Tired of Amazon.com "punishing" me for not getting hooked on Prime.

[Kaido]

Their search engine is laughably bad all around for a "tech" company, but I have to assume it's intentionally shitty because it brings them more dollars. I've gradually found myself using them less and less, as they suck more and more, this may be the last year I have Prime.

I'm pretty invested in the Prime ecosystem at this point. Despite the shipping delays, I do like their easy shipping program. I even order my paper towels from this at this point lol. And a lot of their Amazon Basics stuff is surprisingly decent, not as good as Costco's Kirkland partnership program, but I've gotten some great deals on stuff through that system. I use Prime Video probably as much as Netflix these days, plus it's easy to add on stuff like Paramount to get my Star Trek fix. I use Kindle Unlimited heavily & also eventually subscribed to Audible (now owned by Amazon), which gets me a monthly credit, as I do a lot of audiobooks while driving.

I also like that I can find most movies to rent or purchase on Amazon with zero hassle. Buy it right from the TV with a PIN code instantly. It's like $16 a ticket for a movie where I live per person, so $32 to take my wife out to the movies, vs. instant rental at home for a few bucks or buy the whole movie for the price of a single ticket. Convenience is king lol.

 

[WilliamM2]

I also like that I can find most movies to rent or purchase on Amazon with zero hassle.

I'm on a Prime trial right now. I find the Prime vieo interface infuriating, I can't find anything unless I know the name, if just browsing a category it takes forever. And then when I do find it, it's not "Free with Prime", or it's "Free with Ads"

 

[Shmee]

Also, if you have an EBT card on Amazon, you can subscribe to prime for about 1/2 off. I finally started doing that. And yes, I have had many free prime trials over the years lol.

BTW, if you need to contact them, at least in my experience, the customer chat support was quite helpful. I ordered a UPS after the power outage a bit back, and had to contact them about wrong item sent. With a quick chat online, I was shipped a new one right away, and I didn't even have to return the old one.

I will say the search functions on Amazon are bad, and seem to be getting worse. Same with Newegg, to be fair. Having marketplace items mixed in doesn't help this. Also, it is a pity that Amazon fresh is no longer free for prime or EBT members with over $35 orders. Now they want $150 or more orders :O

 

[Kaido]

I'm on a Prime trial right now. I find the Prime vieo interface infuriating, I can't find anything unless I know the name, if just browsing a category it takes forever. And then when I do find it, it's not "Free with Prime", or it's "Free with Ads"

Amazon's interface has been consistently rated as one of the worst GUI's on modern streaming platforms. Which is hilarious because XBMC debuted in 2003 & has morphed in KODI, which has a beautiful, simple, highly functional interface:

 

[Red Squirrel]

Not familiar with EBT but is there a way to use EBT to pay a credit card bill? Might be easier to use credit card then pay it off with EBT.

I try to minimize my Amazon purchasing and try to buy direct from Canadian vendors... not always easy though, some things are just hard to get here. The site itself makes it so attractive too and it's so convenient since you can buy pretty much anything, but at the end of the day they're basically just a front for Ebay and Aliexpress with a retail feel.

For things like Tea I'd try to see if the brand you buy has their own site, might be able to buy direct.

 

[lxskllr]

There's no reason not to make tea from bags. It's so easy and cheap. I very seldom buy bottle tea for that reason. I'm resentful of the price for what you get. It's like Dasani water. All it is is tap water in a bottle, and they want >$1 for it? GTFO.

 

[Captante]

I'm on a Prime trial right now. I find the Prime vieo interface infuriating, I can't find anything unless I know the name, if just browsing a category it takes forever. And then when I do find it, it's not "Free with Prime", or it's "Free with Ads"

Amazon search is freaking worthless.... find what you want to watch elsewhere THEN do a very specific search and it usually works.

Really the entire Amazon site is just SO poorly done.... it's a jumbled mess.

I know how to work it now but only due to endless repetition.

 

[Shmee]

Not familiar with EBT but is there a way to use EBT to pay a credit card bill? Might be easier to use credit card then pay it off with EBT.

I try to minimize my Amazon purchasing and try to buy direct from Canadian vendors... not always easy though, some things are just hard to get here. The site itself makes it so attractive too and it's so convenient since you can buy pretty much anything, but at the end of the day they're basically just a front for Ebay and Aliexpress with a retail feel.

For things like Tea I'd try to see if the brand you buy has their own site, might be able to buy direct.

Usually the EBT is for food only. Though it depends on benefits.

 

[Torn Mind]

Not familiar with EBT but is there a way to use EBT to pay a credit card bill? Might be easier to use credit card then pay it off with EBT.

