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Amazon blocks non-Prime members from buying certain video games

156 points by tomtoise 10y ago

__david__ 10y ago
This is a weird move. I think if I didn't already have prime, I'd just go somewhere else rather than be motivated to subscribe. Hopefully this is just an experiment—I suspect this is ultimately going to be self defeating.
- rogerbinns 10y ago
  It is majorly self defeating. A transaction on Amazon has very little friction, because they already have your payment details, you have a history and you know the quirks of the site. By forcing people to consider alternatives, it is making people experience that initial friction elsewhere, but once they are setup there the friction is less. It won't take very long to discover other retailers have better prices, better shipping and less quirky sites. Essentially this is nice gift to Amazon's competitors. Amazon will find out just how "sticky" those competitors are, but this stills seems silly.
  - jonlucc 10y ago
    Also, Amazon should want to know everything I buy to better offer me value that allows them to get more sales from me.
- ocdtrekkie 10y ago
  They've been doing it for over a year, so it's very unlikely it's only an experiment. The Amazon forums thread complaining about it has 267 participants, and was started in December of 2014. https://www.amazon.com/forum/amazon/ref=cm_cd_notf_thread?_encoding=UTF8&cdForum=Fx1UE1R6VSVMXK7&cdPage=16&cdThread=Tx2BC0NP5Y2RKMW https://www.amazon.com/forum/amazon/ref=cm_cd_notf_thread?_e...
- startling 10y ago
  One explanation: * People who buy video games on amazon and don't have prime aren't likely to get prime. * They're losing money on the free shipping offer (given video games tend to be >$35, may have thinner margins than other products). I'm not saying this is their reasoning, I'm just saying it could make sense.
dk1138 10y ago
I imagine it won't take them many AAA releases to have the numbers to see if this was a good idea or not. I'm fine with Amazon finding more ways to make prime worth it without taking away features from prime members or increasing membership cost.
jerf 10y ago
I don't get it. As an incentive to sign up for Prime it makes no sense; Prime needs to offer me things I can't get elsewhere (or at least not for the same price), not return to me things that I can easily get elsewhere. I just spot-checked Amazon US's price for GTA 5, 39.88 [1], and it's the exact same price at Wal-Mart [2], so it's not an exclusive deal or something. (Nor did I spend several minutes hunting for a comparable price; it was the third hit on Google for "Grand Theft Auto 5 PS4" for me. Google being what it is now, YMMV.) I don't mean "this is a bad idea". I mean "I don't get it". What's the point? [1]: http://www.amazon.com/Grand-Theft-Auto-V-PlayStation-4/dp/B00KVSQ848/ref=sr_1_1_twi_gam_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1461343449&sr=8-1&keywords=grand+theft+auto+5 http://www.amazon.com/Grand-Theft-Auto-V-PlayStation-4/dp/B0... [2]: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Grand-Theft-Auto-V-PS4/41049186 http://www.walmart.com/ip/Grand-Theft-Auto-V-PS4/41049186
- aluhut 10y ago
  I guess they try to hit people like me. I have only one online shopping account connected to my real name. It's on Amazon. Back then I got it to buy books in english. It worked pretty well for some time with other products too. However. Seeing this, I would rather pirate the game then allow them to force me into Prime. Thanks to the messed up DHL delivery guys here I already started to discover shops in my area again. Especially for electronics and other fragile products.
  - oldmanjay 10y ago
    This has the be the weakest justification I have ever seen for piracy and believe me, I've seen a few.
    - aluhut 10y ago
      It wasn't supposed to be one. I assumed the sentence following this would outline my usual way to acquire products besides amazon. I wanted to show that even if I had no choice, I wouldn't buy into this.
- tehwebguy 10y ago
raverbashing 10y ago
To be honest people shouldn't be complaining they can't get it from Amazon, but getting it from someone else It's that simple
- mikeash 10y ago
  Why not both? Complaining is useful to the target of the complaint (if they care to pay attention) and often gets results. I don't understand why so many people seem to think that complaining is somehow not a legitimate reaction to this sort of thing.
  - raverbashing 10y ago
    It is certainly a legitimate reaction But as much as I like Amazon I'm not going to give them free consulting in such a divisive decision
awinter-py 10y ago
Weird but not surprising -- not that different from HBO / netflix negotiating exclusive streaming rights to content. Spotify and youtube's 'deal' departments are more important (and more controversial) than their coders / PMs. If you don't like this, steer clear of strings-attached content platforms.
- knd775 10y ago
  These games aren't exclusive in any way. They can be bought from a large from a large number of other retailers for a comparable price.
  - awinter-py 10y ago
    well, they're exclusive in 1 way -- amzn seems to be enforcing the party line that these are 'exclusive items'. If you're a shopper with limited attention, the headline matters more than the comparison shopping outcome.
potatolicious 10y ago
This seems oddly customer-hostile, which is something I've grown to expect from tech companies but not Amazon in specific. One can't help but wonder if the damage this does to the brand outweighs the strategic gains through Prime subscriptions. After all, selection and availability is a huge part of Amazon's secret sauce to success, more so than customer service, shipping speed, or any other concern. If customers lose the ability to assume that they can get anything on Amazon, it's hugely damaging to the brand.
