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Don't know where to post this...AMAZON PRIME is going up 20% this year! (1 Viewer)

Dick

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Mods feel free to move this, but I couldn't find a category that was a good fit for it. Plus, I order nearly all of my Blu-rays from them...or, I did, until now, so it could at least tangently belong here.

Amazon sent me an email today (and I'm sure many of you received it also) indicating their yearly rate would be increasing from $99. to $119. That's a full 20% increase in one blow! Plus, it wasn't many years ago when they upped the rate from $79. Considering this company hauls in more money than anyone can even imagine, hires people for their warehouses in what I have read are near-sweat shop conditions for low salaries, and increasingly does not (for me, at least) meet its guaranteed 2-day delivery dates, was this necessary? How about a multi-billion dollar corporation absorbing a cost increase once in a while for the sake of good customer relations? Guess that loss leader sales and programs are going the way of the dodo.

I called Amazon -- a bit too soon after I read that email, I'm afraid -- and ranted to who I assume was an Asian woman, apologizing to her with an assurance that I knew this was no fault of hers, and asking that she specifically send the recording of my complaint to someone in power, with the request that I be contacted in return. I am certainly cognizant of the fact that prices go up for everyone, but it is becoming much less cost-effective for me to continue with this membership if I have to dole out a quarter of a week's salary to do so.

Anyway, there. I feel better now. Flame barrier up. :(
 

RichMurphy

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No flame barrier needed. As with everyone else, you need to decide if the service you receive justifies $119 a year, Sounds like it doesn't in your case.

In defense of Amazon, they apparently addressed the poor warehouse conditions ages ago, they often deliver my stuff a day early without me paying the one-day surcharge, and their huge profits come not from their sales services but from their cloud storage services. And although this is related to Jeff Bezos personally and not to Amazon, he single-handedly saved The Washington Post from going under. (which if you're a Trump supporter, is injecting politics into this discussion - sorry).

I find Amazon to be an invaluable service, well worth the Prime membership. I use the Prime Music on my phone and Apple Car Play, and I love how I can order replacement parts for appliances on my own from them - things like broken handles which I can replace myself. Plus, my H&R Block Tax software lets me get some of my tax refund in the form of an Amazon gift certificate, with a bonus added.
 
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Tino

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Worth every penny imo.

I got an email saying my price won’t go up til next year.

Even at $10 a month it’s a tremendous bargain with all the Prime extras.
 

atfree

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Well worth the price for me. We order many of our toiletries via Prime, plus my movies an other stuff. In the past year I've ordered a commercial lawnmower that weighed 100 lbs, a front porch swing for my wife that weighed 75 lbs, a new vacuum cleaner, rims for my son's car, and a soundbar, all delivered to my door with free Prime shipping. With fuel savings for not having to drive to the store as an added bonus, it's paid for itself. Not to mention the 3% in Amazon credits for using their Prime Rewards Visa, the dozens of free movies and TV shows we watch on the video service, and the music service. The $119 a year is a bargain for us.
 

JohnRice

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I was a little annoyed, for a moment. Then I thought about how I pay $144/year for commercial free Hulu, and that's just to get Hulu. People spend more per month for their cell phones. I wish I got as much from everything else, hell anything else for $10/month. Sure, I'd like for it to still be $79/year, but when I signed up for that, all I got was priority shipping. Now, for $40 more it's actually kind of amazing how much more I get.
 

Robert Crawford

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Mods feel free to move this, but I couldn't find a category that was a good fit for it. Plus, I order nearly all of my Blu-rays from them...or, I did, until now, so it could at least tangently belong here.

Amazon sent me an email today (and I'm sure many of you received it also) indicating their yearly rate would be increasing from $99. to $119. That's a full 20% increase in one blow! Plus, it wasn't many years ago when they upped the rate from $79. Considering this company hauls in more money than anyone can even imagine, hires people for their warehouses in what I have read are near-sweat shop conditions for low salaries, and increasingly does not (for me, at least) meet its guaranteed 2-day delivery dates, was this necessary? How about a multi-billion dollar corporation absorbing a cost increase once in a while for the sake of good customer relations? Guess that loss leader sales and programs are going the way of the dodo.

I called Amazon -- a bit too soon after I read that email, I'm afraid -- and ranted to who I assume was an Asian woman, apologizing to her with an assurance that I knew this was no fault of hers, and asking that she specifically send the recording of my complaint to someone in power, with the request that I be contacted in return. I am certainly cognizant of the fact that prices go up for everyone, but it is becoming much less cost-effective for me to continue with this membership if I have to dole out a quarter of a week's salary to do so.

