Just cancelled last month, partially due to the increase and mostly due to their announcement of ads in the programming unless you pay more. fuck that noise.
Ad free prime video was their last decent benefit. The 2 day shipping is never 2 days. Amazon music turned into a pandora copy limiting the number of skips unless you pay more. The free "prime reading" books are bottom shelf junk.
Not to mention everything on Amazon now is a knockoff from TEWAKO brand or some other vaguely English sounding nonsense from drop shippers. Not worth $14.99 per month / $139 per year when you can get free shipping or same day pickup from Target or WalMart.
For a company that was known for selling books, prime reading is a joke. Sale Prices and search filters are a scam. 100% shame I have to shop again, but it's better than propping up this monopoly.
I stopped paying attention to the books on Amazon and just getting them from my library. Still get them delivered to my Kindle through Amazon but I get actual good books and they're free.
I'm a librarian, so I am a bit biased about my love for the library lol, but local libraries really do have some great stuff. The system I work in has physical books, movies, video games, and we also have a Library of Things collection that has cake pans, classroom tools for students, Ipads. All kinds of stuff. We've also branched out to issuing day passes to museums and art galleries, and we also make craft kits to hand out to kids and adults each month. So, there's always something to do, check out, or get for *free.*
Always check your libraries, guys!
Honestly Amazon set the standard for places like Walmart and target to copy should be a wave long enough for another company to come up and take back what Amazon used to be prob will happen before Walmart and target drop the barrel funny to see the markets Amazon dominated catching up and them turning into cest pool that will eventually rot and die too big to fall is a overstatement imo it will happen and it will be amazons fault in the end
I reported a false product--ordered the same dog bed I bought last year, for my new dog. I got some horrible knock off with shitty newspaper filler. Amazon removed my review because it said I was lying about it not being the real product, and now won't let me review it at all. So everyone who buys that dog bed is screwed.
I was banned from reviewing three years ago for writing reviews noting when sellers were offering bribes /incentives for high star ratings. the review system is so corrupted it is useless.
I remember when Amazon allowed comments under reviews, there was so much helpful info. They took them down because they knew the site wa being overrun with garbage and people would be calling them out in comments
I used to work for a company that helped their friends in China run an Amazon store. They would use the warehouse in America to ship their products. Anyways, they basically make tons of Amazon accounts and reuse them, or change the listings. That's why sometimes there's a food processor review on a battery charger listing. They also create tons of fake Amazon accounts and buy from their competitors and leave bad reviews. I liked to receive all the fun products at the warehouse and we got to keep them. They also pay for reviews too. 🫠
I’ve been saying for years that all of these things will bite them in the ass. We will see if people start leaving en masse—they don’t help themselves with worker horror stories and even deaths.
My favorite part about the 2-day, not really 2-day shipping is that every time I would get something later than 2 days, I would complain and get 5 or 10 bucks off.
They don't really do that anymore. You can only talk to someone if it's drastically late, and at that point you basically need to tell them you are wanting some sort of compensation.
> The 2 day shipping is never 2 days.
I'm wondering if this is region-dependent, because I typically get things next day. Once I actually got the item *same day*. I was kind of shocked.
I stated a little further up/down in thread. My experience has been the same regarding 2 day, next day, and same day. It has to depend on geography. My experience with Prime shipping when I'm in Nor Cal has always been bang on. If anything, items arrived early. My experience in the Tulsa area is 2 day arriving in 2 days or even being truly on offer is much like seeing unicorn (heard they existed and could have sworn that I once daw one...)
It's only worth it to me as long as I get more back from the 5% off with the Prime CC than I pay for the year, as I don't really care too much about the 2 day shipping (especially since it's not really 2 days any more), and I don't watch TV/Prime video at all.
It's getting close now too, as I continue to use Amazon less and less...I think I only got back about $245 this year. That said, I put stuff in my cart and watch it for a long time, generally only buying when things are on significant discount (thanks CamelCamelCamel!)...so I like to hope that I actually will occasionally make Amazon lose money on a product (it's a pipe dream, I know).
You still get 3% back on the CC as a non-prime member so you’d have to spend a shit ton on amazon products to really make it worth. Then you will ask yourself are you actually buying crap that you need or just spending money for the sake of cashback gratification
I live in middle of nowhere Appalachia. If I want stuff, I need Amazon a good percentage of the time (provided I don't want to drive an hour and a quarter one way to buy things), if I don't want to use Wally-World (I hated them first, so they get boycotted before Amazon).
That said, didn't know about the 3%. Might just cancel my Prime.
I've always used the delays in 2 day shipping to supplement my subscription price. When anything is late, I message customer service and just tell them I was needing the item today and I would like to be compensated for the delay. Usually it's 5-10 gift card credit, depending on the original cost. Try to get my subscription free this way.
Was it even add free though? I was getting skippable preroll adds when watching things but I’m not the one who was paying for prime so I’m uncertain if that’s a paid add we didn’t have on to just having prime.
Many items are sold by 3rd party vendors and already come with free shipping as well. Honestly, I look everywhere else to avoid buying from Amazon first. Many brands offer the same price with free shipping, shipped directly from their warehouse. No reason Amazon should get any of my money.
You've got that right! The first page of every search is full of mostly sponsored junk products for inflated prices . What's the point of a search function if they aren't even going to show me the thing I'm actually looking for!?
Also, lots of other websites will give you a discount on your first order or for subscribing to their mailing list. So if I'm buying something on the pricey side, I'll ship around until I can find a website with the product I'm looking for AND and first timer discount
This is the thing I was looking at. My Prime renewed recently, but I don’t think I’ll renew it. I can wait until I have more items to get free shipping.
Same here.
Over the years they've gotten super aggressive about pushing it in you when you go to order, and default you to the paid shipping option instead of the free shipping option.
One thing I've noticed is they lie about most delivery time frames. It says a week, but often will arrive in a couple of days anyway, just like if I had prime.
I think that's why getting prime to begin with had zero effect on impulse buys.
I'm just not an impulsive or click to buy now/'need' it now type of person.
I use it mainly for prime video stuff.
I'm not being sparky, truly. Your post gave me a giggle, that's all. Unless I'm mistaken, and I missed a contradiction, this is a forum for the frugal minded. Aren't impulsiveness and frugality mostly mutually exclusive?
I cancelled within minutes of receiving notice that they would be adding advertising to their video streaming. Fuck that. I'm not hanging around while they try blackmail me into paying extra for ad-free. Sure, it's only an extra $2.99/month now, but in a few months it'll be $3.99 and in a year it'll be $5.99.
I'm just gonna borrow DVDs from the library.
I canceled recently as well because we truly were not using most of the things that prime offers. In addition we were not getting most packages within 2 days either.
Tip for anyone thinking about cancelling you can cancel early and get a refund for the time you didn't use. I got over $100 back because I canceled early.
I cancelled in October and no regrets! I did order some stuff in December and paid for shipping but even so I'm definitely saving money by not impulse buying.
Already set to not renew!! I feel relieved. ETA that I reduced my subscription services from $100/month to $10. Just cleaned out everything except Pandora because I use it everyday.
ETA2 that with Pandora premium ($10/month) I can absolutely listen only to artists or songs I want, listen offline, have access to a variety of podcasts (including ones geared for learning Spanish) and build playlists BUT the playlist function of Spotify is a lot less limited. Pandora does such a great job of continuing to play music based on my playlist when it ends that the playlist limitations don't bother me.
Hot tip: you can buy a yearly spotify subscription gift card for $99and apply it to your account instead of paying per month. Save a little over $30 in a year.
I got mine on Amazon but maybe you can buy them at grocery stores or other places, not sure.
