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Complaints as Amazon Raises Cost of Prime

26 points by uladzislau 13y ago

zobzu 13y ago
I'd be happy to have prime for shipping only. I don't care for any other service. It's not like if prime videos were any good. They're not. Also here's the problems with prime shipping: - 2 days shipping is often 4 days (maybe 30% of the time or more) - price on prime item is HIGHER than the same item non-prime. The main diff is that the non-prime takes generally 6 days + (which means more than a full week since those are business days), but the price is about the same (except you paid $79 - now $99 more for Prime on top) So basically what i get with prime is slightly faster shipping for approx the same price as normal. I'm not planning on renewing. In fact I already cancelled auto-renew. Not related to prime but it also often happen that other online shops have lower prices than Amazon, making your prime a little more useless ;-)
- thaumasiotes 13y ago
  > 2 days shipping is often 4 days (maybe 30% of the time or more) I see a lot of other people making this complaint. For me, Amazon displays a guaranteed arrival date, not a guaranteed shipping duration. What's going on here?
fnayr 13y ago
Just canceled auto renew and got my brother to do the same. Too many items weren't eligible for two day anyway.
psaintla 13y ago
The people quoted in this article are ridiculous. You either buy enough from Amazon to make Prime worth it or you don't.
- wwweston 13y ago
  Well, on an immediate level. On a less direct level, I'm not sure the economics of using a heavily subsidized shipping service to the increasing exclusion of local retailers while they get you hooked on the concept and then incrementally raise the price over time are completely legible.
  - gtaylor 13y ago
    It's still less than $9/month over the course of a year. It's approximately a $2/month increase. Skipping one Starbucks coffee would cover the cost difference for almost two months. We frequently order from Amazon and use their video service and find lots of value in both. This won't cause us to bat an eyelash. It's not a significant increase relative to the value (assuming you use Amazon's services enough to make it worthwhile).
  - jfoster 13y ago
    Now we're into some game theory. Perhaps the best thing is for the group to reject Prime. (assuming your premise of price hikes after putting little guys out of business is Amazon's plan; they could also just push suppliers downward, like the duopoly of supermarkets in Australia currently are) As an individual, you are likely better off taking Prime until it is no longer the best deal.
  - valar_m 13y ago
    What do you mean by "heavily subsidized shipping service"?
    - bdcravens 13y ago
      The idea being that most Prime members use more than $79/year in shipping costs, that Amazon is subsidizing the difference to gain market share.
  - PakG1 13y ago
    Amazon is the new Walmart, just worse because you definitely have no local employees. :)
  - 13y ago
tofof 13y ago
Can someone explain the final paragraph to me? I don't see how losing $800 million while gaining $150 million is a net positive, which is what the article implies. Similarly, I don't follow how $800M can be (mere) 1% while $150M "would be a lot". In what way did NYT fail math - bad calculation of one of the two, or not being able to subtract in the correct order?
- lnanek2 13y ago
  The $800 million would only happen if one quarter of the prime users left, that isn't certain, just an if. It doesn't make sense to add and subtract them. The $150 million is certain due to price increases unless people leave. If you were the business deciding things you'd actually have to multiply the 800 by the probability of it happening to get the expected value, for example, and of course there's the factor that people leaving cut into the effectiveness of the price raise as well. I think they did it simplest just by stating the two numbers separately.
lnanek2 13y ago
Wish they would unbundle the stupid video stuff I don't want. ;/
natch 13y ago
I've been considering canceling since most things I order come with "free shipping for orders over $25." This makes canceling a no-brainer, unless I'm missing something. Even if my price is grandfathered (not sure if it is, after renewal time) it's still $79 more than free.
- jamesbritt 13y ago
  Pretty sure it's free after $35. Also, I'm paying the 79 now and was told it goes up at renewal time.
  - AgentConundrum 13y ago
    Super Saver Shipping has been $25 in the US for as long as I can remember. If you're Canadian, you may simply be remembering incorrectly as Amazon.ca used to be $39, but also changed to $25 a few year ago.
    - jschmitz28 13y ago
      It got changed to $35. http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=527692 http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=5...
      - AgentConundrum 13y ago
        Odd. I could have sworn I checked before I commented. Maybe I was the one mistakenly on Amazon.ca. I apologize for the error.
- Nogwater 13y ago
  Isn't it the difference between 2-day shipping (and sometimes faster) vs. slow shipping (typically 3-5 days for me)?
  - jamesbritt 13y ago
    The "free shipping if $total > $35" tended to be fast enough for me, and often things arrived sooner than I would have expected given what I take to be Amazon's scheme of "add to the truck if and when there's free space". That is, closer to 3 rather than 5 days. But since getting Prime I've had things show up the next day. It's sort of freaky. I trialed Prime for the VOD aspect and I bought some product or another, forgetting about the delivery thing. And BAM it was at my house. I got that "I could get used to this" feeling. In most cases I appreciate having whatever it was I ordered ready for use sooner, but I'd have to give some thought to whether it really makes all that much difference to me, especially since I'm not using the VOD thing as I expected.
PhasmaFelis 13y ago
