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DPChallenge Forums >> Hardware and Software >> Amazon Prime - Beware
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Showing posts 26 - 50 of 88, (reverse)
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 03/29/2015 03:59:07 PM · #26
Originally posted by GeneralE:
Originally posted by Lydia:
I didn't even know USPS delivered anything on Sundays.

They also deliver their Next-Day Express Mail on Sundays ... the modern version of "Special Delivery".


This is too weird this came up today. I ordered from Amazon Thursday, just a few things that added up to over $35, so qualified for free shipping. I clicked on that and it asked if I wanted to try Prime as a free trial which I declined. Went to the confirmation page to pay and it was set back to Prime shipping again. I switched it back again to free shipping. Put the order through and thought no more about it. USPS pulled up in front of my house today and I thought "that's weird" and he got out and delivered a package. The box had packing tape with Prime on it and I'm wondering if after declining twice I was still signed up. How do I check that?
 03/29/2015 04:17:09 PM · #27
The great thing about Prime is, it let's you use Amazon like a quick trip to the store for miscellaneous stuff, since shipping is always free. So you can order something that costs, say, 5.95 without getting a 3.95 shipping charge on top of that. Works real well when you live in an essentially rural environment, which we do. The nearest concentration of reasonable shopping size is a fair distance from us, and closer stores don't have as much variety.
 03/29/2015 04:19:45 PM · #28
I can now get things in 2 hours for free, or one hour for 7.99... wild!
 03/29/2015 04:26:25 PM · #29
Kelli, stick the mouse on Your Account, look to see if there's an entry for Your Prime Membership, or something like that, and see what's there.

Another very happy Prime member here, by the way. And I share the free shipping part with my sister, who lives in Ohio. They seem to be OK with that!
 03/29/2015 04:40:07 PM · #30
Originally posted by Melethia:
Kelli, stick the mouse on Your Account, look to see if there's an entry for Your Prime Membership, or something like that, and see what's there.

Another very happy Prime member here, by the way. And I share the free shipping part with my sister, who lives in Ohio. They seem to be OK with that!


Thanks Deb. It's says I'm not currently a member. I don't order enough to justify paying $99 a year for "free" shipping. :D
 03/29/2015 06:05:10 PM · #31
Originally posted by Kelli:

This is too weird this came up today. I ordered from Amazon Thursday, just a few things that added up to over $35, so qualified for free shipping. I clicked on that and it asked if I wanted to try Prime as a free trial which I declined. Went to the confirmation page to pay and it was set back to Prime shipping again. I switched it back again to free shipping. Put the order through and thought no more about it. USPS pulled up in front of my house today and I thought "that's weird" and he got out and delivered a package. The box had packing tape with Prime on it and I'm wondering if after declining twice I was still signed up. How do I check that?


I've been in an Amazon fulfillment center. The only tape they have is the "Prime" tape, so that's what you get whether you have Prime or not.
 03/29/2015 06:31:47 PM · #32
Originally posted by Kelli:
I don't order enough to justify paying $99 a year for "free" shipping. :D

It's not the free shipping that I get it for - it's the video streaming and even more importantly, the free music. I have a LOT of Prime music on my phone, and I change it out frequently. Well more than 10 albums worth, which would justify the $99. Then I also use it to watch movies and TV shows I've never kept up with. If you have use of any of that, give it a second look. It's really quite the bargain.
 03/29/2015 09:05:10 PM · #33
Simple test. Create a new account, new card #, same ship-to address. Or, use a neighbor's address. Make sure the item you are ordering comes from the same location as previous items. To make sure this works, orders should be placed around the same time to assure the warehouse is the same.

Also, check the originating address.

Originally posted by Nobody:
Originally posted by Tiny:
I,m not sure this is positively the reason.


After I had looked into it, I received an email with the following opening:

"We noticed you've shown an interest in unlimited FREE Two-Day Delivery.
If you haven't yet signed up for Amazon Prime, click the link below to learn more about the 30-day free trial."

Since then, 3 orders have taken the absolute maximum time to arrive. Coincidence? I don't think so.
03/29/2015 09:26:05 PM · #34
When did PGerst become the new Pope (looking at the icon next to his name...)?
 03/29/2015 09:27:48 PM · #35
Originally posted by bvy:
When did PGerst become the new Pope (looking at the icon next to his name...)?

That make me a lady pope?
 03/29/2015 09:32:31 PM · #36
Originally posted by aliqui:
Originally posted by bvy:
When did PGerst become the new Pope (looking at the icon next to his name...)?

