Octopus Overlords

I don't mind the add-on since it was in general stuff that wasn't prime eligible anyway. So now they are recognizing they can easily toss it in an existing order of sufficient value. I see it as a value add.

LawBeefaroni wrote:

coopasonic wrote:but 2 day is a luxury. As long your order meets the minimum, free is there any time prime is (I am not sure if that is true for amazon fulfillment).

I'd say that only about half my orders meet the $25 minimum threshold for free shipping.

Reliable 2-day delivery is a decision maker for me a lot of the time too, not merely a luxury.

Same and same. More so for the first same, however. I used to spend an extra $15 to get an order to the shipping minimum. No longer!

I also think the $3.99 upgrade to next-day shipping is frequently underestimated. I've used that more than a few times. From 'crap, I forgot a birthday' to 'I just really want that soon.'

Zaxxon wrote:I also think the $3.99 upgrade to next-day shipping is frequently underestimated. I've used that more than a few times. From 'crap, I forgot a birthday' to 'I just really want that soon.'

It's definitely come in handy a few times for me. I've even had a few same-day deliveries with local express.

The Meal wrote:

LawBeefaroni wrote:

coopasonic wrote:but 2 day is a luxury. As long your order meets the minimum, free is there any time prime is (I am not sure if that is true for amazon fulfillment).

I'd say that only about half my orders meet the $25 minimum threshold for free shipping.

Reliable 2-day delivery is a decision maker for me a lot of the time too, not merely a luxury.

Same and same. More so for the first same, however. I used to spend an extra $15 to get an order to the shipping minimum. No longer!

Yes, I used to do that all the time, ordering stuff I didn't really need to meet the $25 shipping minimum. I thought I'd be using it more often for food things, but their food went from very well priced to not so much. Today I bought a 15# bag of Botan rice for $15 at H-Mart; the cheapest price on Prime is over $17.

Carpet_pissr wrote:

Blackhawk wrote:Did you actually count all those, or is there a handy summary somewhere?

Personally, as I've mentioned before, Prime is a money saver for me, and likely would be, even at $100.

As I live in such a small town, specialty shops mean a 60+ mile round trip (and by 'speciality shop', I mean anything you can't get at the grocery store.) If it saves me just one trip a month, I save more than the current fee in gas money (and time.) It currently saves me more than that, and gives me access to all sorts of things that just aren't available around here even if I do drive - unless I want to go to Indy, which is more a 200 mile round trip.

I don't get it. How does having Prime save you money. Your paragraph makes more sense (to me) if you had said "ordering on Amazon is a money saver for me".
But paying just to get those things faster....?

First off, a lot of the stuff is cheaper on Amazon than it is in stores. Second, most of my orders are under the free shipping minimum. That means that without Prime, I'd be dropping $4/order. Buying it in the store would cost about $10 in gas.

Last year, I put in 73 orders. Probably 50 of those wouldn't have qualified for free shipping.

With Prime, I paid $80.
Without Prime, shopping from Amazon, I'd have paid about $200 in shipping.
Shopping in stores would likely have cost me $500 in gas.

Even if the number not qualifying is half of my estimate, Prime is still the cheapest option.

Hell, even when I need something soon, the $4 overnight upgrade is cheaper than $10 worth of gas, and often faster, as I can't always get to the nearest town with stores by the next day.

To put it a different way, if you pay for shipping (which is usually around $3.99) just 21 times a year, Prime is cheaper.

Just got the message via email -- starting in 2015, membership is going from $79 to $99.

Smoove_B wrote:Just got the message via email -- starting in 2015, membership is going from $79 to $99.

Did yours just recently renew? Looks like mine is renewing this May at $99.

Mine's due in August and I got the message this morning.

telcta wrote:Did yours just recently renew? Looks like mine is renewing this May at $99.

Yes, it just renewed in October of 2013. They let me know that I'll be charged $79 this coming October, but 10/15 it will be $99.

Hopefully we get the rumored music streaming prior to Jan.

