6 ms·

They are really trying to force you into signing up for prime, aren't they? I cancelled my prime subscription at the start of the year. Some thoughts: - I buy

by kdamken 11y ago

They are really trying to force you into signing up for prime, aren't they? I cancelled my prime subscription at the start of the year. Some thoughts: - I buy less stuff on impulse. Since the price limit is (or was) $35 for free shipping, I usually have to wait until there are enough things I really want/need before ordering. - The pricing is often better other places. Normally Amazon's non prime price will be comparable, but then shipping fees will be like 7 or 8 bucks, while other places have cheaper, faster, or even free shipping. - If you do have prime, not everything with prime has free shipping. For small things they have "add on items", which don't ship to you until you have $25 worth of stuff in your cart. It wasn't always like this, and it was a big negative for me. I had signed up for prime because I didn't want to pay for quick shipping. Now I had to wait until there were other things I needed to hit their arbitrary number. I ran the numbers over my three year subscription period with them and it turned out I wasn't buying enough stuff to make the math work. Maybe when it was $79, but at the current price it's just not worth it. It's like they're going out of their way to piss off customers.

13of40 11y ago
> I buy less stuff on impulse. I've always got a couple of running "projects" and it's really nice to have Prime if I find out I need to buy a 20 Mhz oscillator, or a magneto cover gasket, or a pink buggy whip mid-stream.
- kdamken 11y ago
  I know what you mean - that's why I was so disappointed when they started marking small things "Add on items". Suddenly I needed to make it a $25 order just to get the free shipping.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
frik 11y ago
The Prime-nag-screen on every checkout is so annoying as well. The "no thanks" cancel link is very small and changed its location the last few months. Increasing the delivery time just to introduce Prime (I lived in an early test region of Prime back then). Loyal customers that buy from the online shop since 1999, don't count anymore. If I as customer decide that I don't want your subscription service, better respect it!
- TD-Linux 11y ago
  Don't worry, as a Prime member they just replace that nag screen with one to watch Prime Video.
  - ascagnel_ 11y ago
    Prime Video, and some of the other non-shipping Prime services, are really getting on my nerves. They can't be cheap to operate and generally have a limited-enough selection that I don't bother checking them anymore (for example, the only notable books on their Kindle Lending Library service are Harry Potter and The Hunger Games, while everything else pushes you to the for-pay Kindle Unlimited). Add to that the awful UI work they do (they mix Prime and non-Prime, for-pay video, the completely confusing Amazon Music interface, etc), and it's a boondoggle they need to seriously re-think. The flip-side of that is they do run some programming that likely wouldn't find a home anywhere else (Transparent is excellent, and I highly recommend watching it if you'd like something to challenge your world-view).
- CydeWeys 11y ago
  Amazon uses a surprising number of dark UI patterns considering how solid their market dominance is. And they really push their branded credit cards, too. I'm not interested and I never have been, but I've still been forced to turn these offers down for more than ten years now.
chubot 11y ago
Yup, I also cancelled my prime subscription, for the exact same reasons as you. Their prices aren't as good as they used to be -- I shop around now. All this stupid "add-on" shipping stuff is silly and was making my life a bigger hassle. I like Amazon because it was quick and efficient to buy, but that seemed to cause unnecessary friction. And the real reason is that they made it very difficult to cancel Prime! 5 months into my membership, there was no way to cancel at the 1 year mark. They would only provide the option to cancel NOW, which is ridiclous. I actually had to put in a special request to customer service to do this. That was ridiculous and really changed my opinion of Amazon as a customer-focused company. It was like AOL tactics from the 90's.
- asheldon 11y ago
  "there was no way to cancel at the 1 year mark" From personal experience, if you cancel "now", it simply doesn't renew at the one year mark. You still get the prime benefits you already paid for until then.
  - cfcef 11y ago
    Ditto. I signed up for the free Prime offer, after a while decided it wasn't going to be worthwhile for me (a lot of the total delay between ordering and receiving seems to be on Amazon's warehouses' end of things, and not USPS/UPS physically moving it to my house), canceled, and kept using it for the rest of the month without problem.
- tekromancr 11y ago
  If you cancel, you get a check for the prorated service you didn't use.
x0x0 11y ago
I have a different reaction. I view prime plus the occasional markup as a convenience fee. I'm paying to not spend an hour to 90 minutes of my life driving to the (poorly stocked) Target near me, hunting for the item I want that they may or may not have in stock, checking out, and driving back home. And I'm ok with that.
- freehunter 11y ago
  And to add to that, I'm not hunting around the Internet for the best deal, because I don't want to hand my card number out to everyone online. I'm willing to pay a little more to know who has my credit card number and who doesn't. The time it takes me to cancel a card, get a new one, and change all my auto-payments to reflect the new card is worth a few dollars more. I didn't get a Raspberry Pi at launch because I had never heard of RS Components or Element 14, and I sure as hell wasn't given my card number to someone I didn't know. If it's not on Amazon, Newegg, Sparkfun, or Adafruit, I don't need it.
  - DanBC 11y ago
    > because I had never heard of RS Components or Element 14, and I sure as hell wasn't given my card number to someone I didn't know Farnell is significantly larger than Newegg or sparkfun or adafruit (even if you combine them). RPi distributes via Farnell or RS because many schools and colleges - the target audience for original RPi - will have accounts at RS or Farnell already.
- emodendroket 11y ago
  Yeah, spending hours to save ten bucks here and there doesn't appeal to me.
CodeWriter23 11y ago
I dumped Prime when they raised the price to $99/yr. I have been able to get just about everything I need via eBay with Fast 'n Free shipping and usually pretty quickly if I shop around a bit and look for merchants close to me. I logged into my Amazon account to look up a part number the other day and discovered I hadn't bought a single thing from them for over a year.
ascorbic 11y ago
Do they have Add-on Items in the US too? They're incredibly annoying. They still show up when you filter for Prime only, but you need to spend £20 to get free Prime shipping. This is even if you're ordering other Prime stuff so already have a shipment coming.
verytrivial 11y ago
I let my Prime trial subscription lapse for these same reasons, plus the apparently requirement that I update my two x laptops and TVs to be DRM compliant to stream Amazon Video. The non-DRM capable resolution was worse than Youtube 240p. No chance.