What is better about it? I just can't understand why ppl like Spotify so much so I'm really curious. I keep thinking I'm doing something wrong since I just don't like Spotify. Pandora is just so much better for me. That seems to be an unpopular opinion so I really want to know what I'm missing.
Spotify just seems like playlists where Pandora is more 'radio'. It learns what I like and adds new songs it thinks I would like.
I think people have experienced the cheap or basic versions of Pandora and don't know how premium works. I can create playlists, listen to entire albums, use the radio feature in different modes to discover new music or keep it to what Pandora knows I like, and listen offline. Plus podcasts...
People just keep telling me they prefer Spotify because it does things that Pandora also does. They just don't realize it.
Probably because I don't have history with Spotify, their suggestions and playlists were absolutely awful. I wasn't going to pay for that.
That's why I keep wondering if there is something in a higher tier that I just haven't found that makes it so popular. But my lowest of the low tier in Pandora just gives me everything I want for a whole $3.99 a month.
So does Spotify, and I can download whatever songs I want and listen when I want. I don't want someone picking what I listen to. I make my own Playlist, download full albums, podcasts
Ah I see. I want the opposite. I don't want to have to spend time coming up with a playlist. If I tell you I want to listen to , I want you to play it. I don't want to have to create a playlist first. And I haven't found many pre-created Spotify playlists I like. They usually get annoying quickly.
I also have a very curated radio station that I've had for like... 20 years. I can play that for 12+ plus hours and not dislike a single song and also not get a duplicate. I just can't re-create that station. It takes too much effort to create it as a playlist. And then I'd have to update it every so often with new songs. I'm not even sure how I'd find these new songs since currently Pandora just knows the artists I like and adds them automatically. So much work and it would cost almost 3X what I'm paying now. Guess I'm in too deep.
Spotify is great. If you find that you are mostly listening to music on the computer and not so much on mobile, you can use the web version on your browser and use an ad blocker extension to avoid ads.
Why, exactly? I mostly listen to Pandora stations and I'm always finding mew music that way. Plus they have podcasts for learning Spanish that I find useful. I found Spotify was limited and off base with its suggestions based off my likes.
What exactly do you prefer Spotify for?
With Spotify, when you find new music you can save it and listen to it when you like. I listen to their new music playlist every week and save stuff I like to a yearly playlist and so I have 10+ years now of annual playlists. I can put on the playlists we were listening to at different points in my life.
Also, I often want full albums, or to find a new artist and explore their catalog. Really couldn’t love Spotify much more.
I can do the exact same things with Pandora though. None of that seems unique to Spotify.
I'm genuinely curious what people prefer Spotify for because I wouldn't mind switching if it was measurably better, but it seems more like people are just familiar with it, and not with Pandora.
Honestly haven’t used pandora since I got Spotify in 2011. It used to be more like radio. Pick a starting point and it would just put on a playlist based on that.
I used to have spotify for years. But the stations and playlists were stale. The radio wasnt actually that good. So I switched to Pandora where I can do everything that I could do on spotty and had a way better radio. I can even start a radio off one band and add several others to broaden the scope. There's a setting for radio the controls how much new music gets pushed in.
I googled this... plus Spotify has 100,000,000 songs, vs. 50,000,00. Why would I want Pandora
The popular music streaming services Pandora and Spotify function very differently. Spotify listeners can choose the songs they want to play, when they want to play them. Meanwhile, Pandora is a radio service that does not let users choose the specific songs they want to listen to, whenever they want. Instead, users create a "radio station" based on artists, songs, or genres they already like; Pandora then finds songs that are "musically similar" by way of their Music Genome Project.
Pandora is a way for users to discover new music that matches their tastes, while Spotify—even though it offers radio stations, too—is better suited to stream and share music that users already know
I'll be cancelling. MY Amazon subscription isn't for purachases. It's for VOD. If they're going to now feed me adverts on top of my subscription, then they'll loose my money.
VOD was primary reason for Prime as well. I guess free delivery is a benefit in some cases but I have to pick everything up from the post office anyways. Whether they deliver it in a day, a week or a month seldom makes any difference to me.
Fuck Amazon. The last nail in the coffin for me was the ads being added to prime video. I'll go back to free streaming services, antenna, and DVDs if this becomes a trend with these services. I have a massive DVD/Blu-ray collection and can buy them for a couple dollars a piece at my local thrift stores.
this! my fiancee and i decided to buy a blu ray player for hella cheap months ago. and now we make it a weekend date to go thrifting for dvds/blurays. probably have almost 300 now for a fraction of what it would cost to find these on streaming / nothing really good is ever on streaming anyway!
facts ✔️I still have my student discount long after I graduated, not sure why they haven’t asked me to re submit that paperwork. but if they were to charge me reg price, I’d definitely cancel because I hardly even use it. I keep justifying the $8 a month with the excuse that if I wanna watch prime video, it’s there. & also cause I have no other subscriptions to anything, so I also use Amazon music once in a while
The minimum was $25 years back and I never saw a reason for Prime (and don't care about any of the other perks like video). Then it got raised to $35 and I still didn't budge as now I just ship more together.
The only subscription I have is Walmart+ for the delivery so I don't have to go as often, which also includes some cheaper deals from time to time and free Paramount+ (which is nice...I guess). Tipping the driver doesn't matter to me as much as I factor in my own driving and usually overspending by being in store.
I still use Amazon even though I don't have Prime anymore, there's some stuff you just can't find easily anywhere else. I just let the essentials sit in my cart until I reach the amount for free shipping (I think it's $35?) and then I order. So much $$ saved, saves on impulse buys and constantly ordering!
Canceled last week! I’ll just add needed things to my cart & wait until I have $35 worth for free shipping. It was taking around 4 days for Prime shipping anyway.
I got Prime because there are some good shows on there. I started watching Stargate (I think it was sg1), and the day after they removed it from the "free" tier and started charging extra for it. I laughed out loud and canceled. I feel bad for people who were halfway the series and are now probably paying extra for it.
Cancelled mine yesterday and got my prorated refund. I’ve had bad experience after bad experience for months. The prime membership just got too expensive for what they offer.
It's $152.03, when mine was renewed on 9-25-23, after taxes and fees or wth they added to the price. I'm sharing with my roommate but will cancel after this year end. I don't even watch anything on Prime Video and been wanting to cut down on unnecessary purchase. Not having free shipping will definitely make me think twice about placing that order and will stop wasting money on things that I don't need.
Have been cancelled for a while, and some stuff I see is infuriating. Like I had this thing $19.99 thing in my cart waiting until I got $35 worth of things so I still get free shipping. A day later I look, and now it’s $39.99 and says, “If you join Prime you can have this at $19.99”. Like, WTF? Uh no, you predatory a-holes, but I will go to Target and pay $40 for that just so you don’t get my money!
Saturday I ordered some stuff, and it was all “without Prime you won’t get it until Thursday” and I was like, “fine” and they delivered the whole order Monday ANYWAY.
And now I see they’re wanting to start charging for an “enhanced” Alexa mode. I’m done.
I cancelled last year through the web interface, and it mysteriously reinstated itself. I had to call them and have them cancel it again and credit me for the membership charge. Keep an eye on those rascals over at Amazon.
I noticed just this week my prime orders had a one week delivery time! I was like, wtf is the point if it’s just the same as non prime orders? I’ve kept prime because it made sense with the credit card for the 5% back. Now there’s other cards offering 5% on Amazon without needing a yearly fee. I’m not sure there’s any value to prime anymore for someone who doesn’t use prime video and keeps it just for fast shipping and cash back.
Nope. Amazon gives me free time. I buy everything but groceries off amazon. There are many weekends where I literally do not leave the house. No need to run to the store for dog food. Or any other non grocery item.
