To Amazon Prime or NOT to Amazon Prime

[GloryDayz]

Sorry if Q, but I'm on the fence about doing the whole Amazon Prime thing. Seems like getting rid of Netflix all but pays for it, but wanted to ask the opinions of others in this Mecca of awesome knowledge called Chiefs Planet..

Is Amazon Prime really worth it over eBay when you buy, let's say, 5-7 items a month? I ask because I always do the "price+shipping" deal, so it seem like it's a wash at some level. That being said, "Prime" would ALWAYS mean two-day shipping, and that's something I hardly ever do on eBay, so it could be a deal that makes it worth it enough to buy 15-20 things a month. The whole "eliminating some of the instant gratification culture/concern" deal...


Oh, and I've heard that if you use an "edu" account it's free for six months (perhaps not a big deal over a lifetime!!), but is then like half the cost. Does anybody know if that's true? If so, and it' the son who has the "edu" account, how does "Dad" pull off that scam without having the kid able to buy pretty-much anything he's ever wanted?

Thanks in advance... Just looking for some opinions before I leap...

[mikeyis4dcats.]

Originally Posted by DaFace

Not sure exactly where Bwana lives, but in very remote areas, I know they sometimes fudge on the two-day guarantee.

That said, if your confirmation email says "guaranteed delivery date," you're absolutely correct - they'll tack on a free month if it's not there by that date.

if it indicates Prime and does not flag it when he checks out, he is due the 2 day guarantee

[GloryDayz]

Originally Posted by MatriculatingHank

No one has addressed this concern yet. I'm interested in how it works also.
I have a daughter in college.

In the signing-up process (which I just looked at the first page), I saw they wanted an "edu" email account, but says that it's not a problem is you don't - just email some group a pic of their student ID.

That's easy enough.. And I think THAT would allow the account to be pretty much "mine", using "my" home email address for communications, and having my credit card.

What isn't clear (even after a Google search), is a side-by-side comparison chart of all these various "Amazon" options.

[GloryDayz]

Originally Posted by Fire Me Boy!

Yep. I'm not even rural, and by the end of February they'd missed "guaranteed" delivery four times for me. I called them every time, and I got a total of 6 months free Prime and $50 in gift cards. One time, they gave me a $30 gift card that more than covered the total purchase I'd made. So I got my product one day late, but for free plus about $6.

That kinda sells me, right there! Like!

[mikeyis4dcats.]

courtesy of srvy on Mediaplanet

Dear Customers,

A little more than 3 years ago we launched Prime Instant Video, adding unlimited streaming of thousands of movies and TV shows to the existing Prime benefit of Free Two-Day Shipping. It has turned out to be one of the most important things we've done for Amazon Prime members. Today, we are doing it again for music — introducing Prime Music, the newest benefit of Prime membership.

With Prime Music, you can listen ad-free to over a million songs and hundreds of expert-programmed Prime Playlists. Prime Music includes tens of thousands of albums from top artists like Daft Punk, P!nk, Bruno Mars, Blake Shelton, The Lumineers, Bruce Springsteen and Madonna. And we'll be adding more music all the time. Here's a list of popular artists in Prime Music.

In designing Prime Music, we wanted to remove the barriers between you and the music you love. We removed cost. You can listen to the entire Prime Music catalog for free — it's included in your Prime membership. We removed interruptions. Don't worry about having your music constantly disrupted by ads... you won't hear any. We removed listening restrictions. Choose exactly what song to listen to, repeat your favorite song over and over again, or download music to your phone or tablet to listen offline.

Finally, we removed one more barrier — deciding what to listen to. Just play any of the hundreds of Prime Playlists our music experts have created for you. Check out the Prime Playlists here.

Prime members in the US can start listening to Prime Music today at www.primemusic.com. Kindle Fire HD/HDX devices will get Prime Music in an automatic, over-the-air update. You can also download the latest Amazon Music app in the Android and iOS appstores.

[Beef Supreme]

I just started my free month of Prime and while a lot of the streaming video is redundant if you have Netflix, not all of it is. I just started watching Deadwood on Prime ... awesome. A lot of the HBO catalog on there. And seasons of Justified. I think I will probably keep it when the free month is up.

[WilliamTheIrish]

Originally Posted by Buehler445

Wal-Mart in Garden City is the deepest depth of hell.

And I have to drive 45 miles to get there.

F that S.

Holy shit! I stopped at that one on a trip to CA many years ago. Si hable?

[WilliamTheIrish]

And I'm an AP guy all the way. Prime Pantry FTW!

[notorious]

Originally Posted by KC Tattoo

Prayers sent dude. **** that place


Garbage City is the worst city in America.

Liberal.


And it's not even close.

[GloryDayz]

Welp, I'm going to pull the trigger on my next purchase. I resisted as, like my golf game, I over-thought the whole part about getting around the annual fee and trying to leverage my son's college student status. Not to mention I don't play enough golf, but I'm going to fix that too!

