Any downside of Amazon Prime membership

Roadwarrior

Roadwarrior

Member
I finally indulged last week. I bought an Amazon 'Firestick' & joined Amazon Prime for the $99 yearly fee. I do have a 30 day 'free' run until the 10th of May. So far I'm amazed at some of the deals, savings & library that are now at my disposal. I do have and have had a Netflix membership for a decade or more. I cut the cable cord in Nov '16, haven't been sorry since. I subscribe to DSL (slower at times, but no buffering like I experienced with cable). I also am testing HULU & STARZ $7.99 & $8.99. Have a 'free' trial period with each. The selections are vast (24K) movies to watch, TV series delayed a day or 2 but most are there. Just wondering if others have or have tried it & if you had issues that caused you to cancel. I'm not locked into anything as yet, Netflix may be on it's way out the door.
 

I've had Amazon Prime for a couple of months, and am really enjoying it. I buy something from Amazon at least a couple of times a week, and love the free shipping. And their streaming channel has some pretty good programming, though I still use Netflix and Acorn also.
 

I've been thinking of dumping Netflix, too. The quality of their content, IMHO, has gone WAY down. I've also been thinking about Amazon prime. You might want to also consider Acorn TV and/or Britbox -- they both have loads of great British/Australian/Canadian films and series. I love both of them and I mostly watch them now instead of Netflix.
 
We have it. We do a LOT of our shopping through Amazon, because of the reviews, free shipping and pricing. My DH has the firestick and we both watch many movies. Some of the Amazon exclusive series are great. We still have Hulu, but dumped Netflix in favor of getting our HBO through our Prime channel.
 
We have also had Prime for several years, but mostly for the 2-day free shipping. I order a lot of stuff from them and find their customer service to be second to none. I like Prime music and Prime Pantry, but seldom use Prime videos for some reason. I guess between Netflix, Hulu and Comcast cable I don't think of Prime video very often.
 
C'est Moi said:
We have also had Prime for several years, but mostly for the 2-day free shipping. I order a lot of stuff from them and find their customer service to be second to none. I like Prime music and Prime Pantry, but seldom use Prime videos for some reason. I guess between Netflix, Hulu and Comcast cable I don't think of Prime video very often.
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What do you think of the pricing in Prime Pantry? We have thought about it, but are not sure yet. Cannot wait for our Whole Foods to get here, as supposedly Prime members can get some sort of discount
 
Marie5656 said:
What do you think of the pricing in Prime Pantry? We have thought about it, but are not sure yet. Cannot wait for our Whole Foods to get here, as supposedly Prime members can get some sort of discount
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Like anywhere else, some prices are better and some not so much. It's very convenient to place an order for a lot of "staples" and have them delivered to the door. I also have a lot of stuff on auto delivery, such as toilet paper, paper towels, k-cups, etc. I'm all about the convenience these days. :D
 
Butterfly said:
I've been thinking of dumping Netflix, too. The quality of their content, IMHO, has gone WAY down. I've also been thinking about Amazon prime. You might want to also consider Acorn TV and/or Britbox -- they both have loads of great British/Australian/Canadian films and series. I love both of them and I mostly watch them now instead of Netflix.
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Feel the same way about Netflix. Have been a subscriber since it first became available. Contents just aren’t what it used to be.
 
Thanks to all, it appears from your responses I've made a good decision. My daughter uses 'Pantry' all the time. She doesn't like big box stores with the high stacked shelves. I did look through some of the items available & some of the Whole Food products listed were cheaper than Walmart or Costco, but I'm not a comparison shopper like my wife. She still wants Netflix & for the small $8 monthly fee I think I'll leave it until she gets more used to Prime. With STARZ I should be able to watch all the John Wayne westerns I want. Thanks again.
 
I think Netflix is getting a bad rap here. I've found it very enjoyable, with a huge variety of movies, TV series, etc. Their selection of documentaries is fantastic! Probably most of us don't head first to the documentary section, but I'm glad I discovered it.

Last night I saw a good movie on HBO, "Get Out." Anyone else see that?
 
Sunny said:
I think Netflix is getting a bad rap here. I've found it very enjoyable, with a huge variety of movies, TV series, etc. Their selection of documentaries is fantastic! Probably most of us don't head first to the documentary section, but I'm glad I discovered it.

Last night I saw a good movie on HBO, "Get Out." Anyone else see that?
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For access I had an older ROKU for Netflix, maybe I'm not giving them their due. I've had Prime for a week now & found that most of the documentaries on Netflix are also on Prime or HULU. There are too many Netflix productions to say their stars rating system is not biased. Most Netflix productions carry 4-5 stars & I found they are not that good. Also the documentaries on Netflix are older, some back in the 90's so may not be relevant in today's environment. Yes, some are timeless, but then again they are also on Prime or HULU. I guess it's mostly the fact that many current movies are not available for streaming, as they are with Prime.

