Amazon prime, please educate me

S

sofa king

Forum Member
I can get prime for having a student email.
What can I really do with it besides the 2 day shipping?
I'd like to see if the benefits are worth actually paying for it after the trial...
 
We've had prime for over a year now and it's great. Lots of great shows to watch on my FireTV. The two day shipping is really nice especially this time of year.
 
Prime has a lot of different bonuses. Essentially with Amazon it's a WYSIWYG. You want to buy something, you buy it, pay for shipping, and it shows up sometime in the near future. Most people view Amazon for its shopping capabilities. It has much more to offer, though many people won't need the extra features. With Prime (Standard ~$100/year) you get the following.

free 2 day shipping on most items.
Some zip codes can have same day delivery
Some areas get Prime Now which is 2 hour delivery
Free Restaurant Delivery
if you are the pre-order kind of person, some items ship with a release date delivery guarantee. IE, you pre-order a game that released December 14. Instead of it shipping on December 14 and getting there a few days later, it'll ship the day before and arrive the day it releases.
Prime Video: Like Netflix. Has originals that you can't watch elsewhere.
Prime Photos: Online storage of all your photos unlimited capacity.
Prime Pantry: online grocery shopping for a low cost delivery
Amazon Elements: Their own product line.
Amazon Dash Button: Press a button, shit shows up 2 days later for commonly used items (Think detergent)
Early Access: 30 minute early access to deals
Kindle Lending Library: Loan out your digital book library to a friend.
Prime Reading: Borrow books from Amazon.
Audible Channels: Get access to Audible for free
Amazon Music: Like iTunes Music or Google Music
Amazon Family discounts: Have a newborn or kid? You can get discounts on common products (Diapers etc...)


That's the list from their "What do I get" page.

Here's what I will say about it all. You'll use the 2 day shipping assuming you buy crap online. Music and video will get used. The rest may or may not get used. Those are nice, but there tends to be better or concurrent options which you'd also use.

For instance. Amazon Music is pretty weak compared to the competition. With Google Music, I pay $15 a month and myself and 5 people can have full access to Google's music. If it's just you, it's $10 a month. Unlimited streaming. The selection blows away Amazon Music and is comparable to Apple's Music service.
Amazon Video is ok. I use it to watch some of the limited content (Man in the High Castle) but use Netflix for anything else. The content on Netflix is far better to choose from.
Photo Storage: I use Google Storage. It's easy to use, features in it are great, and it's free. So if I decided to not renew my Prime membership I'm not splitting my photos between service providers because Amazon included it as part of their prime membership.

It really comes down to what do you want to pay for that will be better elsewhere, or are you content just getting the package deal through Amazon that isn't quite as good as the competition.
 
Stalker said:
Prime has a lot of different bonuses. Essentially with Amazon it's a WYSIWYG. You want to buy something, you buy it, pay for shipping, and it shows up sometime in the near future. Most people view Amazon for its shopping capabilities. It has much more to offer, though many people won't need the extra features. With Prime (Standard ~$100/year) you get the following.

free 2 day shipping on most items.
Some zip codes can have same day delivery
Some areas get Prime Now which is 2 hour delivery
Free Restaurant Delivery
if you are the pre-order kind of person, some items ship with a release date delivery guarantee. IE, you pre-order a game that released December 14. Instead of it shipping on December 14 and getting there a few days later, it'll ship the day before and arrive the day it releases.
Prime Video: Like Netflix. Has originals that you can't watch elsewhere.
Prime Photos: Online storage of all your photos unlimited capacity.
Prime Pantry: online grocery shopping for a low cost delivery
Amazon Elements: Their own product line.
Amazon Dash Button: Press a button, shit shows up 2 days later for commonly used items (Think detergent)
Early Access: 30 minute early access to deals
Kindle Lending Library: Loan out your digital book library to a friend.
Prime Reading: Borrow books from Amazon.
Audible Channels: Get access to Audible for free
Amazon Music: Like iTunes Music or Google Music
Amazon Family discounts: Have a newborn or kid? You can get discounts on common products (Diapers etc...)


That's the list from their "What do I get" page.

