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As for the Prime 4-5 Day Shipping items, there are specific item categories that applies:
Select oversize items that are too expensive to ship by air.
Hazmat items that cannot ship by air due to federal regulations.
Items that may have not yet been fully entered into the Fulfillment by Amazon program.
Items enrolled in the Fulfillment by Amazon Small and Light Program. This program is offered to sellers at a discounted rate compared to regular FBA for small/lightweight items, and prevents the item from being flagged as an "Add On" item.
As for the Prime 4-5 Day Shipping items, there are specific item categories that applies:
Select oversize items that are too expensive to ship by air.
Hazmat items that cannot ship by air due to federal regulations.
Items that may have not yet been fully entered into the Fulfillment by Amazon program.
Items enrolled in the Fulfillment by Amazon Small and Light Program. This program is offered to sellers at a discounted rate compared to regular FBA for small/lightweight items, and prevents the item from being flagged as an "Add On" item.
What I'm talking about is not stuff that is advertised as 4-5 day. It's Prime shipments that they "guarantee" to be there in 2 days when I buy it and it just magically takes an extra 2-3 days about 1/2 the time.
If they tell me up front that there's going to be a delay, then so be it. Dropping the ball and essentially breaking their promises about half the time doesn't impress me.
This week's 2 day late item was a knock-off Dremel tool that I actually needed today to accomplish a project. Knowing that, I made certain to order it last Sunday evening to be sure to actually get it. Sure enough, it arrived Thursday on a guarantee of Tuesday.
The week prior, I ordered a couple of things to my girlfriend's house for her that she knew were coming. While checking out they snagged me with a suggested item that she did NOT know was coming and I thought it would make a nice surprise. As expected, Amazon dropped the ball once again and the surprise item came 2 days later than the original order. If Amazon had done that in reverse, it would have ruined my fun and delivered her something she had no use for without the other stuff first, which is like getting a toy but no batteries...
Anyhow, I'm really hoping Amazon takes this extra money to step up their game for Prime members. 2 or 3 years ago Prime ran like clockwork and if it was late it's because it was never going to arrive at all by either complete failure of the order or theft.
As of right now, I"m going to let mine expire (which isn't until next January). I live pretty far out from town and order a lot, but in the last year or two, I've noticed that Prime no longer always meant two-day shipping. It used to as far as I know. I had contacted Amazon when several orders were not shipped two-day but were Prime and I was told that if they don't advertise it as two-day, it's just free standard shipping. I've also noticed many things I've ordered that weren't Prime also offered free shipping and got delivered in the same amount of time. Knowing that, I no longer see the value in Prime for the purpose of free shipping.
For someone like me who only had Prime for the shipping, it's no longer worth it.
This I have to agree with. Amazon HAS gotten very sloppy and lax about ensuring honest two day deliver. If anything kills Prime for me that's what will do it.
Meh. It may be 20%, but since that equates to $20 extra for the year, I’m not concerned. I save more than $20 a year not driving around running errands by ordering on Amazon instead. Not to mention the time savings which is always the most important to me.
You're assuming there aren't other, better, cheaper online places to shop. Amazon isn't the only guy in town. There are millions of other great online sellers. Many Prime members don't bother comparison shopping and end up paying more on the items themselves, thus rendering shipping savings negligible. You don't have to buy a membership to order from most sellers online and often don't have to pay for shipping from them either.
That's definitely the business model. Prime people buy more stuff not necessarily from necessity.
I didn't like the last hike but stayed. I will let it expire now and stop feeding money to Bozo the Amazon clown. I've found more and more is not actually available as prime shipping anyway. And about half that is prime ships 3 days late and then 2 days shipping. Nice loop around what you actually pay for. Hopefully this creates a wake up call to what the 'zon is actually doing.
I don't know where you live, but I've ordered items Saturday afternoon and received them Sunday morning. I've not waited three days for anything and we've ordered a lot for our work on the house over the last six months.
But, this is where they trick you. The price seems cheap, but the price actually includes shipping.
So, if you can order online and pick up in store from say Walmart or Home Depot, you'll save a LOT of money.
Nobody ships anything for free. And a $10/month membership fee that supposedly includes unlimited free shipping is a hoax.
Take the time to comparison shop between the actual cost of an item at somewhere besides Amazon, and the actual shipping cost or the option to pick up in store - and you'll discover that Amazon isn't such a great deal after all.
Then, look at how Amazon nickels and dimes you on everything, such as movies you want to watch, that aren't included in Prime, and shows you want to watch that require a subscription to Starz, or whatever, and then look at how much you would spend if you just paid for that subscription separately without an Amazon membership - and you'll discover that Amazon isn't cheaper.
People have just become lazy. They still assume that Amazon is the best deal out there, but they're wrong.
People really need to be afraid of companies who want a complete monopoly of every service you need. This is scary. Beyond just a monopoly on say, gasoline. This is a new conundrum for this era, and we need to be really careful about letting it happen.
I do comparison shop and for the items we buy your argument falls flat.
I just cancelled prime last week, before the announcement. It wasn't worth to us at $99/yr. We don't really watch anything from their video service, I refuse to have Alexa spying on us, we don't have any Kindle after the one we got years ago died in 4 months (unresponsive touch screen) and their only offer was a $5 discount to buy a new one.
Our lasts orders have all taken more than 2 days for shipping even though they all have been prime and promised in 2 days.
Whenever I've called to make a claim they haven't offered anything, just stating that 2 day shipping means it's 2 days for shipping but doesn't include handling time. So bye bye Amazon.
I don't know where you live, but I've ordered items Saturday afternoon and received them Sunday morning. I've not waited three days for anything and we've ordered a lot for our work on the house over the last six months.
I didn't know anywhere got Sunday deliveries. I'm assuming this is in a major metro area? I only get UPS/FedEx deliveries Mon-Fri. I live remote. I'm 30 minutes to the nearest gas station, an hour away from a town that has a Wal Mart. I'm so far back, some people are shocked to find out UPS comes back here, lol. Sounds like you and I are on the two far ends of the delivery spectrum.
I would keep my Prime if I knew I'd had to pay for delivery for all my orders. But even most that aren't Prime still have free shipping and they take the same amount of time as Prime, maybe an extra day at most. I do get some in 2 days, but it's about half of my prime orders.
One thing that hasn't been mentioned is the Kindle Unlimited. Kindle Unlimited is the e-book subscription service that Amazon offers for $9.99/month. Although it doesn't offer any big name publishing houses, the service has some great book series available, but the subscription by itself is not worth spending $10/month on to me.
If it came bundled with the Prime membership, I would consider Prime. So far, it hasn't happened. But I'm wondering if KU is unpopular as a standalone service, because i have snagged numerous promotions allowing me to get a 1-3 month membership for free.
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