Amazon Offers 2-Day Shipping For $79/Year

stevejsmith writes "Amazon.com has announced their Amazon Prime service. For $79, you get free two-day shipping on all items, upgradeable to overnight shipping for $3.99 per item. The offer applies to most media (books, DVDs, CDs, etc.) and can be shared among "up to four family members living in the same household." Apparently the only way they will enforce this family-only sharing clause is by mandating that your "family members" know your birthday."

Doesn't seem that great

[ucblockhead]

Seems to me you'd have to spend on the order of $1500/yr in merchandise in order to make this worthwhile. And then, it'd only be worth it if you would have paid for two-day shipping otherwise.

Not a bad deal if you always want it NOW

[jgerry]

At about $7 per expedited shipment, you'd break even after about 12 orders. But it only makes sense if you order about once a month from Amazon (I do), and you're compulsive and always want your stuff quickly (I do).

I scanned my orders from 2004 and I spent $95 on expedited shipping costs, so for me, it might be a good idea.

Re:Family Members

[rbarreira]

Why would you assume that because it's limited to family members purchasing it should be limited in delivery address?

Because it says "family members living in the same household".

Don't think so.

[mckwant]

I did an order a while ago for some books through some of the resellers, and their S&H is separate from Amazon's. Turned out to be cheaper overall to pay the $0.33/book extra to Amazon, and ship for free.

YMMV.

Not "free"

[Anonymous Coward]

For $79, you get free two-day shipping

Pardon me, but if you *pay* for it, then it isn't *free*. Perhaps submitter intended "unlimited" rather than "free"?

Re:Forgot to mention PER YEAR

[MrP-(at work)]

The article description might not but the article title does:

"Amazon Offers 2-Day Shipping For $79/Year"

Re:small book stores

[daveo0331]

I think you're misreading that statement. What they're saying is that if you buy a product through Amazon that's actually being sold by a third party -- for example, buying a Gamecube from Toys r us through Amazon -- you don't get free shipping. The $25 super saver shipping tends to have the same restriction.

That said, what you said is absolutely right. It's just covered in a different part of the terms & conditions:

Prime members are entitled to free Two-Day shipping and $3.99 per unit One-Day shipping on all eligible purchases. If you purchase a Prime membership, you may also invite up to four eligible family members living in your household (at the same address) to register for Prime membership at no extra cost. (Please note that any member under age 18 may use the Amazon.com Web site only with involvement of a parent or guardian.) The purchaser can change and/or remove guests at any time. A guest's membership will automatically terminate if the purchaser of the membership ceases to be a member or removes the guest. This program is not available for Corporate Accounts or for customers who purchase products for business or institutional use or for the purpose of resale.

Re:Doesn't seem that great

[NamShubCMX]

The funny part is 80% of the time I get my book the *next* day, with the free shipping.

What a deal.

Autorouting...

[Anonymous Coward]

Autorouting is having you handheld GPS receiver automatically compute turn-by-turn directions. It's very useful when trying to find 1000 urban micros in Cacheville, TN, for example.

That said, excellent receiver, even if I'm a Magellanite myself, and congrats on the fianceness.

And this is the "introductory special price"

[fv]

Your $1500/year assumption also assumes that the price will stay $79/year. Their ad calls this a "special introductory price". The worst thing is that unless you pay enough attention to cancel before hand, they will charge the next non-special, non-introductory fee to your credit card in exactly 12 months without any notification to you. From the Terms and Conditions [amazon.com]:

"YOU UNDERSTAND YOUR MEMBERSHIP WILL AUTOMATICALLY RENEW AND YOU AUTHORIZE US TO CHARGE TO YOUR CREDIT OR DEBIT CARD (WITHOUT NOTICE TO YOU) THE THEN-APPLICABLE ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP FEE AND ANY TAXES, UNLESS YOU NOTIFY US BEFORE RENEWAL THAT YOU WANT TO CANCEL YOUR MEMBERSHIP."

They don't provide (AFAICT) any option to buy just one year. By purchasing Amazon Prime you are giving them permission to choose any price and charge it to you next year. They may also "in our discretion change these Terms ... or any aspect of Prime membership without notice to you ... YOUR CONTINUED MEMBERSHIP AFTER WE CHANGE THESE TERMS CONSTITUTES YOUR ACCEPTANCE OF THE CHANGES." So they can change their terms without telling you, then you automatically accept if you don't immediately notice and cancel. Great!

I hate it when companies try to pull this. Forcing an annual set fee on people is bad enough -- but to raise the price arbitrarily and still charge people's card without notification is outrageous. This is the kind of thing sleazy porn sites do (or so I hear :).

There may be some advantages to this program, but I certainly won't sign up until they let me buy ONE YEAR at a known price. None of this blank check nonsense.

-Fyodor
Concerned about your network security? Try the free Nmap Security Scanner [insecure.org].

Re:Family Members

[Anonymous Coward]

I happen to work at Amazon.com and know some of the people on the project team.

You can, in fact, get the discount as long as your order goes to anywhere in the lower 48 states. You can use the benefits for gifts, etc..

It's only that membership is limited to the same household -- not the delivery address.

- me

Bugger

[Simon Garlick]

This program is limited to certain products sold by Amazon.com on www.amazon.com that are shipped to continental United States addresses

Re:And this is the "introductory special price"

[bastion_xx]

For auto-renew programs, just use a credit card. Technically the merchant should indicate these are recurring payments but most put them through a regular ecommerce transactions.

When you see the renewal on your credit card statement just call them up and ask for a refund (supposin you don't like the service). Most intelligent merchants will honor such requests.

Why? Because if they don't you can chargeback the transaction and seeing that this was a card not-present transaction, you're about gauranteed to win any disputes. Plus the merchant knows their card processor will charge them $5-30 per chargeback regardless of the result.

Amazon (and other merchants that do this) count on people not fighting it. Today I just cancelled my Experian Credit Watch service that "auto renewed". At first I was soft-sold on the "value of the product to know my credit score, etc. A polite "no" then garnered a free $25 gift certificate for either MasterCard or Visa if I kept the subscription. Another "no" and confirmation of the return of funds to my card. I won't dispute the contractual aspects, but I don't like these types of contracts either.

To keep on-topic, I'll have to check my Amazon purchases for the last year and see if this is of value to me.

"Products are eligible for Prime ONLY IF..."

[honold]

"Products are eligible for Prime only if designated on the website"

eh?