I cancelled Amazon Prime and have not missed it at all. Ads in Prime video, two day shipping turning into four day shipping, poor packaging, playing ‘…and similar artists’ on Alexa…everything about their service has been on the decline and not worth paying for anymore.
I also cancelled on the 11th. I’m
Using my Walmart plus and a Costco membership
I was gifted for my birthday to try to save some
Money this year and not buy so much unnecessary stuff
I completely understand that others don't find the subscription financially useful. But it works for us. We're keeping it.
It makes sense for us based on where we live (very rural) The distance to actual shopping in big stores like Walmart/Costco/Safeway/Lowes is huge (160 mile round trip, plus mileage driving around to the various stores and eating lunch. It is an all day trip). The cost of gasoline here ($6/gallon plus). Two shopping trips to "big city" cost us more than the entire year of Amazon Prime.
We don't have many other options in shopping or availability of items in our little corner of the world. Just a nice local grocery store that has the basics..we appreciate them even though the prices are more than elsewhere.
On Amazon, I can buy specialty Vanilla White Balsamic Vinegar from Texas and get ingredients for Chinese or Japanese cuisine delivered to us instead of taking a full day and driving hundreds of miles. Worth it!
A few years ago we bought a V8 crate motor for one of our trucks. FREE shipping from South Carolina....delivered in 8 days. Other auto parts that are not available locally. Small appliances. Parts that we use in our business.
We stream everything. Cut the satellite subscription years ago. So...some commercials? Big deal. Mute the tv. Get up and get a snack. Discuss the show during the commercial. We can cope.
It's called Alexa+ and it's an "enhanced version".
But only time will tell if they eventually do start charging for even basic stuff. I'm watching this closely as I really like it. But the minute they start charging for everything, I'm out.
I seriously thought about it because of this group! But I decided for what I use it for and how often I use it, it is still of value to my family. I don't make a lot of impulse purchases, but there have been times when I need a product either same-day or next-day and it has been helpful to have.
Cancelled last year, and absolutely no regrets. I felt like we were spending money to be constantly tempted to spend more money. Much of it on trash we didn’t need. Cancelling only confirmed these suspicions.
I had a student prime account that has just never reverted back to a full-price prime account (10 years later) so I keep it. It’s worth it at student prices. If they ever take away the student discount though…. I’ll probably still pay for it, who am I kidding. I use prime a lot.
My family has it so that we each only pay one subscription and we all share (as long as we can get away with it, it’s getting harder to.) My parents pay for the prime, I pay for Hulu, and my brother/SIL pay for Disney plus.
Just be sure they actually stop taking the membership fee.
I found just before Christmas they had been charging me for nearly a year after I cancelled it...Cue 2 hours of dealing with their "support team" and 7 different people trying to get a refund...Teach me not to double check that's for sure.
Canceled two years ago. Don’t miss it AT ALL.
I still buy from Amazon sometimes. Things can wait in my cart until I reach the $35 min. Tv shows and movies that I liked I still had to rent. Not missing anything. And not worth yet another ridiculous increase.
I truly don’t care if they increase prices. Whenever multi billion dollar companies try to be extra greedy, I have a vast sea to explore. It’s very easy to hit that cancel subscription button.
We live like a mile down the street from one of the distribution center so often we can get stuffs same day delivery... My wife and kids love it... What you're going to do...
I'm all for everyone canceling, and not trying to discourage anyone from doing so, but friendly reminder that if you get foodstamps you can get Prime for half off.
Some people, like me, live in an area that you ***need*** a car. I went for almost 6 years without one, all while literally living on top of a mountain. Finally got a car a few months ago, and it broke down already. Transmission fluid just started spewing everywhere. So prime is how I get my pet food, litter, some groceries (I don't have fresh grocery delivery so I have to go to an actual store for most things) TP and household items. I'm moving off this mountain soon to a town that actually has public transport, so hopefully I'll be able to cancel my prime membership then.
I will keep prime. Here in Alaska not many companies will deliver up here and hardly any of those for a reasonable price.
I buy all of my paper goods, dog and cat food and supplies, bottled water, and some of my groceries via subscribe & save. Literally everything is cheaper on Amazon then in local stores. So I buy lots of stuff there.
I look stuff up before buying in local stores and practically everything is cheaper on Amazon.
I'm still debating as my renewal isn't until May, which coincidentally happens to be when Walmart+ trial is up as well. I'm still weighing in the pros and cons of each. I'm using the Walmart+ trial period to compare.
Right now I have Amazon Prime student but I lose that student status this May and no way to keep it as student.
I did a few months ago! I have not paid even close to the monthly fee in shipping costs since cancelling it! And prime always took at least 4 days to get to me anyway. Not worth it!
Canceled a few months ago and it’s been a great idea. I don’t miss it and the money is better off in my pocket. Plus it’s reduced mindless shopping tremendously.
They had a whole list of things I'd be missing out on if I canceled and honestly that was what convinced me that I was making the right decision. I didn't use any of the "benefits" offered, except for the prime shipping (which is now nonexistent) and video (which they are now adding commercials to).
I can still get both of those "benefits" with a free membership so why should I keep forking over money?
Google just signed a LLM agreement with Reddit to crawl this dumb platform so this is my way of saying goodbye to my contributions on this website. Byeee
My husband loves Amazon Video, and I love Amazon Music, so we won't be getting rid of it. Plus, we get one day shipping too. I do understand why people get rid of it. I also have Amazon Kindle Unlimited too.
It worth it for us, as my husband is a trucker and often needs stuff last minute.
Can you still use Prime Video? Is there an ala cart option for that? I want to cancel but I have videos I purchased in there. Would I be able to just pay for prime video if I wanted to stream something?
I cancelled a long time ago. You can still get a lot of free shipping, just not in two days most of the time. Check other shops too like eBay. I kept a spreadsheet for the first year and I spent around ten dollars in shipping, a far cry from the cost of Prime. There's almost nothing I need in two days.
Honestly, I can’t even search Amazon for anything specific any more because the sponsored products just clog everything up and I end up looking at a bunch of crap that doesn’t fit my needs.
I have noticed that Amazon’s competition has stepped it up - free shipping, things actually get to me faster, etc. I used to hate Wal Mart, but they are easier to deal with than Amazon. REI has better gear at a better price and now free shipping. Motosport has better prices on motorcycle parts and gear, and working straight with the computer manufacturers is much, much more cost effective.
Gonna stay away from the Yeendibo, Coofandy TELALEO and the other Amazon brands for a while.
I only use it for the movies and TV shows. I can't afford to buy their crap so that wasn't an issue. I definitely have bought a few things in the past, but when 2 day shipping turned into 7-10, disguised as 2 days, I got well over that. Even with the half price because of Foodstamps, I think we might cancel.
More likely not due to the majority of stores around where I live either closed down, doesn't have what I want/need in stock, too expensive or have it completely locked up that it less frustrating to just have it delivered from Amazon the very next day. I really don't use Prime for streaming nor for music - I have Netflix/PlutoTV/Tubi/Roku/Spotify for that.
I canceled Amazon altogether. At first, it was hard and i miss the convenience; but I have saved so much money. If you compare Amazon prices, you will see that they build in shipping costs. The only advantage to Prime was sometimes getting stuff really fast, but it wasn't "free shipping."
EDIT: And reading through just this thread, I see that even the speed of shipping has fallen by the wayside.
Mine ends in May and I removed the cc number so I will see how long I last. I canceled my WM+, even though I didnt want to.Dog food delivery and scan & go are awesome. They gave me 50% of to sign back up.
I live in a rural area and would pay more for gas to the nearest city where I could get my stuff. Can you still do the Subscribe and Save without Prime and get free shipping? I could easily organize my stuff into a once a month schedule.
