I deleted my Prime! So many good points on this post. My last 2 purchase from Amazon took 2 weeks to get here, which is fine but prime is advertised as 2 days. Amazon prime’s TV selection is for the most part trash & finally Amazon can burn in hell. I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to cancel it.
this post was submitted on 31 Jan 2024
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I've been on the student discount for almost 7 years now so I've been paying half price for it, but I also like it cuz I watch a decent amount of shows. That being said, I could totally cancel for a month or two and not even notice it.
There is no need to buy anything from those fucks ever
I've never had prime. Whenever I look at Amazon now it's basically a local AliExpress with loads of cheaply made Chinese stuff. Amazon is not cheap anymore either. eBay is always cheaper.
You can get better Chinese crap on Temu for 1/10 the price of what Amazon charges.
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As someone who lives in a country where there's no amazon...
yes.
you can live without amazon subscription and you dont have to pay them a single dime
Same, but it means for cheap electronics I have to pay more.
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I have prime because i don't have to pay for shipping. Good on the author for being wealthy enough to be able to afford 38 Bucks in shipping for 10 items. I pay 0.
You're prepaying your shipping with the subscription. You could divide that by all the shipments and probably still have a great rate per shipment, but consider that paying for individual shipments would push you to make fewer, larger purchases. Personally, it's pretty rare I need it tomorrow and can't wait a week. Some things I need today so I go to a store, some things are rooted in poor planning. The special Amazon shipping window isn't a big deal for me as I worked to unhook myself from the near-instant gratification.
I pay 12 Bucks a Month. I order things from Amazon daily. No i cannot wait a week for food. I also cannot wait a week for a fuse for my fridge.
I also cannot fathom why i would spend twice as much for things i need to survive just because.
bread at my bakery is 8 Bucks. I can get the same bread from the same bakery every sunday morning for 6 Bucks from amazon.
Come on, the same bread? That's crazy. How can that work?
I don't know, i only know that i "profit" from this system and use it.
Probably Amazon and slave wages.
where do you live where stuff's so expensive? genuine question, because honestly, i've never seen such pricing here
most of the stuff i get from amazon (which is, to be fair, not much and mostly non-food/perishables) has free shipping (without prime) to amazon lockers or to your house if you have a >25€ (or maybe >40€ now..?) order
also, may be biased because i live in france, but like, a loaf of bread is at most 3€ here, even in the most remote villages, you'll likely not have for more than 1.30€ for a baguette
You're kidding right? Are there actually people thinking they just can't live without Amazon Prime? Seriously? Fuck even if you HAVE to order something off of Amazon, which you absolutely don't HAVE to do, you don't fuckin need prime just for... what... slightly faster shipping?
Then imagine living without Amazon altogether… impossible
Free shipping, but at that point you should question why you are buying so much from amazon in the first place
I effing hate amazon and what it stands for. Yet, it's one of the very rare companies here (krautland) that actually give a damn about support and reliability.
Got a prob? It's solved saturday night.
Got a prob with {most other german companies}? You can call us mo-fr between 11:00 and 12:00 but only when it's not fullmoon. Also your estimated queue time is 2hrs. And wait till you hear our mind-dissolving on-hold-"music"...
When amazon says "it's in stock and can be with you tomorrow if u order within 2hrs from now" then it is like this.
You get the gist...
So, on topic: i only buy prime when i plan to order a lot of stuff the coming month. For occasional orders i don't need prime. Most of the time i can just use another free trial instead of actually paying.
It's the Walmart problem. People buy from Amazon because they can't afford some necessities at MSRP when going to a local store.
Some of the stuff I can get in bulk on Amazon are as much as 50% cheaper than getting those same things in bulk from a restaurant supply (which is cheaper than buying them at a grocery store). And that's before Subscribe&Save's 15% off. Coffee (for example) costs would drive me into the poor house if I didn't get my beans from Amazon... and I end up getting higher quality beans than my grocery store at that lower price.
Do I NEED coffee to live? No. But it's not exactly a luxury in the modern world, and beans are much cheaper than going to Dunkin. There are things I buy that I need; there are things that I buy that I want. And as much as I hate it, most of them are not available locally or are FAR more expensive locally. I never go to Amazon first, but I very often find myself landing at Amazon last.
And yes, that doesn't justify Prime on its own. But because I have Prime, I get those things that I couldn't find cheaper elsewhere the very next day. Prime will never be necessary when there's free shipping options, but boy have they packed it out with more features than (for example) Walmart's subscription model.
Here's what I get with Prime that I appreciate:
- Free games every month, some of which are pretty awesome
- that fast shipping
- A fairly average TV service with a few of the best exclusives out there (imo THE best but I'm a WoT-head).
- Tons of included books and I live in a family of readers
I mean, a lot of it I could get on the High Seas as it were, but it's the law of convenience. They make it easy and there's a value prop there for me.
If I JUST wanted free shipping, Prime would be a complete waste of money to me. But I'd still end up giving Amazon my damn paycheck because the alternatives are just not there where I live.
Interesting. For me it's the other way round 😂 The games are on their app (nope, thanks) or epic (no thanks). The digital goodies are only nice if you game any of those. The tv stuff is the worst I've seen back when i actually paid for my series/movies. Rarely nothing there and the interesting stuff still asked for money.
Books i can't judge... I have a tolino full of epubs 😁
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$25 gets you free shipping anyways unless they changed it!
Might be 35 bucks now. Can't remember.
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On the contrary, during the great formula shortage of 2021/2022, Amazon Prime and the recurring delivery option was the only way I was able to get formula for my twins. Speed was important l, but so was Amazon's huge supply chain.
Since then, we live in a remote place and getting some stuff just isn't possible at the one store near us. Amazon is really one of the best ways to get things we need. Now, of course, I hate them, but I also hate Walmart and don't really have choices beyond those or a gas station convenience store.
The practices of those businesses, and people choosing them over other options, is exactly why you don’t have other choices now
It's an extreme-case prisoner's dilemma. For shoppers to prevent a Walmart/Amazon monopoly, people would have to both give up convenience AND affordability in hope that everyone else had the same radical values. There were PLENTY of boycotters for both, but they just weren't anywhere near enough.
At some point, when you're starving and Sam Walton comes by and offers you food your family can afford, you pull the trigger. And I don't fault someone who does that.
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And what should they do now? Protest it by not having any formula? Don't victim blame
I agree. Buy formula, but not non-essential knick knacks that can be purchased for the same price on another website
And when the other website costs more, has worse return policies, slower shipping, and possibly is even a scam site? The problem with Amazon is how good it is even when it's being evil.
As I said elswhere, I look EVERYWHERE before Amazon first. That involves me checking out BBB on mom&pop storefronts and trying to filter out the scam stores or the ones with significant issues. It involves me price-checking, coupon-checking, seeing if services like Rakuten can get the price to match Amazon's. I don't expect most people to do all those things and neither should you.
And even then, I end up buying from Amazon about 2/3 the time. Because I won't pay 20% more in some meaningless protest that isn't going anywhere.
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Basically a "it works for me but not for some people" statement. Such a waste of my time to have read that.
I haven't used prime in idk how long. 2 day shipping hasn't been 2 days or even 4 days in years now. Every order with or without prime is at least a week. The only reason I use Amazon is ordering odd ball stuff you can't find in a store or the price difference is substantial enough to justify. I never need to pay for shipping since if I'm ordering it's a bulk order of stuff I need and it's free shipping over $25. I hate Amazon but i also gotta get by some how