Posted on 04/28/2018 1:28:24 AM PDT by LibWhacker
Free two-day shipping may be enticing, but it doesn’t necessarily justify the higher price tag for an Amazon Prime membership.
Amazon AMZN, +3.60% raised the annual fee for its Prime membership program for the first time since 2014 — but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s less of a bargain for most consumers.
The online retailer announced that it will hike the annual fee for a Prime membership in the U.S. by 20% to $119. The change comes as Amazon revealed that it now has more than 100 million people globally who are members of the program. In January, Amazon raised the price of monthly memberships from $10.99 to $12.99 per month. The price change will go into effect starting May 11 for new members and starting June 16 for existing members when they renew.
Amazon said that it was upping the price of a Prime membership to offset the costs the program incurs, thanks to free shipping and digital content streaming. “Since we increased the U.S. annual price of Prime four years ago both the value of Prime and the cost to offer it have increased significantly,” an Amazon spokeswoman said in an email. “We still believe that Prime is disproportionately more valuable than the fee.”
But consumers who are considering Prime—and those who are already members—will need to closely evaluate whether the membership is still worth it at the higher price. Ultimately, that decision will come down to how much benefit each individual consumer derives from the program, whose perks range from free two-day shipping on Amazon purchases to free online photo storage and free audiobooks from Audible.
(Excerpt) Read more at marketwatch.com ...
Describes me as well.
That's an understatement.
Sometimes, I get nostalgic and do a Prime search on old movies as far back as the 70s and 80s, only to find a rental fee.
In fact, it will cost you $4.00 to watch "Sons of the Desert", a Laurel and Hardy feature film from the 1930s!
Even Staples—totally overpriced—will price match Amazon shipped products
I order a lot of stuff from Amazon. Much more convenient than driving 25 miles to town and then looking to find item X in a store. However, I get the feeling I’m starting to pay for Amazon’s push toward same day shipping, which I neither need nor want. Might start looking at other online retailers.
So, Jeff Bezos is not an international socialist pig? Why not just send Bernie and Bezos a donation. You simply don’t live by a conservative code, but you pretend to be a conservative. Go ahead make your deal with the enemy.
And that is why the price has increased. somebody has to pay for the students.
Is Amazon Prime worth its new $119 price tag?
I’m done with Amazon. They and their fast delivery is a joke. When you are really buying from a third party be careful because Amazon has NO control over any delivery. Also, they don’t vet their third party vendors so they do not have any control over the return policy of that vendor, they can do what ever they want.
Two orders and two problems. Buy locally.
I use the free shipping, music, and video features of Amazon Prime.
The free shipping feature pays for the service for me many times over. I bought 12 heavy duty, rolling, steel shelving units from Amazon last year. They weighed 54 lbs. each. All shipped free and arrived quickly, usually within 3 to 5 days of ordering. How much do you think the shipping on those units would have cost from a third party vendor?
I use the Prime music benefit everyday. I listen to a wide variety of music (Christmas, religious, classical, big band jazz, historic, etc.). I have nearly 100 albums in my music library that I can listen to anywhere on any device that can link to the Internet. The only downside is that I am a CD buyer in the age of the MP3 download. If I could just click and buy an album CD, I probably would have purchased many of these albums by now. As it is, you have to hunt the album down by searching through the main Amazon site.
I don’t use the Prime video service that much since I like to patronize local theaters and businesses when possible. I usually buy the films I see on DVD (Amazon gets only some of that business). I agree that the video selection that is free with Prime is not that great. That’s one area that needs better management. But you can rent 30 day viewing of first run feature films for far less than a regular Cineplex ticket. So there is a rental price discount through Prime.
(Another reason for limited use of the Prime video benefit is that I also subscribe to Netflix. There is some of the same staleness in the selections on Netflix as they don’t turn over as much as you would like. However, the Netflix original features are very good (or better). I specifically recommend the 2018 revival of the 1960s “Lost in Space” scifi series. Just binge watched all 12 episodes of the first season last weekend. Terrific production values, CGI, character development, etc.)
So count me a satisfied Amazon Prime member even at $119.00 per year.
“Short answer, YES.”
That’s us. We order quite a bit on Amazon and the free shipping is great. Most of our TV viewing nowadays is thru Prime. Regular TV sucks. We’ll stick with Prime at $119 for now, but any higher might be burdensome.
I guess is all depends on how much money $120 is to you. It’s not that much to me. The shipping and the TV more than earn it.
I’m very likely to end my membership when it expires. Worth is not there at the moment. Amazon justifies by saying that they are adding new features, but I am not seeing the worth to me.
Yep, one item I purchased a few years ago was sold to me by a crook in China. After six weeks, the item arrived dead as a doornail. When I tried to get an exchange, the crook wanted me to jump through a dozen ridiculous hoops before he said I'd have any hope of exchanging the item or getting a refund, basically just sneering at me. I complained to Amazon and Amazon refunded my money immediately. Nowadays, I avoid many third party vendors like the plague, especially foreigners. I'll buy from an American vendor who has a 99% rating from thousands of happy customers, otherwise it ain't happenin'.
Same here. I use them mainly for customer reviews, knowing that there are paid commenters. They've steered me from a few bad buys. Usually end up getting the item from eBay as may are offering free shipping. Same for Wal-Mart if the total over $35.
We were getting it at the student rate, so we may reevaluate it when we renew. I do use Prime Music streaming almost every day, and I have a good playlist of mostly free downloads. There are some noteworthy gaps in their free Prime collection, so I am thinking about signing up for something else(suggestions?). My main hobby is fishing, and I can either buy the basics at Wal Mart or watch the sales at Bass Pro or Academy for any equipment that I need.
Nope.
Is it worth it? YES. Not just for the free shipping, but we have had superior service from Amazon over the years regarding ease of returns, and various other considerations.
Whatever I think of Jeff Bezo’s politics, he has a great company and we would not be better off without it for many reasons.
“How many orders do you place? How much stuff, total? How much stuff do you need to buy to rack up thousands in shipping costs? “
In our case one son has Amazon,gave another son the info——2nd son ships everything to first son’s house-——they live near each other. This could be done with other people.
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It is a winder that Amazon keeps growing. Must be from people that have not dealt with them before.
I have found the same to be true with boats!!!!
If it f**ks, floats or flies rent it don't buy it! :-)
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