Submitted 9 months ago by AnActOfCreation@programming.dev to technology@lemmy.world
https://slate.com/technology/2024/01/quit-amazon-prime-how-to-free-shipping.html
Archive link: archive.ph/3M27c
Who the hell has a prime subscription? Bigger question is how to live without using amazon at all. We need some kind of improved
In my country I can finally start to pay vendors by wiring money instantly without the need for third party payment services. Fucking banks took their sweet time. All this inefficiency basically leads to a tax on all internet commerce that empowers people like Musk or Thiel via paypal.
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.
I ordered 76 items from Amazon in 2023. It’s mostly hobby stuff or things for my cats.
With ads being put on the videos now it’s definitely not worth it.
But how will I recycle 3 tons of cardboard a year?
The cardboard I don’t mind, it’s the packing pillows that I mind (better than the old fashion packing peanuts or bubble wrap, from a recycling perspective). I bring them to Publix for recycling because my local waste company doesn’t recycle most plastics. I suspect Publix isn’t either, but it’s better to try than to just throw them away.
It’s Surprisingly Easy to Live Without an Amazon Prime Subscription
Water is wet
But is it surprisingly wet?
I agree. Unsubscribed to Prime and Netflix. I’m not missing anything. Good riddance.
I’ve never really understood what prime actually is. They nag me about it on the occasion I might buy something from amazon. weird to think someone perhaps couldn’t live without it.
Free two day delivery and access to prime video
One thing I’ve noticed is that it pretty much always takes two days to deliver your items. The only difference is that Amazon will let your order sit in their warehouse for a few extra days if you don’t have Prime.
I canceled my prime over a year ago but previously have been a prime member since 2003. the two day shipping thing was legit for a lot of those years but has been anything BUT two day shipping for at least the last 5 years. week if you’re lucky.
You would need to pay shipping on orders under 35$ - previously 25$ was the threshold. With some exceptions that require shipping be paid no matter what prime was there to give you two day shipping on all orders at no extra cost. Now they have prime video, prime gaming, prime music, and prime reading as part of it aswell. All of which have were some nice added value to anyone already paying to get the shipping. Although prime video now has ads, music and reading are really just a worse version of their subscriptions for those services - amazon music and Kindle unlimited.
Basically if you have frequent small orders on Amazon it might be cheaper to pay the monthly sub than to pay for shipping. For most people it’s really not worth it, either because you don’t place enough orders or they would meet the threshold for free shipping anyway.
I have never used amazon, much less paid for a subscription service for the pleasure of using it. I was hoping that the author atleast stopped using amazon alltogether. Ah well. Little victories I guess.
Is this satire?
I know right. It’s not like they’re going without a toilet or something.
Amazon have slowly destroyed all their products over the last few years out of sheer greed. They’re the poster boy for enshittification.
I found out that even without prime the delivery speed is sometimes the same here in Germany. They say it would take 1-2 days longer but quite often my amazon packages arrived early. Same for packaging cost. Sometime they adverdise the 0€ shipping costs with prime but it literally is also 0 without prime. I mean they are not lying, just not telling the whole truth xD
I decided to not renew my amazon prime account when it expired in November. I did end up using Amazon once since then. Products on Amazon are overpriced, in addition to the annual fee. I didn’t feel like I was getting my money’s worth. I didn’t like that there were ads on free movies, or fees for grocery delivery that used to be included in the annual fee.
I found a bento box at Marshall’s for about $6-7, and the exact same one on amazon for $20-25. Also fuck Bezos and the exploitation of workers, and Amazon’s aggressive union busting. and they stole Amazon fresh delivery peoples tip money.
dropped it when they sent me the emails about adding ads, gf was halfway through a season of supernatural though so set it to expire at the end of the month.
they just took the next payment anyway and carried on my subscription. i had to go on again, cancel… again, and get a refund.
slimey sneaky bezos had his fingers in my wallet
Shop local, it’s actually quite fun
Must be nice if you can leave the house without need for concern while receiving home treatment for disease/injury and your local brick and mortars actually do hold the products you need.
These aren’t personal shots at you bud.
I’m sorry you’re in that situation and I would probably be bitter too
I hate to be honest, but I used Amazon Prime a lot because:
I also save a shit ton of money. When I used to browse Walmart or Target, I used to buy a lot of shit I didn’t need. I don’t get as distracted with focused buying. I also order from Aliexpress if I can wait 30 days, and I have only been ripped off three times in several years, for a total of maybe $35.
I’m not saying my way is better, and certainly not if it’s better for you, but it’s been a godsend to the house-bound.
If Amazon genuinely fits your use case, more power to you. I think the problem is the average person being duped into thinking they need Amazon Prime as the default position.
Ive never understood the dependence on Amazon. It's not even a monopoly, I've never bought anything online that somewhere else didnt also offer the product, usually an online store specializing in that product.
