Amazon has now classified most/all cheap music as "add on items"

Discussion in 'Marketplace Discussions' started by kwadguy, Jan 30, 2017.

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  1. kwadguy

    kwadguy Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Cambridge, MA
    For a very long time now, Amazon has kept A/V media items out of their Add On category. That is, you could buy A/V media items (CD,DVD) with free shipping if you have Prime, no matter what they cost.

    No longer. Today I noticed what seemed to be all media items being sold for less than $5 as Add On items.

    So now you'll need to bundle $25 worth of stuff to get them shipped free.

    End of another era.
     
  2. Gaslight

    Gaslight ⎧⚍⎫⚑

    Location:
    Northeast USA
    Was reading about this in another thread, a few days back - but seemed spotty.

    Just checked today and, so far anyway, everything I looked at under $5 is an add-on item now. Vinyl isn't affected it seems (at least not yet) but I looked at under $10 vinyl, not under $5 (not sure if there are any new LP releases under $5 to begin with).

    Makes sense, I suppose....if one fills up on $5/less CD's and has those shipped out individually, it's not really cost effective. Hopefully it doesn't change to $10 in a few months as then you're moving into normal CD price category.
     
    ARK and Galley like this.
  3. patient_ot

    patient_ot Senior Member

    Location:
    USA
    Saw this recently as well. At least so far, CDs from the Warehouse Deals section of the site are not affected. Those are still Prime/non-add on.
     
  4. zen archer

    zen archer Forum Resident

    Location:
    Boston Ma.usa
    My Prime is up in two days. I just noticed a few weeks ago that a few of the CD's I was looking to buy are
    now Add-Ons. Seems like now we have to pay $99 just to get Free shipping on $25 worth of merchandise.

    Just noticed some Add-Ons are $7.98 ...I can see for Items less than $4.99, but now they are up to $7.98? Soon it will be $14.99 Add-Ons.
    really defeats the purpose for Prime, at least for me.
     
    Galley likes this.
  5. hbbfam

    hbbfam Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chandler,AZ
    My guess is they will see the error of their ways and put a lower ceiling on Add-ons. Amy is a pretty sharp business person.
     
  6. Jerry

    Jerry Grateful Gort Staff

    Location:
    New England
    Do we complain about the bundling for saved shipping costs or do we rejoice in $4.99 CDs being the new wave? One man's ceiling is another man's floor.
     
    artfromtex, ARK, Whoopycat and 3 others like this.
  7. zen archer

    zen archer Forum Resident

    Location:
    Boston Ma.usa
    Good point. But i paid for free 2 days shipping with Prime. If I am going to bundle ...goodbye Prime.
     
    beercanchicken and Jerry like this.
  8. beercanchicken

    beercanchicken Legendary Stickman

    Location:
    Chicago
    They really are making some questionable business moves. I had a recent experience with buying headphones that left me wondering if I even want to be a Prime Member anymore. Plus, they arent really cheaper than many other online retailers anymore so...why am I paying for it? Pretty much just convenience.
     
    Galley and zen archer like this.
  9. zen archer

    zen archer Forum Resident

    Location:
    Boston Ma.usa
    So true! A few days ago i ordered 5 CD's from DeepDiscount, all of them cheaper than Amazon and one of which would have been an Add-on from Amazon. For myself getting
    rid of Prime will cut down on impulse buys. I think I use Prime more from 3rd party sellers than Amazon proper. Not all my purchases but a big majority of them.

    What is the shipping bundle without Prime, $49? I bet I meet that more than I like to admit when ordering directly from Amazon.
     
  10. beercanchicken

    beercanchicken Legendary Stickman

    Location:
    Chicago
    I bought a pair of headphones on a Thursday or Friday and the price had fluctuated and dropped THREE times by the time I got back to work the next Monday; the $ drops werent slight either about $80, $50 & $20. So I wrote them an email spelling it out "Sorry, we dont do price adjustments anymore, only for TVs" "But I didnt order this a month or 2 ago, I ordered this 2 days ago and the current price if I was to buy right now is lower" "Sorry, we dont do price adjustments anymore, only for TVs" "But I can return these still and rebuy for $20 cheaper right now, isnt it easier just to give me the $20 credit?" "Sorry, we dont....." So I returned them and bought a Warehouse Deal for about $100 cheaper.

