Why? It's not as amazing as it was a few years ago, but it's still a good enough deal to fit Matt Yglesias's description of it as "a charity run by Wall Street for the benefit of the American consumer".
Then, there was a scheduled tissue package delivery that was “lost” by OnTrak. Amazon doesn’t automate the refund, you have to ask. Happened to be at Target and noticed that an 8 pack of 160 tissues each cost $12. I looked up amazon’s and it was $17 when bought, but all of a sudden it was now $13 — also only 120 tissues each box. Why the shadiness? It’s great that you have pricing power, but I wouldn’t want to do business with a coffee shop where I walk in and the barista says, “Bob’s here! Jack up the price!” Amazon feels like some legal version of Wolf of Wallstreet.
Anyway, it’s all just anecdotal. At the end of the day I just don’t trust them.
Edit: I’ve been off Prime 2 months and don’t miss it.
I heard that there may have been some disruptions in service due to the tornado hitting an Amazon warehouse in Baltimore, but never in my contact with customer service was this mentioned.
https://www.reddit.com/r/washingtondc/comments/9xebhs/any_up...
Presumably, Amazon will begin private labeling food products, which will put the company in direct line of choosing which farming practices to promote, what diets get discounted and other interesting capabilities. I want to believe this power will be used for good--such as Apple's stance toward Privacy. But benevolence can wax and wane.
I haven't heard Bezos talk about the importance of human health and the food chain, but I haven't gone looking for that yet either.
To me the delivery service via prime is still amazing. It does matter that products arrive within two days because I often put them into service the moment they are delivered.
It matters to me that the product catalog on Amazon is so expansive and has been combed over by previous buyers. The review system is not perfect, but largely I am happy with highly rated, well sold merchandise routed through Amazon's marketplace.
I also have been on the selling side of Prime and while it is expensive for sellers, it is an incredible to be able to address potential buyers using Prime with the branding and consistent experience of Amazon all over it. I'm able to sell unusual things with no reviews.
Regarding the issues you've had with that tissue delivery, I also had an issue once with a falsely advertised sizing of a ducting tube I needed for a swamp cooler a couple years back. I had to really get through to customer service to show that the product sold was not legit. They did take action on the seller after I spent the time.
That said, that was one out of many hundreds of product purchase experiences where I felt wronged and Amazon was involved.
I think we're still just getting started with the value prop of Amazon Prime.
My mum was mad at me for paying for 1 day shipping (eg Prime Delivery - 20€ in Spain - crazy cheap) because "You know that this won't work in Spain!!"
They're also devaluing it with "this item is Prime, but may take 3-5 days to arrive" and their new in-house delivery, which has resulted in late packages (previously a very rare experience) for me three times in the last month.
I've been an Amazon customer since 1999, Prime since its debut, and this is the first year I've been questioning whether to renew or not.
Amazons point of view seems to be that the products aren’t in stock, so when they do come in stock will be delivered next day, but as a customer I don’t care about stock levels or when it ships, it’s only the delivery date that matters.
I only really care about Prime over Christmas, when I could just shop in stores anyway, some will price match Amazon if necessary, and Amazon is no longer cheap anyway. I do care about Prime at work, but we have Amazon for Businesses for that.
I suspect I’ll let me Prime subscription lapse.
- the price raise got up over my utilization for shipping and I don't use the ancillary benefits more than the occasional prime video usage.
- the Amazon self shipping is horrendous. Lies about deliveries, much higher level of damage on boxes & crazy driver experiences made it so that every time one of those got selected I had a bad customer service experience. With non-prime delivery I can choose, with Prime it was up to some algo.
This was a key factor for us getting rid of Prime as well. Kept waiting for their service to improve or at least let me only have packages shipped via major carriers. Unfortunately, neither option was available.
But Prime Now in particular has been extremely useful, especially for multi-day trips to different cities, where I can save myself a trip to a grocery store or drug store to get supplies.
Also: Prime Video is pretty solid! It's how you get to watch Patriot!