- jeebow 10y ago
  It echoes their decision to not carry the AppleTV, and to direct searches for AppleTVs to the FireTV. It's arrogant and customer-hostile. And ultimately, the result in my case was that I had a perfectly pleasant buying experience with Apple.
- Fennhella 10y ago
  Seems like a test to see how the practice goes. Really don't know what the hypothesis or plan is that would lead to good conclusions though.
- gdulli 10y ago
  I never got Prime before because the cost would amortize to an expensive shipping rate for me based on how many orders I make. And I didn't need the other Prime benefits. But their hard selling it to the point of hostility to non-Prime customers (higher prices) has added an element of stubbornness to my objection to it. Both Prime and ordering on Amazon in general.
  - cbhl 10y ago
    Once a user has Prime, they tend to order more from Amazon.
    - gdulli 10y ago
      Well sure. If loyalty programs didn't overall favor the merchant, they wouldn't be offered.
spo81rty 10y ago
Maybe they are doing this on some very low margin products? Are brand new video games low margin?
- alttab 10y ago
  My guess is they are moving loss leaders towards customers that have a higher life-time value, and want to minimize sales to unloyal customers that cost them on a transaction basis.
  - takno 10y ago
    They lost me from Prime when they started doing ads before the programmes and messing up every other delivery. If they want to lose the hundreds of pounds of orders I continue to make, and the hundreds more pounds of AWS spend, they have certainly managed to find an approach to achieve that
- tantalor 10y ago
  Except Far Cry Primal, those aren't new games.
gdulli 10y ago
Ever since there started being discounts for Prime-only members I knew it was the beginning of the end of my using Amazon. My last online order was with Walgreens. I never tried them before but I googled for the product I had in my Amazon cart, it was cheaper at Walgreens, I added a few things to get up to $35 for free shipping, those things were also cheaper than on Amazon. I got the delivery faster than my last few free standard shipping orders with Amazon. For a long time Amazon was the "default" in my mind for shopping online and I see now there's no reason it should be that way anymore.
- AnkhMorporkian 10y ago
  You might look into PriceBlink. It's a pretty slick extension that automatically finds better deals for the items you're browsing. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/priceblink/aoiidodopnnhiflaflbfeblnojefhigh?hl=en-US https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/priceblink/aoiidod...
- the_mitsuhiko 10y ago
  > Ever since there started being discounts for Prime-only members I knew it was the beginning of the end of my using Amazon. For me the opposite happened: i'm now shopping more at amazon than before because I decided to subscribe to prime again. Here (Austria) prime now delivers in one or two days even to the most remote regions which previously was something they did not really do. I also get instant video, amazon music and a bunch of other stuff thrown in for free and the returns are amazing. The value I get out of it is very much worth it. I don't see any other online store catching up with this service any time soon.
- vlozko 10y ago
  Somewhat similar experience but with the old brick and mortar. I get taxed on Amazon purchases and a speaker package ended up costing the same as buying from Amazon and even then I was buying through a reseller on Amazon whereas I can get stuff handled faster and easier should I have issues. Besides, Best Buy price matches Amazon nowadays anyway.
mikeash 10y ago
Amazon put a lot of effort over the years into establishing themselves as the best place to buy nearly everything online. Now they seem bound and determined to throw that title away. Between rising prices, add-on items, confusing marketplace sellers, a refusal to sell certain products that compete with Amazon branded products, and now this ridiculous Prime tie-in, I find it more and more difficult to find a reason to buy stuff from them.
- rudolf0 10y ago
  Trying to shove "subscribe & save" in my face 3-4 times during the process of choosing and purchasing a product is annoying, too. Yes, I get it, you make more money in the long term when people subscribe. I wish there was a global opt-out for it.
  - killbrad 10y ago
    I've never noticed this actually. Example of a product that does this? I tried Sub&Save for Tide a while back but the one I wanted kept getting cancelled and I was offered an alternative so I stopped trying and went with buying it at LocalStore,Inc.
    - phil21 10y ago
      Yep. This has made Subscribe & Save nearly useless for me. The convenience factor is entirely wiped out when I run out of laundry detergent because I missed the e-mail stating the product is now no longer eligible. Amazon became a killer app for me (and most, I presume) due too the UIx. You clicked a button and you generally got pretty-close-to-cheapest priced product delivered very quickly. Now it's just getting complicated, and you have to expend energy to ensure you're not getting actively ripped off by looking at only Prime items/etc.
- gdulli 10y ago
  When you factor in the well-documented pattern of how badly they treat their employees (both warehouse and corporate) it gets even harder to justify.
CM30 10y ago
Wait, what? This is ridiculous. Amazon is a shop first and foremost, and this is exactly the sort of thing that I'll drive me to other alternatives. It's especially silly for games, where the console manufacturers offer their own stores (both for digital and physical copies of the games). Heck, if you're buying them digital, it's about as little friction as using Amazon, since they have your payment details from other online services you use through the system (like Xbox Live).
