I understand and accept the price raise, but as the article quotes "The more expensive Prime is, the more they are going to have to live up to their promises."
One promise that I feel is broken every day is on display with the "Add-On Items"
These are just annoying.
They show up in "Prime Only" searches and are typically <$5.
Which I understand Amazon really can't ship for free.
But there is literally no way to check out with just that item until you add up to $25, and it's typically stuff I actually need quickly.
Take thumb tacks.
They show the first result as $2.48 "add-on" for 100 of them.
Or you can select another package of 100 for $6.05 that IS actual Prime and shipped in 2-days.
The "add-on item" is just a confusing concept, that makes me - as a consumer - feel like Amazon's "2-day free shipping" promise is broken on a daily basis when I see these results.
Hide the results from me, show me how to hide the results, or charge me $2.00 extra to ship "Add-On Items" and problem solved.
But otherwise it's a constant reminder that Amazon hasn't kept their promise that I originally signed up for, even though I believe their intent is to offer more selection to consumers.
What Amazon needs to do is arrange for weekly shipments. I love prime, but I pre-order a lot of stuff, and often I'll have a week where I receive shipments three or four days in a row; One impulse buy I bought right then, two things I placed orders for months ago and months apart from each other, that just happen to come out at the same time.
Imagine if I could have them consolidate those shipments; Get a weekly shipment for most items, or get it via normal prime when it's something I really need fast.
They already kinda do that for Subscribe & Save items, the dates for those shipments are never predictable, and items tend to arrive packaged together.
I've noticed that Prime members can still opt for the slower (super saver) delivery option. Although there's not much reason to select slower shipping over faster shipping, if both are free, choosing the slower shipping option should increase the opportunity for Amazon to ship different orders in the same box.
I’m not sure if it’s all items or all the times, but I believe if you choose the slower option, Amazon will actually credit your account some money (though I think from the way it was worded it sounded like it was only for Amazon MP3 or similar purchases, not a general Amazon credit - certainly if it was general credit, I’d do it more often).
FREE No-Rush Delivery (typical delivery one week after placing an order).
Note: You may receive promotional credit for selecting No-Rush Shipping. Credit will be automatically applied to your Amazon.com account once the first package from a No-Rush Shipping-eligible order ships. You'll receive an e-mail as soon as the credit is available. You may select No-Rush Shipping as many times as it's offered to you, but you won't be eligible for the credit if you cancel your No-Rush Shipping order or return items from it.
And from their forums: "You get a $1 mp3 credit if you choose the slower shipping option."
I have a strange problem that my garbagemen in Berkeley won't collect boxes. They're supposed to collect them if they are neatly stacked next to the bin, but they don't. If Amazon would consolidate into as little cardboard as possible it would have huge value to me.
I'm sure they could still save money because it could be less time sensitive and would include only one doorstep delivery for all orders instead of one per order.
One order may need to go by air if it's at a distant warehouse, but another may go ground because it's available close by.
I'd like it solely for the convenience--several times I have wanted to order something but knew I would not be in town when the delivery happened. I'd love to say "deliver it to me next Wednesday" and Amazon figures out the cheapest way that would work instead of having to remember to make my Prime order on Monday.
Couldn't agree more. I try to leave stuff in my shopping cart for some time, to avoid getting individual shipments. It'd be great if I can just 'add to the weekly queue'.
I completely agree. I emailed Amazon a while back because there was an add on item I really needed but could not buy. I understand they can't ship it free. That's fine, but like you said there was literally no way for me to purchase it and pay shipping. That's insane. They should make sure there's always a way for the customer to purchase something.
I also feel the SmartPost shipping is a broken promise. SmartPost almost always turns out to be 3 day shipping. 2 days from Amazon to the post office, then 1 day from post office to me.
Another prime member here, totally worth it even if they double it. Most of the time, I get things next day as it seems that distribution center is nearby.
The reason you are annoyed by add-ons, is because you came to rely on Amazon for things you can and probably should by in neigbourhood store. I would buy thumbtacks and such things in dollar store acros the street.
I am similar in that I buy common things from Amazon, I like how it is organized and it makes sense to me when I order.
That bottle of melatonin, $7 on Amazon, prime add on.
$15 at the localish drug store that's a 5 mile drive each way. Yes, that's the closest store.
It's incredibly annoying.