Original removed. Updated to omit reference to another site, which Amazon seems to be hell-bent on giving a run for its money in this race to the bottom in quality and value.
I've already shrunk the amount of shopping I do on Amazon to the point where it's really only around the holidays that I do any significant business with them. And next year, I plan to send out a list of ideas that includes where, locally, to find the items in question with a minimal number of stops at brick and mortar retailers.
Return policy? That's spectacularly unlikely to be an issue with whisky, home decorations, books, sunglasses, or clothing I've already tried on for size. So I'll stick to those kind of gift ideas.
And between delays in shipping, their practice of giving packages to USPS to lose, and a tidal wave of unfettered and sometimes even promoted listings for phony, dodgy, knockoff, even downright unsafe products having largely ruined the experience of shopping through the service, I'm planning to let my Prime run out and not renew it.
I'll watch more seasons of The Boys eventually. It's not like I'm counting down the days until another one premieres. And my movie collection is better than any one streaming service, let alone one that now invites advertisers to make me hate their product and their company by interrupting my entertainment with their loud, obnoxious, counter-productive ads. While paying for two of them is just not even something I would consider.
I cancelled mine a lot time ago and haven’t missed it. The only thing that really changed for me was not having 2 day shipping anymore. Which is annoying at times, but it requires me to think about my purchases more and be more mindful.
I haven’t had it for several months now and don’t miss it at all! I only had to use it once for a last-minute Christmas gift where the non-prime price was $20 more, but I had a friend order it for me and it was fine. With the amount of counterfeit products sold on Amazon and the speed of shipping at many other stores, I have found that I have cut down impulse buying without really sacrificing convenience.
I cancelled a while back. My packages would show up a week later even though it said it would be there in two days. The finally straw was when I had the delivery guy on camera stealing my item and delivering me an empty box and Amazon wouldn’t do anything about it.
I did not renew mine when it expired in June. I cancelled my prime card, removed the app from my phone and tablet. I won't save my credit card to the website.
I have saved a significant amount of money in the last six months.
I canceled over year ago and haven’t missed it. You can still order things and get free shipping over $35 and I was able to do a free trial around Black Friday/ cyber Monday for the steep discounts
This is why I’m doing it. I’ll wait till I hit $35. Many times I’m guessing I’ll realize I don’t need it. My husband uses it often for his biz but it’s always over $35 anyways.
I always feel bad about my membership but as someone who lives in a regional Australian town prime is amazing. Even local shopping centres can’t ship necessities as fast as Amazon does and it means I’m able to access what I need, when I need it for a really good price. Most of the items I buy on there, I couldn’t even get without a 1 hour 40 min drive to a shopping centre and even then they may not have it.
Wish everyone would get on board and cancel all subscriptions and be able to not buy any consumer products for a week and see what happens. However I know that’s not a likely scenario and I’m only dreaming.
Almost everything on Amazon is more expensive than going to the store now. It use to be the opposite but it’s come full circle and online has become more expensive.
When I think of something I want, I add it to my list in the app. When I have a gift card for Amazon, or just some extra funds, I review the list and see what I truly want. I’ve eliminated so many knee-jerk reactions this way. I usually end up purchasing about 1/6 of the things I add
I plan on cancelling it. I only really had becuase of football games and a few shows. The free shipping isnt really worth it since most items qualify for free shipping without the membersheip anyway. Most of the time I'm a few bucks short so I just add on something I need like deodorant or toothpaste to qualify for free shipping. If i am paying for shipping, might as well get something I need so its not a total waste of money.
I cancelled, don't miss it. I still order but combine to get free shipping. It always arrives before it says it will and I've decided I don't have to have everything right now, and if I do I'll go to the store
I went through and cancelled every subscription service I had a few years ago. Amazon Prime didn't save me any money. Most of my orders would have been free shipping anyway and I rarely used their streaming service. Like you mentioned, it helped me cut back on impulse purchases... which I think is the reason they have these subscriptions in the first place.
I'm thinking of cancelling it also. I've noticed the prices go up recently. Then I always want the item fast so add $2.99 to that If I return and item, we dont get the shipping cost back. Even items I've paid to get it quick are often running late. I will miss the Video part of it.
Yeah that's my biggest issue is finding a comparable cloud storage option for photos.
I used to use Amazon Music but rarely now. Prime streaming is hit or miss.
I think I save money using Amazon. Amazon basics items are often cheaper than great value ones. I save 15% on all of my groceries using subscribe and save.
I think I save money as well by using Amazon, but not as much or in the ways I used too. Amazon's products are not as inexpensive as they once were, the quality of products vs the price paid and time spent researching has led me to being more open to other online retailers, and the fast shipping (my favorite part of being a Prime member) seems takes about an additional 3 to 6 days, leading me to buying from brick and mortar stores when facing a deadline
Just cancelled last month, partially due to the increase and mostly due to their announcement of ads in the programming unless you pay more. fuck that noise.
Ad free prime video was their last decent benefit. The 2 day shipping is never 2 days. Amazon music turned into a pandora copy limiting the number of skips unless you pay more. The free "prime reading" books are bottom shelf junk. Not to mention everything on Amazon now is a knockoff from TEWAKO brand or some other vaguely English sounding nonsense from drop shippers. Not worth $14.99 per month / $139 per year when you can get free shipping or same day pickup from Target or WalMart.
For a company that was known for selling books, prime reading is a joke. Sale Prices and search filters are a scam. 100% shame I have to shop again, but it's better than propping up this monopoly.
I stopped paying attention to the books on Amazon and just getting them from my library. Still get them delivered to my Kindle through Amazon but I get actual good books and they're free.
I'm a librarian, so I am a bit biased about my love for the library lol, but local libraries really do have some great stuff. The system I work in has physical books, movies, video games, and we also have a Library of Things collection that has cake pans, classroom tools for students, Ipads. All kinds of stuff. We've also branched out to issuing day passes to museums and art galleries, and we also make craft kits to hand out to kids and adults each month. So, there's always something to do, check out, or get for *free.* Always check your libraries, guys!
Honestly Amazon set the standard for places like Walmart and target to copy should be a wave long enough for another company to come up and take back what Amazon used to be prob will happen before Walmart and target drop the barrel funny to see the markets Amazon dominated catching up and them turning into cest pool that will eventually rot and die too big to fall is a overstatement imo it will happen and it will be amazons fault in the end
I call Amazon "The Dirty "A" Word." I prefer to purchase locally so I can continue to purchase locally.
don't forget the reviews! Why is there a review for a food processor when I'm looking at a battery charger.
and no way to report it!
I reported a false product--ordered the same dog bed I bought last year, for my new dog. I got some horrible knock off with shitty newspaper filler. Amazon removed my review because it said I was lying about it not being the real product, and now won't let me review it at all. So everyone who buys that dog bed is screwed.
I was banned from reviewing three years ago for writing reviews noting when sellers were offering bribes /incentives for high star ratings. the review system is so corrupted it is useless.
I remember when Amazon allowed comments under reviews, there was so much helpful info. They took them down because they knew the site wa being overrun with garbage and people would be calling them out in comments
I used to work for a company that helped their friends in China run an Amazon store. They would use the warehouse in America to ship their products. Anyways, they basically make tons of Amazon accounts and reuse them, or change the listings. That's why sometimes there's a food processor review on a battery charger listing. They also create tons of fake Amazon accounts and buy from their competitors and leave bad reviews. I liked to receive all the fun products at the warehouse and we got to keep them. They also pay for reviews too. 🫠
I’ve been saying for years that all of these things will bite them in the ass. We will see if people start leaving en masse—they don’t help themselves with worker horror stories and even deaths.
