• Please review our updated Terms and Rules here

Amazon Prime--a good deal?

Chuck(G)

25k Member
Joined
Jan 11, 2007
Messages
44,223
Location
Pacific Northwest, USA
I've been an Amazon customer for a long time. I've resisted the Amazon Prime invitation overtures because I don't see the benefit. I still get fast free shipping on most orders. I ordered a new 'scope on Tuesday evening--it'll be here tomorrow (Friday), even though the estimated delivery was to be Monday.
 
I order alot online, eBay, amazon, aliexpress. Amazon has alot to offer with free shipping.. Although it seems your doing OK without Prime. We watch the streaming service as we don't use cable or dish for our entertainment. In other words its an expense that we don't flinch over.
 
We use the heck out of the same day shipping, and with Netflix it's the only other place we get shows and movies to watch. The music streaming is decent as well. And there are benefits for avid readers too and some Audible perks as well. I don't really use either of these tbh.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201910360 <--- Complete list of all the perks and add-ons for Prime.

But at the end of the day only you can decide if it's worth it, it is for us. It costs $119 per year, which is not a lot if you think about it. So I'd say it's at the least worth trying it out for one year. If, at the end of the year, you still think it's not worth it, then cancel and go back to what you are doing now.
 
I order a lot of smallish stuff. It's great to get it in 2 days with free shipping (and it probably causes me to order a bit more than I would otherwise).

I've watched myself for the few years that I've subscribed, and every year the free shipping ends up offsetting the yearly fee.

smp
 
If you have kids and both work full time, it is a fantastic time saver. We use it all the time, even for things that would be cheaper at a supermarket/Walmart.

Depends on how much you value not having to go to the store, how much you order, what you order, and if you stream media.
 
I works for me

Next day delivery is ok, get quite a bit of use from it, but not enough probably on its own, but I also get some limited films (but much poorer than netflix).

The unlimited photo backup does seem worthwhile as a safety net for my pictures.

It also works well with my sonos system for music and last year in an Epic trip driving down to Monte Casino it was great to listen to what ever we wanted including BBC radio while driving.

None would be enough on their own, but all together, they seem worth it.
 
Only if you use their movie service, I figure. I even tried to use that and found out it just didn't work for me. I had to pirate the movie I paid for, just to watch it on my TV.

I had prime for five years (at least) and cancelled it last month. A year ago, things ordered with two day shipping might show up same day or next day. But these days, it shows up in a week, "on time". I could have had it cheaper and faster through Newegg, or J.C. Whitney, Farm & Fleet, etc. Returns are no longer free and easy.

Many things I search for turn out to be "not eligible for Prime". Almost everything can be found at a better price elsewhere.

I don't need their creepy delivery drivers poking round here anymore. It's bad enough that they do anyway due to my neighbor's deliveries.

I'm totally fed up with the Chinesiness of Amazon brand products. I'm irate when I pay full price for an advertised "Made in USA" brand name product and receive a Chinese knock-off, and then have to pay return shipping and a restocking fee because "bait and switch" isn't an Amazon-valid reason for return.

There will still be things I need to buy through Amazon. But in three months I've so far found everything I needed elsewhere.
 
I'm not much for movies. Music taste is classical and I'm not one for photography.

Next-day delivery would be it for me.

I'm in a similar boat. I've used Amazon's music service since before I had Prime. I haven't tried it since I cancelled Prime to see if I lost anything.

I only tried one movie one time. Amazon would only give me permission to watch it on my phone. I ended up buying it from YouTube and getting a refund because that wouldn't play at all. So I put my Sony Handicam on my copy stand, pointed at the phone, and transferred the recording to a computer.

In my experience, Amazon's Next Day, and even Two-Day are dubious today. They yoostaby okay but for some time only things which I don't actually need quickly end up arriving on time. Everything else shows up a day or three late, and Amazon still says it was delivered on time.
 
Well, it could be my location. Sort of halfway between Seattle and San Francisco on I-5. The scope was shipped from Amazon's warehouse in Tracy, CA.

