Technology

I wait for "try prime for 30 days" offers. I'll sign up for it, instantly cancel it to prevent recurring bills, and then order whatever it was I was thinking of over the last six months. Because once upon a time I'd be on Amazon all the time, browsing this and that, but it has become such a cesspool that I infrequently bother. If I wanted to wade through a sea of Chinese OEM crap and counterfeit products, then I might as well use Aliexpress and be done with it.

I cancelled Amazon prime a few years ago. Amazon was never able to honor the next day or even two day shipping so I cancelled.

Technically, for me, there was no change in shipping speed for me cancelling prime

Prime Video was nice, but I don't like the move with including ads. Since they fucked me over as a linux user by using dumb DRM, I don't really miss it.

Shipping: same as the author. I will likely get used to increased wait time. Shipping was never my main use case.

I will miss my free monthly twitch subscription. So I will likely not support my favorite streamer anymore (via twitch sub at least).

I'll see how it goes. But fuck the industry for their ad-ridden shit tour. I will rip any service out of my life that tries that bullshit.

I had an issue recently where they sent me the wrong item (it was coded wrong in their system- their fault) and when I contacted support they wanted me to either be at home for an entire day for them to pick up the item or have me take it to a drop off location for them, then wait for several weeks for the return to be processed.

The only time I use Amazon is when I'm shopping for PC parts and they've got the best deal (maybe one part every 3 years) or if they're the only source for something like an obscure PCB or whatever. Aside from that, it's really not helpful. People who have their regular weekly shipments are wild to me. So much easier to just get everything you need at the grocery store in one fell swoop every week. Don't even get me started on Prime shipping when I live in the same city as a distribution center. Prime Video is aids.

I get gift cards for Amazon because I used survey apps that pay me money and I have made quite a bit. So Amazon stuff is always free stuff for me basically. But Prime is worthless. Prime Video has absolutely nothing worth watching, and last week I ordered hair dye on my husband's Prime account on Saturday and it didn't arrive until Thursday, so what's the point?

This may be true at the moment, but Amazon can control how shitty the non-prime experience is.

Personally, I'm trying to avoid Amazon altogether. It's much worse now, and flooded with cheap defective shit. I've also been noticing that a lot of manufacturers don't sell on Amazon (guessing Amazon takes a big cut).

Amazon moved a distribution center near me and now I basically get what prime delivery used to get me without prime. I can still get free shipping so long as my cart total is high enough, and I think that will remain because even independent retail websites and shippers offer that, so Amazon doesn't want to give people more reason to use them less. Getting rid of prime was easier than soooooo much other stuff I've ditched.

But how will I recycle 3 tons of cardboard a year?

No shit that it's easy to live with marginally slower (but still really pretty fast) shipping and access to a second-tier streaming service.

It's pretty much the definition of a luxury purchase.

I'm one of those people who always hated amazon, but since moving out to a rural area without a car it ends up a lot easer, quicker and often cheaper to get most of what I need from there :(

I found out that even without prime the delivery speed is sometimes the same here in Germany. They say it would take 1-2 days longer but quite often my amazon packages arrived early. Same for packaging cost. Sometime they adverdise the 0€ shipping costs with prime but it literally is also 0 without prime. I mean they are not lying, just not telling the whole truth xD

I buy from Bezoco maybe once or twice a year, if I really can't find something anywhere else, and they always, always offer a free Prime trial.

If you don't know this already: you can cancel the Prime trial immediately and still get the full 30 days (or week or whatever) out of it.

I just genuinely don't understand why people think it's necessary. I use Prime once a year and it's when my boss gives me a gift card for Christmas. I guess I just don't understand what the typical person is buying every single month from Amazon to warrant a subscription - I know 1 or 2 people buying cat litter every month and having it delivered, but why? Just go to the store! I love in a rural town and I still trek to the store. Maybe if you have mobility issues or something but I just don't get it. Probably just the anti-consumer in me.

Imagine being subscribed to a shop. Wtf?

Prime is extra useless here, except for maybe the free shipping. Overnight shipping is the default here for all webshops, except Amazon lol.

Lmao it's surprisingly easy to live without AMAZON.

Yeah, just wait until amazon finds a way to legally force non-prime users in the US (since EU probably wouldn't be having any of that bull) to have to wait an extra week or 2 before your packages arrive.

Also, I had a strange sense of déjà vu while writing this comment. I know I haven't seen this post/article before, but both it and this comment are giving me major déjà vu.

This is news to whom? Many "Prime" items don't even get to you in 24 hours as they used to claim.

My wife has it and exceedingly rarely I'll ask her to order something for me on it because it'll be the best price/quality/feature ratio I can find or it's just like one small cable and that's the only place I'll get free shipping but that's also extremely rare.

I do have the luck of living somewhere with countless alternatives, and they all deliver next day for free most of the time, maybe a limit of 20€ and over or something.

I agree. Unsubscribed to Prime and Netflix. I'm not missing anything. Good riddance.

I get Prime for free as part of a subscription I have to something else. Otherwise I would be hard pressed to subscribe. It has driven up our impulse purchase amounts, though. My eldest daughter got hooked on that shit for half a year. She needed literal detox in a clinic hahaha j/k