
Amazon Prime is getting worse, and it’s making me question the nature of reality - ProAm
https://www.fastcompany.com/90283658/amazon-prime-is-getting-worse-and-its-making-me-question-the-nature-of-reality
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pascalxus
even if it does get worse, a lot of people will simply leave it alone and
forget that they're paying 10$ per month, simply yet another monthly expense.
Amazon prime knows this.

Once, you've got the muscle memory of typing in "amazon.com" in the URL bar,
it's really hard to let go of it, for most people. Amazon prime knows this.

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xfitm3
I cancelled prime awhile ago and my spending at Amazon has dramatically
reduced. I let things sit in my cart and order weekly or biweekly, often
removing half of the stuff I thought I wanted.

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pdxandi
I've noticed too that when returning items, some options make you pay for
return shipping (e.g., selecting "No longer needed" for the reason). I don't
remember that being a thing in the past. I used to buy items, like clothes
perhaps, that I had to see and feel before deciding whether I wanted it and
returning was straight-forward and free. At least that's my memory.

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mrandish
It depends on the item and whether the seller funds 'free returns'. Some
clothing sellers want to be like Zappos and offer that while others opt for
lower price. At the end of the day, no shipping is ever 'free', it's always
baked into the price somewhere.

One thing I've noticed is that the more I spend on Amazon (quite a lot
lately), the less often Amazon tries to charge me for returns (lately that's
been never). I suspect they have some kind of algo that estimates a customer's
value over time vs the cost of keeping that customer happy with free returns.

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trevyn
> _Isn’t reality just a holographic projection though? Isn’t time a construct
> of human perception? In a sense, all Amazon packages have already been
> delivered, if you think about it._

I deeply enjoy this conclusion, and wish that the author had explained the
conceptual path to it in more detail!

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dvno42
If you go to your prime settings there is an option to "Remind Me 3 days
before renewing" if you want to cancel but have already given them your money.

