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Amazon to Increase Prime Membership Fee By Up to 43% for Customers in Europe

Well, if Amazon made a commitment to maintaining the breadth and quality of service, I wouldn't be considering cancelling my subscription. However, I've noticed that fewer and fewer items are available for prime delivery. It's not that this costs delays in getting items, but the UK Post Office (which is usually how non-Prime items are shipped) attempts only once to deliver a package. If they miss you because, you know, you have a job, then you have to retrieve from one of their centres that have limited hours and aren't exactly conveniently located. I don't drive, so that rather defeats the purpose of home delivery.
 
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webkit said:
For one reason or another price increases are going to occur, even with very wealthy and profitable companies. The good thing here is that consumers can have the final word. If they don't like the Amazon or Apple prices, they don't have to buy.
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Absolutely (I've already dumped Netflix). That doesn't mean we shouldn't call them out for it. Netflix are desperately trying to blame their falling subscriptions on pesky password-sharers and anything but the fact that they've jacked up their (already at the high-end of the industry) prices.
 
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Imagine still paying for Prime.

I'm dead serious. Prime is a sham. Back when I had Prime during college because I had a student discount I've had nothing but problems. Deliveries arrived late, drivers sent my packages to the wrong address, and on top of that, the free non-Prime shipping is not far behind Prime delivery, sometimes arriving sooner than Prime.

Not even the Grand Tour or Twitch benefits are enough to warrant me paying for this sham.
 
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RickDEGH said:
Also this isn’t entirely true. Look at Germany vs France, Italy, Spain, etc. German prices are on par with UK prices. I think it’s more about economics of the perception of wealth and how much Amazon thinks it can get away with.
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i think its a combination of both points, they will charge more for richer countries, apple does too. Apple Music in Portugal is €69 a year here, about half the cost of UK.

and then there is the difference in the package. Amazon Spain doesnt include books, annoyingly it does include music but being in Portugal it doesnt. Also i dont think Amazon.es prime video has as much tv as Uk one does.

im glad i paid my €36 for my first ever amazon prime sub, just a month ago so i have nearly a year to decide if its worth €50. Was worth the payment just for The Boys.
 
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DFZD said:
And kids this is why Monopolies are evil.
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How is it a monopoly when I can buy every item from anywhere else online?

I often get 7 day Prime promos that I use for shipping. I never pay full price for Prime.

And I love the Fire HD Plus tablets. Great gifts. iPads should include SD card slots.
 
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timber said:
Of course I can't talk about all Europe but what I get in my country as "Prime" is quite limited, essentially free delivery and Prime Video with a substandard catalog and poor subtitling (we don't dub). No Music, no Reading... you get the idea.
I will have to think this through, it's not really the money but almost a 50% increase that feels like a big FU.
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Exactly it's the amount and frequency that's ridiculous. Went to the grocery store last night and prices were worse than they've already been. And then they try to insult you by making the regular prices absurd to make you think it's a good sale. Almost rolling on the floor laughing at the LOW LOW price signs. The sale prices are obviously worse than regular prices were before. And I don't understand because gas is down like 65 cents. Other prices should follow since nearly everything relies on gas.
 
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MajorFubar said:
Have you never noticed, UK gets screwed over a barrel for literally everything
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Not trying to be political here, but Prime's price hike but in part Prime's price increase might very well be Brexit-related. Still, as somebody has pointed out, they haven't raised the subscription fee since 2014, so it was probably due. The question is what made it so large.
 
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I'm surprised to read all the comments of people having such stark/black and white issues with Amazon Prime.

Maybe I live in a particularly well serviced city, but it certainly isn't London or Manchester.

We get same day before 10PM or Next Day etc for pretty much any order.

Sure, sometimes I get something that is dodgy quality, but that is up to the manufacturer/seller.
I do my research and 99% of the time there is no issue.

Do I wish our household was not so reliant (and yes, many of us are!) on Amazon — yes. But at the end of the day, they deliver — prices are good and you can't argue with the range.

Now Royal Mail! Jesus wept! Talk about a service that has gone downhill fast and gaining momentum!