Since submitters won't bloody stop submitting paywalled articles, has anyone yet made a simple, reliable Chrome plugin to bypass the NYT's paywall?
- matznerd 13y ago
  You can usually just google the headline and when google is referrer they let you through.
- jrockway 13y ago
  I just typed in my credit card number, and paid for the paid content. Crazy, I know.
  - Dylan16807 13y ago
    Pretend for a moment the paywall isn't super leaky. You think it's reasonable to submit an article to HN that only 1% of people can read?
    - jrockway 13y ago
      I don't think it's unreasonable. Content costs money to write. You can pay for it with your eyeballs, or you can pay for it with your wallet. (In the case of the Times, you have to do both. Sigh.)
      - Dylan16807 13y ago
        That's a strange reply. I didn't mention anything about paying, I asked about submitting to HN. Paying for content is great but I think it's rude to aim for the front page with a source that excludes a vast majority, even if they were preternaturally prone to signing up.
- imron 13y ago
  Do you have a cookie whitelist and/or automatically block cookies from all websites? I also used to get irritated by articles linking to the NYTimes until I discovered that it only redirects to the login screen if you have cookies disabled. If you enable cookies the links take you to the article just fine. Try using a plugin that allows cookies, and deletes them automatically when you close the tab.
keithg 13y ago
Maybe it's not about the shipping. Lots of people are "cutting the cord" of their cable or satellite providers in favor of online video content. Amazon sees the opportunity to get more from those customers with little price push back because $99/year is still cheaper than $99+/month for cable or satellite.
- jggonz 13y ago
  Minor anti-Comcast rant: I have an important event coming up on April 29th: The Comcast 2 year contract expires. I can't wait till I get to make that phone call and cancel the service. Amazon has such a superior product to anything out there right now. Amazon Prime + Roku and Netflix + Roku/Chromecasts have been a much better experience and cheaper.
buttsex 13y ago
Here's a way [0] to lock in another year at $79. [0] http://slickdeals.net/f/6784580-heads-up-amazon-prime-price-increases-to-99-49-for-students-on-4-17-buy-a-gift-membership-to-lock-in-another-year-at-reduced-rate?p=66743626#post66743626 http://slickdeals.net/f/6784580-heads-up-amazon-prime-price-...
BadCookie 13y ago
My family has both Prime and a Netflix subscription. Lately I've been finding that there is a lot of overlap between the two for streaming content. The price increase from Amazon is just the nudge we need to think harder about which subscription services are worth keeping ... and the most likely result is that we'll be cutting Netflix. I wonder how many others will come to the same conclusion.
- ternaryoperator 13y ago
  I doubt many. Netflix has to continue to sign distribution agreements and develop new content like House of Cards in order to stay in business. Video delivery for Amazon is a small sideline to its main business. Hence, I think both short- and long-term, Netflix provides the best content delivery option. (Note: I have both subscriptions too.)
  - BadCookie 13y ago
    Amazon has started getting into the game of making their own content as well, but I can't comment on its quality. We probably will finish House of Cards before we cancel our Netflix subscription. :)
- meritt 13y ago
  I wasn't aware anyone actually factored Amazon's streaming service into the valuation of Prime.
  - alttab 13y ago
    It's actually getting good. I'm 50/50 on that and Netflix. Netflix is more like hbo... go for the exclusives.
  - jamesbritt 13y ago
    That was the whole reason I considered it. Weighing it against Netflix. I beginning to think I'll drop both. :)
harrystone 13y ago
I'm almost $100 ahead on shipping this year already and it's only March.
imroot 13y ago
My biggest gripe with Amazon isn't the rising cost of prime, but, it's with the fact that my long-standing amazon account (seriously, I've had this account since 1999) is now being throttled. When I'm using my prime account, and select two day shipping, most items don't leave Amazon's warehouse until two or three days later, meaning I'm getting my "Free Two day shipping" items nearly a week later. I love Amazon.com -- I use it for a lot of things (to the tune of almost 8K in the last six months), but, watching my account get throttled like this makes me not only want to step away from amazon prime, but, from amazon in general -- if you can't be honest with me that you're going to throttle my account/shipping speeds, please let me know. I'll gladly upgrade to next day shipping, but that doesn't mean shit if you're going to sit on my order at the warehouse side for two or three days.
- abat 13y ago
  I've had the opposite experience. I've started to get things faster with the new 7 days a week delivery partnership with USPS. The one downside is that USPS's tracking is terrible compared to UPS's.
  - imroot 13y ago
    With USPS, if I don't get my package delivered between Monday and Friday, I won't get it -- the carrier who delivers on Saturday is afraid of my dogs and just marks my packages as "Business Closed," and Sunday delivery is only for the metro areas -- so, it's effectively Monday-Friday delivery only for me.
- Zigurd 13y ago
  > When I'm using my prime account, and select two day shipping, most items don't leave Amazon's warehouse until two or three days later, meaning I'm getting my "Free Two day shipping" items nearly a week later. Exactly. I got Prime mainly for the shipping advantages. I could order things and not worry about accruing an order big enough to qualify for free shipping. But if the actual speed of shipping does not improve, why am I paying for it? I will probably go back to accumulating orders big enough to qualify for Super Saver shipping.
- 13y ago
Dylan16807 13y ago
So prime launched in 2005. Adjusted for inflation the original price is $94.62, which makes this closer to a $5 increase in real cost.

