Amazon now offering discounts for not using Prime shipping (1 Viewer)

[Jake Lipson]

While browsing Amazon tonight, I was surprised to see an offer to save 82 cents on Silence if I choose "free no-rush shipping" instead of my Prime delivery options.

https://www.amazon.com/Silence-BD-D...e=UTF8&qid=1503552212&sr=1-2&keywords=silence

This is the first time I have seen this option available. Occasionally I've seen an offer for a discount on a future order for not using Prime, but never a discount on the actual item you're buying before today. My immediate reaction is not a good one. By removing 82 cents for people using non-Prime shipping options, doesn't that effectively mean we are being charged 82 cents to use the Prime benefit? That kind of defeats the purpose of paying $99/year for Prime if you're not going to use it.

I'm not really in the market for Silence right now -- I just wanted to price check it and will continue to wait for a price drop -- but my feeling is they'd have to do better than 82 cents to get me to foresake the Prime benefits which I pay to receive.

Has anyone else encountered this before? Your thoughts?

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I haven't encountered that yet but my feelings are pretty much the same as yours.

I like having Prime so I can, among other reasons, buy a disc on a whim (or when I feel ready to watch it) and have it in a day or two. If they'd like me to wait longer to get something, I'd need a more substantial discount.

 

[Jeff Cooper]

That makes zero sense. Who the hell cares about 82 cents? The 2 day shipping itself would cost way more than that so it doesn't even balance out.

Plus it's just shitty of them in principle to try and entice you not to use a feature that you paid for to begin with.

 

[B-ROLL]

It's arguably a "feature match" with Wal*Mart's discount for site to store ... as opposed to shipping ...

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Amazon used to offer money off the purchase of digital video rentals if you selected "no rush" shipping. I would often do that in order to get some free movie rentals. I usually do not need the items I order quickly - for me, the Prime shipping is more about getting items shipped for free without the need to bundle orders together to make the order total $35 or more. Before Prime, I would add items I really didn't need to an order to reach the free shipping point. I figure I save enough in not adding those items to pay for the Prime membership.

 

[Dave B Ferris]

Earlier this year, my enrollment was automatically rolled-over for the next year (which I knew would happen, and was willing to accept). A few weeks later, they sent me a physical letter (via actual snail-mail), informing me that during my first year of membership I had not taken full advantage of my membership because I had not done any streaming.

To the extent that they were trying to make sure that I will subsequently get the most bang for my buck, I guess the letter was a nice gesture. Mostly, though, I thought: it would have been nice if you had sent me the letter *before* you rolled-over my membership.

 

[DavidMiller]

A few days ago you could save $10 for selecting no rush shipping for the San Andreas 4k Disc.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

That makes zero sense. Who the hell cares about 82 cents? The 2 day shipping itself would cost way more than that so it doesn't even balance out.

I don't know how true this is, but a friend of mine who deals with Amazon as a third-party seller and "fulfilled by Amazon" seller tells me that they have a deal with UPS and USPS for two-day shipping -- because of the volume they do, they get the shipping for small envelopes / bubble wrap packages at flat rate of 50 cents per package. That was a couple years ago. And that doesn't take into account the cost of packaging, the cost of employees preparing the packages, and transportation from the warehouse to the shipping carrier. If the refund for slow shipping is 82 cents, it sounds like they're just giving you back that cost. To me, having the package in a day or two for 82 cents is a better value than having that 82 cents in my pocket.

 

[Johnny Angell]

While browsing Amazon tonight, I was surprised to see an offer to save 82 cents on Silence if I choose "free no-rush shipping" instead of my Prime delivery options.

https://www.amazon.com/Silence-BD-D...e=UTF8&qid=1503552212&sr=1-2&keywords=silence

This is the first time I have seen this option available. Occasionally I've seen an offer for a discount on a future order for not using Prime, but never a discount on the actual item you're buying before today. My immediate reaction is not a good one. By removing 82 cents for people using non-Prime shipping options, doesn't that effectively mean we are being charged 82 cents to use the Prime benefit? That kind of defeats the purpose of paying $99/year for Prime if you're not going to use it.

I'm not really in the market for Silence right now -- I just wanted to price check it and will continue to wait for a price drop -- but my feeling is they'd have to do better than 82 cents to get me to foresake the Prime benefits which I pay to receive.

Has anyone else encountered this before? Your thoughts?

Clicked on your link and sure enough when I went thru checkout (didn't buy it) there was an offer of a discount. What I usually get is an offer of a $1 off select digital items. Since I can never see what discounts I've accumulated and I don't know what the select items are, I don't select that.

How do I feel about it? It's an option I would choose if I wasn't in a hurry. It's better than the $1 off because I know what I'm getting.

 

[BobO'Link]

It's arguably a "feature match" with Wal*Mart's discount for site to store ... as opposed to shipping ...