The music thing is interesting--I was a subscriber to Naxos classics for years. In February, they announced that due to lack of interest, they were terminating the service. Refunded the whole year.

Which brought me back to my CD collection that I sort of left collect dust about 20 years ago. Many albums hadn't even had the shrink wrap off. Many that haven't been published in at least a decade.

I got the old Sony CDP-102 going and had a listen to some of it. I figure that'll keep me busy for the next couple of years... :)
 
Last edited:
I recently got a great deal on a Bose Wave Music System IV with CD Player, Radio and Alexa.

Between Pandora and iHeartRadio, both of which are free, and my CDs, I've got all the music I can handle.

I don't even use the Bose's radio since the WiFi reception is much better than the FM is.
 
I have an old Technics SL-MC400 110 disk CD changer connected to my stereo with some of my CD collection inside that I listen to, and sometimes I just load up a classic rock play list on youtube and listen to that. Collecting movie DVDs is a waste of time for me because I generally don't see the same movie more then once every 5+ years so Netflix rentals and streaming is fine for me. Sooner or later you won't be able to buy music and movies from anyone, you will have to pay to stream it monthly.

Don't really use Amazon for much since the stuff I generally want I can find cheaper somewhere else. I think they did the Amazon prime thing to get people to buy more junk then they normally would. Quite a few major online stores have free shipping anyway on most items.
 
Amazon and eBay had the best price for the scope; the same vendor sells on both with the same prices.

All in all, I don't trust eBay much any more--the last thing I bought that quoted a delivery time from there of 3 days took a month to deliver.
 
My wife inherited one of those Bose radios; I don't think she even listens to it. At least I've never seen her doing it.

Those things suck for higher frequency sound output and clarity. I think Bose and the iPod killed sound reproduction for the sake of space and portability.
 
Amazon and eBay had the best price for the scope; the same vendor sells on both with the same prices.

All in all, I don't trust eBay much any more--the last thing I bought that quoted a delivery time from there of 3 days took a month to deliver.

I can't objectively answer at this point whether Amazon Prime is a good deal because I'm an add-one to a family members account so I don't pay anything for it (I don't believe they still offer this though). Of course, I don't get the benefits of the other features (such as prime music/video), I only get the prime shipping. That said, if I didn't have it and had to get it, i'm pretty sure I would pay for it. Most of my online purchases are through Amazon so the 2 day free shipping is definitely a deciding factor for a lot of stuff I need/want. I do pay for Costco (and previously sams club) and I feel like I get a lot more use out of Amazon Prime then i do the membership warehouses. All that said, I have no idea what's already free shipping if you don't have Prime shipping, so maybe it just seems better than it really is...

Agreed about eBay. If I need stuff now, I will buy it from Amazon. If I can wait and it's a certain type of item (computer parts usually), I buy it from Aliexpress as it's almost always cheaper. The only time I buy stuff from eBay now is if there is an item that isn't available either place or there is some discount that makes it more viable. I've had significantly more bad experiences with eBay sellers than either of the other two.
 
Last edited:
Well, it could be my location. Sort of halfway between Seattle and San Francisco on I-5. The scope was shipped from Amazon's warehouse in Tracy, CA.

They have no good excuse at all here then. I'm 45 minutes drive from their regional warehouse.
 
We should all remember that "Free shipping" is a canard. Amazon doesn't foot the bill for it whether you subscribe to Prime or not.

Wherever you get "Free shipping," either you, or someone closer than you to the distribution centre, or the Chinese government, is paying for it.
 
I dropped Prime because the free two day shipping often slipped to three or four days, and if I went to Amazon's site on a different computer, not signed into any account, I found most things bought outside of Prime were actually cheaper with the shipping costs than the same item bought with Prime "free" shipping.

Then Amazon danced in my bank account at Christmas time. They withdrew odd amounts, then deposited odd amounts making nearly impossible for me to figure out what I actually paid for the gifts I bought. My son works in an Amazon warehouse, and his stories of deteriorating working environment there just added to my reasons for dropping the account.
 
Back
Top