Anyway, there. I feel better now. Flame barrier up. :(
Yeah, I had posted this price increase last month in a different thread. If people can't afford the increase then they need to reevaluate their situation and options as price increases are going to continue for many services.
 

Josh Steinberg

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The only thing that annoys me about this increase is that I would have renewed under the old rate, except a series of screwups led to me getting about a six month Prime extension, right into the "new price" territory. I know I should be weighing the value of a free half year and realizing that that more than covers the price increase, but it's still mildly annoying. But if they hadn't emailed me about the price increase, I'm not sure that I would have immediately noticed that it had changed.
 

John Dirk

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I got the email too. I'm just now evaluating Prime and would have cancelled even at the former price. It's not worth it for me since I have no interest in their streaming content and don't order enough from them to make the [supposedly] enhanced shipping worthwhile.
 

John Dirk

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Seriously.

$.33 cents a day.
Not sure who you were replying to but a lot of companies sell their services that way, as opposed to actual value. Ultimately, it all adds up.
 

Tino

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Not sure who you were replying to but a lot of companies sell their services that way, as opposed to actual value. Ultimately, it all adds up.
Wasn’t replying to anyone. It’s either worth it to you or it’s not. $.33 cents a day. $10.00 a month. $119.99 a year. Either way you figure it out, It’s absolutely worth it for me (and my wife:D).
 

EricSchulz

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I agree. At $10/month the streaming is worth it as I watch a lot there. Throw in several shipments a month and I still consider it a deal.
 

Jake Lipson

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My family's won't renew until at least next February, so we've got a while to think about it. I'm inclined to keep it because I do so much shopping at Amazon...but I just had Black Panther ship out from Target instead, since you still can't do Disney pre-orders with Amazon. That is particularly annoying in light of the price increase.
 

Matt Hough

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Yep, I pay more for Netflix and I use Prime Video about equal to Netflix, so I get the free shipping as a bonus along with their streaming service for video and music. I can't complain.
 

TonyD

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I'll be keeping it. Renews in July.

The thing about Music is misleading a little.
The free version gives you 2 million songs but with that you will not get complete albums and songs from many artists are missing.

You have to pay $4 a month to be able to stream "Music Unlimited" songs to an Echo device.

Pay $8 a month or $80 a year to stream to "any" ONE device at a time.

$15 a month or $150 a year allows you to stream their "music unlimited" on up to 6 devices at the same time.

So the Music is not exactly free if you don't want the selection to be severely crippled.
 

Alan Tully

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I suppose it depends on how much you use Amazon. I just use them to buy stuff & usually wait until I have £20 worth in my basket, so free postage (& I buy from Amazon Marketplace as much as I buy from Amzon). So for me, no reason to be a Prime mamber.
 

Carabimero

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I calculated what shipping would have cost me last year without Prime, and it was more than $119 easily. Plus I have a couple of friends appearing in Prime video series and so I watch those. Not the great deal it used to be, but still a good value for me. If it goes up another $20 any time soon, that will be a different issue.
 

Scott Merryfield

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Whenever something like this increases in cost, I have to think about whether it's still worth the cost for the service I get. In the case of Prime, I think it still is worth it so I will most likely renew when my membership comes due in December. I order quite a bit of merchandise from Amazon (I don't like going to the store), we use the streaming video service and the streaming music (I have our Echo streaming music as I type this), and I take advantage of the free Kindle book per month -- mostly for my 82 year old mother, whose Kindle is on my account.

We do not have Netflix, we get Hulu for free with our Sprint cellular account, and the only other streaming service I pay a subscription for is the NHL package so I can watch my favorite team -- Montreal. I will probably change that plan for next season from the full package to the single team package, which I think will save me about $30. I have rarely watched games other than Montreal's for the past two seasons via the service, so I was thinking of doing this anyway and it will more than cover the Amazon increase.
 
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skylark68

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I’ll have to evaluate the situation on January 9. I qualified for the student membership for quite some time and I’ve only been paying $49. Almost feels like I’ve been robbing Amazon... I graduate next weekend but my renewal doesn’t come up until early next year. The student rate is going up to $59 but I’ll be jumping up to what everyone else pays at that time... Serious bummer.
 

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