That's exactly what they are doing. Anytime you see this, check WM and you'll see the same price with a "Store pickup discount" from WM that'll be the same as Amazon's "slow shipping" discount. Last week I purchased a copy of Maude complete series for ~$24 shipped because of this. The "slow shipping" discount was a bit over $22.50 and matched what WM was offering to do a store pickup.

Amazon used to offer money off the purchase of digital video rentals if you selected "no rush" shipping. I would often do that in order to get some free movie rentals. I usually do not need the items I order quickly - for me, the Prime shipping is more about getting items shipped for free without the need to bundle orders together to make the order total $35 or more. Before Prime, I would add items I really didn't need to an order to reach the free shipping point. I figure I save enough in not adding those items to pay for the Prime membership.

They still offer this discount on items they're not doing a WM PM on. On occasion they'll swap it out for a $5 Prime Pantry credit or, for me, a worthless credit for "local services." If I get the Prime Pantry credit I just stack it with a "Buy 5 get free shipping" order. It's usually junk food/snacks but on occasion the free ship offer actually has stuff we "need" or normally purchase. It normally switches back to the digital credit after 2-4 Pantry credits.

I'm exactly the same about Prime shipping. It's to not have to bundle and to easily take advantage of Lightning Deals during BF/Prime Day/Cyber Monday times. I get pretty peeved about "Add on" items as they're just not playing fair with them - especially when I cave, do a bundle to get something I need that's an "add on" item only for it to ship in a separate box from everything else! Still... those digital credits are OK as I more than earn my Prime fee back over the year with them. I mostly purchase movies but on occasion will pick up an MP3 copy of a CD that's gone OOP and has inflated prices.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

While browsing Amazon tonight, I was surprised to see an offer to save 82 cents on Silence if I choose "free no-rush shipping" instead of my Prime delivery options.

https://www.amazon.com/Silence-BD-D...e=UTF8&qid=1503552212&sr=1-2&keywords=silence

This is the first time I have seen this option available. Occasionally I've seen an offer for a discount on a future order for not using Prime, but never a discount on the actual item you're buying before today. My immediate reaction is not a good one. By removing 82 cents for people using non-Prime shipping options, doesn't that effectively mean we are being charged 82 cents to use the Prime benefit? That kind of defeats the purpose of paying $99/year for Prime if you're not going to use it.

My guess is that the best shipping quote they could get for that item wouldn't allow them break even on it. So they take the savings accrued by using a cheaper slower delivery method, and give you a chunk of it. If you need the item quickly, you don't take offer and Amazon eats the loss. If you don't need the item quickly, makes as well take it and pocket the 82 cents.

 

[Malcolm R]

They recently offered me a $5 credit toward a future blu/DVD purchase if I selected "no rush" shipping on my order (7-10 days). So I did, and my order still arrived in two days.

 

[Jake Lipson]

Now that offer is a lot more tempting than 82 cents.

 

[Malcolm R]

Now that offer is a lot more tempting than 82 cents.

Yeah, I was surprised. I think the most I've seen offered before this was $2 toward the Amazon Pantry.

 

[Johnny Angell]

They recently offered me a $5 credit toward a future blu/DVD purchase if I selected "no rush" shipping on my order (7-10 days). So I did, and my order still arrived in two days.

Wow. I’ve never received an offer that generous. I’ve never been offered money off, just a $1 on digital purchases and then Pantry.

 

[Elizabeth S]

We miss out on all that because Prime is not "rush shipping" to Hawaii to begin with. I would happily take $1.00 digital credits. So many perks are not available to us (and probably Alaska). No Amazon Pantry, as another example. You would think we're as isolated as the North Pole.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

We miss out on all that because Prime is not "rush shipping" to Hawaii to begin with. I would happily take $1.00 digital credits. So many perks are not available to us (and probably Alaska). No Amazon Pantry, as another example. You would think we're as isolated as the North Pole.

My in-laws live in Puerto Rico, and it was the same there before the hurricane - no overnight or two-day shipping included with Prime for them either.

 

[Jake Lipson]

We miss out on all that because Prime is not "rush shipping" to Hawaii to begin with

Then -- just out of curiousity -- what DOES Prime offer you if you sign up from Hawaii, if not 2-day shipping, to justify the cost of it? Jut the streaming videos? And do you find it worthwhile to subscribe with the shipping benefit removed?

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Jake, at least for PR residents - the benefit is getting 3-5 day shipping included for "free", instead of the normal shipping rate. A lot of companies that offer free shipping to the lower-48 states don't extend that offer to the territories, so even though the Prime shipping to PR isn't two-day, it's still better than what a lot of other places are offering.

 

[B-ROLL]

Apropos of nothing: I signed up for a 30-day Free Prime trial and was offer a $10.00 gift credit toward Amazon RESTAURANT (for a shipment totaling $32 before tax) ... for delaying shipment by seven days (including US Thanksgiving and weekends)

I passed ...