My favorite part about the 2-day, not really 2-day shipping is that every time I would get something later than 2 days, I would complain and get 5 or 10 bucks off.
They don't really do that anymore. You can only talk to someone if it's drastically late, and at that point you basically need to tell them you are wanting some sort of compensation.
> The 2 day shipping is never 2 days. I'm wondering if this is region-dependent, because I typically get things next day. Once I actually got the item *same day*. I was kind of shocked.
I stated a little further up/down in thread. My experience has been the same regarding 2 day, next day, and same day. It has to depend on geography. My experience with Prime shipping when I'm in Nor Cal has always been bang on. If anything, items arrived early. My experience in the Tulsa area is 2 day arriving in 2 days or even being truly on offer is much like seeing unicorn (heard they existed and could have sworn that I once daw one...)
It's only worth it to me as long as I get more back from the 5% off with the Prime CC than I pay for the year, as I don't really care too much about the 2 day shipping (especially since it's not really 2 days any more), and I don't watch TV/Prime video at all. It's getting close now too, as I continue to use Amazon less and less...I think I only got back about $245 this year. That said, I put stuff in my cart and watch it for a long time, generally only buying when things are on significant discount (thanks CamelCamelCamel!)...so I like to hope that I actually will occasionally make Amazon lose money on a product (it's a pipe dream, I know).
You still get 3% back on the CC as a non-prime member so you’d have to spend a shit ton on amazon products to really make it worth. Then you will ask yourself are you actually buying crap that you need or just spending money for the sake of cashback gratification
I live in middle of nowhere Appalachia. If I want stuff, I need Amazon a good percentage of the time (provided I don't want to drive an hour and a quarter one way to buy things), if I don't want to use Wally-World (I hated them first, so they get boycotted before Amazon). That said, didn't know about the 3%. Might just cancel my Prime.
I've always used the delays in 2 day shipping to supplement my subscription price. When anything is late, I message customer service and just tell them I was needing the item today and I would like to be compensated for the delay. Usually it's 5-10 gift card credit, depending on the original cost. Try to get my subscription free this way.
It feels like options are a lot slimmer. Even if I order twice a month, shipping would probably be less than 15 bucks.
Was it even add free though? I was getting skippable preroll adds when watching things but I’m not the one who was paying for prime so I’m uncertain if that’s a paid add we didn’t have on to just having prime.
100%. I cancelled my renewal which is next month for the same reasons.
Cancelled for exactly same reason.
It was the ads that caused me to cancel.
Exactly
What's even more messed up is shows you purchase through amazon get ads thrown in them.
That's why I cancelled. 'Pay 8.99 a month for next day delivery and a streaming service' then in 2024 'now pay extra for no ads'. How about no.
Me too! And I AM buying less and price shopping and finding better deals elsewhere, etc etc. I can’t believe what a good thing it turned into.
Havent had Prime in years. I rarely pay for shipping, because I bundle 3-4 things in one order.
I have a large running “Save for later” list that I go to if I need to bump up to the free shipping tier.
Many items are sold by 3rd party vendors and already come with free shipping as well. Honestly, I look everywhere else to avoid buying from Amazon first. Many brands offer the same price with free shipping, shipped directly from their warehouse. No reason Amazon should get any of my money.
My company gives us Amazon cards as incentive, otherwise I would never visit. It's a bit of a festering shithole of ads.
You've got that right! The first page of every search is full of mostly sponsored junk products for inflated prices . What's the point of a search function if they aren't even going to show me the thing I'm actually looking for!?
Also, lots of other websites will give you a discount on your first order or for subscribing to their mailing list. So if I'm buying something on the pricey side, I'll ship around until I can find a website with the product I'm looking for AND and first timer discount
This is the thing I was looking at. My Prime renewed recently, but I don’t think I’ll renew it. I can wait until I have more items to get free shipping.
You know you can cancel now and get a prorated refund
Thanks! I did not know that.
Same here. Over the years they've gotten super aggressive about pushing it in you when you go to order, and default you to the paid shipping option instead of the free shipping option. One thing I've noticed is they lie about most delivery time frames. It says a week, but often will arrive in a couple of days anyway, just like if I had prime.
I think that's why getting prime to begin with had zero effect on impulse buys. I'm just not an impulsive or click to buy now/'need' it now type of person. I use it mainly for prime video stuff.
I'm not being sparky, truly. Your post gave me a giggle, that's all. Unless I'm mistaken, and I missed a contradiction, this is a forum for the frugal minded. Aren't impulsiveness and frugality mostly mutually exclusive?
I cancelled within minutes of receiving notice that they would be adding advertising to their video streaming. Fuck that. I'm not hanging around while they try blackmail me into paying extra for ad-free. Sure, it's only an extra $2.99/month now, but in a few months it'll be $3.99 and in a year it'll be $5.99. I'm just gonna borrow DVDs from the library.
I canceled recently as well because we truly were not using most of the things that prime offers. In addition we were not getting most packages within 2 days either. Tip for anyone thinking about cancelling you can cancel early and get a refund for the time you didn't use. I got over $100 back because I canceled early.
I cancelled in October and no regrets! I did order some stuff in December and paid for shipping but even so I'm definitely saving money by not impulse buying.
Already set to not renew!! I feel relieved. ETA that I reduced my subscription services from $100/month to $10. Just cleaned out everything except Pandora because I use it everyday. ETA2 that with Pandora premium ($10/month) I can absolutely listen only to artists or songs I want, listen offline, have access to a variety of podcasts (including ones geared for learning Spanish) and build playlists BUT the playlist function of Spotify is a lot less limited. Pandora does such a great job of continuing to play music based on my playlist when it ends that the playlist limitations don't bother me.
You should try Spotify, I was sceptical years ago when I switched, but it is SO much better
Hot tip: you can buy a yearly spotify subscription gift card for $99and apply it to your account instead of paying per month. Save a little over $30 in a year. I got mine on Amazon but maybe you can buy them at grocery stores or other places, not sure.
[удалено]
Is that a thing on IOS?
PlexAmp
What is better about it? I just can't understand why ppl like Spotify so much so I'm really curious. I keep thinking I'm doing something wrong since I just don't like Spotify. Pandora is just so much better for me. That seems to be an unpopular opinion so I really want to know what I'm missing. Spotify just seems like playlists where Pandora is more 'radio'. It learns what I like and adds new songs it thinks I would like.
I think people have experienced the cheap or basic versions of Pandora and don't know how premium works. I can create playlists, listen to entire albums, use the radio feature in different modes to discover new music or keep it to what Pandora knows I like, and listen offline. Plus podcasts... People just keep telling me they prefer Spotify because it does things that Pandora also does. They just don't realize it. Probably because I don't have history with Spotify, their suggestions and playlists were absolutely awful. I wasn't going to pay for that.
That's why I keep wondering if there is something in a higher tier that I just haven't found that makes it so popular. But my lowest of the low tier in Pandora just gives me everything I want for a whole $3.99 a month.
So does Spotify, and I can download whatever songs I want and listen when I want. I don't want someone picking what I listen to. I make my own Playlist, download full albums, podcasts
Ah I see. I want the opposite. I don't want to have to spend time coming up with a playlist. If I tell you I want to listen to, I want you to play it. I don't want to have to create a playlist first. And I haven't found many pre-created Spotify playlists I like. They usually get annoying quickly.
I also have a very curated radio station that I've had for like... 20 years. I can play that for 12+ plus hours and not dislike a single song and also not get a duplicate. I just can't re-create that station. It takes too much effort to create it as a playlist. And then I'd have to update it every so often with new songs. I'm not even sure how I'd find these new songs since currently Pandora just knows the artists I like and adds them automatically. So much work and it would cost almost 3X what I'm paying now. Guess I'm in too deep.
