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It’s Surprisingly Easy to Live Without an Amazon Prime Subscription

  • The author canceled their Amazon Prime subscription on a whim and realized they didn't really need it.
  • Leaving Prime meant slower shipping but the author was happy to wait and still found the selection and delivery speed satisfactory.
  • Many people love Prime for its fast shipping and convenience, but some readers expressed ambivalence and considered canceling.

Archive link: https://archive.ph/3M27c

mojofrododojo ,

They started putting commercials on Prime Video.

Nope, not paying for that. Certainly not paying EXTRA to remove 'em. Dick rocket Jeff can go eat shit.

Crack0n7uesday ,

Prime shipping is included with my prime streaming subscription and the streaming subscription pays for itself. Having prime shipping is just an added bonus for me.

Buddahriffic ,

I like the prime gaming service. On the site, there's this list of games with free stuff if you have a prime account, which is a great way to see a list of MTX games to avoid playing.

mojofrododojo ,

this used to be true. now they're putting ads on the videos.

so you have to pay extra to remove the fucking ads. this is intentional shittification in order to drive prices upward.

FUCK DICK ROCKET JEFF.

Crack0n7uesday ,

https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/471d6d07-1f32-42a5-97ac-93e018a1e75b.jpeg

Amazon HQ in Seattle, WA looks like a dick and balls too.

Source: I live in Bell Town Seattle a few blocks away, yes that is a real picture of their HQ that I took myself.

mojofrododojo ,

fellow seattloid here, thankful I don't have to see dickrocket jeff's faceted bollocks often. I used to spend loads of time in SLU but these days it's kinda a sterile wasteland.

belltown on the other hand continues to remain Seattle's finest open air insane asylum!

Crack0n7uesday ,

Capital Hill has been on a steady decline ever since they removed the mystery soda vending machine.

grayman ,

I've been in the Bezos balls. (Anyone seen the old Woody Allen sex movie?) Neat but no good reason for them to be balls. It's just a climate controlled botanical garden.

I'll also note that the place is jam packed with staff that constantly ask you if you have any questions. Well... I asked questions and no one had any clue. Great job.

There's also a not great coffee bar inside. Underwhelming.

Chessmasterrex ,

There's only 24 hours in a day and I have plenty of things to do other than watch commercial-plagued programming on Amazon.

CosmicCleric ,
@CosmicCleric@lemmy.world avatar

No mention of the free shipping?

I'm no fan of Amazon, but not mentioning the free shipping as part of the benefits of being a Prime member is not presenting an honest argument to people.

Crikeste ,

Yeah, all those shipping costs add up over time and 100% cost you more than having Prime would. Granted not everything is on/off the Amazon store

xenoclast ,

Lots of mentions. Most of the article is about that in particular. Don't trust summary bots

Ghostalmedia ,
@Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world avatar

Wait, read the article? This is Lemmy, I thought we were just supposed to read the post comments and talk about what we think might be in the article.

CosmicCleric ,
@CosmicCleric@lemmy.world avatar

Snarkiness aside, it's fair for one to look at the summary before deciding if they want to read the whole article or not.

The summary itself should have mentioned it, and it's omission is suspicious.

CosmicCleric ,
@CosmicCleric@lemmy.world avatar

Lots of mentions. Most of the article is about that in particular. Don’t trust summary bots

Well I depend on the summaries to decide if I'm going to read the article or not. /shrug

aceshigh ,
@aceshigh@lemmy.world avatar

The shipping time never bothered me. If I need something urgent I’ll go to the store and get it. Otherwise a week or 2 won’t make a difference.

smolyeet ,

Majority of the things I buy, usually aren’t at the store. Or there’s more of a variety. On top of that their return policy and process is pretty solid.

AccountMaker ,

I generally wait more than a month for things to arrive, be it random stuff from aliexpress or books from bookdepository (may it rest in peace), blackwells or kennys. It's kinda the norm here, and we don't think much of it.

MartinAllez ,

I can't speak for the US, but at least in Canada Amazon has just been getting worse since I started using it. In 2019 I used it to get some great camping equipment at a ridiculously good price. During Christmastime last year I got a 50$ gift card from my company and I struggled to spend it after buying a $20 crystal ball. My household cancelled our prime subscription last year and I doubt we'll go back.

demesisx ,
@demesisx@slrpnk.net avatar

Pro-Tip: If you’re already signed up for prime, you can go to your membership details and cancel auto-renewal OR they allow you to cancel now and will refund whatever they owe you before the renewal date.

AnActOfCreation OP ,
@AnActOfCreation@programming.dev avatar

Ok, thanks!

Buddahriffic ,

I wonder how they handle people signing up to prime for a shipping discount and then immediately cancelling it, only to do so again for their next order...

