
Amazon has 150M Prime members - elorant
https://www.engadget.com/2020/01/30/amazon-q4-2019/
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heavyset_go
Prime membership isn't worth it to me. "Free" shipping is priced into the cost
each listing, and is glaringly obvious when comparing prices for the same item
between Amazon and another retailer. Usually there is a few dollar difference,
which is what the shipping cost would be with the other retailer. Many of the
items I find on Amazon are cheaper to buy directly from the manufacturer on
AliExpress, and I have no need to pay a middleman's markup.

There is also the issue of the counterfeit items I've received, and the
quality of Amazon's branded products. When I went to return a knockoff
product, reporting it as a counterfeit item wasn't even an option to mark as
my reason for returning it. I've also had one of their branded surge
protectors fail on me recently.

~~~
StevePerkins
I've yet to find a reliable, reputable retailer that comes close to price-
matching Amazon. Much less beating them. Walmart and Best Buy come closest,
and they're usually in the ballpark of 5% higher.

If you're bringing up the issue of counterfeits and knockoffs, yet also
suggesting ALIEXPRESS (!) as an alternative, then I don't know what to respond
with other than laughter.

~~~
oceliker
Best Buy in my area (Cambridge, MA) price-matches Amazon when you show them
the same item on the app. It has to be sold by Amazon (not "fulfilled by
Amazon"). Saved me a couple of times when I needed something urgently and
couldn't wait for shipping.

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freehunter
I’ve tried this a few times but big companies tend to have exclusive SKUs for
each major vendor, so the HP laptop sold on Amazon might be the same hardware
that Best Buy has, but they’re different SKUs so Best Buy refuses to price
match.

Sometimes it works out. But not always.

~~~
ThePowerOfFuet
You realize that's the whole point of dedicated SKUs, right?

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redindian75
'Prime Video' is worth the price for me. We get new release Indian movies for
free & great TV series.

Free shipping on Prime items is just a bonus. They have added free overnight,
free next day 8AM and even sameday 6pm for my zipcode. Cutoff is noon for same
day delivery! I do not see a huge pricemarkup, and sometimes I dont even need
to order $35 worth of items. The two toys I ordered was $5 & $8 each, it got
delivered 8AM next day,

~~~
michaelbuckbee
This is definitely part of the value for me. It's like if my Netflix
subscription came with a bonus of free shipping from Walmart.

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dmix
Not only free shipping but often same day or early next day shipping for
'free'.

I'm both impatient enough and use Amazon enough where buying it every year is
worth it for me. Plus ditto re: Prime Video, it's not bad, although probably
the least good of my three (I'd rank: 1. Netflix, 2. crave.ca to get HBO in
Canada, then Prime 3rd) the library is surprisingly deep and I've used it
quite a bit.

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djhworld
I used to be a prime member, for quite a number of years, but I cancelled it
as I didn't feel I was getting the value out of it that I originally thought I
was.

There's a break even point somewhere where the cost of shipping vs. number of
orders made makes sense with prime, but I wasn't using the service enough to
warrant that. Additionally the other services you get with a prime membership
(Amazon Video, Amazon music etc) didn't really have that much appeal.

~~~
foepys
As a German prime customer I recently cancelled. Mostly because next day
shipping didn't work 75% of the time and I was unable to find the appropriate
form to complain about this.

Also, all their apps are crap. Prime Video has a 300ms audio delay on my
Android TV and chromecasting to said TV has an even worse delay. Their app is
also extremely clunky to use and on top of that it's super slow on all my
devices. It also kills all other running apps on my TV because it's so memory
hungry. Sending feedback doesn't help, it's a lost cause.

Their music streaming app sent me to Spotify years ago because it crashed all
the time and was slow, too.

~~~
zeeZ
> Also, all their apps are crap. Prime Video has a 300ms audio delay on my
> Android TV and chromecasting to said TV has an even worse delay.

Casting to a 2nd gen Chromecast from the prime video Android app works just
fine for me.

I don't expect a built in function to the TV to be even remotely useful and
have yet to see one that is snappy and not crap.

~~~
foepys
Until a few months ago, Chromecasting wasn't even an option, so their only app
didn't work on a device where Netflix, YouTube, VLC, Kodi, etc. are working
just fine.

Amazon can build backend infrastructure but their frontend is always bad. I
have never used a single Amazon app that was well made, simple to use, and
resource efficient.

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chiph
Prime delivery is nice, but I need to buy a replacement hard drive and they
won't deliver it to my nearby Amazon locker for some reason. I don't want it
sitting on my porch all day (pirates), but they won't let me schedule a future
delivery for when I'll be home either. So I'm creating a calendar event for
later this week to try & time the delivery.

Sometimes fast delivery is too fast.