I try to minimize my Amazon purchasing and try to buy direct from Canadian vendors... not always easy though, some things are just hard to get here. The site itself makes it so attractive too and it's so convenient since you can buy pretty much anything, but at the end of the day they're basically just a front for Ebay and Aliexpress with a retail feel.

For things like Tea I'd try to see if the brand you buy has their own site, might be able to buy direct.

It's food for most and cash is included for some others. I guess with the cash, you could use it to credit cards after taking out the cash. I don't know if you can withdraw the "cash" at the ATM or have to buy non-food at the store.

The food industry poured money in to political orgs on both sides of the political spectrum to kill excluding the likes of Coca-Cola from the Food Stamps program.
All this came into my knowledge because Calley Means is a "Prometheus" of sorts, as he was actively working the food company that protected the companies.
They paid the NAACP to say the removal of Coke was racist while they also went to a conservative org to pay the conservative org that it was government overreach.

 

[Shmee]

I don't see the problem with having soda and other drinks allowed as a food purchase. Even hot food should be fine, if you buy it from a store or something and not a restaurant, IMO. Food is food.

An interesting thing on that note, for the longest time the roasted chickens at Safeway were not covered with my SNAP, though the sushi trays (cold food) were...but, recently, I purchased a roasted chicken, and it was covered. I wonder if the laws / regulations changed? Or did Safeway just mis-categorize the chicken?

 

[Torn Mind]

I don't see the problem with having soda and other drinks allowed as a food purchase. Even hot food should be fine, if you buy it from a store or something and not a restaurant, IMO. Food is food.

An interesting thing on that note, for the longest time the roasted chickens at Safeway were not covered with my SNAP, though the sushi trays (cold food) were...but, recently, I purchased a roasted chicken, and it was covered. I wonder if the laws / regulations changed? Or did Safeway just mis-categorize the chicken?

Cold chicken has been allowed for a while, don't know how long, but at least 7-8 years in my state of MD.

Other drinks might be okay, but it is "diabetes water" in the words of Calley Means. Never mind the obvious dental disaster it can induce; the darker interpretation is that by inducing bad dental health, dental get economic stimulus and the local governments get "better people" and more income tax into their coffers. Such an interpretation can also be applied to food stores, both convenience and full blown grocery stores, as soft drinks move fast as far as inventory goes.

Recently, I read a book about teeth, the author was Mary Otto. The facts presented were interesting, even though the overarching advocacy narratives had a hole or two. Back in the late 19th century, the rich had decayed teeth while the poor we're still good due to the lack of sugar in poor people's diets back then. So much so, the poor sold their teeth(sometimes with some convincing) to rich people wanting a "teeth transplant)

 

[Muse]

I don't like the bait & switch they pulled. The price has hiked up to $139 per year, but at least in my area, the advertised 2-day shipping has sometimes turned into several days or even a week at times. They still stick the "free shipping with Prime" logo when you're shopping on their webpage, but it's really annoying now because it not longer means "2-day shipping". There aren't really any computer stores available in my area anymore, so if I need parts for something like a repair job, I've been relying on Prime for years now to get the equipment here in a couple days (replacement drive or laptop power supply or whatever) & I can no longer rely on the 2-day shipping method.

I did the 30 day free trial of Prime a time or two and last time let it expire into monthly, then paid into yearly (which is cheaper). Last June I cancelled, so I'm no longer Prime. I reasoned that at the rate I buy things at Amazon, it's cheaper for me to wait until I have more than $25 worth of stuff in my cart than to stay with Prime. I found Prime Video not much value, although I didn't look into it much. Stuff I wanted to watch was for $$ anyway, WTH.

I made on order yesterday and turned down 30 day free trial of Prime in favor of grabbing an item that put me over $25.

Later, off ebay, I bought some batteries (Energizer Ultimate Lithium AAA Batteries 12 Pack Exp. 2038-2039 L92SBP-12) that were about 1/2 the cost of the same batteries at Amazon.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/334499514202?epid=22011376595&hash=item4de1b9875a:g:JqEAAOSwtjdfF-Xw&amdata=enc:AQAHAAAAoMFvR+6EfdKgDJ988f2YP18bpfZDIhh7dXZgtXJz2fI7kdsbtfouA1MOi7MIV6BoX3Qg+pRgCuWVYVfr9nG7Q4j2vC4ynlhOvKZac+icMXgpL8iG0pENK6rMzN/dF3XTX2p7iQOXrWPcuDn2nuBzStZ2l5XTgUqTg311cUlc6L/LTJVjfMemOgihp6e786rXg86GhD43JE9r5HliJSo6DRY=|tkp:Bk9SR5K0ovPUYQ, 03/03/2023

You might think they may be counterfeit, but the customer reviews are all positive, the seller's selling like a dozen a day, appears legit.