Also, smya 107 helicopter tail booms w/motor, $4.00 prime add on, $4.00 shipped free from HK with a 3-4 week delivery time. Kid wants it fixed. Might as well just buy it, and another copter just to have spares around and to hit prime shipping.
Just let me pay shipping. It's worth it. Anything else is just a big fu. They've got the item, I've got the cash. Let me use it.
So for helicopters, I don't think you realize that they are shipped from China :). When I ordered helicopters, I read what others were saying and got spare battery and replacement parts, totally worth it and not too much.
Lately even those, 'China Post' packages arrive fairly quickly within 3-5 days which is amazing.
Yeah, totally know that they're shipped from china, except for the ones that are staged at amazon's warehouses.
I've got a couple batteries on order that I ordered before Kid burned out the tail motor that still haven't arrived. His came with a bunch of spare plastic parts, but not the electronic bits. Some day I'll replace the rotors and he'll see what undented leading edges can do for him.
I've gotten a bunch of stuff through China Post shipping, and never had them faster than a couple of weeks.
This 100%. Every time I see an add on item I need and can't pay extra to have shipped separately, its a time I have to go to a store, and makes me consider keeping Prime a little less.
Add on items wouldn't even exist if it were not in fact for the add-on program, so having them listed is actually giving you more selection than you would get without it.
But that explanation is actually misleading. I've had items that I ordered previously from Amazon suddenly turn into add-ons at the same or even slightly higher prices.
Amazon may well have decided to create the add-on program in lieu of removing them, but "wouldn't even exist" isn't the entire truth, as it doesn't acknowledge the fact that the items did exist before.
Sounds like they were selling them at a loss and decided to either move them into the add-on program, or remove them from the site all-together. Which is is better?
Maybe this is a "Show HN" item, but I created http://www.shippingfiller.com to scratch my own itch of finding filler items to meet Amazon's free shipping minimum with items I might actually want. And I'm too cheap to buy prime.
You are not too cheap to buy Prime, you just don't purchase enough from Amazon to make Prime worth it. A "cheap" person who uses Amazon a lot always has Prime, otherwise they are just throwing away money on shipping.
Once you start buying many items from Amazon, Prime easily pays for itself at the current level. And will pay for itself at the next level too after a certain use
I complete agree. More and more items are showing up as Add-on Items, even things that didn't used to be (at the same price too). At least give me the option to explicitly pay for the shipping.
The flipside of this is that Walmart does not charge extra for small, individual items, and I suspect they're losing a lot of money by doing so. I'm a heavy Amazon user, but as an experiment (and because I needed some individual toiletries) I ordered ~15 items from Walmart.com. Walmart's answer to this shipment request was to send 5 separate packages from different places and taking anywhere from 1 day to 10 days. Shipping transit estimations were all off. One shipment was just a single loofah. Just a very annoying process altogether.
Even with these add-on products Amazon is basically forcing you to adopt a Costco / buy-in-bulk model, and I think it's the only profitable and sensible direction.
>>> Walmart's answer to this shipment request was to send 5 separate packages from different places and taking anywhere from 1 day to 10 days
Logically speaking, I would think this would actually be the fastest way to fulfill orders. Find the closest distribution center that has your stuff in stock and ship it.
The ten day delivery is a bit disconcerting for sure though.
At times I am tempted to just order $25 of dead weight so I can get the add-on item and ship everything else back for credit.
I see what they are trying to do, namely get you to cough up $20 more to buy things you 'may' need but not yet (or ever) to increase revenue but it just feels particularly scammy.
I am a heavy Prime user.
I understand and accept the price raise, but as the article quotes "The more expensive Prime is, the more they are going to have to live up to their promises."
One promise that I feel is broken every day is on display with the "Add-On Items"
These are just annoying.
They show up in "Prime Only" searches and are typically <$5.
Which I understand Amazon really can't ship for free.
But there is literally no way to check out with just that item until you add up to $25, and it's typically stuff I actually need quickly.
Take thumb tacks.
They show the first result as $2.48 "add-on" for 100 of them.
Or you can select another package of 100 for $6.05 that IS actual Prime and shipped in 2-days.
The "add-on item" is just a confusing concept, that makes me - as a consumer - feel like Amazon's "2-day free shipping" promise is broken on a daily basis when I see these results.
Hide the results from me, show me how to hide the results, or charge me $2.00 extra to ship "Add-On Items" and problem solved.
But otherwise it's a constant reminder that Amazon hasn't kept their promise that I originally signed up for, even though I believe their intent is to offer more selection to consumers.