- giaour 10y ago
  You can still buy these games on the same catalog page if you're not a prime member from a third-party seller.
- dingaling 10y ago
  It's not just games: I tried to buy a Panasonic bread machine on Amazon UK back in January but it was a 'Prime Exclusive'. I bought it instead from Argos nearby for the same price. A few days later it was no longer 'exclusive'. Presumably just more Amazon psychological experimentation. Edit: model is SD-2500
  - longwave 10y ago
    Similarly, Pampers nappies have only been available to Prime customers for some months now.
    - ekianjo 10y ago
      Not everywhere. In Japan they are available to everyone still.
- pessimizer 10y ago
  Here's some math for you; I don't know how much Prime is in the UK, but assuming the cost is close to the US: Non-Prime postage = $11.00, Prime for a month = $11.00. $11 - $11 = they will lose zero sales from doing this.
joesmo 10y ago
Still not as bad as when they stole my Prime membership money.
mkhalil 10y ago
My assumption is if they had enough Prime members buying these exclusive titles they could probably just sell at cost from day 1, therefore driving more traffic to their website. This would obviously hurt local game stores considering they could never do that without a "membership". Although, some stores like BestBuy already do this sort of thing.
zzleeper 10y ago
Is there a reason for non-console players to even buy in DVD form anymore, instead of Steam or similar markets? I mean, I get that if you live in Canada or Australia your bandwidth sucks and you have caps, but for most cases download speeds are way faster than DVD shipping speeds.
- throwanem 10y ago
  I've heard a few people express concerns around whether they actually own Steam games, and whether those games might suddenly be pulled or otherwise made unavailable without the courtesy of a purchase price refund. I'm not entirely unsympathetic, but on the other hand, to the best of my knowledge that's never actually happened, so...
  - scintill76 10y ago
    Maybe not Steam or games, but Amazon has remotely pulled back digital books they sold to their customers (with refund though): http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/technology/companies/18amazon.html?_r=0 http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/technology/companies/18ama...
    - throwanem 10y ago
      I know. That's Amazon, though, not Steam.
  - mikeash 10y ago
    If you dispute a credit card charge with Steam, they'll ban your entire account even if the charge just relates to one game out of many in your library. There's also the possibility of bugs or other errors causing items to disappear from the library. Searching around, it sounds like it's happened to a few people.
  - rodgerd 10y ago
    > whether those games might suddenly be pulled or otherwise made unavailable without the courtesy of a purchase price refund. A legit concern, but so many physical games seem to be tied to shit like uplay I'm not sure avoiding Steam gets you anything.
Filligree 10y ago
I can't sign up for Prime. They don't offer it in the country I'm in. So this amounts to saying that they don't want my money. Very well; there are other options.
- snegu 10y ago
  Highly unlikely that they're going to implement this in countries that don't have Prime.
  - Filligree 10y ago
    There is no Amazon site for Ireland. I can buy things from any of their sites. However... - Amazon.co.uk refuses to ship a number of items outside of Great Britain. - Amazon.com has expensive shipping (obviously), and now this thing. - Amazon.de doesn't usually help. Besides, I can't read German. Looking at the Grand Theft Auto example, it's available from Amazon.com but not Amazon.co.uk; the latter, as mentioned, refuses to ship it to me. Amazon.com... might not; I can't tell, now can I? It refuses to let me add to cart without having a Prime membership. So it looks to me like they've done exactly that.
    - 6581 10y ago
      > Amazon.de doesn't usually help. Besides, I can't read German. The German Amazon site is available in English too. http://www.amazon.de/gp/switch-language/homepage.html/ref=cs_switchlang?ie=UTF8&language=en_GB http://www.amazon.de/gp/switch-language/homepage.html/ref=cs...
      - Filligree 10y ago
        Well, the site controls are. The item descriptions usually aren't.
    - dukoid 10y ago
      On amazon.co.uk, you can frequently find a different seller that ships to your country though. I often get the message "this item can't be shipped to Switzerland". Then I click on "new and used from..." and there is the same item only one pence more expensive, but I can get it shipped to CH. No idea why Amazon can't be bothered to display the one I actually can order to CH first.
Cozumel 10y ago
Only seems to be the US site, at least for now! It really makes no sense though! https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00KL4AROO/ref=s9_simh_gw_g63_i2_r?pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=desktop-1&pf_rd_r=31K02W4P4CMAV0GFPD5K&pf_rd_t=36701&pf_rd_p=867551787&pf_rd_i=desktop https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00KL4AROO/ref=s9_simh_g...
- the_mitsuhiko 10y ago
  Amazon UK had prime exclusive content for a while already. Some baby products for sure.
justinlardinois 10y ago
As someone who buys video games on Amazon relatively often and isn't a Prime member, this is nothing new. Every now and then a game will drop in price a bit but be Prime Exclusive, and then a week or two later it will go back to its original price and be available to everyone again. It's mildly annoying, but I think this article makes it sound like a much bigger deal than it is.
