How Amazon manipulates customers to stay subscribed

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20 points·jmartinpetersen··4 comments

Disclaimer: Amazon employee

I had the same head-scratcher when trying to quit my prime membership multiple times. Things like this solidify to people that "Leadership Principles" talk about "Customer Obsession" is a ruse. This is blatantly customer-hostile so that there's better membership metrics. There is no excuse but malice.

Thanks for speaking up, yes most of those principles are ultimately intended to make one guy very rich, take a guess.

I cancelled my amazon subscription because I realized thst lost prime-only products are actually slightly more expensive than non-primes... Often making the "free shipping" with prime not attractive anymore. I rarely need to receive the junk I buy the next day and most products still arrive in 2-3 business days in Germany. Amazon prime is a scam.

Cancelling my prime membership made me make way less impulse purchases. It also encouraged me to explore other great online shops that deliver equality as fast, but only carry a curated selection of products, none of that aliexpress garbage.

I've taken this approach as well. Every so often I'll want/need something from Prime (like a show season comes out), and I can wait for it to be fully released, sub for a month, then cancel.

Most packages now take about a week to get here, and I've rediscovered the joy of unexpected packages. Like the christmas we didnt have last year.

Also to voice consensus about finding other great online stores. Often they'll have better deals, low or no shipping costs, and it helps that the ecosystem of individual sites has been normalized by companies like Shopify, et al.

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