Comment by goldcd | Hacker News Reader

Comment by goldcd | Hacker News Reader

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I do quite like their "subscribe and save" system though. Sign up for the costco-sized packs of stuff you get through, and guess how often you want to receive it. Then once a month it tells you to check - and you see what they're planning on shipping, and can skip stuff you've got and pull forward stuff you're running out of.

Always thought it would be quite nifty if you could make a site like this for third-party services. I might see my 2 audible credits on there, and decide I've got enough, or need more. Or maybe apple could offer a free month - so I might pause my netflix. Could even combine stuff (free $10 Dominos credit added for each month of Netflix after month 12 etc).

Whole current system of every service having their own UI, is just a pain. Worked out paying for stuff works better then you can just stick it all on the same card - so why not manage it all from one place as well?

I like Subscribe & Save with two major exceptions, which stops me from using it:

1) Things go out of stock too much if it's a little more specific. 2) Prices are very sporadic and unstable. A subscription should be relatively predictable - with the exception of the obvious price inflation over time, but I'm talking month-to-month.

I think that's "more of a feature, than a bug"

When you subscribe to something it doesn't "lock in the price" - prices go up and down month-to-month.

On the amazon side, there seems to be a bit of flex built in, when they'll still tell you the item is in stock, and tell you the price before the re-buy kicks in.

A lot of the items I "get told are unavailable, would I like to go with the alternative?" are still available, just for a higher price.

i.e. I think a lot of the "annoyance" is actually amazon bulk negotiating on your behalf. If say P&G decide to raise their price on their detergent, amazon has the power to decide whether 90% of their customers swallow the increase, or they all find an alternate brand. My guess is that amazon decides not to provide P&G detergent to a few hundred thousand subscribers in a month, that helps 'focus' the P&G rep in getting the price back down the next month.

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