Amazon Prime worth it?

Nice...I know Amazon gobbles up little vendors and are evil blah blah blah but they are just way too easy to deal with to even think about not using them.

 

They are amazing. Recently, I called and just said I was worried about a package that the tracking showed as "package delayed." It was actually a UPS issue, I just hadn't seen that status before. I wasn't even complaining, just said it concerned me. They apologized and offered to waive the shipping. When they saw I was a prime member and there was no shipping fee, they gave me a 10.00 promo credit on my next order. I even said they didn't have to. They wouldn't take no for an answer. The package ended up on time.

 

Best customer service in the business. I've had Prime since it was first offered. Well worth it in my estimation. I'd rather deal with Amazon as an intermediary than most companies directly. I also love the 'call me' customer service function. No waiting in a queue to speak to a representative. (I assume that feature is available whether or not you are a prime member). I gather that if you live in Seattle, or wherever the HQ is, they will even deliver groceries to you. The movie streaming thing is just a bonus, in my estimation.

 

Absolutely. It's Christmas time and I've been buying from Amazon, with Prime, as if it isn't, and there have been no delays at all. These guys know how to run a business and a website. I only wish I bought their stock back in the day.

 

You are correct: the "call me" option is available regardless of whether or not one has Prime.

 

I just ordered an Audio Technica cart using the one click option and didnt notice it was coming from Japan. Been ten days so checked status and it said it wont be here until mid Jan. I wrote them and explained that I think this should be made more clear when ordering overseas. They issued me a $10 credit. I then went back and checked and then noticed you cant even but the cart here....surprised so many forum members have it. Anyway, was really my fault so the gesture was appreciated.

 

Please clarify.

 

Absolutely. Love new music, love new "old" music (from the last 10 years), love an occasional reissue of a classic, and getting all of those CDs within 48 hours w/o having to go look for them rocks!

 

+1.

Other reasons beside free shipping include often lower prices on DCC, MFSL, Mastersound and other gold discs and fine masterings. Customer service has been excellent.

 

An unrelated benefit is that I can always access a movie when my family members are maxing out on the 2-user-at-a-time limit on Netflix.

 

Amazon considers $40 Prime price hike
http://money.cnn.com/2014/02/03/technology/amazon-prime-price/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

Amazon said it is thinking about raising the price of Prime membership by as much as $40, hoping it can strike the right balance between managing rising costs and scaring away customers.

Prime members get two-day shipping on a large number of Amazon items at no extra cost, plus the ability to borrow Kindle books and stream movies. Prime currently costs $79 a year, but that might jump to $99 or even $119, according to Amazon chief financial officer Thomas Szkutak.

... On the company's earnings call Thursday, Szkutak said the company has not finalized its decision. He cited increased fuel costs for the need to raise prices. But some bank analysts note that crude oil prices have remained fairly steady since 2011, so the real pressure might be coming from Amazon's huge hiring spree. The company has quadrupled in size to 108,000 in only four years.

The more important point, however, is that the price of Prime hasn't changed since it started nine years ago, even as the deal has gotten better. The number of products available for free two-day shipping has grown from 1 million to 19 million, and the program now includes movies, electronic books and the prospect of same-day shipping in the near future.

 

I aint paying an extra $40. Not since I am now paying taxes too.

 

They will jack this up to pay the stock holders until it breaks. I will walk, and they will lose my business.

 

A trend I am seeing is really irritating....companies have a great idea and offer the product for a price. Then they start bloating it with things I don't care about. It increases their costs, then they have to raise their price when I don't even care about the rest of the stuff. I like two day shipping, but $79 is already at the very top of the scale for me, and a lot of what I buy I noticed isn't even eligible for Prime. I don't care about streaming and not a single book I read was available for rent. Just had the same discussion with my cable company...they try and justify the high cost by pointing out all the added value that is of no value to me. I don't know if they lose more customers than they gain by doing this, but my guess with Prime is at $99 they will lose a big chunk, at $119 a mass exodus. I love Amazon overall though,

 

I agree with most of what you wrote. $79 is already a price where I question whether it's worth it every time my renewal comes up. There's no way I'd pay $119 or even $99. As to cable costs, your company will likely lower your bill if you call to either disconnect or downgrade your service; they'd much rather keep you as a customer with a lower profit margin than have you leave entirely or downgrade to the least expensive channel lineup.