That make me a lady pope?

Well, I was thinking the Flying Nun...
 03/29/2015 09:42:00 PM · #37
HA! Intersting, I had to refresh the cache to see that. The white must be the difference between registered and member status.

Originally posted by bvy:
When did PGerst become the new Pope (looking at the icon next to his name...)?
03/29/2015 09:42:31 PM · #38
That's Nunsence!!

Originally posted by bvy:
Originally posted by aliqui:
Originally posted by bvy:
When did PGerst become the new Pope (looking at the icon next to his name...)?

That make me a lady pope?

Well, I was thinking the Flying Nun...
03/29/2015 09:46:51 PM · #39
Recently I have been ordering a lot of stuff from Amazon...no problems with delivery at all. I don't have Prime either. Not sure what you think you are experiencing.

Message edited by author 2015-03-29 21:47:38.
 03/30/2015 04:29:29 AM · #40
Funny this was started as a warning about Amazon and it's turned into a thread full of praise.

I agree it is as good as everyone says.
 03/30/2015 04:45:55 AM · #41
Originally posted by Tiny:
Funny this was started as a warning about Amazon and it's turned into a thread full of praise.

I agree it is as good as everyone says.


To be fair, I use Prime, and have been happy with it. Also, so be fair, there is a pretty well established protocol of companies choosing to throttle response based on their business model. Is Prime throttling? Who knows, but wouldn't be surprising.
 03/30/2015 07:45:59 AM · #42
I just signed up for prime, since I am looking to cut the cable cord. I have bought some tv shows at $1.00 per episode less than ITunes, which was nice. So for digital content it is looking good. Not too keen on the selection of free content, but we'll see how it grows.

However back in the third or the last quarter of 2014, there were some charges that Prime pricing was fixed to a higher cost in order to cover the free shipping. So for instance, you could buy a product from a third party vendor on Amazon for $24.00 + $5.99 shipping and find the Prime price to be set at $29.99 + Free Shipping. Prime members would not see the third party vendor's price + shipping charges. The suit is still in court as far as I know.
 03/30/2015 08:23:38 AM · #43
It is easy to think, on a personal level, that there is some sort of conspiracy regarding shipping. And I wouldn't say there is absolutely not. But it would be challenging to do something like that without being discovered, IMHO. It would be an interesting test (to get a bunch of friends to do the same thing and see what happens).

I enjoy Amazon prime. And being that I live in Ohio, I enjoy no sales tax. I like to shop locally, but it is tough to justify paying more and paying taxes for items I could have at my door in 2 days. It is convenient, but in the grand scheme of things, it would be more fair to small businesses if Amazon had to charge tax.

As consumers, we have many choices. Amazon tends to have great deals - but they are not always the best price but it is quite clear that they will be successful for many years to come. And I think they would be risking their reputation if they were to conspire to force people into Prime. Although like I said, it is possible IMHO.
 03/30/2015 09:26:59 AM · #44
Originally posted by EL-ROI:
I just signed up for prime, since I am looking to cut the cable cord. I have bought some tv shows at $1.00 per episode less than ITunes, which was nice. So for digital content it is looking good. Not too keen on the selection of free content, but we'll see how it grows.

However back in the third or the last quarter of 2014, there were some charges that Prime pricing was fixed to a higher cost in order to cover the free shipping. So for instance, you could buy a product from a third party vendor on Amazon for $24.00 + $5.99 shipping and find the Prime price to be set at $29.99 + Free Shipping. Prime members would not see the third party vendor's price + shipping charges. The suit is still in court as far as I know.


But to be fair, along with prime, it is the individual vendors that play with prices. There is always one extremely low price, so if every widget is $3.00 with $1.00 shipping, you will find one offered for 1cent, and 3.99 shipping. Street smarts are required for purchases, just as if you were in a real store.

I guess on a different note is that Amazon allows a good deal of the small vendors to stay in business, so, if you are not going to buy prime, you can usually select a somewhat "local" option.

As for free visual content, it is the TV series selection that is a selling point.

I feel like a shill for the company, but Amazon further offers value by forcing Best Buy and other box stores to price match- keeping them somewhat honest on products that are sold and shipped by amazon.

