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Exactly. The Prime program is brilliant in its psychology. "Spend $99 for "free" shipping." Yeah right. It is mathematically impossible for $99 to ever = $0. Then when you spend the $99 for the free shipping, you feel internal pressure to buy more than you need so you get the most of your so called value, so you are less inclined to comparison shop on other websites than non Prime members. Then Amazon makes you pay extra shipping charges on items that used to not be charged via Pantry and Add-On, when Amazon pleads poverty due to "prohibitive shipping charges." Than what was the Prime membership fee for?
It really depends on your personal circumstances. I live over a hundred miles from the nearest sizable store. And as you can imagine, non-flat rate shipping here is really expensive. If Prime saves me just a few trips a year into town worth of gas, or means free shipping on a few large necessary items I'd otherwise have to pay freight on, it's already paid for itself. If you live right next door to a Target maybe it's not such a great deal, but it's very useful in a very rural areas like my home.
Plus we don't have TV reception, so the free streaming movies/tv is nice, and much cheaper than getting Dish or similar.
It really depends on your personal circumstances. I live over a hundred miles from the nearest sizable store. And as you can imagine, non-flat rate shipping here is really expensive. If Prime saves me just a few trips a year into town worth of gas, or means free shipping on a few large necessary items I'd otherwise have to pay freight on, it's already paid for itself. If you live right next door to a Target maybe it's not such a great deal, but it's very useful in a very rural areas like my home.
Plus we don't have TV reception, so the free streaming movies/tv is nice, and much cheaper than getting Dish or similar.
I love Prime video. And one can stream HBO, etc. 'a la carte' through them at a good price.
I've learned to never let anything sit in your cart or the price will increase over the next few days or week. Don't put it in your cart unless you're checking out right away.
I have stuff in my cart all the time, waiting for payday The price drops as often as it rises.
Don't get all worked up... This is not even close to discrimination. I don't even know why you bolded it. SJW? Scare-tactic? I dunno.
Costco, Sam's, and BJ's all make it so only their members can buy certain items. It's no different. That's just the way "membership clubs" work.
You're correct. Costco has "Executive member" only deals as does Sams's club for their second tier members. Sams has early entry with coffee and pastry for it's second tier members as well, Costco used to do that for it's business members but quit.
It's called buying access and another way to generate income and pad the bottom line...
It's not just the OP. There are other threads on this forum about Amazon's non-2-day delivery service. I'm disabled and, for years, I bought everything from Amazon, placing an average of 40 orders per month. I've had Prime since it was first offered and I've noticed the slower service and shipping delays over the past couple of years.
I used to love Amazon so much that I couldnt imagine buying anywhere else -- but I've become so disatisfied with Amazon that I now buy more from chewy.com and walmart.com (fast 2-day delivery).
I have noticed similar delivery issues. I have used AMZ to order a lot of stuff for 10 years now. In 2015, for the first time I had 2 or 3 packages that arrived later than AMZ stated. It was significantly worse in 2016. Maybe 10 to 15% of prime orders didn't arrive on time. Now this year I missing items from the same order and that shows delivered. Has happened 4 or 5 times this year. Never happened before. Very annoying.
We have had Prime in the past, and we just signed up for it again (actually right now we are in their 30 day free trial.)
We signed up because I was looking to buy a pressure washer, 2 of them. The one I wanted was $150 everywhere online. Amazon had it for $120... but only sold to Prime members. So I figure that I saved $60 by being a Prime member, so the $99 fee isn't too bad if we decide to stay for a year.
What pisses me off the most about Amazon though, is that they hold orders. I live in the suburbs of Dallas TX. Amazon has a distribution center in Dallas. So, for years, I never paid extra for Prime, and I never paid extra for expedited shipping, because I always got my merchandise within a day or two of ordering.
Now, Amazon is purposefully holding orders. If their free shipping says 5-7 business days, they will hold my order for 4-5 business days. Then when they actually ship it, I get it the next day. I never had a need for Prime and their free 2 day shipping until this past year or so, and now that you can't buy certain items unless you're a Prime member... they are doing their best to force customers to join.
We have noticed the exact same thing...next-day shipping has become 3-4 day shipping. Amazon is biting the big one.
It really depends on your personal circumstances. I live over a hundred miles from the nearest sizable store. And as you can imagine, non-flat rate shipping here is really expensive. If Prime saves me just a few trips a year into town worth of gas, or means free shipping on a few large necessary items I'd otherwise have to pay freight on, it's already paid for itself. If you live right next door to a Target maybe it's not such a great deal, but it's very useful in a very rural areas like my home.
Plus we don't have TV reception, so the free streaming movies/tv is nice, and much cheaper than getting Dish or similar.
I totally get that if you're in Fairbanks or a smaller town. Alaska shipping is always expensive and not included in free shipping deals with most sellers. When I lived in Chugiak I had that problem. Freight on everything was expensive.
I don't have problems with Amazon in regards to shipping. I think there are two times the item was late in the 5 years I've been a member. Notifications were sent out and its super easy to simply cancel or return.
Typically, Ships next day + 2 days to delivery. Items that are marked by "Sold by X, fulfilled by Amazon" are almost never late. The retailer has stock at the Amazon warehouse and it ships almost immediately from Amazon's warehouse. On the other hand, some items are fulfilled by the retailer not Amazon. There are a few that won't ship quick... so its still 2 day shipping but starting from the day the retailer actually fulfills the order. If the retailer takes 1-2 days to fulfill the order then 2 days prime shipping, its going to take 4 days total time to arrive.
So typically messages like the following are for items that are Fulfilled or Sold by Amazon.
"Get it TODAY, June 28. Order within 35 mins and choose Same-Day Delivery at checkout. Details
Sold by SosoonDirect and Fulfilled by Amazon. Gift-wrap available. "
"Want it tomorrow, June 29? Order within 5 hrs 18 mins and choose One-Day Shipping at checkout. Details Ships from and sold by Amazon.com in easy-to-open packaging. Gift-wrap available."
If there is a time sensitive item I require from Amazon, I look for those items that are fulfilled/ships from Amazon...
This is similar to EBay... Ebay is the marketplace that has a variety of sellers. Often people blame the marketplace, Ebay/Amazon, when the blame really lies with the seller.
Last edited by usayit; 06-28-2017 at 09:29 AM..
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I wasn't aware of this, admittedly though, I've not looked too deep into Prime and it's rules...
The price drops as often as it rises.