Yabood 10y ago
They actually do the same thing with other items as well. I was trying to buy a Dell monitor the other day, and it was reserved for Prime members only.
pessimizer 10y ago
This is another experiment to test their monopoly power (like the conflict with Hachette.) If it's successful, expect it to happen across more product ranges. Their monopoly power is built into their valuation; if they can't make it pay, they will eventually crash.
strathmeyer 10y ago
"Become a Patron member for exclusive content!"
pyb 10y ago
I've also noticed Amazon now uses dark patterns to try and force buyers to sign up for Prime. The current strategy is clearly to pressure users into signing up Prime by absolutely any means available.
kdamken 10y ago
So does anyone have a less crappy alternative to Amazon? After canceling my prime membership this year it's gotten even worse trying to use them. Their shipping fees for non-prime users are insane.
- goldenkey 10y ago
  Walmart.com and Walgreens.com are legit. Walgreens has 20% everything coupons quite often and advertises the coupon code at the very top of every page.
- 7952 10y ago
  I have had good luck using random places found on Google Shopping. I always use Paypal to avoid entering credit card details and it is usually faster than Amazon. There are lots of well designed sites out their which actually show product details for more obscure things.
- xigency 10y ago
  Even if you can get free shipping on Amazon items, the amount of time they spend stalling the shipment is ridiculous. It's better to boycott Amazon because of their anti-consumer attitudes.
  - adrr 10y ago
    I doubt they purposely stalling the shipment. When they are waving orders at their DCs. Priority of standard shipping is last. Some companies charge to be in the first waves, like newegg and their expedited processing.
    - xigency 10y ago
      Well, there are both a Quora response and a Forbes article decrying their regression in free shipping (or non-Prime) timeliness, with some people suggesting that it is intentional. Most recently I made an order of three items from Amazon and had the chance to cancel all three items two weeks later, before it made it out the door during the "preparing your shipment" phase, and buy them from a local retailer the same day. Several years ago, it was the case that any items bought from Amazon were processed within two to three days, and the shipping carrier was responsible for any delays. It seems like a strategy to convert more customers into $99/year Prime subscribers. I don't know why either. It seems like they are reminding their customers that online shopping is not more convenient than the alternative.
bdcravens 10y ago
Sounds no different than WalMart/Sam's Club.
akeck 10y ago
They are doing this with physical CDs as well. For a recent album, I could buy the MP3 version, but I could not buy the CD without a Prime membership.
thieving_magpie 10y ago
In Bezos 2016 Investor Letter, I didn't think "We want Prime to be such a good value, you’d be irresponsible not to be a member." meant this.
ocdtrekkie 10y ago
Complained about this a year ago, few people cared: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9565929 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9565929 What's so amazing is that they're only hurting their own business. Nobody sane is going to buy a $99 Prime subscription to buy a $10 Blu-ray or a $60 game. We're just going to discover that Target or Best Buy sells it online for the same price and offers free shipping, and buy it there.
vinceguidry 10y ago
If Amazon decided to go the Costco / Sam's Club route and charge just for access to their store, I'd probably just shrug and pony it up. I mean, I already pay for it now, and I'm not doing any analysis to find out how much I'm using it and what it's saving me vs. other options. There are essentially two different kinds of experiences I have when buying goods and services online. Amazon-tier and everything else. I prize the experience of using Amazon so much that they'd have to double the cost of Prime before I'd even start to consider switching. Amazon has become part of the infrastructure of my life, like Google and my local coffee shop. The switching costs simply and utterly dwarf the cost of doing business with them.
MichaelGG 10y ago
And remember, Amazon blocks even Prime members from buying Chromecast or Apple TV devices. Then they lie about the reasons, ranging from: "we're out of stock" to "too many user complaints" to "we aren't licensed to sell this" and on and on. Amazon no longer cares about the customer as top priority. If you're a Prime member, quit. I've been a customer since 2003 and now am looking at alternatives. I even try to find books outside of the Kindle store, though I note they have strong lockin there. (I never thought it'd be a problem, since Amazon used to always put the customer so far up a pedestal.)
jalami 10y ago
I canceled my Prime membership a while back now for multiple reasons, but this is frosting on the cake. In order for me to cancel my auto-renewal I had to jump through scary 'cancel your membership' prompts to find the question about auto-renewal. The company has gotten slimier and slimier. Exclusive markets are are what's wrong with browsers, video games, apps and the Internet today and now it jumps into the physical world as well. This isn't even about true exclusivity, which is a problem in itself, but more akin to crippleware. Non-prime members (still your customers) now have a worse experience than before. If companies that provide content and products just made it easier to find and purchase content and products, they wouldn't have to worry about locking in their customers.
throwzitaway 10y ago
I initially read it as 'non-Prime numbers' - it got me thinking.