26 points by uladzislau 13y ago

zobzu 13y ago

I'd be happy to have prime for shipping only. I don't care for any other service. It's not like if prime videos were any good. They're not. Also here's the problems with prime shipping: - 2 days shipping is often 4 days (maybe 30% of the time or more) - price on prime item is HIGHER than the same item non-prime. The main diff is that the non-prime takes generally 6 days + (which means more than a full week since those are business days), but the price is about the same (except you paid $79 - now $99 more for Prime on top) So basically what i get with prime is slightly faster shipping for approx the same price as normal. I'm not planning on renewing. In fact I already cancelled auto-renew. Not related to prime but it also often happen that other online shops have lower prices than Amazon, making your prime a little more useless ;-)

thaumasiotes 13y ago
> 2 days shipping is often 4 days (maybe 30% of the time or more) I see a lot of other people making this complaint. For me, Amazon displays a guaranteed arrival date, not a guaranteed shipping duration. What's going on here?

fnayr 13y ago

Just canceled auto renew and got my brother to do the same. Too many items weren't eligible for two day anyway.

psaintla 13y ago

The people quoted in this article are ridiculous. You either buy enough from Amazon to make Prime worth it or you don't.

wwweston 13y ago
Well, on an immediate level. On a less direct level, I'm not sure the economics of using a heavily subsidized shipping service to the increasing exclusion of local retailers while they get you hooked on the concept and then incrementally raise the price over time are completely legible.
- gtaylor 13y ago
  It's still less than $9/month over the course of a year. It's approximately a $2/month increase. Skipping one Starbucks coffee would cover the cost difference for almost two months. We frequently order from Amazon and use their video service and find lots of value in both. This won't cause us to bat an eyelash. It's not a significant increase relative to the value (assuming you use Amazon's services enough to make it worthwhile).
- jfoster 13y ago
  Now we're into some game theory. Perhaps the best thing is for the group to reject Prime. (assuming your premise of price hikes after putting little guys out of business is Amazon's plan; they could also just push suppliers downward, like the duopoly of supermarkets in Australia currently are) As an individual, you are likely better off taking Prime until it is no longer the best deal.
- valar_m 13y ago
  What do you mean by "heavily subsidized shipping service"?
  - bdcravens 13y ago
    The idea being that most Prime members use more than $79/year in shipping costs, that Amazon is subsidizing the difference to gain market share.
- PakG1 13y ago
  Amazon is the new Walmart, just worse because you definitely have no local employees. :)
- 13y ago

