Anti-Hot Deal: Amazon's minimum free shipping now $49 for everything except books!

[kranky]

I'm seeing posts on another site where more than one Prime member claimed he was being charged more for the same item than a non-Prime customer. Does anyone look at that?

 

[destrekor]

I'm seeing posts on another site where more than one Prime member claimed he was being charged more for the same item than a non-Prime customer. Does anyone look at that?

hmm

The prices can vary quite often, so it could be difficult to prove that is the reason.

I was going to suggest it was the difference between a Prime Member utilizing Prime Pantry versus another customer making a regular purchase, but Prime Pantry prices are almost always cheaper than the regular price.

 

[pcslookout]

I'm seeing posts on another site where more than one Prime member claimed he was being charged more for the same item than a non-Prime customer. Does anyone look at that?

I am seeing this too.

 

[Anubis]

its not even march and free shipping has already paid for prime like 4 times for me

 

[zerocool84]

I'm seeing posts on another site where more than one Prime member claimed he was being charged more for the same item than a non-Prime customer. Does anyone look at that?

Never heard of that and doesn't make sense at all.

 

[cutty]

I had one year prime and had so many orders with amazon. Later I found most of those are useless at all. Though I didn't pay shipping for them, it's still a waste of money, since them I decided I would never do prime again.

 

[destrekor]

I had one year prime and had so many orders with amazon. Later I found most of those are useless at all. Though I didn't pay shipping for them, it's still a waste of money, since them I decided I would never do prime again.

If you buy things just to justify having Prime, you're bound to be disappointed and buy things you don't really want or that which you don't need.

But if you embrace the concept of online ordering for essentials and not just extras, then you can take advantage of it.

Amazon is of course hoping for more impulse shoppers than regular shoppers, but really, in the end, just as long as there are more purchases Amazon is happy.

 

[Crono]

There's been an increasing gap between Prime and non-Prime for years now. It's great if you buy into the Amazon ecosystem and have Prime, but otherwise not so much. Amazon isn't the main place I look to shop anymore, except for books and items that other sites don't carry. The free shipping minimum usually kills a lot of deals because their rates aren't all that low if you have to pay for shipping without Prime.

 

[Mike64]

I had one year prime and had so many orders with amazon. Later I found most of those are useless at all.

No offense intended, but that's only 'cos you ordered useless stuff, for whatever your reasons...

 

[Mike64]

You are PAYING MORE for

Only if you're as dumb as a rock. A really slow, backward rock. Which admittedly, many, many Amazon customers seem to be, judging from the reviews they write and the way they seem to shop. (I'm referring of course to the thousands of people who post 1- & 2-star reviews because products "don't look as big as they did in the picture," or because they "expected something else" (for no apparent, let alone stated, reason, and despite the existence of a detailed product description) or who on the other hand think that any flash drive in existence is just plain "AWESOME!!!" because "it lets me store hundreds of songs on a tiny little drive!!" or that paying twice normal street prices for a piss-poor brand of basmati rice is somehow a "great deal for the price!" Indeed, I actually find it truly shocking that so many people apparently have the "raw intelligence" needed to open an Amazon account in the first place (however minimal that may be), while still managing not to understand the concept of a basic Web search, or apparently, in fact ever having heard that such as a thing as "Google" exists at all...

But to be brutally frank, those people help keep Amazon alive, so as far as I'm personally concerned, it's all good in the end, since it means I can regularly buy (certain) stuff at prices well below normal street prices and for a one-time shipipng fee that amortizes out to very little over a year (ie, "Prime membership"), get it mailed to me at home within 0-2 days... And, if I need to return something, they'll take pretty much anything back, no questions asked, for 30 days. And while it's true that some other big retailers have similarly liberal (or even better) return policies, it's also true that many don't...

In short, to paraphrase from the old story about the little girl with the curl (or some shit like that), when they're good, they're very, very good, but when they're bad, watch out*.... But in this case, all it takes is a quick web search (or remembering back to your last supermarket shopping trip) to tell the one from the other...

___________________
* It's a broad paraphrase. And fwiw, t's the punchline from some old proverb or something. And yes, of course I know I could most likely find the specifics of whatever the proverb is all about - probably in painful detail - by searching the Web, but frankly, I just don't care and in this particular case, not caring doesn't cost me anything...