156 points by tomtoise 10y ago

This is a weird move. I think if I didn't already have prime, I'd just go somewhere else rather than be motivated to subscribe. Hopefully this is just an experiment—I suspect this is ultimately going to be self defeating.

rogerbinns 10y ago
It is majorly self defeating. A transaction on Amazon has very little friction, because they already have your payment details, you have a history and you know the quirks of the site. By forcing people to consider alternatives, it is making people experience that initial friction elsewhere, but once they are setup there the friction is less. It won't take very long to discover other retailers have better prices, better shipping and less quirky sites. Essentially this is nice gift to Amazon's competitors. Amazon will find out just how "sticky" those competitors are, but this stills seems silly.
- jonlucc 10y ago
  Also, Amazon should want to know everything I buy to better offer me value that allows them to get more sales from me.
ocdtrekkie 10y ago
They've been doing it for over a year, so it's very unlikely it's only an experiment. The Amazon forums thread complaining about it has 267 participants, and was started in December of 2014. https://www.amazon.com/forum/amazon/ref=cm_cd_notf_thread?_encoding=UTF8&cdForum=Fx1UE1R6VSVMXK7&cdPage=16&cdThread=Tx2BC0NP5Y2RKMW https://www.amazon.com/forum/amazon/ref=cm_cd_notf_thread?_e...
startling 10y ago
One explanation: * People who buy video games on amazon and don't have prime aren't likely to get prime. * They're losing money on the free shipping offer (given video games tend to be >$35, may have thinner margins than other products). I'm not saying this is their reasoning, I'm just saying it could make sense.

dk1138 10y ago

I imagine it won't take them many AAA releases to have the numbers to see if this was a good idea or not. I'm fine with Amazon finding more ways to make prime worth it without taking away features from prime members or increasing membership cost.

jerf 10y ago

I don't get it. As an incentive to sign up for Prime it makes no sense; Prime needs to offer me things I can't get elsewhere (or at least not for the same price), not return to me things that I can easily get elsewhere. I just spot-checked Amazon US's price for GTA 5, 39.88 [1], and it's the exact same price at Wal-Mart [2], so it's not an exclusive deal or something. (Nor did I spend several minutes hunting for a comparable price; it was the third hit on Google for "Grand Theft Auto 5 PS4" for me. Google being what it is now, YMMV.) I don't mean "this is a bad idea". I mean "I don't get it". What's the point? [1]: http://www.amazon.com/Grand-Theft-Auto-V-PlayStation-4/dp/B00KVSQ848/ref=sr_1_1_twi_gam_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1461343449&sr=8-1&keywords=grand+theft+auto+5 http://www.amazon.com/Grand-Theft-Auto-V-PlayStation-4/dp/B0... [2]: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Grand-Theft-Auto-V-PS4/41049186 http://www.walmart.com/ip/Grand-Theft-Auto-V-PS4/41049186

aluhut 10y ago
I guess they try to hit people like me. I have only one online shopping account connected to my real name. It's on Amazon. Back then I got it to buy books in english. It worked pretty well for some time with other products too. However. Seeing this, I would rather pirate the game then allow them to force me into Prime. Thanks to the messed up DHL delivery guys here I already started to discover shops in my area again. Especially for electronics and other fragile products.
- oldmanjay 10y ago
  This has the be the weakest justification I have ever seen for piracy and believe me, I've seen a few.
  - aluhut 10y ago
    It wasn't supposed to be one. I assumed the sentence following this would outline my usual way to acquire products besides amazon. I wanted to show that even if I had no choice, I wouldn't buy into this.
tehwebguy 10y ago

raverbashing 10y ago

To be honest people shouldn't be complaining they can't get it from Amazon, but getting it from someone else It's that simple

mikeash 10y ago
Why not both? Complaining is useful to the target of the complaint (if they care to pay attention) and often gets results. I don't understand why so many people seem to think that complaining is somehow not a legitimate reaction to this sort of thing.
- raverbashing 10y ago
  It is certainly a legitimate reaction But as much as I like Amazon I'm not going to give them free consulting in such a divisive decision

awinter-py 10y ago

Weird but not surprising -- not that different from HBO / netflix negotiating exclusive streaming rights to content. Spotify and youtube's 'deal' departments are more important (and more controversial) than their coders / PMs. If you don't like this, steer clear of strings-attached content platforms.

knd775 10y ago
These games aren't exclusive in any way. They can be bought from a large from a large number of other retailers for a comparable price.
- awinter-py 10y ago
  well, they're exclusive in 1 way -- amzn seems to be enforcing the party line that these are 'exclusive items'. If you're a shopper with limited attention, the headline matters more than the comparison shopping outcome.