Here's what I will say about it all. You'll use the 2 day shipping assuming you buy crap online. Music and video will get used. The rest may or may not get used. Those are nice, but there tends to be better or concurrent options which you'd also use.

For instance. Amazon Music is pretty weak compared to the competition. With Google Music, I pay $15 a month and myself and 5 people can have full access to Google's music. If it's just you, it's $10 a month. Unlimited streaming. The selection blows away Amazon Music and is comparable to Apple's Music service.
Amazon Video is ok. I use it to watch some of the limited content (Man in the High Castle) but use Netflix for anything else. The content on Netflix is far better to choose from.
Photo Storage: I use Google Storage. It's easy to use, features in it are great, and it's free. So if I decided to not renew my Prime membership I'm not splitting my photos between service providers because Amazon included it as part of their prime membership.

It really comes down to what do you want to pay for that will be better elsewhere, or are you content just getting the package deal through Amazon that isn't quite as good as the competition.
Click to expand...

Good info...
I got 6 months free so I figure why not.
I don't watch much TV, or buy too much stuff.
I'm content with my Pandora streaming service for the most part.

I'll see what happens, and go from there.
Just trying to get an idea of what all is available beside 2 day shipping so I don't spend the 6 months trying to figure that out.
But I don't see myself using much of this other stuff either.
Maybe some shows by the firestick that I cant normally access but...

Thanks for the info guys!
 
My wife has been following up on late shipments. You get a month free if they are late on shipping. She places several individual orders instead of one big order to give more opportunity for late shipments. She's ahead 6-8 months now keeping up with late shipments and reporting it to Amazon.
 
sofa king said:
I can get prime for having a student email.
What can I really do with it besides the 2 day shipping?
I'd like to see if the benefits are worth actually paying for it after the trial...
Click to expand...

What is the standard / normal membership cost and
what is the student rate?

My son somehow snagged a free 1 year membership (ending soon).
He is now a student so I'm wondering what his cost would be.

We do use the 2 day shipping more than I thought we would. I'm just
not sure what the service would be worth to me.
 
Prime is pretty nifty, but I typically only use it during Christmas season since I don't have much use for the other services they offer.
 
99Electriccobra said:
My wife has been following up on late shipments. You get a month free if they are late on shipping. She places several individual orders instead of one big order to give more opportunity for late shipments. She's ahead 6-8 months now keeping up with late shipments and reporting it to Amazon.
Click to expand...
Really? I've had a late shipment or two that I've complained about and they've never offered me this. Usually it is on items I've paid the $3.99 for next day and they just refund that.

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Wow, nice. I will say that otherwise their customer service has been pretty awesome in the past.

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Birdie2000 said:
Wow, nice. I will say that otherwise their customer service has been pretty awesome in the past.

Sent from my XT1080 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

They are good. I ordered a garden hose box and ups damaged it in transit. Never made it to my house. Called Amazon and they knocked off 15% off the price, got another sent overnight and extended my prime.
 
the shipping pays for itself after just a couple of months for me. Amazon video is awesome. I used to use amazon music but i opted for another pay service because it didn't have a lot of my favorite artists, but I did enjoy it when I had it, and if I ever decide to cancel youtube red, i would use amazon music again.
 
Prime was a better deal when it was cheaper, and Amazon actually delivered packages on-time as they 'guaranteed'. I still have it, but I'd say 1/3rd of my 2016 orders were delivered late - likely due to them starting to use USPS for curb delivery. Prime Video functions OK, but the catalog is sparse in comparison to Netflix or other "paid" video streaming services. They still have somewhat competitive pricing, but not the edge they use to have, and now adding in tax to all orders, they are no longer the no-brainer 1-stop shop it once was.

For $50 (student), I'd certainly recommend it. At the normal $100 level, it becomes more about how many orders you'll place, whether 2 day delivery poor say/do ratio matters to you, and whether you'd even use the video service.
 
Killjoy said:
and now adding in tax to all orders, they are no longer the no-brainer 1-stop shop it once was.
Click to expand...

There's a way around that somewhat. Amazon only taxes products that they themselves sell. Items sold by 3rd parties but fulfilled by Amazon aren't taxed.
 
if you use the plugin Honey it will tell you when you can get something from Amazon without paying tax.
 
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