1. Prime Video Paywalls and Price Hikes

• Ad-Free Tier Increase: Amazon added commercials to base Prime Video subscriptions and charged extra to remove them. That ad-free add-on increased to $4.99 a month (and rebranded/restructured into "Amazon Prime Video Ultra" tiers).
• Loss of 4K on Base Plans: 4K streaming was stripped from the standard Prime Video tier and locked behind the more expensive Prime Video Ultra subscription.

2. FTC "Dark Patterns" Settlement & Refunds

• Deceptive Practices: Amazon settled a massive Federal Trade Commission (FTC) lawsuit over "dark patterns"—tricks that made signing up for Prime effortless and canceling it (via a multi-page flow employees called the "Iliad") frustratingly difficult.
• Billions in Penalties: Amazon paid a $1 billion civil penalty and is rolling out $1.5 billion in automatic customer refunds (via Venmo, PayPal, or check) as part of a $2.5 billion settlement.

3. Subscription Fatigue and Pricing Pressure

• High Membership Cost: Prime remains at $14.99 a month or $139 a year, with financial analysts continually pushing for future price hikes.
• Rumors and Glitches: Widespread online rumors about staff reductions and site glitches have left users frustrated with general platform performance and customer support.

Prime for free shipping is worth it for us. Increasingly we buy online rather than driving to Walmart or Home Depot. As to video, yeah all the streaming services increase prices periodically. I could bitch about any of them for one reason or another.

Amazon Prime is wonderful. I can find stuff on Amazon in a few minutes that would take days, and many miles, of local searching, if I could find it at all. And get it delivered quickly. Well worth it to me.

I don’t do videos of any sort, but like Amazon Music.

I have Prime, mainly for the free shipping. Streaming is just a by-product. But, I just got a $51 deposit to my Venmo as part of that settlement.

In most cases, the sellers on Amazon have already rolled the price of shipping into the item price.
Free shipping with Prime? I don't think so.

"Amazon has consistently encouraged third-party sellers to roll shipping costs into the product price ever since the platform heavily shifted toward promoting a "Free Shipping" customer experience, a push that intensified with the growth of Amazon Prime"

Sellers that refuse have had their product search results suppressed.

When Amazon first put the ads back in and started charging more for ad-free content, I was pissed and canceled my Prime membership. Then after retiring and moving to a (much) smaller town, I found myself ordering more stuff online because a lot of things are just harder to find here. After a year of that I looked at all the receipts and realized I was spending more in shipping charges than the cost of a Prime membership. So I joined again. I'm still pissed about the ads, but overall I'm money ahead this way.

I have mixed feelings about Prime. The free shipping makes it worthwhile for us. I appreciate what Jupiter is saying; I don't see much that we buy is cheeper than elsewhere. But, I can get brands or specific items from Amazon that I can't find on store shelves, and I at a point in life where I don't settle for what you stock.

Streaming, I was pissed when they started the commercials. I think it's basically greed and "because we can." We quit watching for a while. We're now back to watching some programs but won't pay extra for it. Commercial spots generally are long enough that I mute the tv and go get another beer or something.

Not married to Amazon, so if a better option appears, the can get dumped.

quote:

Originally posted by stray dog:

Not married to Amazon, so if a better option appears, the can get dumped.

Same here. Amazon has done some shady stuff but it is hard to beat the convenience.
I can find most the the items I am looking for in one place. It also limits the number of websites that have my credit card information.

We have Prime because we buy a lot, A LOT, of stuff on Amazon. Groceries, clothing, medical supplies cleaning supplies, books, various videos, and just plain old stuff. A few months ago, both my wife and I were down physically and couldn't do much of anything. Between Instacart and Amazon, we ate well and never lacked anything we needed.

Sure there's a cost for Prime's convenience just as Instacart has a cost above what we could get the groceries for ourselves at Publix. But when you need something and can't physically go out to buy it, Prime and Instacart are really priceless.

We have friends and our Pastor and other members of our Church we could probably call on for some assistance. But we really don't like to impose and both of us seem to have the same mindset-we try to
handle whatever it is ourselves.

Bob

quote:

Originally posted by Jupiter:

It also limits the number of websites that have my credit card information.

An Amazon Store Card is free. I am not 100% positive, but I don't think that this card can be used anywhere other than Amazon (and Woot). It gives me 5% cash back, so that makes a dent in the cost of Prime membership.

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:
An Amazon Store Card is free. I am not 100% positive, but I don't think that this card can be used anywhere other than Amazon (and Woot). It gives me 5% cash back, so that makes a dent in the cost of Prime membership.

I can see where this could be worthwhile, especially if you do a lot of purchasing on Amazon.