potatolicious 10y ago

This seems oddly customer-hostile, which is something I've grown to expect from tech companies but not Amazon in specific. One can't help but wonder if the damage this does to the brand outweighs the strategic gains through Prime subscriptions. After all, selection and availability is a huge part of Amazon's secret sauce to success, more so than customer service, shipping speed, or any other concern. If customers lose the ability to assume that they can get anything on Amazon, it's hugely damaging to the brand.

jeebow 10y ago
It echoes their decision to not carry the AppleTV, and to direct searches for AppleTVs to the FireTV. It's arrogant and customer-hostile. And ultimately, the result in my case was that I had a perfectly pleasant buying experience with Apple.
Fennhella 10y ago
Seems like a test to see how the practice goes. Really don't know what the hypothesis or plan is that would lead to good conclusions though.
gdulli 10y ago
I never got Prime before because the cost would amortize to an expensive shipping rate for me based on how many orders I make. And I didn't need the other Prime benefits. But their hard selling it to the point of hostility to non-Prime customers (higher prices) has added an element of stubbornness to my objection to it. Both Prime and ordering on Amazon in general.
- cbhl 10y ago
  Once a user has Prime, they tend to order more from Amazon.
  - gdulli 10y ago
    Well sure. If loyalty programs didn't overall favor the merchant, they wouldn't be offered.

spo81rty 10y ago

Maybe they are doing this on some very low margin products? Are brand new video games low margin?

alttab 10y ago
My guess is they are moving loss leaders towards customers that have a higher life-time value, and want to minimize sales to unloyal customers that cost them on a transaction basis.
- takno 10y ago
  They lost me from Prime when they started doing ads before the programmes and messing up every other delivery. If they want to lose the hundreds of pounds of orders I continue to make, and the hundreds more pounds of AWS spend, they have certainly managed to find an approach to achieve that
tantalor 10y ago
Except Far Cry Primal, those aren't new games.

gdulli 10y ago

Ever since there started being discounts for Prime-only members I knew it was the beginning of the end of my using Amazon. My last online order was with Walgreens. I never tried them before but I googled for the product I had in my Amazon cart, it was cheaper at Walgreens, I added a few things to get up to $35 for free shipping, those things were also cheaper than on Amazon. I got the delivery faster than my last few free standard shipping orders with Amazon. For a long time Amazon was the "default" in my mind for shopping online and I see now there's no reason it should be that way anymore.

AnkhMorporkian 10y ago
You might look into PriceBlink. It's a pretty slick extension that automatically finds better deals for the items you're browsing. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/priceblink/aoiidodopnnhiflaflbfeblnojefhigh?hl=en-US https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/priceblink/aoiidod...
the_mitsuhiko 10y ago
> Ever since there started being discounts for Prime-only members I knew it was the beginning of the end of my using Amazon. For me the opposite happened: i'm now shopping more at amazon than before because I decided to subscribe to prime again. Here (Austria) prime now delivers in one or two days even to the most remote regions which previously was something they did not really do. I also get instant video, amazon music and a bunch of other stuff thrown in for free and the returns are amazing. The value I get out of it is very much worth it. I don't see any other online store catching up with this service any time soon.
vlozko 10y ago
Somewhat similar experience but with the old brick and mortar. I get taxed on Amazon purchases and a speaker package ended up costing the same as buying from Amazon and even then I was buying through a reseller on Amazon whereas I can get stuff handled faster and easier should I have issues. Besides, Best Buy price matches Amazon nowadays anyway.

mikeash 10y ago

Amazon put a lot of effort over the years into establishing themselves as the best place to buy nearly everything online. Now they seem bound and determined to throw that title away. Between rising prices, add-on items, confusing marketplace sellers, a refusal to sell certain products that compete with Amazon branded products, and now this ridiculous Prime tie-in, I find it more and more difficult to find a reason to buy stuff from them.

rudolf0 10y ago
Trying to shove "subscribe & save" in my face 3-4 times during the process of choosing and purchasing a product is annoying, too. Yes, I get it, you make more money in the long term when people subscribe. I wish there was a global opt-out for it.
- killbrad 10y ago
  I've never noticed this actually. Example of a product that does this? I tried Sub&Save for Tide a while back but the one I wanted kept getting cancelled and I was offered an alternative so I stopped trying and went with buying it at LocalStore,Inc.
  - phil21 10y ago
    Yep. This has made Subscribe & Save nearly useless for me. The convenience factor is entirely wiped out when I run out of laundry detergent because I missed the e-mail stating the product is now no longer eligible. Amazon became a killer app for me (and most, I presume) due too the UIx. You clicked a button and you generally got pretty-close-to-cheapest priced product delivered very quickly. Now it's just getting complicated, and you have to expend energy to ensure you're not getting actively ripped off by looking at only Prime items/etc.
gdulli 10y ago
When you factor in the well-documented pattern of how badly they treat their employees (both warehouse and corporate) it gets even harder to justify.