 

[Muse]

Their search engine is laughably bad all around for a "tech" company, but I have to assume it's intentionally shitty because it brings them more dollars. I've gradually found myself using them less and less, as they suck more and more, this may be the last year I have Prime.

Amazon is a mish mash of crap and good. Reviews really help if you are good at reading between the lines, patient and discerning. I HATE Amazon for deep sixing the comments to reviews a few years ago. That was the BEST thing they had going. Reviews are often crap because Amazon lumps them together for variations of a product. You don't know WTH a reviewer is reviewing a lot of the time unless the reviewer takes a moment to specifically say, and most don't. You really have to be savvy shopping, but at Amazon, especially.

 

[WilliamM2]

You might think they may be counterfeit, but the customer reviews are all positive, the seller's selling like a dozen a day, appears legit.

I hate to tell you, those ratings are for the product, not just he product sold by that seller. Often if you put in the UPC for the product in your listing, ebay adds those reiews to your listing automatically. So the reviews in no way tell you whether it's legit or not.

Although it does look lke a legit selller. he does have 39 negative feedback for selling batteries in the past year.

 

[balloonshark]

I'm on a Prime trial right now. I find the Prime vieo interface infuriating, I can't find anything unless I know the name, if just browsing a category it takes forever. And then when I do find it, it's not "Free with Prime", or it's "Free with Ads"

Bookmark this site or install the app. When you search for a movie or tv show it will tell you what services it's streaming on for free and where and how much to rent or purchase.

JustWatch - The Streaming Guide

All your streaming services in one app.

www.justwatch.com

 

[Muse]

I hate to tell you, those ratings are for the product, not just he product sold by that seller. Often if you put in the UPC for the product in your listing, ebay adds those reiews to your listing automatically. So the reviews in no way tell you whether it's legit or not.

Although it does look lke a legit selller. he does have 39 negative feedback for selling batteries in the past year.

(Before ordering) I realized that positive feedback for the product was mostly from other sellers but I dug deeper to find feedback for my specific seller.

So, again before ordering, I checked seller's feedback and saw a number of sales of the item I was shopping in the last month and it was quite positive. I deduced that I was quite likely to get good stuff:

Feedback Profile

www.ebay.com

 

[Captante]

Ebay has better BUYER protection then Amazon does these days when it comes to third-party sellers. (seller-protection not so much!)

I won't buy anything expensive from any 3rd party on Amazon unless it's a very reputable company selling its own product.

 

[Muse]

Ebay has better BUYER protection then Amazon does these days when it comes to third-party sellers. (seller-protection not so much!)

I won't buy anything expensive from any 3rd party on Amazon unless it's a very reputable company selling its own product.

Yeah, I bought a book off Ebay (new) a few weeks ago and it turned out to be an obvious counterfeit, made in India. I went online and posted my complaint. Whoever engineered the copy didn't even run a spell check on the OCR. I posted seller JPGs of some nasty mistakes. Seller offered to refund 1/2 and I could keep the book. My response was no way Jose, hey, I already bought the real McCoy off Amazon (true). Seller refunded me 100% and didn't bother to post me a free-ship label (Ebay has their policy posted on counterfeits = not acceptable). I still have the counterfeit copy, figure to throw it out or put on sidewalk.

 

[Geekbabe]

I am a Prime member, logged on to make an Amazon Fresh grocery purchase today, to get “ free” delivery you now have to spend $150 ( it used to be $35) the delivery charge is 4.99

 

[Pohemi]

...the advertised 2-day shipping has sometimes turned into several days or even a week at times. They still stick the "free shipping with Prime" logo when you're shopping on their webpage, but it's really annoying now because it not longer means "2-day shipping".

I got my last non-Prime Amazon order in two days but usually it's a week. because they don't ship for 5 days...

Amazon 2-day shipping use to get the order TO YOU in 2 days. As you say, now it can take a week, and if you contact them to complain, they give you the, "well it's 2 days from when it leaves here", which is complete BS. That's NOT what it use to mean.

I can never bring myself to order food items or household goods from Amazon, the prices are ridiculous. And if I relied on EBT...

The food items that are EBT eligible tend to fluctuate wildly in price, which is funny because they HAVE to come directly from Amazon to be eligible for EBT, not sold by 3rd parties. Amazon blames their algorithms for the severe price fluctuations, but you don't really see those same exorbitant prices on non-EBT eligible items direct from Amazon. It's like they are intentionally gouging people for their government benefits.

Their search engine is laughably bad all around for a "tech" company, but I have to assume it's intentionally shitty because it brings them more dollars. I've gradually found myself using them less and less, as they suck more and more, this may be the last year I have Prime.

I dropped Prime (and I was only paying half-price for it) because of so many issues with orders over the past few years. I also closed out my Amazon store card.
It's gone to crap and seems to get worse each year. There's no reason they couldn't "fix" a lot of the issues, but that would put the tiniest dent in profits and well...they can't have that.