Just my £0.02 🤷🏻‍♂️
 
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arkitect said:
I don't think it is that actually, I suspect quality has dropped in many things.
Underwear one of them — not just CKs! M&S used to be really good quality, but… 😒

All companies are cutting corners and it shows.
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Definitely. The one advantage of brands was the packaging. Even brands are impossible to open without demolishing the package. Used to be able to put off those tabs on the six bottles of sode on the perforation. Now it just snaps off
 
theluggage said:
Absolutely (I've already dumped Netflix). That doesn't mean we shouldn't call them out for it. Netflix are desperately trying to blame their falling subscriptions on pesky password-sharers and anything but the fact that they've jacked up their (already at the high-end of the industry) prices.
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Yes especially with the amount and frequency. And I'm so sick of the then don't use it posts. I don't use it but that doesn't mean I agree with the garbage greedy corporations do. And the best I can do is not patronize. If more would do it and sacrifice some, then they'd have to change or crash.
 
lkrupp said:
Oh wise one, please explain how Amazon Prime is a monopoly when almost every retailer has an online store. Are you really telling us we can only order that shirt we want from Amazon and no one else?
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If you want it in a day for just the price of Amazon Prime, you do. It's not a monopoly, they just pummel everyone else on shipping. Other places have no choice to upgrade shipping, or it's crazy expensive. And even with the upgrade, it would still take longer to ship than it would take Amazon to deliver. I can order something from Amazon Saturday Evening and get it Sunday..
 
To be honest i was looking at Prime Video last night and couldn't find anything i wanted to see which wasn't free with Prime. As i don't buy as much off Amazon as i used to i think a big price increase will be enough for me to cancel.
 
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I encourage people to leave Amazon Prime and see how beneficial it really is. I left and this is not an exaggeration - where I live I often received packages faster. Yes, faster. I know this because my wife signed up for Prime for a time while I was not and we were just amazed at the estimated shipping times. They were almost all exactly the same. Amazon doesn’t do 2 day shipping for much of the country anymore. For me - even prime is 5 business days. Plus, I don’t pay fort shipping either even without prime. They automatically select for you the paid shipping option, but you can select free shipping (which for me is literally the same time frame as the paid shipping).

I don’t use Amazon music, I would only occasionally watch their movies, prime day is mostly a joke, and I get free shipping for the same wait. I think people just assume it will be expensive if they have to pay for shipping. Step out into the light people. Try it for a couple months and let the behemoth keep raising their prices.
 
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VulchR said:
Not trying to be political here, but Prime's price hike but in part Prime's price increase might very well be Brexit-related. Still, as somebody has pointed out, they haven't raised the subscription fee since 2014, so it was probably due. The question is what made it so large.
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Either Brexit or the war in Ukraine is blamed for every wrong in the world atm. But we've overpaid for years for everything, long before those things happened. Companies will charge what they think they can get away with in each territory, by subtracting the number of people who they anticipate will say 'sod that I'm leaving' from the number of people who will stay + new subscribers. As long as that number is greater than zero, their risk has paid off. And as a country we're pretty gullible as consumers and just take being reamed with our 'ah well it could be worse' apathy while rubbing ointment into our wounds.

Not Amazon related, but along the same theme, I'm old enough to remember when you could actually buy Adobe CS Suite (CS6): it cost ~$600 in the US, while in the UK it was ~£1000, which at the time, was approx. double the price (based on the exchange rate) for the exact same download. I bought it from their US site by creating myself a US VPN, for the equivalent of about £450. That's less than half the price. I had zero regrets and still to this day have it installed on my 2012 MBP running Mojave.
 
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Conversation with Amazon Customer Support.
Me: You've sent me this survey to rate your service. In the survey I can comment on the Product. Unfortunately you don't have a section for the Delivery Service. Where can I put those?
ACS: You can't.
Me: But I'd like to give back on your abysmal delivery service. Not once, but for all seven DHL deliveries I did in the last three months. You don't offer me an option to select the carrier. DHL is Amazon choice (in the Netherlands).
ACS: Maybe our Primary@Amazon.nl is interested. let me give you their email.

Me: I wrote a factual review of my seven deliveries with DHL to Primary@Amazon.nl

Apart from an automatic bot-response ... I got zip.
No way I'm ever going to pay for Prime ... especially if Amazon is going to decide how they are going to spend my money on their subcontractors of choice.
 
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kerr said:
A 20% increase is ok because we all get 20% pay rises each year don’t we? How bad is the world right now? Interest rates, cost of living, multi-billion dollar companies crying poor.
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Spot on - this (their mail) was a good reminder to cancel it
 
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kerr said:
A 20% increase is ok because we all get 20% pay rises each year don’t we? How bad is the world right now? Interest rates, cost of living, multi-billion dollar companies crying poor.
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20% pay rise per year? The best I received was 10% (once in last 5 years)
 
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