I don't know anyone who has a fire phone, but I don't think I would want to be limited to Amazon's app store instead of Google play as well. Although they do offer a free paid app per day.
 03/30/2015 09:39:06 AM · #45
Just like anything else you should always shop around. Don't ever assume amazon has the cheapest price. I recently bought some equipment for my studio. I assumed that amazon would have it cheaper than my local camera store. I was wrong. We also were trying to buy some bulk items for a carnival we were doing for our church and found that a local store had better prices than amazon. It really depends on what you are buying. And sometimes I don't mind paying a couple extra bucks for something I can have shipped right to my door.
 03/30/2015 11:11:46 AM · #46
Originally posted by sjhuls:
Don't ever assume amazon has the cheapest price. I recently bought some equipment for my studio.

That would be foolish. I use Amazon for my baseline for a fair & erquitable market price. You can usually find almost anything cheaper somewhere else, it's just; A. Can you trust the vendor? B. Is the product the same as you know what it is at Amazon? C. Will you get it in a reasonable timeframe?
 03/30/2015 12:33:41 PM · #47
You are the wise one and we honour you as such.
 03/30/2015 12:40:37 PM · #48
wow...Amazon Prime is beyond useful!!! Not only does it save me money and time...but gas as well!!! I can shop compare and if I'm not in a hurry for the package I can choose $1 to be added to my book purchases (Kendall). We get our dog food, hard to find grocery items (sugar - super refined (castor), discontinued items in our local area), paper towels, diapers (if they are a good price), auto parts, camera gear...so on and so forth...we get probably 3/4 boxes a week from them...

I for one would have a hard time replacing the service.

Plus we have a Roku and use the Amazon Prime for evening viewing...no DVR box here!!! I've used the music some but keep forgetting it's there (I have pandora and spotify)
 03/30/2015 12:48:07 PM · #49
Originally posted by Ann:
Originally posted by Nobody:
Originally posted by Tiny:
I,m not sure this is positively the reason.


After I had looked into it, I received an email with the following opening:

"We noticed you've shown an interest in unlimited FREE Two-Day Delivery.
If you haven't yet signed up for Amazon Prime, click the link below to learn more about the 30-day free trial."

Since then, 3 orders have taken the absolute maximum time to arrive. Coincidence? I don't think so.


Coincidence? Yes, I think so. Amazon prides itself on its crazy good customer service, and being vindictive because somebody doesn't have prime doesn't sound like something they'd do. Are you getting the shipping notifications in a timely manner? Amazon controls how fast its products get through the warehouse to the shipper, but doesn't control the shippers, and whatever service they're using probably has a problem.

The real question is...have you called them about the problem you're having?

Edit: ipad. Autocorrect. Bah!


Totally agree...we get the vast majority of our packaging in the 2 day window, only when it's not a "Filled by Amazon" product. We try not to order those but sometimes get caught. But I'm notified properly. And recently I ordered something at Christmas...it still hadn't arrived by in Feb and Customer service helped me resolve that in short manner of time. Like Julie said they ROCK!!! (obviously it wasn't an important gift!!!)

Just FYI folks...you can share accounts with your family...I share with my niece in California...works like a charm.
 03/30/2015 12:50:13 PM · #50
Originally posted by glad2badad:
Originally posted by giantmike:
Originally posted by glad2badad:
Our household has two Amazon accounts (just kind of happened ... long story). Anyway, one with Prime, one without. I hold the account without Prime and one time I did use the "try Prime for free" to hurry along a camera equipment purchase (of course), but cancelled the Prime "trial" within 30 days. Now I get offers about every 6 months or so to "try Prime again" but haven't had an urgent need. :-) With all of that said, we're quite satisfied with Amazon service with either account (Prime or not). Haven't seen any impact on delivery times for the non-Prime account.

Sorry to hear you're having trouble with them Sam.

Did you know you can share prime accounts in a household?

My wife and I have separate Amazon accounts on purpose. The has prime, and she added my account as part of the household. I get the benefit of 2 day free shipping, but I don't get the free streaming. So for streaming, we just hook up devices to her account.

Hadn't considered that. If I need something shipped Prime we just order it on my wife's account. So, do you share the Prime shipping but have separate billing/payment methods? The reason I've stayed clear of my wife's account overall is because we have two college students and they do a lot of selling / buying of college textbooks via Amazon so I when it comes time to purchase something you have to wade thru three different accounts, and watch out for pending credits the kids have, etc... Messy in general (or for me at least). It I could take advantage of sharing the 'Prime' and stay out of the other account(s) I'll have to look into it.

Thanks!


as students they can have a FREE Prime account of their own...both our daughters have them from school and our son-in-law...(and my eldest daughter and son-in-law are out of school now for 7 years)
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