Amazon Prime are nothing like taking a trip down to the local Walmart Supercenter. The $99 I pay to get Prime and NOT have to go to Walmart for things like cat food and pretty much anything else is money well spent. I still go to the Walmart Neighborhood Market for groceries, but that's because Walmart took over the area and we have 3 Supercenters and 3 Neighborhood Markets for a town of 50,000 people. My meh feelings for Walmart are stronger than for Amazon, so I will stick with Amazon. I keep finding new Prime features that are making it worthwhile (now one free Kindle book release per month!) and I have never been unhappy with any purchase.
Minimum wage in Seattle went to $15. Of course the free shipping minimum is going up. They have to offset the increase in wages somehow.
@capguncowboy They do have a warehouse in Seattle, but that is one of about 50 or 100 warehouses in the US. Not a significant factor.
Nobody at HQ is making minimum wage. I suppose some of them might make that little, but they are salaried and working 100 hours/week.
@danpritts "but they are salaried and working 100 hours/week."
There you go - $15/hour.
@RedOak Yup. But they aren't in distribution centers.
Sorry to all the non prime people. As a Prime I feel my $99 is well spent. I do not run Netflix, or any paid music stream. So with Prime shipping, streaming, music, and book downloads I feel my money is well spent. Now when I can't use all this in one place I'll cancel.
@jml326 My $49 amazon prime subscription fee is great. While I still have Netflix (Trying to get the wife to cut that cord... but there are a lot of kids shows, and the interface is nicer than Amazon's)...
@sohmageek I was a $49 Prime at one point. Ran out of .edu addresses
@jml326 I just started using the music feature- I really like it. And I already have all of these bluetooth speakers cluttering up my house.
I love Prime. Yes, it is frustrating that "2 days" sometimes becomes "3 days" depending on the "time"" and "whims" of the software. But, I just ordered 10 books for my school librarian wife's Read Across America event and got it delivered, on a Saturday, right to my front door (along with socks!) Plus, I got in so long ago that I have my brother on my account and he gets free shipping as well. So that saves me on having to buy him a birthday gift every year.
All in all, I have found it a good use of $$$ every year. Plus, if anything ever gets delayed, they just give you another month of prime for free. Also - if you find some of those sellers sketchy (as they sometimes are) - just filter it so the seller is Amazon. If they have it - great. If it is way too expensive, there's always Jet (if you like waiting a week), or somewhere else (Amex members get Shoprunner shipping for free). yah, it may be a pain in the ass to compare everywhere (and even on amazon using CamelCamelCamel), but that's the life we now live.
TL;DR: I like Prime. Most of the time. End of Rhyme.
I tried Prime for streaming services as alternative/addition to Netflix or Hulu. My current hardware would not play in HD because of DRM.
Not to worry Amazon linked me to Amazon compatible DRM friendly hardware I would even 'save money' and time by getting 2 day free shipping.
Fuck Amazon's DRM streaming.
@caffeine_dude current hardware being PC? or a standalone player? It seems to work just fine with my Tivo....
@sohmageek I do not recall exactly but I am using Kodi and Chromecast. At one time we were using a Wii and a browser. It is just the way they said sorry it will not work how bout buying this TV that will work, that really rubbed me the wrong way after I invested in 4 android phones and 3 Chromecasts.
@caffeine_dude I can't remember where I saw this, but I think Amazon refuses to create a prime app that will allow streaming through the chromecast. I tried it myself and had to mirror my phone and use a chrome tab (lame). It seems shortsighted...
@DaveInSoCal @caffeine_dude They want you to buy a Firestick.
@jqubed @DaveInSoCal @caffeine_dude
Android Police wasn't too thrilled with Amazon's treatment of streaming devices:
http://www.androidpolice.com/2015/10/01/amazon-gunning-for-biggest-jerk-award-will-be-banning-chromecast-and-nexus-player-listings-from-its-us-store/
@sohmageek I'm fuzzy brained from watching too much MSNBC tonight, so please humor me. Did you just write that you're able to stream Amazon Video through a TiVO box? I really hope that's what you meant.
@magic_cave yes I am :)
@jqubed I think you are right, but at the time I do not think there was a Firestick. (we cut the cable over 2 years and 3 months ago). When it was released it wasn't 120 per stick?
@magic_cave I believe you can stream amazon through newer Tivos but my series 3 is unsupported.
@caffeine_dude I don't remember now; I was never that interested in it. I figured they seemed likely to block competing services from it.
Looks like Bezos wants a cash flow increase by increasing prime subscribers. All so he can continue to afford the octopus. Shame.
2:30 mark
@DrWorm "copy video url at current time" for next share. nice though
@Catdad I verified that the URL that I entered had the &t=150 parameter (for time in seconds), I am not sure why my post didn't observe it. I only went back and edited it to put the "2:30 mark" comment when I saw the current time didn't work properly.
@DrWorm @Catdad Yep, known forum issue. They use a regex to a: identify a URL as one associated with YouTube, and b: extract from said URL the video ID. The ID (alone) then gets passed to the relevant section of the URL in the embedded video iframe element.
@DrWorm Thanks for the video!
Pick an item and compare it to a non-prime offering of the exact same thing: $24.99 prime, $19.99 + $5 shipping non-prime. You DO NOT get free shipping with prime, you get a free up grade to 2nd day delivery. They just add the shipping into the price. That being said I've had prime for years and use it a lot.
