Should I Give Amazon a Break? (1 Viewer)

I'm a prime member. Whenever I order a prime eligible item, I have an option to select slower, standard shipping and it's still free. I haven't selected it yet, but maybe I should start. When I'm not in a hurry, there's no harm is getting some brownie points as a good customer.

Anyone else giving Amazon a break?

Johnny Angell said:

Anyone else giving Amazon a break?

Click to expand...

Nope.

Johnny Angell said:

I'm a prime member. Whenever I order a prime eligible item, I have an option to select slower, standard shipping and it's still free. I haven't selected it yet, but maybe I should start. When I'm not in a hurry, there's no harm is getting some brownie points as a good customer.

Anyone else giving Amazon a break?

Click to expand...

You paid for the service so don't feel guilty about using it.

Nah. Trust me (us) -- when they decide they need a break, THEY'LL take it and you won't have any choice in the matter.

I rarely do it, because, well, you really don't get any brownie points for doing it. The exception is around Christmastime.. I've noticed that they'll sometimes offer a $1 coupon towards a future purchase if you select standard over two day, and that might be a good time to take them up on that for non-rush items.

You know how Amazon orders "guaranteed delivery dates" for certain items, like new release movies? The guarantee isn't that if you don't get your movie on the date, the movie is free, it's that they're refund the shipping. Well, as a Prime member, when something misses it's guarateed date (which does happen to me occasionally), you don't get a refund on the shipping or any sort of credit, because the shipping is considered "free". I'm not sure that's directly relevant to your question, only that they don't do anything to make it up to Prime members when they miss a "guaranteed" date, so I'm not feeling an overwhelming incentive to try to help them out either. They also have a whole new class of items they call "add ons" where even though you've got unlimited Prime shipping, they will not send those items out unless you've already spent $25 on unrelated items in the same transaction, which I think makes the Prime thing a little misleading now.

Amazon has done more right than wrong by me, and that's why I'm still a customer, but I'm not feeling any incentive to go out of my way for them in the way I might for a local independently owned shop or family business.

I've given them a break before. I have my Amazon packages sent to a po box that I only check once a week, so there's no need to rush it. If that move saves the company money that just might help them keep their prices down.

Maybe its because I live in the Atlanta area but I don't notice a difference in shipping times whether Super Save or Prime. Once it is shipped it takes one or two days for either. The main difference I see between Prime and Super Saver is how quickly they will box up the order and ship it, i.e. processing time. A few years ago, Super Saver was as good as Prime for me as my orders would be processed and shipped same day so I would have most in two days. Then Amazon started to drag its feet where it would take 2-5 days to process the order, you know like NetFlix's purposeful slowdown on processing returned and shipping next rental movie for high usage customers.

We now have Prime because my wife has a Kindle and we bought a Roku a few months ago and use it for Amazon Prime Instant Video. The only "break" I give Amazon is trying not to order every single movie individually. Plus I'm pretty sure I have to pay incredibly high shipping rates when I ship something because of places like Amazon squeezing the crap out of the shippers. I mean Amazon couldn't stay in business with all the "free shipping" if they paid even 10% of what it costs me to ship something so I figure I am subsidizing my own Prime account anyway.

Chuck Anstey said:

Maybe its because I live in the Atlanta area but I don't notice a difference in shipping times whether Super Save or Prime. Once it is shipped it takes one or two days for either. The main difference I see between Prime and Super Saver is how quickly they will box up the order and ship it, i.e. processing time. A few years ago, Super Saver was as good as Prime for me as my orders would be processed and shipped same day so I would have most in two days. Then Amazon started to drag its feet where it would take 2-5 days to process the order, you know like NetFlix's purposeful slowdown on processing returned and shipping next rental movie for high usage customers.

We now have Prime because my wife has a Kindle and we bought a Roku a few months ago and use it for Amazon Prime Instant Video. The only "break" I give Amazon is trying not to order every single movie individually. Plus I'm pretty sure I have to pay incredibly high shipping rates when I ship something because of places like Amazon squeezing the crap out of the shippers. I mean Amazon couldn't stay in business with all the "free shipping" if they paid even 10% of what it costs me to ship something so I figure I am subsidizing my own Prime account anyway.

Click to expand...