The other issue I have with Netflix is their refusal to program their streaming so Linux users can stream on our laptops, we can on our Android (Linux based) phones, I'd rather watch a 15-17 inch screen than the small one on my phone. I know that only a small percentage of users have Linux but we are there. You can get add ons that simulate a Windows OS for Linux but the quality is lacking. So Netflix is not my first choice.
 
There are down sides.
$99 / year for starters. But you can cancel at anytime and will get a relative refund.
It can provoke you into ordering more - because the more you order, the more you're getting for your $99... Amazon is counting on this, big time.

Prime video and 2 day shipping aren't worth it to me. Prime video is limited. I seldom need something in two days that I can't get locally. I put things in my Amazon wish list until I get enough to get free std shipping (on most things).
I use Pandora so don't care about prime music. My library has Ebooks.

On the rare occasion I do need something from Amazon ASAP, I get Prime monthly. I order the thing I need and the stuff from my wish list that doesn't have free std shipping. I watch Amazon Prime (on my old roku). Then, at the end of the month, I cancel Prime monthly (or it auto-renews).
 
Obviously the cost is a factor. You have to balance the befits you use against what you pay and ascertain whether you are getting value fir money.

Not I say the benefits you use not the benefits you can get. I have never streamed anything in my life, so free streaming is no a factor!
 
For those of us who are handicapped enough to keep us from shopping being able to get what you need delivered to tour home is a godsend. We get our groceries and most everything else online.
 
AZ Jim said:
For those of us who are handicapped enough to keep us from shopping being able to get what you need delivered to tour home is a godsend. We get our groceries and most everything else online.
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Exactly so. I get three or four deliveries a week from Amazon, so free shipping is a major, indeed the only, factor.
 
It looks like I may have been premature & hasty in my rush to judgment about the demise of Netflix. Last night they reported record earning along with 2M more subscribers. Their stock is soaring this morning. I still don't see it, time will tell. For the grandfathered fee of $7.99 (for now) I guess I better keep my sub current. I may have to review some of the original programming they offer.
 
Getting more into 'Prime' now after 2 weeks, I discovered the gift card option on the payment accounts. First time accessing it I got a one time $5 discount on my first order along with the standard 2% discount for loading at least $100 onto the card. No fees, actually no card just sits in your account for future purchases. For someone like me, who orders frequently from them it's a plus. After loading $100 I had a balance of $107. Saved on my Prime subscription, ($99.99 - $7 = $92.99 or $7.75 a month for the 1st year even better than Netflix). Of course the gift card option can only be used on Amazon, but it will save 2% on my subsequent Prime subscriptions.

As someone mentioned about ordering too much unnecessary 'stuff' I agree. One has to control their urges. You only can reload using a debit card or checking account. I opted to get a 'Bluebird' debit card from AMEX. No fees, easy reload (cash at the Walmart check stand) & somewhat safer than having your checking account or attached debit card sitting in limbo at Amazon. Prime offers savings on most items but can be a 'gotcha' without a little on line comparison shopping. I.e. I was going to buy a router/modem from Amazon, the prime price was $124.95 with free shipping (they were out at that time), I researched around found the exact same router on the manufacturer's on line store for $118.95 (free shipping) a savings of $6 versus Prime.

On the urging & advice from an earlier post about playing the rewards game with credit cards, I now have 2 cards with rewards, one for 2% for everything & one with 3% for dining charges (2% for groceries) with a higher limit giving me a little breathing room so I don't get dinged on my FICO score when paying off my lower limit card. I promised myself I wouldn't need any credit cards but now find it helps with my budgeting as long as I corral my spending & only pull out the card when it's convenient giving me more security. I made just under $95 last 12 months so I guess it does pay to belong.
 
We have had Prime for several years, and for us, it is certainly worth the annual cost (although we pay it monthly). My husband likes watching the Amazon Prime Video movies and tv series, and i like to read a lot; so the Prime Reading Library is probably the extra benefit that I use the most, besides the obvious one of getting free 2-day shipping on most items.
I use Bookbub and Book Gorilla, so I am always getting new option of books that I am interested in that are free or very cheap that day, and my online Kindle library is growing with all sorts of educational books as well as finding novels to read for enjoyment.
We have Whole Foods, and I think that you do get a discount for having Prime; but I haven’t tried to see how that works yet.
 
i hate amazon--i lost my password so they send me a code to get in they refused it and sent me another one still couldnt get in they sent me anotherone and i still couldnt get in --so i said the heck with it
 

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