by kdamken 11y ago

13of40 11y ago

> I buy less stuff on impulse. I've always got a couple of running "projects" and it's really nice to have Prime if I find out I need to buy a 20 Mhz oscillator, or a magneto cover gasket, or a pink buggy whip mid-stream.

kdamken 11y ago
I know what you mean - that's why I was so disappointed when they started marking small things "Add on items". Suddenly I needed to make it a $25 order just to get the free shipping.

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

frik 11y ago

The Prime-nag-screen on every checkout is so annoying as well. The "no thanks" cancel link is very small and changed its location the last few months. Increasing the delivery time just to introduce Prime (I lived in an early test region of Prime back then). Loyal customers that buy from the online shop since 1999, don't count anymore. If I as customer decide that I don't want your subscription service, better respect it!

TD-Linux 11y ago
Don't worry, as a Prime member they just replace that nag screen with one to watch Prime Video.
- ascagnel_ 11y ago
  Prime Video, and some of the other non-shipping Prime services, are really getting on my nerves. They can't be cheap to operate and generally have a limited-enough selection that I don't bother checking them anymore (for example, the only notable books on their Kindle Lending Library service are Harry Potter and The Hunger Games, while everything else pushes you to the for-pay Kindle Unlimited). Add to that the awful UI work they do (they mix Prime and non-Prime, for-pay video, the completely confusing Amazon Music interface, etc), and it's a boondoggle they need to seriously re-think. The flip-side of that is they do run some programming that likely wouldn't find a home anywhere else (Transparent is excellent, and I highly recommend watching it if you'd like something to challenge your world-view).
CydeWeys 11y ago
Amazon uses a surprising number of dark UI patterns considering how solid their market dominance is. And they really push their branded credit cards, too. I'm not interested and I never have been, but I've still been forced to turn these offers down for more than ten years now.

chubot 11y ago

Yup, I also cancelled my prime subscription, for the exact same reasons as you. Their prices aren't as good as they used to be -- I shop around now. All this stupid "add-on" shipping stuff is silly and was making my life a bigger hassle. I like Amazon because it was quick and efficient to buy, but that seemed to cause unnecessary friction. And the real reason is that they made it very difficult to cancel Prime! 5 months into my membership, there was no way to cancel at the 1 year mark. They would only provide the option to cancel NOW, which is ridiclous. I actually had to put in a special request to customer service to do this. That was ridiculous and really changed my opinion of Amazon as a customer-focused company. It was like AOL tactics from the 90's.

asheldon 11y ago
"there was no way to cancel at the 1 year mark" From personal experience, if you cancel "now", it simply doesn't renew at the one year mark. You still get the prime benefits you already paid for until then.
- cfcef 11y ago
  Ditto. I signed up for the free Prime offer, after a while decided it wasn't going to be worthwhile for me (a lot of the total delay between ordering and receiving seems to be on Amazon's warehouses' end of things, and not USPS/UPS physically moving it to my house), canceled, and kept using it for the rest of the month without problem.
tekromancr 11y ago
If you cancel, you get a check for the prorated service you didn't use.

x0x0 11y ago

I have a different reaction. I view prime plus the occasional markup as a convenience fee. I'm paying to not spend an hour to 90 minutes of my life driving to the (poorly stocked) Target near me, hunting for the item I want that they may or may not have in stock, checking out, and driving back home. And I'm ok with that.

freehunter 11y ago
And to add to that, I'm not hunting around the Internet for the best deal, because I don't want to hand my card number out to everyone online. I'm willing to pay a little more to know who has my credit card number and who doesn't. The time it takes me to cancel a card, get a new one, and change all my auto-payments to reflect the new card is worth a few dollars more. I didn't get a Raspberry Pi at launch because I had never heard of RS Components or Element 14, and I sure as hell wasn't given my card number to someone I didn't know. If it's not on Amazon, Newegg, Sparkfun, or Adafruit, I don't need it.
- DanBC 11y ago
  > because I had never heard of RS Components or Element 14, and I sure as hell wasn't given my card number to someone I didn't know Farnell is significantly larger than Newegg or sparkfun or adafruit (even if you combine them). RPi distributes via Farnell or RS because many schools and colleges - the target audience for original RPi - will have accounts at RS or Farnell already.
emodendroket 11y ago
Yeah, spending hours to save ten bucks here and there doesn't appeal to me.

CodeWriter23 11y ago

I dumped Prime when they raised the price to $99/yr. I have been able to get just about everything I need via eBay with Fast 'n Free shipping and usually pretty quickly if I shop around a bit and look for merchants close to me. I logged into my Amazon account to look up a part number the other day and discovered I hadn't bought a single thing from them for over a year.

ascorbic 11y ago

Do they have Add-on Items in the US too? They're incredibly annoying. They still show up when you filter for Prime only, but you need to spend £20 to get free Prime shipping. This is even if you're ordering other Prime stuff so already have a shipment coming.

verytrivial 11y ago

I let my Prime trial subscription lapse for these same reasons, plus the apparently requirement that I update my two x laptops and TVs to be DRM compliant to stream Amazon Video. The non-DRM capable resolution was worse than Youtube 240p. No chance.