Zaxxon wrote:Hopefully we get the rumored music streaming prior to Jan.

Do what? That might be enough for me to consider continuing my membership at the higher rate.

Even something small, say "we have x number of titles you can't get on Netflix" would help, but as it is, not sure I will continue for $99.

The free shipping isn't enough offset for some of you? I've always thought of it as saving $5 per item so as long as I buy 20 items from them per year, it breaks even and I sure as hell buy a lot more than that.

The interesting thing is that a class action suit was raised yesterday over Prime Shipping:

“The bottom line is the free shipping that Amazon offered to its Prime members wasn’t free,” said Kim Stephens, attorney for one of the plaintiffs, adding that he was “shocked” by Amazon’s alleged pricing practices.

Marcia Burke of Alabama says she became an Amazon Prime member and used its "free shipping" service at least 18 times in 2010, according to her lawsuit filed Friday in federal court in Seattle. Prime-eligible products are designated on Amazon's website.

In what she hopes will be certified as a class-action lawsuit, Burke accuses Amazon of encouraging third-party vendors to increase their prices to Prime members by the amount they charged others for shipping, without revealing that a portion of those alleged "inflated" prices was for shipping fees, the lawsuit claims.

"For example, if the price of an item is advertised for $10 with $3.99 shipping and the [vendor] wishes to match or top their price, the [vendor] would charge $13.99 or higher," Burke alleges in the suit.

I'm certainly willing to pay a price for convenience, but I have noticed many times inflated prices simply to deal with shipping costs by third party vendors that are then advertised as "Prime Shipping".

and with Prime you are paying for 2 day shipping and yes sometimes the prime price is higher but If you pay $13.99 prime you will get the product 2 days later, if you pay $10 plus $3.99 shipping it sometimes takes a week to get to you because it goes the regular route. So it is still a deal.

ibdoomed wrote:The free shipping isn't enough offset for some of you? I've always thought of it as saving $5 per item so as long as I buy 20 items from them per year, it breaks even and I sure as hell buy a lot more than that.

Check previous posts in the thread...we went through this...thoroughly.

My personal deal is that I rarely ever paid for shipping, pre-Prime, because we are constantly ordering stuff from there. The increased delivery speed is a "nice to have", but almost never a necessity (and if it is urgent, I just pay for shipping or get it locally). Doubtful if I ever came close to paying $99 in shipping in one year, pre-Prime, but I should probably check on that if it's possible.

Smoove_B wrote:The interesting thing is that a class action suit was raised yesterday over Prime Shipping:

“The bottom line is the free shipping that Amazon offered to its Prime members wasn’t free,” said Kim Stephens, attorney for one of the plaintiffs, adding that he was “shocked” by Amazon’s alleged pricing practices.

Marcia Burke of Alabama says she became an Amazon Prime member and used its "free shipping" service at least 18 times in 2010, according to her lawsuit filed Friday in federal court in Seattle. Prime-eligible products are designated on Amazon's website.

In what she hopes will be certified as a class-action lawsuit, Burke accuses Amazon of encouraging third-party vendors to increase their prices to Prime members by the amount they charged others for shipping, without revealing that a portion of those alleged "inflated" prices was for shipping fees, the lawsuit claims.

"For example, if the price of an item is advertised for $10 with $3.99 shipping and the [vendor] wishes to match or top their price, the [vendor] would charge $13.99 or higher," Burke alleges in the suit.

I'm certainly willing to pay a price for convenience, but I have noticed many times inflated prices simply to deal with shipping costs by third party vendors that are then advertised as "Prime Shipping".

There's not much merit to that complaint. If I'm a vendor and I'm pricing my items and I can see all the other vendors' prices on Amazon, I'll price accordingly. It's doesn't take Amazon telling me how to price for me to figure that out. What Amazon does do is encourage vendors to offer Prime. If they figure out on their own to offset their costs by building shipping cost into the item, well that's expected. Their risk is that for non-prime customers, they will be $3.99 higher than the competition after shipping.

