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

[thadoggfather]

Not trying to be an Amazon shill, but have to factor in cost of gas to get to the store any time you need a one-off item vs. paying the yearly premium for Prime.

Not saying the price increase doesn't suck, or is fully justified or anything, just from an individual perspective

 

[JW5566]

Interestingly it's quite often a similar price buying direct from a brand/retailer than via Amazon. Amazon obviously charge the seller a fee and/or to store and ship the product, even if P&P is listed as free it is still built into the price (it's quite a sneaky practice really). Example £9.99 from a retailer with £5 P&P. Or £14.99 on Amazon, free delivery.

I'd use Amazon less but you then end up having to register on so many websites, get so much spam, so many logins, some smaller traders I would prefer to support really don't help themselves by not having guest checkouts or offering an express PayPal checkout.

 

[velocityg4]

Is it just me or has Amazon become kind of unusable?

I find myself using them less and less.

If for example I want to buy an iPhone charger, I get hit with 100s of cheap Chinese knock offs that are hard to distinguish from good quality ones.

Same for boxers, I have ordered Calvin Kleins multiple times and I get the feeling some might be fake. A lot of people in the ratings are saying the same.

It’s really hard to find the right thing in their store these days.

I also find that shipping takes longer than it used to.

I usually look at the actual sellers. As the fakes will glom onto a legit listing with a lower price.

 

[GizmoDVD]

Mine renews Friday for $139 and I think I'll just cancel. Its way to expensive for 2 day, if lucky, delivery. Amazon regularly leaves my packages wherever they feel like it, no matter how many times I complain.

 

[goodcow]

And kids this is why Monopolies are evil.

Don't order from them. I cancelled my Prime subscription a few years ago, and use them mainly for subscribe and save now. Other than that I mainly use Vitacost, Best Buy, Target, and Walmart.

 

[webkit]

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.

Fair enough but since you seemed to be specifically tying your price increase annoyance to Amazon's significant financial position ("making money hand over fist"), I was just pointing out that even wealthier Apple has been doing the same thing.

Netflix by comparison isn't nearly as wealthy but as with Amazon and Apple, consumers can have the final word by not buying if they don't like the prices. Of course, even with price increases there can be plenty of customers that still find the product or service worth it. Netflix's subscriber count is more than double what it was five years ago even with the price increases.

 

[compwiz1202]

Fair enough but since you seemed to be specifically tying your price increase annoyance to Amazon's significant financial position ("making money hand over fist"), I was just pointing out that even wealthier Apple has been doing the same thing.

Netflix by comparison isn't nearly as wealthy but as with Amazon and Apple, consumers can have the final word by not buying if they don't like the prices. Of course, even with price increases there can be plenty of customers that still find the product or service worth it. Netflix's subscriber count is more than double what it was five years ago even with the price increases.

I've said this for years. If people complain and then click Submit Order in the next second, the companies have ZERO reason to change anything. Make sacrifices and boycott.

 

[H2SO4]

I better renew mine quick then, "As of 15 September 2022, the price of the monthly Prime membership will increase from £7.99 to £8.99", while the deal is still reasonable.

 

[Karma*Police]

There’s little reason for prime these days. Go support your local stores instead. It’s better for everyone in the long run.

 

[TheColtr]

I canceled Prime last month. I realized how expensive it is vs. how much I use it. I got a Costco and sam club memberships for a little more than half the price of annual prime.

Ive Been trying to stop shopping at Amazon anyways after the way they treat their employees.

 

[TheColtr]

At one time Prime offered two day shipping on just about everything. The price of Prime goes up, and I wait over a week for some packages now.

I’ve experienced this too. Even stuff marked prime is getting delayed, I had one item that literally never showed up.

 

[Shirasaki]

Another question is, will the price go down after inflation is over?

Amazon reporting loss and they jackup prime membership by $20 USD. Heh. Guess we will see apple Charing base model iPhone 14 $1499 this September. -_-

 

[Sf844]

I’m leaving Prime 👋

 

[Danfango]

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.

Popular brands always end up having to cut costs when they are run by venture capital and funds behind the scenes. Maximising shareholder profit is the only end game.

Really you need not investment backed companies who are liquid for anything that isn’t trash these days. Those companies are few and far between.

 

[CarpalMac]

I have repeatedly tried to move away from Amazon but others are slow to send and their returns painful, and almost invariably, costly.

I don't like the increase, but until they (inevitably) cripple their returns policy, they won't be losing my custom yet.

Now, if they could just sort out the insane amount of sponsored results, with their accompanying fake reviews - that'd be great. Thanx.

 

[DD88]

It seems Amazon and Bezos should now be considered …evil? Those extra pennies will pay for more dildo rockets at least

 

[compwiz1202]

Another question is, will the price go down after inflation is over?

Amazon reporting loss and they jackup prime membership by $20 USD. Heh. Guess we will see apple Charing base model iPhone 14 $1499 this September. -_-

No. Last time gas went to $4+ there were all kinds of signs saying "temporary" increases. NO ONE brought prices down when gas went back down.

 

[FreakinEurekan]

How is prime so cheap in mainland Europe vs the UK?

How is Prime so cheap in ALL of Europe vs. US?? In USA it's $139/year... the dollar is within a single-digit percentage the same value as the Euro, and certainly not THAT far from the GB Pound.

 

[GizmoDVD]

There’s little reason for prime these days. Go support your local stores instead. It’s better for everyone in the long run.

My local stores either don't have the product or I have to deal with a 22 year old who thinks they deserve $35 an hour to "search the back room" to look for it.

I'll cancel Prime and wait an extra few days at this point to not have to deal with local stores.

 

[haydn!]

Is it just me or has Amazon become kind of unusable?

I find myself using them less and less.

If for example I want to buy an iPhone charger, I get hit with 100s of cheap Chinese knock offs that are hard to distinguish from good quality ones.

Same for boxers, I have ordered Calvin Kleins multiple times and I get the feeling some might be fake. A lot of people in the ratings are saying the same.

It’s really hard to find the right thing in their store these days.

I also find that shipping takes longer than it used to.

I would definitely agree that for a lot of popular product categories there is a tonne of knock-off gear and it’s becoming increasingly harder to find genuine stuff.

Plus, it’s no longer a cheaper option. Convenient yeah, but for a lot of stuff you can it cheaper from your larger supermarkets or even places like Argos (which offer reasonably decent delivery too).

 

[jimbobb24]

We will have a few years of this for every service and everything. Its just run away inflation working its way through the system.

 

[Radeon85]

I love how people are cancelling prime over a 25p a week increase 😆. I'm not going anywhere as I do order about 150/250 items a year from them so for me it's worth it.

And for UK customers it's the first price increase since 2014, 8yrs!. So talk about UK people significantly overreacting.

 

[compwiz1202]

I love how people are cancelling prime over a 25p a week increase 😆. I'm not going anywhere as I do order about 150/250 items a year from them so for me it's worth it.

And for UK customers it's the first price increase since 2014, 8yrs!. So talk about UK people significantly overreacting.

The issue is that's only one thing going up and everything is going up, some by leaps and bounds.

 

[SoldOnApple]

They had better leave Australia alone, we must have the cheapest Prime in the world right now.

 

[R1PPER]

they offer a permanent 7-day free trial. I just keep using that if i need a product delivered lol