I've piggybacked off my mother's Prime for a while now so I can't really complain. Though as a secondary account I don't have access to all the streaming. For that I use someone else's Netflix login! :) If I actually wanted Prime and had to pay for it I'd most likely look for a trustworthy friend to share the cost and the benefits.
They Fuck You at the Amazon Drive Thru
@MrsPavlov gets us Prime every year for $49.
The local Community College is one of the better in the country and their Performing Arts series is stupendous. Plus, they have an amazing, multi-million dollar brand-new (recently 're-everythinged') fitness center. And, being mostly really frugal / giant fucking cheap-asses (I still recycle the bread bags just like my grandmother taught me), when we find a bargain, we take it. So, when we found out that student discount tickets to the performing arts series (available for most all performances) are only $5, and we'd been paying up to $100 a ticket, well, @MrsPavlov went back to school the next damn day.
Every semester, she enrolls and takes a credit course in fitness. She gets to work out as much / often as she wants, she gets actual physical therapists as work-out coaches (via a work requirement for the program at a neighboring four year university, they earn towards their degree by working at the community college in their last semester) for a whopping $81 (one credit hour) a semester, paid three times a year, just to keep it active all year. The center is truly amazing and it is the best deal going.
So, she gets to work out, we get $5 tickets (and never once have we had a bad seat) and all the benefits of her being a student - discounts around town with the ID card, etc. . . . . And, because she has an active .edu email address as a student, well, let the savings roll in online.
Prime - $49 for students
Spotify - $5/month
Bank account - free checking for students
AAA - bam, discount
The list goes on and on and on and on.
So, I take all the savings at year end after we meet with our accountant at tax time (and yes, we get a student discount from him on our personal return) and I write a check back to the 501c3's that have been formed to support the college and their performing arts series. Which because I'm giving that $$ to a 501c3 supporting the college, that in itself is a write-off. It is money we would have spent anyway, and we score points with the snooty fucking neighbors for getting a mention in the donor / supporter list in each playbill / program during the year.
Win/win!
Go back to school and save.
@Pavlov Damn- that's impressive.
I salute yours & @MrsPavlov's thriftiness!
@dashcloud It used to be $39 a year for Prime Student, then they raised it. The whole thing is really a no-brainer once you figure it up. I'm surprised a lot more people don't do something similar. I'd pay more than the $243/year I'm paying the college for a decent gym membership for her - the student benefits /discounts are everywhere, it is incredible. Grandma would be proud.
@Pavlov that's damned clever. You cheap-ass, you've shamed the rest if us with your thrift.
@RedOak ... and I'm ashamed by my (weak excuse, on the phone) typo!
Prime = crack.
Not saying who I might be talking about....
Well, the only good thing about this is they made it $49 instead of $50. I don't know how many times I had to find some random cheap shit I didn't really need to push whatever item was $34.99 over the free shipping limit
@spitfire6006006 - You know about the sites that list filler items, right? One example: http://www.filleritem.com/ There are many others.
I have to agree with @phatmass here. My annual spending has increased significantly but I hold them to it on 2 day shipping. Frankly, I've had prime since 2005 I think and I don't believe I've ever not made out in the long haul.
Example, just before Christmas I ordered two garage lights at $50 each. They took nearly 3 weeks to arrive. Amazon gave me a $50 credit back because of the delay. Add in prime video and music and you had me at hello.
If you don't know how much you spend, go look under your user profile. You can pull a report by year. I have not purchased paper goods in the actual store in forever. Same price as Wally World and I don't leave my house for them.
@mydrivec the annual report is at https://www.amazon.com/gp/b2b/reports - i couldn't find it poking around in my profile but google found it.
@danpritts I found mine under Your Account. Listed under Order History is "Download Order Reports". But that works too! :) shocking how much I spend there!
After many years of buying stuff on Amazon we had to return a defective item for the first time this week.
That was embarrassingly simple. And free. And they confirmed the refund (subject to verification I'm sure) the moment they got the UPS return tracking number.
Why would anybody make it more difficult when they know the customer so well??? (Have never used the privilege so we've never abused it.)
@RedOak
Only 1 time when i had an issue with an order was i asked to return it. (It was for a RAM upgrade.) I was told I'd get the refund when they received it.
Spoke to someone else because i got disconnected from first guy. He gave me the refund before i shipped it back. Ended up being transferred to a 3rd guy, he said i could keep it.
(At first i wasn't gonna use it since i felt slightly guilty, but i did, and the RAM i took out from my laptop makes a GREAT package opener.)
I spoke to someone about how great Amazon's CS is for consumers, the point which came up a lot was that they're willing to give free months of Prime for issues, partial refunds, price-matching in certain cases where they don't have to, free replacements on items etc. to keep the customer happy, because the payoff for them is significant in the long run.
(Please note, I wrote this in a state of confusion, so when i read it again later, I'll probably realize that it's full of typos, or has NOTHING to do with your comment)
@FroodyFrog I suppose my refund could still blow up, but I never talked to a soul at Amazon for this return. Went to the order, clicked on the Return button and filled in a reason. Printed the UPS return label they gave me. Packed it up and dropped it in a UPS drop box.
@RedOak OK, I exaggerated, those damned UPS drop boxes are a 1/4 inch too thin for the oblong-cubist Amazon boxes so had to take it to the UPS store. But in return I got a drop off receipt and tracking number so for the future it was worth it.
So fuck Amazon. Even tho i have Prime.
Wait, hold on just a min before you fuck them. I need to finish checking out my latest "i don't need this" collection before you get them all distracted.
@f00l
Well damn you were in a hurry weren't you?