My wife and daughters absolutely love Amazon Prime. The truck is in my driveway several times a week.

Zero issues, commercials are a non issue, I see them on regular TV anyway, same for Pandora, Spotify etc I'm not paying anyone an extra monthly fee either but if they bug someone then they have an option.

Do agree though that $140 should include no commercials. Just do a tiered annual fee, $140 for normal and $190 for commercial free...

Just had to return a halloween lawn item that is defective, simple a few clicks and the replacement will be here Sunday, I just drop the defective one either on the porch for pickup or at the UPS store near us.

I have been getting next day Prime deliveries on late afternoon orders on a regular basis from them this year. I don't stream through Prime so I can't comment on the quality piece.

Fallout.

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:
An Amazon Store Card is free. I am not 100% positive, but I don't think that this card can be used anywhere other than Amazon (and Woot).

It's a Chase Visa credit card. You can use it anywhere that takes Visa.

You just don't get the 5% back like you do at Amazon and its subsidiaries (like Woot, Whole Foods, Audible, etc.).

It's only 2% back at gas stations and restaurants, and 1% back elsewhere.

quote:

It gives me 5% cash back, so that makes a dent in the cost of Prime membership.

Yep, I save well more than the $139 cost of my annual Prime membership just in the 5% back from my card, the free shipping, and the member only deals/savings.

All of the streaming services are going up. Apple+ or whatever it’s called was $9.99, then $10.99. It’s now going to $14.99 a month. I’m going to catch up on something on there and the rest of the shit I was going to watch, well miss me with it. It’s not worth that price increase.

Netflix? Like OP probably, I want the 4k content. I mean audio is compressed on all these streaming services. It’s shit across the board. So at least give me the 4k PQ. But Netflix doesn’t offer a 4k and one TV at a time plan. Nope, you want the 4k option it’s 4+ TV’s at a time or something. It’s around $30 with tax a month for it alone. Since the prices are going up and up, pretty soon I’ll cut it down. I’ll keep Netflix but I’ll go back to 1080p and their one TV at a time bullshit. The panels will upconvert anyways. It won’t be the same but it’ll be good enough.

Paramount just bought HBO/MAX as well. Who knows what that is going to do to the price for either. I get MAX via my home internet service but imagine at some point soon, my ISP will take it away.

Yeah it’s getting old. And the new trend that is starting is people are saying fuck streaming, and going back to cable/satellite. You know where all the shit is in one place. You have a menu, channels to scroll, and select what you want to watch. Anyone remember that? I fucking do and it’s becoming more and more attractive to go back. I wouldn’t be surprised if I go back to Satellite myself and cancel all the streaming stuff. I rent 4k blu rays through a service so that’s good enough.

All these companies have taken their own ball and run home. If they release a film, have to have their app. Disney was the first one to do this. Paywall content and if you want to watch any of their shit films, you have to pay them because they won’t air on anything else. Inflation, grocery prices, gas prices, interest rates, “supply shortages”, a pandemic. The never ending quest to extract every single penny from the consumer and overcharge for every possible thing you can. Once people start turning shit off, maybe, just maybe, they’ll rethink their shit. But I doubt it.

quote:

Originally posted by RogueJSK:

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:

An Amazon Store Card is free. I am not 100% positive, but I don't think that this card can be used anywhere other than Amazon (and Woot).

It's a Chase Visa credit card. You can use it anywhere that takes Visa.

My Amazon Store Card is issued by Synchrony Bank. It is not VISA, not MasterCard, nor any of the standard credit cards. They don't even issue a standard piece of plastic; it is basically just a psuedo card number that is registered with Amazon as a payment method.

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:

quote:

Originally posted by RogueJSK:

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:

An Amazon Store Card is free. I am not 100% positive, but I don't think that this card can be used anywhere other than Amazon (and Woot).

It's a Chase Visa credit card. You can use it anywhere that takes Visa.

My Amazon Store Card is issued by Synchrony Bank. It is not VISA, not MasterCard, nor any of the standard credit cards. They don't even issue a standard piece of plastic; it is basically just a psuedo card number that is registered with Amazon as a payment method.

Both the Chase Visa Amazon Prime card and the Amazon Prime store accounts exist - we have both.

My wife's Prime Amazon card is a pretty good deal: a no-annual-fee Visa credit card that gives 5% back for Amazon and Whole Foods purchases, 2% at gas stations, and 1% everything else.

The Amazon Prime store account through Synchrony doesn't issue a card, after you get the account you set it up as a payment method on Amazon and when you use that, you get 5% back. The monthly bills work like a credit card bill.

We buy a lot through Amazon, and have been Prime members since it started. It's been a great deal for us, but I'd be happier if they had a cheaper no-streaming option as all we use it for is free shipping.