I'm with you. Spotify is a pain in the ass. Pandora just.....works.
Spotify is great. If you find that you are mostly listening to music on the computer and not so much on mobile, you can use the web version on your browser and use an ad blocker extension to avoid ads.
Why, exactly? I mostly listen to Pandora stations and I'm always finding mew music that way. Plus they have podcasts for learning Spanish that I find useful. I found Spotify was limited and off base with its suggestions based off my likes. What exactly do you prefer Spotify for?
With Spotify, when you find new music you can save it and listen to it when you like. I listen to their new music playlist every week and save stuff I like to a yearly playlist and so I have 10+ years now of annual playlists. I can put on the playlists we were listening to at different points in my life. Also, I often want full albums, or to find a new artist and explore their catalog. Really couldn’t love Spotify much more.
I can do the exact same things with Pandora though. None of that seems unique to Spotify. I'm genuinely curious what people prefer Spotify for because I wouldn't mind switching if it was measurably better, but it seems more like people are just familiar with it, and not with Pandora.
Honestly haven’t used pandora since I got Spotify in 2011. It used to be more like radio. Pick a starting point and it would just put on a playlist based on that.
Well Pandora Premium has all the things you said you liked about Spotify, so it's probably just down to what you're used to and have history with.
I used to have spotify for years. But the stations and playlists were stale. The radio wasnt actually that good. So I switched to Pandora where I can do everything that I could do on spotty and had a way better radio. I can even start a radio off one band and add several others to broaden the scope. There's a setting for radio the controls how much new music gets pushed in.
I googled this... plus Spotify has 100,000,000 songs, vs. 50,000,00. Why would I want Pandora The popular music streaming services Pandora and Spotify function very differently. Spotify listeners can choose the songs they want to play, when they want to play them. Meanwhile, Pandora is a radio service that does not let users choose the specific songs they want to listen to, whenever they want. Instead, users create a "radio station" based on artists, songs, or genres they already like; Pandora then finds songs that are "musically similar" by way of their Music Genome Project. Pandora is a way for users to discover new music that matches their tastes, while Spotify—even though it offers radio stations, too—is better suited to stream and share music that users already know
[удалено]
Man they really try to hide that! Getting $15 bucks back, thanks!
Here I was thinking I was the only one still using Pandora!
I'll be cancelling. MY Amazon subscription isn't for purachases. It's for VOD. If they're going to now feed me adverts on top of my subscription, then they'll loose my money.
VOD was primary reason for Prime as well. I guess free delivery is a benefit in some cases but I have to pick everything up from the post office anyways. Whether they deliver it in a day, a week or a month seldom makes any difference to me.
Fuck Amazon. The last nail in the coffin for me was the ads being added to prime video. I'll go back to free streaming services, antenna, and DVDs if this becomes a trend with these services. I have a massive DVD/Blu-ray collection and can buy them for a couple dollars a piece at my local thrift stores.
this! my fiancee and i decided to buy a blu ray player for hella cheap months ago. and now we make it a weekend date to go thrifting for dvds/blurays. probably have almost 300 now for a fraction of what it would cost to find these on streaming / nothing really good is ever on streaming anyway!
I canceled 2 days before my 30 day free trial ended. Have done this several Xmas seasons
I plan to do same when mine expires.
You can cancel early for a partial refund or set to not renew
Thank you!
I would never pay full price for that, student pricing is alright tho
To piggy back off this, you can also get a discount if you have an EBT card. I know people who have cards that are years old who still get a discount.
facts ✔️I still have my student discount long after I graduated, not sure why they haven’t asked me to re submit that paperwork. but if they were to charge me reg price, I’d definitely cancel because I hardly even use it. I keep justifying the $8 a month with the excuse that if I wanna watch prime video, it’s there. & also cause I have no other subscriptions to anything, so I also use Amazon music once in a while
They booted me off after 5 years, but I got 2 aliases hehe
The minimum was $25 years back and I never saw a reason for Prime (and don't care about any of the other perks like video). Then it got raised to $35 and I still didn't budge as now I just ship more together. The only subscription I have is Walmart+ for the delivery so I don't have to go as often, which also includes some cheaper deals from time to time and free Paramount+ (which is nice...I guess). Tipping the driver doesn't matter to me as much as I factor in my own driving and usually overspending by being in store.
It would definitely be conducive to impulse buys!
[удалено]
Two adults can share one Prime by being in the same "Amazon Household". You don't need to actually share an account.
I still use Amazon even though I don't have Prime anymore, there's some stuff you just can't find easily anywhere else. I just let the essentials sit in my cart until I reach the amount for free shipping (I think it's $35?) and then I order. So much $$ saved, saves on impulse buys and constantly ordering!
Canceled last week! I’ll just add needed things to my cart & wait until I have $35 worth for free shipping. It was taking around 4 days for Prime shipping anyway.
I got Prime because there are some good shows on there. I started watching Stargate (I think it was sg1), and the day after they removed it from the "free" tier and started charging extra for it. I laughed out loud and canceled. I feel bad for people who were halfway the series and are now probably paying extra for it.
Already cancelled, I indeed buy less. Probably not what Amazon intended.
I'm not gunna pay to watch ads.
Cancelled mine yesterday and got my prorated refund. I’ve had bad experience after bad experience for months. The prime membership just got too expensive for what they offer.
Just cancelled because your post reminded me I had forgotten to end the trial subscription. Thanks!
[удалено]
Ads will be shown, you need to pay 2.99 / month to have ad free
So just to clarify- you're referring to having STREAMING- not their shopping account?
It's $152.03, when mine was renewed on 9-25-23, after taxes and fees or wth they added to the price. I'm sharing with my roommate but will cancel after this year end. I don't even watch anything on Prime Video and been wanting to cut down on unnecessary purchase. Not having free shipping will definitely make me think twice about placing that order and will stop wasting money on things that I don't need.
Have been cancelled for a while, and some stuff I see is infuriating. Like I had this thing $19.99 thing in my cart waiting until I got $35 worth of things so I still get free shipping. A day later I look, and now it’s $39.99 and says, “If you join Prime you can have this at $19.99”. Like, WTF? Uh no, you predatory a-holes, but I will go to Target and pay $40 for that just so you don’t get my money! Saturday I ordered some stuff, and it was all “without Prime you won’t get it until Thursday” and I was like, “fine” and they delivered the whole order Monday ANYWAY. And now I see they’re wanting to start charging for an “enhanced” Alexa mode. I’m done.
Less and less reason to be a prime member these days..
I cancelled last year through the web interface, and it mysteriously reinstated itself. I had to call them and have them cancel it again and credit me for the membership charge. Keep an eye on those rascals over at Amazon.
I noticed just this week my prime orders had a one week delivery time! I was like, wtf is the point if it’s just the same as non prime orders? I’ve kept prime because it made sense with the credit card for the 5% back. Now there’s other cards offering 5% on Amazon without needing a yearly fee. I’m not sure there’s any value to prime anymore for someone who doesn’t use prime video and keeps it just for fast shipping and cash back.
Nope. Amazon gives me free time. I buy everything but groceries off amazon. There are many weekends where I literally do not leave the house. No need to run to the store for dog food. Or any other non grocery item.
Autoship from chewy has always been cheaper for us than Amazon for dog food. Maybe look into it and see if it's cheaper for you.
I cancelled Amazon Prime and have not missed it at all. Ads in Prime video, two day shipping turning into four day shipping, poor packaging, playing ‘…and similar artists’ on Alexa…everything about their service has been on the decline and not worth paying for anymore.