BustinJiber ,

Is it really 140 USD annually in US? Here in EU it's about equivalent of 12 dollars yearly... What is that?

demesisx ,
@demesisx@slrpnk.net avatar

It’s called regulatory capture. They have a monopoly here, so they can just raise their prices until the pain threshold starts diminishing their returns noticeably then dial it back a notch.

JaN0h4ck ,

12 Dollars yearly

In which EU are you living in? It's 90€ annually in Germany, which is about 100 USD.

BustinJiber ,

Poland

https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/27d49bb9-103e-4abb-9fde-67e22266edb4.jpeg

49 PLN is about 12 EUR\USD (and it's been like this since 2021 I believe). I am losing my mind because I can't figure this out. It's the same thing - shipping, Prime Gaming, Prime Video, free Twitch sub?

JaN0h4ck ,

Yeah, same features. Good to know that there are incredibly high price differences, even though we're neighbouring countries.

BustinJiber ,

I was thinking about that and then found this article - https://www.comparitech.com/blog/vpn-privacy/amazon-prime-video-cost/

They collected a lot of data and stats, like the catalogue sizes of Prime Video around the world and it varies massively. So that's part of the answer. And Polish is mostly crap and midocrity, and few good older shows. Lower Decks last season is missing, this kind of crap happened to me number of times.

pathief ,
@pathief@lemmy.world avatar

50€ on Amazon Spain.

kcuf ,

There are varying levels of quality of service in different countries due to shipping infrastructure, partnerships, content restrictions, etc, and I'd say that ties into the cost.

BustinJiber ,

https://www.comparitech.com/blog/vpn-privacy/amazon-prime-video-cost/ - found this article, and it seems what you are saying is correct. Polish catalogue is pretty small, has shows missing seasons, a lot of frankly obnoxious Polish crap.

Katana314 ,

Amazon Prime exists for me to run a 30-day trial around Christmas, when I happen to come up with a few gift ideas I can't find elsewhere, and then to let it expire and never use it the rest of the year.

Yerbouti ,

What do you people need prime for? Like, how many times a year do you order on amazon, and what products? Its really a mystery to me.

thorbot ,

I ordered 76 items from Amazon in 2023. It’s mostly hobby stuff or things for my cats.

GilgameshCatBeard ,

I’m certain I could easily live without it. But I don’t need to. Who in their right mind thinks they can’t live without it?

PopcornTin ,

Their next story: You cannot live without avocado toast, it's a fact.

gazter ,

As a millennial, I agree with that.

Jknaraa ,

I think I've used Amazon a grand total of twice in my life. Got a cheap knockoff of what I actually ordered both times.

viralJ ,

Wow, never thought I'd see a headline like this. I've never had Amazon prime except for the free month trial. I had no idea it was such a problem for others that there are articles written about it.

Wolf_359 ,

I think what a lot of people are missing in this thread is that not everyone has access to convenient physical stores and many people do have good reasons to want faster shipping.

For example, young families who don't live near a Walmart. When you realize you need a few things for the kid, it can be pretty tough to pack them up and drive however far to the store that may or may not have what you need. If they do have it, you aren't going to get reviews or many options.

My recent prime purchases have included bottle brushes, a crib mattress protector, a replacement remote for our sound bar (dog ate it), and a cheap car camera to check the baby since he started daycare last week and I'm completely paranoid about my ADHD brain leaving him in a hot car and killing him.

Did any of these need to be prime purchases? I guess not but you can see how I would want them sooner rather than later.

Walmart near me didn't have any good car cameras in my price range.

The sound bar remote was online only and was required for us to watch TV since our TV speaker doesn't work.

The bottle brushes were just convenient.

The mattress protector could have waited but would have been a gamble on ruining our very expensive crib mattress. This could have been a a Walmart purchase for sure though.

I'm not saying these were life or death purchases. They weren't and people got by just fine before Amazon. But does the convenience and reliability outweigh the monthly prime cost? For us, yes. And I admit we have become pretty dependent on it.

viralJ ,

Thanks for explaining this. I'm a childless guy living in the UK in a big city, close to many big markets and specialty stores, so I guess my experience is totally different than what you're describing and you gave a few pretty good reasons why there's such a gap in how much the convenience of Prime is worth for someone like you and someone like me. I guess the article just isn't aimed at people like me.

Lennnny ,
@Lennnny@lemmy.world avatar

Christ, we cancelled it a month ago and I feel so fucking stupid. Stupid that we had it for so long for... what? I don't need anything so quickly that a couple of days delivery makes a difference. Food, water, heat, somewhere to sleep are things I need on a strict schedule. Knock off earbuds and some silicone molds for frozen shot glasses can absolutely wait. AND IT'S STILL FREE SHIPPING, you just add to cart and buy once you hit $35.

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