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…
Cancelled two weeks ago, and while it's too early for me to have a fully informed opinion, so far I've noticed that if you just hold items in your cart until you reach some kind of threshold (and I admittedly don't know what that is) you can get free shipping anyway.
It's almost like I was paying all that money just so I could one off order anything on a whim. I'm an adult, I can exercise impulse control and stick it to Amazon in some small way by doing it. Win/Win.
That’s what I do. And by the time I have enough stuff built up for free shipping, I realize I don’t need most of it anyway.
Yeah, they have order me minimums for some of their shipping options anyway. $25 for same day in my area, but once my membership lapses I bet I still end up getting shit in around the same time
I just genuinely don’t understand why people think it’s necessary. I use Prime once a year and it’s when my boss gives me a gift card for Christmas. I guess I just don’t understand what the typical person is buying every single month from Amazon to warrant a subscription - I know 1 or 2 people buying cat litter every month and having it delivered, but why? Just go to the store! I love in a rural town and I still trek to the store. Maybe if you have mobility issues or something but I just don’t get it. Probably just the anti-consumer in me.
Buying cat litter when you also need diapers and have to shop with a baby in tow? I’ll be anti-consumer next year.
Plot twist! By then you will need a second job to fund your child’s Need for Robux.
I know 1 or 2 people buying cat litter every month and having it delivered, but why? Just go to the store!
Subscribing to deliveries typically gives a discount, which makes the cost cheaper than going to the store and removes wear & tear on your vehicles and your own gas costs.
Depending on what kind of litter you want, the store might not even carry it. My cat litter is from a major brand, but is one that doesn’t get as much in stock at my local places and when itis in stock, it’s rarely the cheaper, larger box, so that also increases the cost.
Cat litter is fucking heavy. I don’t blame anyone wanting it delivered to their door.
I have prime for the no rush shipping. Every time I delay my same day or next day shipping to the 3-4 day no rush shipping I get a few dollars of digital credits which I use to buy ebooks. Over the course of a year it essentially pays for the cost of prime with free books I would have bought anyway.
I have never not been able to pirate a book, if you’re interested. Book piracy is super super easy
I only support book piracy because most of that money goes to a publisher anyways, and Amazon gives credits because they take a huge cut anyways when people do pay out of pocket.
Yo ho!
The hoops people jump through to justify why this way of getting free shit doesn’t hurt anybody is nuts lol.
Trust me when I say music artists, writers, and anybody else selling their creative arts aren’t getting their money through you. Having to justify your theft by saying you’re stealing more from a nameless corp instead of the person who created it doesn’t mean shit. You aren’t Robin Hood.
You’re hopefully just stealing from someone who won’t notice because you’re hopefully too poor lol.
Is it really 140 USD annually in US? Here in EU it’s about equivalent of 12 dollars yearly… What is that?
12 Dollars yearly
In which EU are you living in? It’s 90€ annually in Germany, which is about 100 USD.
Poland
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?
50€ on Amazon Spain.
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.
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.
www.comparitech.com/…/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.
It actually makes your life better!
I cancelled Amazon prime a few years ago. Amazon was never able to honor the next day or even two day shipping so I cancelled.
Technically, for me, there was no change in shipping shipped for me cancelling prime
Amazon was never able to honor the next day or even two day shipping
I used to travel a lot for work and needed deliveries on specific days. Amazon guaranteed delivery days were crap.
I know a guy who actually got an official response from Amazon about that. Their response was “We guarantee 2 day shipping I’ve the items are shipped. We may not start shipping for a day or two depending on how busy we are.”
i had the same experience.
No shit that is easy to live with marginally slower (but still really pretty fast) shipping and access to a second-tier streaming service.
It’s pretty much the definition of a luxury purchase.
Imagine being subscribed to a shop. Wtf?
Costco can be worth it
The exact opposite is true in many cases. Many shops want to subscribe to me, but so far, only two shops have earned that privilege. They give me discounts, and I carry two extra cards with me.
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.
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.
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?
Their next story: You cannot live without avocado toast, it’s a fact.
As a millennial, I agree with that.
I deleted my Prime! So many good points on this post. My last 2 purchase from Amazon took 2 weeks to get here, which is fine but prime is advertised as 2 days. Amazon prime’s TV selection is for the most part trash & finally Amazon can burn in hell. I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to cancel it.
As someone who lives in a country where there’s no amazon…
yes.
you can live without amazon subscription and you dont have to pay them a single dime
Last time I ran out of coffee, Amazon meant that I had a couple months worth delivered to my door overnight. I’m more addicted to coffee than to Amazon, so, yes, I need it
Same, but it means for cheap electronics I have to pay more.
01011@monero.town 9 months ago
This is news to whom? Prime doesn’t even get to you in 24 hours as they used to claim.
harry_balzac@lemmy.world 9 months ago
I come out ahead in a sense without Prime because if I pay for overnight, it’s late 80% of the time. I get the shipping refunded and the item arrives before the Free Shipping deadline.