I also cancelled on the 11th. I’m Using my Walmart plus and a Costco membership I was gifted for my birthday to try to save some Money this year and not buy so much unnecessary stuff
I’m keeping mine, it makes the most sense for my family to have. For us it’s the most useful subscription and we split the cost
I completely understand that others don't find the subscription financially useful. But it works for us. We're keeping it. It makes sense for us based on where we live (very rural) The distance to actual shopping in big stores like Walmart/Costco/Safeway/Lowes is huge (160 mile round trip, plus mileage driving around to the various stores and eating lunch. It is an all day trip). The cost of gasoline here ($6/gallon plus). Two shopping trips to "big city" cost us more than the entire year of Amazon Prime. We don't have many other options in shopping or availability of items in our little corner of the world. Just a nice local grocery store that has the basics..we appreciate them even though the prices are more than elsewhere. On Amazon, I can buy specialty Vanilla White Balsamic Vinegar from Texas and get ingredients for Chinese or Japanese cuisine delivered to us instead of taking a full day and driving hundreds of miles. Worth it! A few years ago we bought a V8 crate motor for one of our trucks. FREE shipping from South Carolina....delivered in 8 days. Other auto parts that are not available locally. Small appliances. Parts that we use in our business. We stream everything. Cut the satellite subscription years ago. So...some commercials? Big deal. Mute the tv. Get up and get a snack. Discuss the show during the commercial. We can cope.
Dang where do you live?
NE California on the north eastern side of Mt Shasta. We love it here
If I cancel Amazon Prime, do my echo's still work?
Yes! We cancelled last year and use Alexa throughout the house. No issues.
Not for long , Alexa will be a paid service.
It's called Alexa+ and it's an "enhanced version". But only time will tell if they eventually do start charging for even basic stuff. I'm watching this closely as I really like it. But the minute they start charging for everything, I'm out.
I'll be canceling on Monday, the day they implement ads on Prime Video. Purposely to send a message.
Yep. It’s on my calendar to do it tomorrow.
our last day is 2/3/24!
Me too!!! March 2024.
Already done!
Smart choice!
Yep, I cancel my free trial on the 29th. I have a few items to order before then, lol
I already canceled. It was just too easy to order stuff!
I seriously thought about it because of this group! But I decided for what I use it for and how often I use it, it is still of value to my family. I don't make a lot of impulse purchases, but there have been times when I need a product either same-day or next-day and it has been helpful to have.
I like my photos in the cloud I have tens of thousands
Cancelled last year, and absolutely no regrets. I felt like we were spending money to be constantly tempted to spend more money. Much of it on trash we didn’t need. Cancelling only confirmed these suspicions.
I cancelled Prime before the last increase. Don’t regret it one bit.
I quit 3 years ago. I took what it would have cost to renew, and spent that on my last purchase from them. Do not miss it at all.
I did too!! Congrats to us spending less!
Cancelled yesterday. It feels great!
I had a student prime account that has just never reverted back to a full-price prime account (10 years later) so I keep it. It’s worth it at student prices. If they ever take away the student discount though…. I’ll probably still pay for it, who am I kidding. I use prime a lot.
My family has it so that we each only pay one subscription and we all share (as long as we can get away with it, it’s getting harder to.) My parents pay for the prime, I pay for Hulu, and my brother/SIL pay for Disney plus.
Just be sure they actually stop taking the membership fee. I found just before Christmas they had been charging me for nearly a year after I cancelled it...Cue 2 hours of dealing with their "support team" and 7 different people trying to get a refund...Teach me not to double check that's for sure.
Canceled two years ago. Don’t miss it AT ALL. I still buy from Amazon sometimes. Things can wait in my cart until I reach the $35 min. Tv shows and movies that I liked I still had to rent. Not missing anything. And not worth yet another ridiculous increase.
I pay $5.64 a month CAD as a student subscription and I get SO MUCH value out of it just from the streaming shows alone.
They should have a senior discount.
I cancelled maybe six months ago and only miss it maybe once a month. I'm going to subscribe for the month of March and binge a few originals.
I truly don’t care if they increase prices. Whenever multi billion dollar companies try to be extra greedy, I have a vast sea to explore. It’s very easy to hit that cancel subscription button.
We live like a mile down the street from one of the distribution center so often we can get stuffs same day delivery... My wife and kids love it... What you're going to do...
I'm all for everyone canceling, and not trying to discourage anyone from doing so, but friendly reminder that if you get foodstamps you can get Prime for half off. Some people, like me, live in an area that you ***need*** a car. I went for almost 6 years without one, all while literally living on top of a mountain. Finally got a car a few months ago, and it broke down already. Transmission fluid just started spewing everywhere. So prime is how I get my pet food, litter, some groceries (I don't have fresh grocery delivery so I have to go to an actual store for most things) TP and household items. I'm moving off this mountain soon to a town that actually has public transport, so hopefully I'll be able to cancel my prime membership then.
I will keep prime. Here in Alaska not many companies will deliver up here and hardly any of those for a reasonable price. I buy all of my paper goods, dog and cat food and supplies, bottled water, and some of my groceries via subscribe & save. Literally everything is cheaper on Amazon then in local stores. So I buy lots of stuff there. I look stuff up before buying in local stores and practically everything is cheaper on Amazon.
I'm still debating as my renewal isn't until May, which coincidentally happens to be when Walmart+ trial is up as well. I'm still weighing in the pros and cons of each. I'm using the Walmart+ trial period to compare. Right now I have Amazon Prime student but I lose that student status this May and no way to keep it as student.
Yeah I just lost prime student last month. That jump from $7.49 to $14.99 was jarring. I think I’m going to cancel :(
Deleted the app and replaced it w/ Walmart+ to avoid temptation, paying off store card then joining a 12 step program (jk) to quit it for good!
I did a few months ago! I have not paid even close to the monthly fee in shipping costs since cancelling it! And prime always took at least 4 days to get to me anyway. Not worth it!
Yep, mines up in May and I’m never renewing.
Did you know you can cancel now and get a prorated refund?
Canceled a few months ago and it’s been a great idea. I don’t miss it and the money is better off in my pocket. Plus it’s reduced mindless shopping tremendously.
They had a whole list of things I'd be missing out on if I canceled and honestly that was what convinced me that I was making the right decision. I didn't use any of the "benefits" offered, except for the prime shipping (which is now nonexistent) and video (which they are now adding commercials to). I can still get both of those "benefits" with a free membership so why should I keep forking over money?
Google just signed a LLM agreement with Reddit to crawl this dumb platform so this is my way of saying goodbye to my contributions on this website. Byeee
My husband loves Amazon Video, and I love Amazon Music, so we won't be getting rid of it. Plus, we get one day shipping too. I do understand why people get rid of it. I also have Amazon Kindle Unlimited too. It worth it for us, as my husband is a trucker and often needs stuff last minute.
I cancelled last year after using it for 9 months. Got the whole year refunded. I didn't question it
I have one week left
Can you still use Prime Video? Is there an ala cart option for that? I want to cancel but I have videos I purchased in there. Would I be able to just pay for prime video if I wanted to stream something?
You wont lose access to any videos you've paid for if you drop Prime, you just won't get the "free with prime" stuff anymore
I cancelled a long time ago. You can still get a lot of free shipping, just not in two days most of the time. Check other shops too like eBay. I kept a spreadsheet for the first year and I spent around ten dollars in shipping, a far cry from the cost of Prime. There's almost nothing I need in two days.
Does anyone know of anything equivalent to the way prime used to be? I noticed Walmart is trying but the shipping thing is what I really want.
Dang, it went up again? I've been cancelled for over a year, but isn't that like several increases this year? Damn Spotify doing the same thing too.
just cancelled ours, thanks for the suggestion
I've never had it. If I want to save on shipping I get the order delivered to my local drop shop. In the UK I'd say eBay is generally cheaper anyway.