Anyway, bought the older son some new golf shoes on the 23rd, and have "tracked the package from Cali since the day after. It's just ****ed up that it seemingly was "FedEx" when it started its trip in San Diego, and as it finally made it to Lenexa, KC (on a slow boat) on the 26th at 1:02am (yeah, slow for FedEx IMO!!), it's been messing around in the KC area ever since. AND.....now FedEx has handed it over to the USPS on the 27th, and it says that I should allow for 1-2 additional days for delivery.

OK, that's ****ed up. I don't care that somebody will say, "they do that all the time", and even though the shoes aren't all that critical to daily life, it's still dumb for this to be how it works in 2014! JFC, use a drone man!!

So, anyway, the next purchase will be on Amazon, I'll opt into "Prime" and will start the experiment of how frequently things start showing up as NOT 2-day shipping eligible. I hear that even if you're Prime, that doesn't mean everything will be sent two days, mor ethat you just don't pay anything for the 2-day delivery "if it's available"...

[R8RFAN]

I am Prime and I don't always get things in two days...

[Fire Me Boy!]

Originally Posted by GloryDayz

Welp, I'm going to pull the trigger on my next purchase. I resisted as, like my golf game, I over-thought the whole part about getting around the annual fee and trying to leverage my son's college student status. Not to mention I don't play enough golf, but I'm going to fix that too!

Anyway, bought the older son some new golf shoes on the 23rd, and have "tracked the package from Cali since the day after. It's just ****ed up that it seemingly was "FedEx" when it started its trip in San Diego, and as it finally made it to Lenexa, KC (on a slow boat) on the 26th at 1:02am (yeah, slow for FedEx IMO!!), it's been messing around in the KC area ever since. AND.....now FedEx has handed it over to the USPS on the 27th, and it says that I should allow for 1-2 additional days for delivery.

OK, that's ****ed up. I don't care that somebody will say, "they do that all the time", and even though the shoes aren't all that critical to daily life, it's still dumb for this to be how it works in 2014! JFC, use a drone man!!

So, anyway, the next purchase will be on Amazon, I'll opt into "Prime" and will start the experiment of how frequently things start showing up as NOT 2-day shipping eligible. I hear that even if you're Prime, that doesn't mean everything will be sent two days, mor ethat you just don't pay anything for the 2-day delivery "if it's available"...

They hand off to USPS sometimes with Prime too. As a matter of fact, the packages I've had this year that didn't show up by the guaranteed delivery date have all been handed off to USPS save one.

But whenever they miss delivery, I always get something - from a $10 credit to a free month of Prime to $20 credit to $30 credit. One time they missed delivery by two days, and I called on each day it was due - triple dipped into the Amazon credit pool.

[R8RFAN]

I have one of those Amazon Visa cards... They are the bomb...

Double points at Gas stations and Drug Stores, Triple points when you buy on Amazon... I get anywhere from 50 to 100 bucks to spend at Amazon per month

[GloryDayz]

Originally Posted by 3rd&48ers

I am Prime and I don't always get things in two days...

I'd settle for three.... I realize some used to have to deal with the Pony Express, but watching FedEx hand it off to the USPS seemed dumb, just dumb. Especially if the package has been in KC for the last two days. Again, I'm sure the suits from both FedEx and the USPS would point me to the fine print that I never read, but the truth is they'd prolly walk away and say, "Wow, this is kind of ****ed up."

Again, I guess I was just looking for a reason to pull the trigger on Prime, and this is how low the bar was. I'm NOT a USPS hater, in fact I found them to be VERY awesome when they owned the whole shipment, but this hand-off deal - from one competitor to the other competitor - seems to have not been good for the end consumer...

[GloryDayz]

Originally Posted by Fried Meat Ball!

They hand off to USPS sometimes with Prime too. As a matter of fact, the packages I've had this year that didn't show up by the guaranteed delivery date have all been handed off to USPS save one.

But whenever they miss delivery, I always get something - from a $10 credit to a free month of Prime to $20 credit to $30 credit. One time they missed delivery by two days, and I called on each day it was due - triple dipped into the Amazon credit pool.

I read that in this thread, and I like it. If I wait a day or two extra, in the true spirit of business, I get some added compensation...

So it's all good, I just want some manager somewhere knowing some corporate profits, for somebody, just went away because GloryDayz hadda wait a few extra days for his son's super-low-priced golf shoes.

[R8RFAN]

Originally Posted by GloryDayz

I'd settle for three.... I realize some used to have to deal with the Pony Express, but watching FedEx hand it off to the USPS seemed dumb, just dumb. Especially if the package has been in KC for the last two days. Again, I'm sure the suits from both FedEx and the USPS would point me to the fine print that I never read, but the truth is they'd prolly walk away and say, "Wow, this is kind of ****ed up."

Again, I guess I was just looking for a reason to pull the trigger on Prime, and this is how low the bar was. I'm NOT a USPS hater, in fact I found them to be VERY awesome when they owned the whole shipment, but this hand-off deal - from one competitor to the other competitor - seems to have not been good for the end consumer...

It's the way they keep the costs down, it's called the last mile..

We deliver the big stuff for USPS, they deliver the small stuff for us...