~~~
aquadrop
Quick question, why simple box for packages on the porch isn't used as a
solution against pirates? Delivery people won't put it there? Or it's
considered ugly? Or something else? Seems like a quick and effective solution
- if pirates can't see that you have a package waiting on a porch, they won't
steal it.

~~~
chiph
In my case, I'd have to go through the HOA's architectural review process to
put one there. So .. not going to be allowed unless enough residents want one,
and they can settle on a uniform style.

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esotericsean
I never really had any issues with using Amazon’s services (I’m just talking
about usability here, not getting into the fact that they’re a horrible
company), but in the past year or so many of my packages from Amazon haven’t
been arriving on time. I’m starting to lose faith each time I order something
that I’ll actually receive it when it says I will.

~~~
chrisseaton
> in the past year or so many of my packages from Amazon haven’t been arriving
> on time

My experience is the opposite - for me regular Prime delivery now regularly
arrives in less than ten hours (order before bed, it's there before 9 in the
morning.) I don't even live in a major urban area!

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brink
I'd feel much more comfortable with Amazon if they had a viable competitor.

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sky_rw
One Amazon is worse enough.

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rantwasp
that's not how competition works. when there is competition, the customer
usually wins.

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anonsivalley652
In the US alone, over 2/3 households have Prime. Regardless of opinions of
said company, that's an astounding market penetration. It makes you think they
could become similar to the fictional Tyrell Corporation or Big Brother but
more likely Central Services. And that inverted techno totalitarianism seems
more likely to happen/be happening voluntarily (and with network effects like
not wanting to be the only green imessage bubble or FOMO of AR social
networks) rather than with force. But really, they seem like they will gain an
oligopoly or a monopoly before gradually raising rates on what was cheap to
get everyone hooked on fast/free shipping and free movies in the early days:
_want supplies and support with your Amazon Pacemaker or Amazon Ocular
Implants? you must continue to be a Prime subscriber or we repossess them. Now
with Prime, only $1299 per month!_

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OrgNet
I just canceled my free month of Prime a few weeks ago, that I used for
Christmas time... back to 7 day deliveries which is fine by me (but it does
feel that they add artificial delays for non-prime members).

~~~
refurb
Same here. I get a month of prime when I know it’s worth it in terms of volume
- moving, Christmas, etc.

I recently cancelled and got not only a further 3 months free, but also
another month free, then an offer for another month for $0.99.

They are working hard to keep people from cancelling.

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jammygit
Amazon makes it really easy to accidentally resubscribe to prime, as well as
accidentally subscribe to random products that have a subscription option. The
dark patterns are such a turnoff.

I try to buy locally but sometimes I still need to use amazon, eg, a Self
published book will only be available through them

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growlist
> Amazon makes it really easy to accidentally resubscribe to prime, as well as
> accidentally subscribe to random products that have a subscription option.
> The dark patterns are such a turnoff.

True. I ended up with a Prime Music subscription at £7/month without realising
I was paying for it. But then it's easy to cancel, so it's not that bad.

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pkamb
I wish the Prime Video streaming app was better.

Absolutely unusable on an Apple TV. Cross-platform trash that behaves so
poorly compared to native UX.

The official Twitch app is the same. And they shut down API access for a
number of high quality 3rd party Apple TV apps for Twitch when they launched
the official one.

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The_suffocated
Am I the only one who has misread the title as "Amazon has 150M prime
NUMBERS"? I thought that the article was about some weird practice of reusing
prime numbers for encryption ;-D

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Mountain_Skies
Dear Department of Mathematics,

Our client, Amazon.com Inc., has a trademarked the word Prime for all uses,
across the known and yet to be discovered universe. Immediately cease and
desist from using the term "prime numbers" to describe those a natural number
greater than 1 that cannot be formed by multiplying two smaller natural
numbers.

Our client understands this may cause some minor inconvenience to yourself and
your colleagues. As a token of goodwill, we are offering all fulltime staff in
your department Amazon Prime membership at the discounted student rate for one
(1) year. By reading this letter, you implicitly agree to the above terms.

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pickdenis
I don't have much to contribute, except my thanks for your reminding me to
cancel my prime subscription. They REALLY tried to get me to not do that. I
had to click "yes actually end it" around 5-6 times. I bet each of these
hurdles keeps a couple million subscriptions in their pocket every year.

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dnhz
And for comparison, Costco has 98.5 million members.

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toomuchtodo
And they actually treat their workers well.