tofof 13y ago

Can someone explain the final paragraph to me? I don't see how losing $800 million while gaining $150 million is a net positive, which is what the article implies. Similarly, I don't follow how $800M can be (mere) 1% while $150M "would be a lot". In what way did NYT fail math - bad calculation of one of the two, or not being able to subtract in the correct order?

lnanek2 13y ago
The $800 million would only happen if one quarter of the prime users left, that isn't certain, just an if. It doesn't make sense to add and subtract them. The $150 million is certain due to price increases unless people leave. If you were the business deciding things you'd actually have to multiply the 800 by the probability of it happening to get the expected value, for example, and of course there's the factor that people leaving cut into the effectiveness of the price raise as well. I think they did it simplest just by stating the two numbers separately.

lnanek2 13y ago

Wish they would unbundle the stupid video stuff I don't want. ;/

natch 13y ago

I've been considering canceling since most things I order come with "free shipping for orders over $25." This makes canceling a no-brainer, unless I'm missing something. Even if my price is grandfathered (not sure if it is, after renewal time) it's still $79 more than free.

jamesbritt 13y ago
Pretty sure it's free after $35. Also, I'm paying the 79 now and was told it goes up at renewal time.
- AgentConundrum 13y ago
  Super Saver Shipping has been $25 in the US for as long as I can remember. If you're Canadian, you may simply be remembering incorrectly as Amazon.ca used to be $39, but also changed to $25 a few year ago.
  - jschmitz28 13y ago
    It got changed to $35. http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=527692 http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=5...
    - AgentConundrum 13y ago
      Odd. I could have sworn I checked before I commented. Maybe I was the one mistakenly on Amazon.ca. I apologize for the error.
Nogwater 13y ago
Isn't it the difference between 2-day shipping (and sometimes faster) vs. slow shipping (typically 3-5 days for me)?
- jamesbritt 13y ago
  The "free shipping if $total > $35" tended to be fast enough for me, and often things arrived sooner than I would have expected given what I take to be Amazon's scheme of "add to the truck if and when there's free space". That is, closer to 3 rather than 5 days. But since getting Prime I've had things show up the next day. It's sort of freaky. I trialed Prime for the VOD aspect and I bought some product or another, forgetting about the delivery thing. And BAM it was at my house. I got that "I could get used to this" feeling. In most cases I appreciate having whatever it was I ordered ready for use sooner, but I'd have to give some thought to whether it really makes all that much difference to me, especially since I'm not using the VOD thing as I expected.

PhasmaFelis 13y ago

Since submitters won't bloody stop submitting paywalled articles, has anyone yet made a simple, reliable Chrome plugin to bypass the NYT's paywall?

matznerd 13y ago
You can usually just google the headline and when google is referrer they let you through.
jrockway 13y ago
I just typed in my credit card number, and paid for the paid content. Crazy, I know.
- Dylan16807 13y ago
  Pretend for a moment the paywall isn't super leaky. You think it's reasonable to submit an article to HN that only 1% of people can read?
  - jrockway 13y ago
    I don't think it's unreasonable. Content costs money to write. You can pay for it with your eyeballs, or you can pay for it with your wallet. (In the case of the Times, you have to do both. Sigh.)
    - Dylan16807 13y ago
      That's a strange reply. I didn't mention anything about paying, I asked about submitting to HN. Paying for content is great but I think it's rude to aim for the front page with a source that excludes a vast majority, even if they were preternaturally prone to signing up.
imron 13y ago
Do you have a cookie whitelist and/or automatically block cookies from all websites? I also used to get irritated by articles linking to the NYTimes until I discovered that it only redirects to the login screen if you have cookies disabled. If you enable cookies the links take you to the article just fine. Try using a plugin that allows cookies, and deletes them automatically when you close the tab.

