I’ve put up with Amazon’s nag screen, Trial Prime Membership, for years. Their wonderful passive aggressive box, “No I don’t want to save $xxxx” that you have to accept.
Then by default they charge shipping. You have to click a drop down box and select free shipping. I’ve been doing this for years.
Today, I got the Nag screen as usual. Clicked accept that OMG I won’t save on shipping. I knew that’s b.s. because I always make sure my order was over $30. Today it was over $70.
Today, there was no drop down box to select free shipping. :dubious: WTH? I rubbed my eyes and looked again. Still not there.
There is this new link that says click for free shipping. I click it and there’s the normal drop down box. I select free shipping.
Afterward I get an email welcoming me to my Trial Membership. :smack: Bastards!!!
Sure enough I go to my Order History and there is my Free Prime Trial. I have exactly thirty days to cancel it before I’m charged $99.
I clicked remind me three days before the charge. You can rest assured I will cancel this crap.
There’s something evil and wrong with charging customers $99 a year for the privilege of shopping and giving that business your retail money.
It may be time to return to Walmart. I’m not playing Amazon’s games much longer.
I’m curious if others ran into this trap on Amazon’s order page?
Amazon Prime member here, actually a free one as I am on another’s account, but I have been a AP member and would have been if it was not for the relationship I am in.
You have been playing (fairly according the the rules) the game, but that time does not continue forever - this is not Verizon’s Grandfathered unlimited forever plan. You can not fault them for extending it to you for so long, so get off you fuckin high horse and release that they whole thing is to the long term health of Amazon and their business model.
Now if you want to fault someone fault Facebook where they charged $3 to boost a event and ended up taking $50.
You will be happy with prime.
In fact congratulate them in no longer being passive aggressive and stating things outright, unlike facebook.
Considering that I think the $99 Prime membership is one of the best things I spend money on, I have no fucking idea how you can possibly consider it evil.
It’s like calling an ice cold Coca Cola on a hot day “evil.” No way, dude.
You don’t have to wait to cancel your trial membership. If you cancel it immediately, you’ll still get your free trial month, then when it expires, you’ll automatically be canceled.
Thanks for the Tip Cochrane. I’ll cancel it in a few days.
I’ve started looking at Walmarts web site. I can pretty much get anything there by mail order.
Barnes & Nobles web site has any book that Amazon would carry.
I think shipping is free from both; if I pick up the items at the local store.
I joined Amazon in 1999. No sales tax and free shipping made it appealing. They charge me sales tax now. That’s over 8% right there. If they take away free shipping, then there’s no reason to use Amazon anymore.
It the principle that matters. Treat me like a doormat and I’ll drive thirty miles out of my way to another store. I’ve done it several times in my life. I’m not going to be any stores piñata.
With Prime you get free shipping on eligible stuff without having to spend $30 every time. I order items from them all the time, and don’t have to wait until I have $30 in my shopping cart-- or order stuff I don’t need just to bring the total to $30, and I get Prime Pantry, and Prime video.
I love Prime. Of course, back when I signed up, you got a free year.
Don’t blame them for being charged sales tax - they fought it tooth and nail. I’m for it because the states need it, but it is not like they volunteered to do it.
While my daughter loves Prime, I’m with you. I bought some CDs a few months ago, and one of the benefits was being able to listen to them for free in the cloud. Except when I discovered that this required a trial membership in something.
They can plug Prime all they want. Just don’t sneak free trial memberships on us.
Our new Nobel Prize in Economics winner noted in Nudge (though it might have been Sunstein) that very few people ever get around to canceling this stuff.
:dubious: I used the services they offered to everybody. If they don’t offer those services anymore then I’ll shop elsewhere.
I’ve looked at the Prime Program several times in the past 18 years. It offers no value to me. I always defer shopping until I have a large enough order for free shipping.
A lot of Prime services are stuff that I have no interest in. Streaming video, the Kindle book discounts etc. None of that interests me and certainly isn’t worth $99 a year.
Indeed. Technically, even when they weren’t charging sales tax, you, the buyer, were supposed to be paying it as a “use tax” (assuming your state has a sales tax.) It’s just that Amazon wasn’t responsible in collecting it and sending it to the government agency themselves. That said, my main problem is that Amazon had what I felt was a bit of an unfair advantage over brick & mortar retailers. Why would anyone go to Target or wherever to get their $1000 widescreen TV when they could order it online, get it shipped to them for free, and save about $100 (here in Chicago) on sales tax?
A big concern is rumors that Amazon doesn’t always sell retail items. That Krups coffee pot may look like the one in Walmart, but it may be a special Amazon model. Manufactured cheaper to accommodate Amazon’s discount prices.
It’s very hard to say because there’s no list of products manufactured for Amazon. Quite often even the model number is similar.
This is done by other stores too. The Maytag Washers in Home Depot are manufactured for them. They aren’t the exact retail model sold in Appliance Stores.
Are they just as good? <shrug> I don’t know. Consumer Reports tests and rates retail brand appliances. That similar model in Home Depot may or may not be as good.
The cumulative miles I’ve saved on my car, and the wear and tear I’ve saved on my back are not negligible, and neither is the time I’ve saved not having to shop brick and mortar stores, although as you say, YMMV.
Amazon can give discounts just from the advantage of not having 1000s of physical stores.
Walmart needs the special versions and discounted manufacturers’ prices to balance having physical stores.
My buying comes in spurts. Right now is a low season. But, Amazon Music, Amazon Video, and a selection of free Audible selections make it worth it even when not needing free shipping. To, that is. YMMV.
My experience is, any music you buy from Amazon, whether you downloaded the mp3s or bought the CD and the files were auto-ripped, is yours to listen to or download to any device for free. You don’t need to belong to Amazon Prime to do it. If you’ve previously purchased the music, there are no restrictions on it. I just streamed and downloaded some of my music to my phone and I don’t have a Prime membership.
Hmm - maybe I bailed out early. No matter - I still like CDs, so I got them and ripped the music to my computer and phone anyhow.
But it sure looked like the service was free only if you joined.
I’ve been doing this for years.
:dubious: WTH? I rubbed my eyes and looked again. Still not there.