CM30 10y ago

Wait, what? This is ridiculous. Amazon is a shop first and foremost, and this is exactly the sort of thing that I'll drive me to other alternatives. It's especially silly for games, where the console manufacturers offer their own stores (both for digital and physical copies of the games). Heck, if you're buying them digital, it's about as little friction as using Amazon, since they have your payment details from other online services you use through the system (like Xbox Live).

giaour 10y ago
You can still buy these games on the same catalog page if you're not a prime member from a third-party seller.
dingaling 10y ago
It's not just games: I tried to buy a Panasonic bread machine on Amazon UK back in January but it was a 'Prime Exclusive'. I bought it instead from Argos nearby for the same price. A few days later it was no longer 'exclusive'. Presumably just more Amazon psychological experimentation. Edit: model is SD-2500
- longwave 10y ago
  Similarly, Pampers nappies have only been available to Prime customers for some months now.
  - ekianjo 10y ago
    Not everywhere. In Japan they are available to everyone still.
pessimizer 10y ago
Here's some math for you; I don't know how much Prime is in the UK, but assuming the cost is close to the US: Non-Prime postage = $11.00, Prime for a month = $11.00. $11 - $11 = they will lose zero sales from doing this.

joesmo 10y ago

Still not as bad as when they stole my Prime membership money.

mkhalil 10y ago

My assumption is if they had enough Prime members buying these exclusive titles they could probably just sell at cost from day 1, therefore driving more traffic to their website. This would obviously hurt local game stores considering they could never do that without a "membership". Although, some stores like BestBuy already do this sort of thing.

zzleeper 10y ago

Is there a reason for non-console players to even buy in DVD form anymore, instead of Steam or similar markets? I mean, I get that if you live in Canada or Australia your bandwidth sucks and you have caps, but for most cases download speeds are way faster than DVD shipping speeds.

throwanem 10y ago
I've heard a few people express concerns around whether they actually own Steam games, and whether those games might suddenly be pulled or otherwise made unavailable without the courtesy of a purchase price refund. I'm not entirely unsympathetic, but on the other hand, to the best of my knowledge that's never actually happened, so...
- scintill76 10y ago
  Maybe not Steam or games, but Amazon has remotely pulled back digital books they sold to their customers (with refund though): http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/technology/companies/18amazon.html?_r=0 http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/technology/companies/18ama...
  - throwanem 10y ago
    I know. That's Amazon, though, not Steam.
- mikeash 10y ago
  If you dispute a credit card charge with Steam, they'll ban your entire account even if the charge just relates to one game out of many in your library. There's also the possibility of bugs or other errors causing items to disappear from the library. Searching around, it sounds like it's happened to a few people.
- rodgerd 10y ago
  > whether those games might suddenly be pulled or otherwise made unavailable without the courtesy of a purchase price refund. A legit concern, but so many physical games seem to be tied to shit like uplay I'm not sure avoiding Steam gets you anything.

Filligree 10y ago

I can't sign up for Prime. They don't offer it in the country I'm in. So this amounts to saying that they don't want my money. Very well; there are other options.

snegu 10y ago
Highly unlikely that they're going to implement this in countries that don't have Prime.
- Filligree 10y ago
  There is no Amazon site for Ireland. I can buy things from any of their sites. However... - Amazon.co.uk refuses to ship a number of items outside of Great Britain. - Amazon.com has expensive shipping (obviously), and now this thing. - Amazon.de doesn't usually help. Besides, I can't read German. Looking at the Grand Theft Auto example, it's available from Amazon.com but not Amazon.co.uk; the latter, as mentioned, refuses to ship it to me. Amazon.com... might not; I can't tell, now can I? It refuses to let me add to cart without having a Prime membership. So it looks to me like they've done exactly that.
  - 6581 10y ago
    > Amazon.de doesn't usually help. Besides, I can't read German. The German Amazon site is available in English too. http://www.amazon.de/gp/switch-language/homepage.html/ref=cs_switchlang?ie=UTF8&language=en_GB http://www.amazon.de/gp/switch-language/homepage.html/ref=cs...
    - Filligree 10y ago
      Well, the site controls are. The item descriptions usually aren't.
  - dukoid 10y ago
    On amazon.co.uk, you can frequently find a different seller that ships to your country though. I often get the message "this item can't be shipped to Switzerland". Then I click on "new and used from..." and there is the same item only one pence more expensive, but I can get it shipped to CH. No idea why Amazon can't be bothered to display the one I actually can order to CH first.

Cozumel 10y ago

Only seems to be the US site, at least for now! It really makes no sense though! https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00KL4AROO/ref=s9_simh_gw_g63_i2_r?pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=desktop-1&pf_rd_r=31K02W4P4CMAV0GFPD5K&pf_rd_t=36701&pf_rd_p=867551787&pf_rd_i=desktop https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00KL4AROO/ref=s9_simh_g...

the_mitsuhiko 10y ago
Amazon UK had prime exclusive content for a while already. Some baby products for sure.

justinlardinois 10y ago

As someone who buys video games on Amazon relatively often and isn't a Prime member, this is nothing new. Every now and then a game will drop in price a bit but be Prime Exclusive, and then a week or two later it will go back to its original price and be available to everyone again. It's mildly annoying, but I think this article makes it sound like a much bigger deal than it is.