 

When I passed this information about a price raise along in October, people dismissed it. I am intimately familiar with Amazon's financials and anyone that can read the tea leaves knew this price hike was coming. Amazon has recklessly expanded their distribution capacity, virtually forsaking profit so long as Wall Street didn't turn on them.

 

My hesitation about bailing on Amazon Prime - if they increase above $79/year - is that so many alternative online businesses for the products I purchase are no longer around, thanks to Amazon's impressively (from a purely capitalist perspective) cut-throat efforts to run as many of those alternatives as possible out of business (or at least neuter them into becoming Amazon Marketplace sellers, in which Amazon still gets a cut of anything they sell). I'm really not sure where else I could go - outside of Amazon - for certain products, and certainly not for a lower price.

But the really scary thought I have is that, once all of the competition is destroyed, Amazon will be free to raise prices as high as they want, and I'll have to buy from them unless I wait and hope for new competitors to rise back up and challenge Amazon again . . . :-(

It's a frustrating conundrum, because as a consumer I simply want the products I'm interested in to be in stock at the lowest price (short of spending hours scouring price comparison sites, calculating total cost including shipping, verifying that it's in stock at the competitor site, that the competitor site is rated highly and won't cause hassles to return something or track down a missing package, etc.), and preferably with a wide selection of options to choose from. Amazon almost always has the best combination of all of those things, and it's as quick as typing "amazon.com" into my browser to get there (versus effort to search elsewhere, as I described above).

So for now, I'll stick with Amazon, and the new $99 or $119 annual fee for Prime will probably still be worth it for me, considering the limited alternatives. For now.

Craig.

 

This is pretty much exactly the textbook description of how capitalism tends to create monopolies: Companies use their competitive advantage to push out rivals, which then enables them to behave in ways that are more coercive than competitive.

 

Yes, I know. Sigh.

Sometimes (even significantly more than a lot of people I know) I go out of my way to support smaller/independent businesses. But every once in a while a massive corporation comes along that dominates a marketplace so expertly, providing so many advantages and incentives, that I can't resist getting sucked along with everyone else.

I acknowledge that Amazon is one of those exceptions. Which reminds me, I should point out that another key factor keeping me loyal to Amazon is that I have myriad opportunities to earn Amazon gift codes on my own. Amazon - whether intentionally or accidentally (though knowing Amazon I assume it's intentional) - seems to allow a great number of businesses to use Amazon gift codes as prizes/awards. For example, I get Amazon gift codes from using Bing search engine, from taking surveys, and from clicking on advertisements that hit my Gmail account. I probably earn at least $300-500 a year in Amazon gift codes, which more than covers the annual Prime fee, plus pays for quite a few shiny discs that I purchase each year!

Starbucks is another massive corporation that understands very well the value of such things as incentives/rewards, superior customer service, customizing the experience for each individual customer, etc., in cultivating customer loyalty.

Craig.

 

They'll get you one way or the other. They'll raise the Prime membership fee, and then they'll probably raise shipping charges. They may also raise the threshold total per order to get free shipping. Another option they may be considering is upping the Prime membership fee and making the default (free) shipping method something cheaper than two-day shipping. I'm waiting for $119 for Prime with free media mail shipping.

Given the frequency with which I buy from Amazon, $119 doesn't bother me. Of course I prefer $79, but I buy enough to still do fine at $119. I get that the fee hike, if it were to happen, would be the breaking point for many folks.

 

Agreed. I only need Prime to buy physical items. Streaming videos and e-book rentals don't interest me.

 

I have no idea what you are talking about.

Ooh! A Star Dash! Gotta get to Starbucks early and often!

 

Suddenly Amazon is struggling when, not that long ago, they looked invincible. They have beaten the competition with lower overhead, but now they are moving towards increased overhead with their push for more warehouses and same-day shipping.

 

Amazon is struggling when their stock price is $345? That's news for me.

 

It's all relative. It had been doing much better.



There is cause for concern:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/30/us-amazon-results-idUSBREA0T1UA20140130