My experience with Prime has been that Amazon will bundle separate orders into single shipments whenever possible, so even if you order your movies individually you will still get them bundled if they are being shipped on the same date. I have even had pre-orders bundled with non-movie items that I just would happen to order on the weekend.

Amazon does a pretty good job of managing their shipping logistics, so I do not worry about the shipping method. When I need something, I just place the order. That's what I am paying the extra charge for with Prime.

I say no, but if it makes you feel better to give a multibillion dollar faceless corporation a break, well, go for it =)

I don't think I have ever had Amazon bundle separate orders but a whole bunch of times they have broken it up into individual shipments even when there appeared to be no need as they were shipped on the same day and received on the same day.

Chuck Anstey said:

I don't think I have ever had Amazon bundle separate orders but a whole bunch of times they have broken it up into individual shipments even when there appeared to be no need as they were shipped on the same day and received on the same day.

Click to expand...

I've had that happen also; the reason is they've come from different warehouses.

I say no, but if it makes you feel better to give a multibillion dollar faceless corporation a break, well, go for it =)

Click to expand...

I thought of you when I started this thread. . Let's agree that we've had different prime experiences. Overall, I've never been better treated by a merchant than by Amazon. that's why I'm willing to give them a break. I just bought a weber grill from Amazon. The delivery day and window was scheduled during the checkout process. The grill was delivered within the window. I'm happy.

I, too, have always been treated well by Amazon. My orders have always arrived intact and on time. A couple times orders were lost in the mail and they made them good, no questions asked.

That's cool Johnny, no worries. Again tho it sounds like you went through the full add it to cart and then go to your cart and complete purchase and not just a 'one click prime' crapshoot like my complaint was about.

Really, I dig Amazon prime, have no complaints about the price increase and generally get great service. But one click prime is broken, I still feel like I am struggling to get you guys to understand the difference here.

I seldom use one click. Just for things I can download like ebooks. It would be interesting to order the same item moments apart to see what results you get. Cancel one of course. I don't like the idea of one click. Going thru the longer process gives me a little time to think about the purchase.

The thing that bugs me about Amazon is the constant price changes and that they don't honor the price it was when you added it to the cart. Twice I have had a price increase in the time it took me to add it to the cart and then check out. I'm not asking for an indefinite period but it should be at least an hour.

Johnny Angell said:

Anyone else giving Amazon a break?

Click to expand...

The break I give them consists of not watching very many Prime Videos. They don't deserve a break in the shipping department.

---------------

I received an e-mail a bit back saying Prime was going up to $99. Probably not a bad deal but I can't tell you the last time I used it. I've started looking at used items instead of new. For instance, I bought two Ronnie Milsap CD's last month for 1¢ apiece. Yes, I paid s/h of $3.99 apiece but that still came out cheaper than the Prime price. I rarely watch anything TV show wise even though I love classic TV; I did watch The Bionic Woman some last year and an episode or two of Gilligan's Island but nothing past that. At this point I'm not even sure I'll renew.

Sam Posten said:

Really, I dig Amazon prime, have no complaints about the price increase and generally get great service. But one click prime is broken, I still feel like I am struggling to get you guys to understand the difference here.

Click to expand...

I've never used their one-click checkout on anything, either before the days of prime membership or now… there's something about it, I realize this might be a slight form of insanity on my part, but I like going through the entire order checkout process. I like having a moment or two in the process between when I put the item in my cart and when I check out, so I can stop and think and decide if I really want a particular item. Helps me keep my impulse buys in check. Like I said, slight form of insanity here.

Sorry to hear that the service isn't working, though, that seems very un-Amazon

Chuck Anstey said:

The thing that bugs me about Amazon is the constant price changes and that they don't honor the price it was when you added it to the cart. Twice I have had a price increase in the time it took me to add it to the cart and then check out. I'm not asking for an indefinite period but it should be at least an hour.

Click to expand...

What they honor is the price when you actually order it. Example: the Rodgers & Hammerstein set. I pre-ordered it at the $73 price; that's the price they will honor no matter how much the price will go up. If it's $139 then, I still get charged $73. However, if the price is lower when they actually ship it, they'll charge me the lower price. Putting in your cart is not the same as buying it because you haven't made any commitment. If you haven't made a commitment, why should they? I've never had a price go up between putting in cart and checkout (unless the time lapse was a couple of days), so I won't comment on it other than to say you have a valid point there.