Yabood 10y ago

They actually do the same thing with other items as well. I was trying to buy a Dell monitor the other day, and it was reserved for Prime members only.

pessimizer 10y ago

This is another experiment to test their monopoly power (like the conflict with Hachette.) If it's successful, expect it to happen across more product ranges. Their monopoly power is built into their valuation; if they can't make it pay, they will eventually crash.

strathmeyer 10y ago

"Become a Patron member for exclusive content!"

pyb 10y ago

I've also noticed Amazon now uses dark patterns to try and force buyers to sign up for Prime. The current strategy is clearly to pressure users into signing up Prime by absolutely any means available.

kdamken 10y ago

So does anyone have a less crappy alternative to Amazon? After canceling my prime membership this year it's gotten even worse trying to use them. Their shipping fees for non-prime users are insane.

goldenkey 10y ago
Walmart.com and Walgreens.com are legit. Walgreens has 20% everything coupons quite often and advertises the coupon code at the very top of every page.
7952 10y ago
I have had good luck using random places found on Google Shopping. I always use Paypal to avoid entering credit card details and it is usually faster than Amazon. There are lots of well designed sites out their which actually show product details for more obscure things.
xigency 10y ago
Even if you can get free shipping on Amazon items, the amount of time they spend stalling the shipment is ridiculous. It's better to boycott Amazon because of their anti-consumer attitudes.
- adrr 10y ago
  I doubt they purposely stalling the shipment. When they are waving orders at their DCs. Priority of standard shipping is last. Some companies charge to be in the first waves, like newegg and their expedited processing.
  - xigency 10y ago
    Well, there are both a Quora response and a Forbes article decrying their regression in free shipping (or non-Prime) timeliness, with some people suggesting that it is intentional. Most recently I made an order of three items from Amazon and had the chance to cancel all three items two weeks later, before it made it out the door during the "preparing your shipment" phase, and buy them from a local retailer the same day. Several years ago, it was the case that any items bought from Amazon were processed within two to three days, and the shipping carrier was responsible for any delays. It seems like a strategy to convert more customers into $99/year Prime subscribers. I don't know why either. It seems like they are reminding their customers that online shopping is not more convenient than the alternative.

bdcravens 10y ago

Sounds no different than WalMart/Sam's Club.

akeck 10y ago

They are doing this with physical CDs as well. For a recent album, I could buy the MP3 version, but I could not buy the CD without a Prime membership.

thieving_magpie 10y ago

In Bezos 2016 Investor Letter, I didn't think "We want Prime to be such a good value, you’d be irresponsible not to be a member." meant this.

ocdtrekkie 10y ago

Complained about this a year ago, few people cared: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9565929 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9565929 What's so amazing is that they're only hurting their own business. Nobody sane is going to buy a $99 Prime subscription to buy a $10 Blu-ray or a $60 game. We're just going to discover that Target or Best Buy sells it online for the same price and offers free shipping, and buy it there.

vinceguidry 10y ago

If Amazon decided to go the Costco / Sam's Club route and charge just for access to their store, I'd probably just shrug and pony it up. I mean, I already pay for it now, and I'm not doing any analysis to find out how much I'm using it and what it's saving me vs. other options. There are essentially two different kinds of experiences I have when buying goods and services online. Amazon-tier and everything else. I prize the experience of using Amazon so much that they'd have to double the cost of Prime before I'd even start to consider switching. Amazon has become part of the infrastructure of my life, like Google and my local coffee shop. The switching costs simply and utterly dwarf the cost of doing business with them.

MichaelGG 10y ago

And remember, Amazon blocks even Prime members from buying Chromecast or Apple TV devices. Then they lie about the reasons, ranging from: "we're out of stock" to "too many user complaints" to "we aren't licensed to sell this" and on and on. Amazon no longer cares about the customer as top priority. If you're a Prime member, quit. I've been a customer since 2003 and now am looking at alternatives. I even try to find books outside of the Kindle store, though I note they have strong lockin there. (I never thought it'd be a problem, since Amazon used to always put the customer so far up a pedestal.)

jalami 10y ago

I canceled my Prime membership a while back now for multiple reasons, but this is frosting on the cake. In order for me to cancel my auto-renewal I had to jump through scary 'cancel your membership' prompts to find the question about auto-renewal. The company has gotten slimier and slimier. Exclusive markets are are what's wrong with browsers, video games, apps and the Internet today and now it jumps into the physical world as well. This isn't even about true exclusivity, which is a problem in itself, but more akin to crippleware. Non-prime members (still your customers) now have a worse experience than before. If companies that provide content and products just made it easier to find and purchase content and products, they wouldn't have to worry about locking in their customers.

throwzitaway 10y ago

I initially read it as 'non-Prime numbers' - it got me thinking.