keithg 13y ago

Maybe it's not about the shipping. Lots of people are "cutting the cord" of their cable or satellite providers in favor of online video content. Amazon sees the opportunity to get more from those customers with little price push back because $99/year is still cheaper than $99+/month for cable or satellite.

jggonz 13y ago
Minor anti-Comcast rant: I have an important event coming up on April 29th: The Comcast 2 year contract expires. I can't wait till I get to make that phone call and cancel the service. Amazon has such a superior product to anything out there right now. Amazon Prime + Roku and Netflix + Roku/Chromecasts have been a much better experience and cheaper.

buttsex 13y ago

Here's a way [0] to lock in another year at $79. [0] http://slickdeals.net/f/6784580-heads-up-amazon-prime-price-increases-to-99-49-for-students-on-4-17-buy-a-gift-membership-to-lock-in-another-year-at-reduced-rate?p=66743626#post66743626 http://slickdeals.net/f/6784580-heads-up-amazon-prime-price-...

BadCookie 13y ago

My family has both Prime and a Netflix subscription. Lately I've been finding that there is a lot of overlap between the two for streaming content. The price increase from Amazon is just the nudge we need to think harder about which subscription services are worth keeping ... and the most likely result is that we'll be cutting Netflix. I wonder how many others will come to the same conclusion.

ternaryoperator 13y ago
I doubt many. Netflix has to continue to sign distribution agreements and develop new content like House of Cards in order to stay in business. Video delivery for Amazon is a small sideline to its main business. Hence, I think both short- and long-term, Netflix provides the best content delivery option. (Note: I have both subscriptions too.)
- BadCookie 13y ago
  Amazon has started getting into the game of making their own content as well, but I can't comment on its quality. We probably will finish House of Cards before we cancel our Netflix subscription. :)
meritt 13y ago
I wasn't aware anyone actually factored Amazon's streaming service into the valuation of Prime.
- alttab 13y ago
  It's actually getting good. I'm 50/50 on that and Netflix. Netflix is more like hbo... go for the exclusives.
- jamesbritt 13y ago
  That was the whole reason I considered it. Weighing it against Netflix. I beginning to think I'll drop both. :)

harrystone 13y ago

I'm almost $100 ahead on shipping this year already and it's only March.

imroot 13y ago

My biggest gripe with Amazon isn't the rising cost of prime, but, it's with the fact that my long-standing amazon account (seriously, I've had this account since 1999) is now being throttled. When I'm using my prime account, and select two day shipping, most items don't leave Amazon's warehouse until two or three days later, meaning I'm getting my "Free Two day shipping" items nearly a week later. I love Amazon.com -- I use it for a lot of things (to the tune of almost 8K in the last six months), but, watching my account get throttled like this makes me not only want to step away from amazon prime, but, from amazon in general -- if you can't be honest with me that you're going to throttle my account/shipping speeds, please let me know. I'll gladly upgrade to next day shipping, but that doesn't mean shit if you're going to sit on my order at the warehouse side for two or three days.

abat 13y ago
I've had the opposite experience. I've started to get things faster with the new 7 days a week delivery partnership with USPS. The one downside is that USPS's tracking is terrible compared to UPS's.
- imroot 13y ago
  With USPS, if I don't get my package delivered between Monday and Friday, I won't get it -- the carrier who delivers on Saturday is afraid of my dogs and just marks my packages as "Business Closed," and Sunday delivery is only for the metro areas -- so, it's effectively Monday-Friday delivery only for me.
Zigurd 13y ago
> When I'm using my prime account, and select two day shipping, most items don't leave Amazon's warehouse until two or three days later, meaning I'm getting my "Free Two day shipping" items nearly a week later. Exactly. I got Prime mainly for the shipping advantages. I could order things and not worry about accruing an order big enough to qualify for free shipping. But if the actual speed of shipping does not improve, why am I paying for it? I will probably go back to accumulating orders big enough to qualify for Super Saver shipping.
13y ago

Dylan16807 13y ago

So prime launched in 2005. Adjusted for inflation the original price is $94.62, which makes this closer to a $5 increase in real cost.