 

[lxskllr]

Only if you're as dumb as a rock. A really slow, backward rock. Which admittedly, many, many Amazon customers seem to be, judging from the reviews they write and the way they seem to shop. (I'm referring of course to the thousands of people who post 1- & 2-star reviews because products "don't look as big as they did in the picture," or because they "expected something else" (for no apparent, let alone stated, reason, and despite the existence of a detailed product description) or who on the other hand think that any flash drive in existence is just plain "AWESOME!!!" because "it lets me store hundreds of songs on a tiny little drive!!" or that paying twice normal street prices for a piss-poor brand of basmati rice is somehow a "great deal for the price!" Indeed, I actually find it truly shocking that so many people apparently have the "raw intelligence" needed to open an Amazon account in the first place (however minimal that may be), while still managing not to understand the concept of a basic Web search, or apparently, in fact ever having heard that such as a thing as "Google" exists at all...

So much truth, it hurts :^D

 

[Mai72]

I love Amazon.

I orded my supplements. The total was $75 so I was able to get the free shipping. I wasn't in a hurry to receive my items. I was expecting to receive my order this week. I got my order on Saturday. I had to wait 2 days.

Amazon is still the place to shop. I love Amazon and will continue to do business with them.

 

[Mai72]

Amazon doesn't care about you. They have over 50 million Prime members and growing. Raising the free shipping minimum is brilliant and will help keep current Prime members from leaving. And more will join Prime to get free shipping since the free minimum is harder to hit. The value of Prime membership just went up.

Wait until they start expanding in Asia, and SE Asia.

 

[Triumph]

Love Prime. Find a .edu email address and get it for half price. Well worth it, sometimes I get things in 1 day.

 

[Craig234]

You're supposed to pay any sales tax the eshops didn't charge you at the end of the year... So taxes shouldn't even come into the equation since they're all equal.

This. It's because 94% of people were tax cheats who didn't pay the tax owed that both screwed the honest people and made it needed for Amazon to collect the tax.

 

[ponyo]

Wait until they start expanding in Asia, and SE Asia.

It's never that easy. That's like saying Alibaba will have success in the US. Not true. Walmart found it hard to break into Asia and they started early. Walmart failed and closed up shop in Germany, Russia, and South Korea. They're struggling in India and China.

http://sebastianmarshall.com/why-walmart-failed-in-korea

http://www.wsj.com/articles/wal-mart-to-open-115-stores-in-china-by-2017-1430270579

Amazon is not Walmart but it's the same. Success in the West doesn't necessary translate over to the East and vice versa. Uber is finding that out the hard way as it's losing over one billion dollars a year in China trying to compete with Didi Kuaidi which is owned by Alibaba and Tencent.
Uber losing $1 billion a year to compete in China

Uber CEO Travis Kalanick,

"We're profitable in the USA, but we're losing over $1 billion a year in China," "We have a fierce competitor that's unprofitable in every city they exist in, but they're buying up market share. I wish the world wasn't that way."

So Uber will need to raise more money soon?

 

[purbeast0]

i ran out of protein powder over the weekend and needed some more so i went to amazon and i will have it tonight by 8pm sitting at my door step with free same day delivery.

thanks amazon you own!

 

[BlitzPuppet]

They really suck on returns; didn't like an item I ordered, requested return, here's what they said:

We are processing your refund. You don't need to return the item back to us!

Those Bastards!

On a serious note don't return too many items to them, it sucks if they cut you off.

 

[nickbits]

I'm seeing posts on another site where more than one Prime member claimed he was being charged more for the same item than a non-Prime customer. Does anyone look at that?

Prices on amazon can fluctuate hourly... Prime is not likely the reason.

 

[OutHouse]

im always amazed how online shoppers think they are entitled to have crap they buy mailed to them for free.

can anybody tell me why this silly mentality exist?

 

[pcslookout]

im always amazed how online shoppers think they are entitled to have crap they buy mailed to them for free.

can anybody tell me why this silly mentality exist?

I would like to know this too!

 

[ControlD]

im always amazed how online shoppers think they are entitled to have crap they buy mailed to them for free.

can anybody tell me why this silly mentality exist?

Because it existed. People got used to it. If it was never available perhaps the attitude would be different.

 

[pcslookout]

Because it existed. People got used to it. If it was never available perhaps the attitude would be different.

Thanks.

 

[nickbits]

im always amazed how online shoppers think they are entitled to have crap they buy mailed to them for free.

can anybody tell me why this silly mentality exist?

The overhead of running a B&M is huge and the retail markup is huge for that reason. Online places have less overhead and "free" shipping seems like a fair trade off.

 

[DrPizza]

<parody>
"I want to buy a candy bar and have it shipped to my house for free, and I want the price on that candy bar to be competitive with the price at local stores. Wahhhh!!"
</parody>

<reality>
There are costs to ship items "for free" - Amazon's business calculations seem to indicate that, to them, it's not worth it be so generous to occasional customers who are ordering under $49 worth of goods, but is worth it for frequent customers, many of whom have agreed to pay around $100 up front to be a member of their club of people getting free shipping.