The food industry poured money in to political orgs on both sides of the political spectrum to kill excluding the likes of Coca-Cola from the Food Stamps program.

There are no such limitations on EBT FoodShare AFAIK. It is not the same as WIC, which specifies what items or types of items are purchasable with the benefits. The only limitation is no prepared and ready to eat foods such as from the deli...like hot rotisserie chicken. Many grocers will actually label them as another category of item so that EBT can still be used for them.

One last comment/reply

Does he not receive wellfare? That is what EBT is for no?

IMO, the term 'welfare' has become a bit of a catchall for any government benefits, including EBT FoodShare, disability income, etc.

I use to think it only encompassed cash benefits for families or adults with dependent children, or SSI for low-income. It seems to have taken a lot more programs under it's umbrella these days if you ask random people in the populace.

This comment had nothing to do with your comment about welfare...just wanted to share my opinion of other's opinions on it.

 

[sdifox]

Amazon 2-day shipping use to get the order TO YOU in 2 days. As you say, now it can take a week, and if you contact them to complain, they give you the, "well it's 2 days from when it leaves here", which is complete BS. That's NOT what it use to mean.

The food items that are EBT eligible tend to fluctuate wildly in price, which is funny because they HAVE to come directly from Amazon to be eligible for EBT, not sold by 3rd parties. Amazon blames their algorithms for the severe price fluctuations, but you don't really see those same exorbitant prices on non-EBT eligible items direct from Amazon. It's like they are intentionally gouging people for their government benefits.

I dropped Prime (and I was only paying half-price for it) because of so many issues with orders over the past few years. I also closed out my Amazon store card.
It's gone to crap and seems to get worse each year. There's no reason they couldn't "fix" a lot of the issues, but that would put the tiniest dent in profits and well...they can't have that.

There are no such limitations on EBT FoodShare AFAIK. It is not the same as WIC, which specifies what items or types of items are purchasable with the benefits. The only limitation is no prepared and ready to eat foods such as from the deli...like hot rotisserie chicken. Many grocers will actually label them as another category of item so that EBT can still be used for them.

One last comment/reply

IMO, the term 'welfare' has become a bit of a catchall for any government benefits, including EBT FoodShare, disability income, etc.

I use to think it only encompassed cash benefits for families or adults with dependent children, or SSI for low-income. It seems to have taken a lot more programs under it's umbrella these days if you ask random people in the populace.

This comment had nothing to do with your comment about welfare...just wanted to share my opinion of other's opinions on it.

That is what welfare is, social assistance of any sort. I don't get why people think it's a slight towards someone when the whole point of having the programs is to help those in need.

 

[Kaido]

I am a Prime member, logged on to make an Amazon Fresh grocery purchase today, to get “ free” delivery you now have to spend $150 ( it used to be $35) the delivery charge is 4.99

These services are all good ideas, but nearly everyone is price-sensitive, so if they want them to take off, then adding fees, tips, delivery minimums, being out-of-stock of items, doing lame substitutions, etc. is not going to win the war to get people to shift over to using their spiffy new service!

I'd probably use meal-delivery services like Uber Eats & Door Dash more if it didn't come out to $27 with tip to deliver a burger & fries in my area!

 

[WilliamM2]

The food items that are EBT eligible tend to fluctuate wildly in price, which is funny because they HAVE to come directly from Amazon to be eligible for EBT, not sold by 3rd parties. Amazon blames their algorithms for the severe price fluctuations, but you don't really see those same exorbitant prices on non-EBT eligible items direct from Amazon. It's like they are intentionally gouging people for their government benefits.

I wasn't talking about EBT items, I don't have/use EBT. I was talking about ALL food and houshold items. They are much cheaper locally. The reason is obvious, free shipping isn't free at all, it cost Amazon money to ship items, and they add it into the price.

 

[Torn Mind]

Amazon usually will price a product sold at Walmart at the same price as Walmart. I also did buy a big can(50oz) of baby clams(I don't recall seeing it on Walmart) last fall for a good price, then got it free after complaining about damage to the can.

Buy if isn't sold at Walmart or it's a rare flavor, the prices can be way high(sardines)

 

[Kaido]

Amazon usually will price a product sold at Walmart at the same price as Walmart. I also did buy a big can(50oz) of baby clams(I don't recall seeing it on Walmart) last fall for a good price, then got it free after complaining about damage to the can.

Buy if isn't sold at Walmart or it's a rare flavor, the prices can be way high(sardines)

I even started buying papers towels & toilet paper from Amazon. Run out? Just hit the reorder button on the app, magically shows up! Lots of good deals on Amazon Basics products!