As a consumer, I always check my options. If an item is $10 with $3.99 shipping and another is $14.50 with Prime, I can see that very clearly and make an educated decision. There's even a little window on the item page that tells you all competing prices and shipping charges.

And in most cases I still go with Prime if the difference is a buck or less or a small percentage because I've found their 2-day shipping to be extremely reliable. However, if I can get save a substantial amount and can deal with the wait, I'll go with the non-prime option. Amazingly, Amazon gives me that option.

That lawsuit seems ridiculous on its face. Amazon shows you the total price (inclusive of shipping) of a product across itself and its associated vendors, allowing you to make an informed decision. If Prime doesn't hold value to you, umm, don't buy Prime?

Smoove_B wrote:The interesting thing is that a class action suit was raised yesterday over Prime Shipping:

“The bottom line is the free shipping that Amazon offered to its Prime members wasn’t free,” said Kim Stephens, attorney for one of the plaintiffs, adding that he was “shocked” by Amazon’s alleged pricing practices.

Marcia Burke of Alabama says she became an Amazon Prime member and used its "free shipping" service at least 18 times in 2010, according to her lawsuit filed Friday in federal court in Seattle. Prime-eligible products are designated on Amazon's website.

In what she hopes will be certified as a class-action lawsuit, Burke accuses Amazon of encouraging third-party vendors to increase their prices to Prime members by the amount they charged others for shipping, without revealing that a portion of those alleged "inflated" prices was for shipping fees, the lawsuit claims.

"For example, if the price of an item is advertised for $10 with $3.99 shipping and the [vendor] wishes to match or top their price, the [vendor] would charge $13.99 or higher," Burke alleges in the suit.

I'm certainly willing to pay a price for convenience, but I have noticed many times inflated prices simply to deal with shipping costs by third party vendors that are then advertised as "Prime Shipping".

So in the example used, is item X advertised somewhere else as $10 + shipping? I always shop around and if amazon isn't the lowest of the trustworthy sites (I specify trustworthy because places like newegg are not), I go elsewhere.

LawBeefaroni wrote: There's not much merit to that complaint. If I'm a vendor and I'm pricing my items and I can see all the other vendors' prices on Amazon, I'll price accordingly. It's doesn't take Amazon telling me how to price for me to figure that out. What Amazon does do is encourage vendors to offer Prime. If they figure out on their own to offset their costs by building shipping cost into the item, well that's expected. Their risk is that for non-prime customers, they will be $3.99 higher than the competition after shipping.

As a consumer, I always check my options. If an item is $10 with $3.99 shipping and another is $14.50 with Prime, I can see that very clearly and make an educated decision. There's even a little window on the item page that tells you all competing prices and shipping charges.

And in most cases I still go with Prime if the difference is a buck or less or a small percentage because I've found their 2-day shipping to be extremely reliable. However, if I can get save a substantial amount and can deal with the wait, I'll go with the non-prime option. Amazingly, Amazon gives me that option.

Well said. this is how I feel. I use Prime 95% of the time but occasionally I go a cheaper Non-prime route if I can wait on the items to be delivered.

She isn't even bitching about Amazon prices. She's complaining about third-party prices sold through Amazon's site. For those that don't know, anyone can sell through Amazon. It's like a giant swap-meet behind the scenes. If you search straight to an item that Amazon carries, you see Amazon's normal price. If you look at the other offers, however, you can see other people offering the same item for various prices.

In this case, the noble and respected item is $12.92 with free Prime shipping via Amazon.

The third parties are offering it anywhere from $8.64 + $4 shipping (roughly the same price as Amazon, but much slower shipping) to $12.75 + free (actually less than Amazon), to $24.98 +$12.99 for slow shipping ( ). In some cases, cheap items that are in print and readily available are sold by parties at anywhere from a fraction of the retail to many, many times retail. Check out this fine seller, for instance. Plenty for $10 books for only $200.