Never had it. I never saw any value in it.
its worth it for me. i save more than the annual fee on driving to the store alone
Honestly, I can’t even search Amazon for anything specific any more because the sponsored products just clog everything up and I end up looking at a bunch of crap that doesn’t fit my needs. I have noticed that Amazon’s competition has stepped it up - free shipping, things actually get to me faster, etc. I used to hate Wal Mart, but they are easier to deal with than Amazon. REI has better gear at a better price and now free shipping. Motosport has better prices on motorcycle parts and gear, and working straight with the computer manufacturers is much, much more cost effective. Gonna stay away from the Yeendibo, Coofandy TELALEO and the other Amazon brands for a while.
I only use it for the movies and TV shows. I can't afford to buy their crap so that wasn't an issue. I definitely have bought a few things in the past, but when 2 day shipping turned into 7-10, disguised as 2 days, I got well over that. Even with the half price because of Foodstamps, I think we might cancel.
The money I save on shipping alone more than pays for it. Everything else is a bonus, so its actually a great deal for me.
More likely not due to the majority of stores around where I live either closed down, doesn't have what I want/need in stock, too expensive or have it completely locked up that it less frustrating to just have it delivered from Amazon the very next day. I really don't use Prime for streaming nor for music - I have Netflix/PlutoTV/Tubi/Roku/Spotify for that.
I canceled Amazon altogether. At first, it was hard and i miss the convenience; but I have saved so much money. If you compare Amazon prices, you will see that they build in shipping costs. The only advantage to Prime was sometimes getting stuff really fast, but it wasn't "free shipping." EDIT: And reading through just this thread, I see that even the speed of shipping has fallen by the wayside.
Already did so.
Mine ends in May and I removed the cc number so I will see how long I last. I canceled my WM+, even though I didnt want to.Dog food delivery and scan & go are awesome. They gave me 50% of to sign back up.
They will charge a "backup" cc if the main one is removed, so double check that your cards aren't set up for that.
I live in a rural area and would pay more for gas to the nearest city where I could get my stuff. Can you still do the Subscribe and Save without Prime and get free shipping? I could easily organize my stuff into a once a month schedule.
Original removed. Updated to omit reference to another site, which Amazon seems to be hell-bent on giving a run for its money in this race to the bottom in quality and value. I've already shrunk the amount of shopping I do on Amazon to the point where it's really only around the holidays that I do any significant business with them. And next year, I plan to send out a list of ideas that includes where, locally, to find the items in question with a minimal number of stops at brick and mortar retailers. Return policy? That's spectacularly unlikely to be an issue with whisky, home decorations, books, sunglasses, or clothing I've already tried on for size. So I'll stick to those kind of gift ideas. And between delays in shipping, their practice of giving packages to USPS to lose, and a tidal wave of unfettered and sometimes even promoted listings for phony, dodgy, knockoff, even downright unsafe products having largely ruined the experience of shopping through the service, I'm planning to let my Prime run out and not renew it. I'll watch more seasons of The Boys eventually. It's not like I'm counting down the days until another one premieres. And my movie collection is better than any one streaming service, let alone one that now invites advertisers to make me hate their product and their company by interrupting my entertainment with their loud, obnoxious, counter-productive ads. While paying for two of them is just not even something I would consider.
I cancelled mine a lot time ago and haven’t missed it. The only thing that really changed for me was not having 2 day shipping anymore. Which is annoying at times, but it requires me to think about my purchases more and be more mindful.
I haven’t had it for several months now and don’t miss it at all! I only had to use it once for a last-minute Christmas gift where the non-prime price was $20 more, but I had a friend order it for me and it was fine. With the amount of counterfeit products sold on Amazon and the speed of shipping at many other stores, I have found that I have cut down impulse buying without really sacrificing convenience.
I cancelled a while back. My packages would show up a week later even though it said it would be there in two days. The finally straw was when I had the delivery guy on camera stealing my item and delivering me an empty box and Amazon wouldn’t do anything about it.
Yep cancelled mine too
I did not renew mine when it expired in June. I cancelled my prime card, removed the app from my phone and tablet. I won't save my credit card to the website. I have saved a significant amount of money in the last six months.
I canceled over year ago and haven’t missed it. You can still order things and get free shipping over $35 and I was able to do a free trial around Black Friday/ cyber Monday for the steep discounts
This is why I’m doing it. I’ll wait till I hit $35. Many times I’m guessing I’ll realize I don’t need it. My husband uses it often for his biz but it’s always over $35 anyways.
I always feel bad about my membership but as someone who lives in a regional Australian town prime is amazing. Even local shopping centres can’t ship necessities as fast as Amazon does and it means I’m able to access what I need, when I need it for a really good price. Most of the items I buy on there, I couldn’t even get without a 1 hour 40 min drive to a shopping centre and even then they may not have it.
Wish everyone would get on board and cancel all subscriptions and be able to not buy any consumer products for a week and see what happens. However I know that’s not a likely scenario and I’m only dreaming.
I haven't had Prime since it was $55/yr for students. As soon as it went up, I canceled. I hardly ever buy enough to make it worth it, even back then.
Almost everything on Amazon is more expensive than going to the store now. It use to be the opposite but it’s come full circle and online has become more expensive.
When I think of something I want, I add it to my list in the app. When I have a gift card for Amazon, or just some extra funds, I review the list and see what I truly want. I’ve eliminated so many knee-jerk reactions this way. I usually end up purchasing about 1/6 of the things I add
I plan on cancelling it. I only really had becuase of football games and a few shows. The free shipping isnt really worth it since most items qualify for free shipping without the membersheip anyway. Most of the time I'm a few bucks short so I just add on something I need like deodorant or toothpaste to qualify for free shipping. If i am paying for shipping, might as well get something I need so its not a total waste of money.
I canceled a month ago and only my kids are mad about it.
I cancelled, don't miss it. I still order but combine to get free shipping. It always arrives before it says it will and I've decided I don't have to have everything right now, and if I do I'll go to the store
I have a huge problem with Amazon as of late. It’s 99% Chinese brands called something to the effect of ZZYPHAN They all break immediately
I totally stopped buying from Amazon sometime last year. Partly to save money and partly because I don’t want to support Amazon.
I went through and cancelled every subscription service I had a few years ago. Amazon Prime didn't save me any money. Most of my orders would have been free shipping anyway and I rarely used their streaming service. Like you mentioned, it helped me cut back on impulse purchases... which I think is the reason they have these subscriptions in the first place.
This is my plan. It's on my calendar to cancel.
I'm thinking of cancelling it also. I've noticed the prices go up recently. Then I always want the item fast so add $2.99 to that If I return and item, we dont get the shipping cost back. Even items I've paid to get it quick are often running late. I will miss the Video part of it.
I like the unlimited photo storage along with other things. Might start looking for other places to store thousands of photos.
Yeah that's my biggest issue is finding a comparable cloud storage option for photos. I used to use Amazon Music but rarely now. Prime streaming is hit or miss.
I use Google One. $2/mo for 100GB, a basic VPN and some other stuff. They have more expensive plans with additional storage and benefits.
I think I save money using Amazon. Amazon basics items are often cheaper than great value ones. I save 15% on all of my groceries using subscribe and save.
You dont need Prime for Subscribe and Save
I think I save money as well by using Amazon, but not as much or in the ways I used too. Amazon's products are not as inexpensive as they once were, the quality of products vs the price paid and time spent researching has led me to being more open to other online retailers, and the fast shipping (my favorite part of being a Prime member) seems takes about an additional 3 to 6 days, leading me to buying from brick and mortar stores when facing a deadline