    I didnt even know you could get the shipping bundle, I'd be interested in that since thats why I signed up initially, they kept adding all the extra stuf like movies, radio that I rarely use....
    And - You can download your entire Amazon history to see how much you've spent. My wasnt quite as jaw dropping as I thought it'd be since I've been buying from them a long time and I buy a lot of "essentials" from them like deodarant, toothpaste, etc. but it was still pretty high
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Mar 16, 2017
  11. beercanchicken

    beercanchicken Legendary Stickman

    Location:
    Chicago
    After some thinking about it, the CD add-on makes total sense, especially for people in a Same Day Delivery Market, looking for something that costs $5 to qualify
     
    ARK likes this.
  12. zen archer

    zen archer Forum Resident

    Location:
    Boston Ma.usa
    I just checked and I did not realize, but you can do a whole order of Add-ons. I thought you would have to buy $25 of other stuff and then it would kick in for an Add-on.

    But it still takes away from an impulse buy, which actually may not be a bad thing!
     
    beercanchicken likes this.
  13. stereoptic

    stereoptic Anaglyphic GORT Staff

    Location:
    NY
    Please correct me if I am mistaken, but if you are a Prime member your cart has to total $25 for these add on items to qualify for free shipping. If you are NOT a prime member, minimum purchase is now $35.


    I can't count (well, I guess I can look at "My Orders" to confirm) the number of times I had a whim to hear something, looked it up, saw the item was brand new shipped to my door in two days for $5.00 , closed my eyes and clicked on "1 click ordering"!
     
  14. zen archer

    zen archer Forum Resident

    Location:
    Boston Ma.usa
    Yes, me too. But it seems I am noticing more and more these cheaper items (CD's especially) are now Add On items. What is weird is that it is not all items in
    this price range. You can still find stuff for $3, $4, $5 and have it shipped without loading your cart with $25 worth of merchandise. But I am sure it is just a matter of time before this will apply to everything. Basically Amazon is charging people $99 bucks to fill their carts with $25 worth of merchandise to qualify for FREE Shipping. Isn't this where we started years ago? $25 for FREE shipping, but without the up front cost.

    here is an example of a cd as an add-on item. In this listing every Prime listing is for an add-on : Doug Sahm, Sir Douglas Quintet - The Best of Doug Sahm & the Sir Douglas Quintet 1968-1975 - Amazon.com Music
     
  15. Time Is On My Side

    Time Is On My Side Forum Resident

    Location:
    Madison, WI
    Has anyone noticed, they started doing where you can only buy certain items if you're an Amazon Prime subscriber? I just tried to add the Blu-ray of Heat (1995) to my wishlist and it says I can only buy it if I have Amazon Prime.

    So done with them. First this add-on items stuff and now this.........................
     
  16. lv70smusic

    lv70smusic Senior Member

    Location:
    San Francisco, CA
    This as well as the "add on item" issue have been around for quite a while now.
     
    ARK likes this.
  17. SamS

    SamS Forum Legend

    Location:
    Texas
    It's never an issue if you use an Amazon Echo/Alexa to place the order. I just did it yesterday for a $2 pack of safety pins. I think you can even use the Alexa app if you don't have an Echo, but I haven't tried myself.
     
  18. Dave Garrett

    Dave Garrett Senior Member

    Location:
    Houston, TX
    The ability to access Alexa is built into the latest version of the Amazon app for iOS, where you can use it without an Echo. There's a separate Alexa app for Android, but AFAIK you have to have an Echo to use that app.

    Alexa comes to iPhone via Amazon app in latest update, no Echo required
     
    SamS likes this.
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