As with anything, you have to use your brain when shopping. And if you think that Amazon and any other mail-order retailer doesn't consider shipping costs when pricing items, you're nuts.

Blackhawk, really do like the use of the faceless smiles

KKBlue wrote:Blackhawk, really do like the use of the faceless smiles

For me, Prime isn't merely about saving on shipping, but buying more things at lower prices that I know will come quick enough to serve a fairly immediate need or impulse buy. It makes Amazon a more viable retail option in many cases.

I use the 2-day shipping, I use the streaming. Not crazy about the price hike but it still makes sense for me.

And I'm late to the game but here's my order history:
2005: 2 (first item orderd was Half Life 2)
2006: 2
2007: 1
2008: 4
2009: 8
2010: 16
-----------------ACTIVATE PRIME-----------------------
2011: 32
2012: 39
2013: 57
2014: 9

Amazon claims shipping costs are the difference between a customer being profitable for them or not. The funny thing is now to offset the rising price, I will use Amazon even more, and probably become a bigger drain on their profits.

I've never used their streaming service; the entire value of the service for me has to come from savings on shipping.

Jeff V wrote:For me, Prime isn't merely about saving on shipping, but buying more things at lower prices that I know will come quick enough to serve a fairly immediate need or impulse buy. It makes Amazon a more viable retail option in many cases.

That's actually a really good way of putting it.

I just canceled my membership. I might get it again at some point, but right now benefits doesn't cover price increase for me.

...My price increase also doesn't kick in until November, so I've got plenty of time to reconsider between now and then.

Prices increase over time. If they did it again next year, I'd have a problem with it, but first increase in nine years? That's reasonable, and it is still a bargain for me, as I'd spend well over $100 per year for regular shipping if I didn't have it.

Hot tip: turn off auto-renew, then send yourself a Prime gift to arrive just prior to expiration. Cost: $79.

Zaxxon wrote:Hot tip: turn off auto-renew, then send yourself a Prime gift to arrive just prior to expiration. Cost: $79.

What is Prime gift?

NVM, figured it out. It's under gift cards, in the column on the left.

Smoove_B wrote:

telcta wrote:Did yours just recently renew? Looks like mine is renewing this May at $99.

Yes, it just renewed in October of 2013. They let me know that I'll be charged $79 this coming October, but 10/15 it will be $99.

Strange. Mine renews in November and the email said it would be $99 when I renew.

HBO bringing shows to Amazon Prime:

Amazon just announced an agreement that makes Prime Instant Video the only strictly-online place to get certain HBO shows on-demand. The list includes favorites like The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, The Wire, Big Love, Boardwalk Empire, True Blood, and more—though it doesn't include Game of Thrones.

The deal makes Amazon Prime Instant Video the exclusive online-only place to get those shows, with previous seasons of HBO originals like Girls, The Newsroom, and Veep coming available as the multi-year agreement goes on. Shows will become available starting on May 21st.

BOOM HEADSHOT

No GoT? Another unhelpful benefit since I can't drop the channel.

I'm sure they're show up eventually, but as their leading cash cow I wouldn't expect them to license out the show just yet. Then again, maybe the older seasons will start showing up next year.

Regardless, it's huge news.

Jeff V wrote:No GoT? Another unhelpful benefit since I can't drop the channel.

Can't or won't?

I don't care about HBO shows at all and it's still of interest to me. Since I'm paying for Prime anyway, it's an added resource should I ever want to watch one of those shows. Might be of major iterest to the wife, not sure if she watches any of that.

I've never seen The Wire and now will be able to correct that. Well done!

LawBeefaroni wrote:

Jeff V wrote:No GoT? Another unhelpful benefit since I can't drop the channel.

Can't or won't?

I don't care about HBO shows at all and it's still of interest to me. Since I'm paying for Prime anyway, it's an added resource should I ever want to watch one of those shows. Might be of major iterest to the wife, not sure if she watches any of that.

Without another option to watch Game of Thrones, can't. The other show we watch, True Blood, apparently will be available.