Amazon Prime increasing rates (3 Viewers)

[GrandAdmiral]

There’s a lot of bait & switch going on in the Amazon marketplace.

I do my best to stay away from things in the marketplace.

 

[DaveXA]

Yep, had this happen with AirPod Pro's, they connected to my phone funky and had some weird name. After examining next to my wife's and son's airpods I had been duped. Though the box and wrapping was superb, could not tell the difference. After researching how can this happen, the consensus is that 3rd party vendors drop ship their items from Amazon, with Amazon mixing the vendors supply with the Amazon supply bins as I chose Amazon as my seller and NOT the 3rd party.

While inconvenient, I would just return them and try to get legit ones. One good thing about Amazon is returns are pretty easy, and I've never had issues returning something. What I typically do is return and let them add the refund to my Amazon account and I will use that to make other purchases if I don't like the original product.

 

[itztime]

While inconvenient, I would just return them and try to get legit ones. One good thing about Amazon is returns are pretty easy, and I've never had issues returning something. What I typically do is return and let them add the refund to my Amazon account and I will use that to make other purchases if I don't like the original product.

Yep, it was a painless process, I called and it was squared away in 2 minutes.

 

[DaveXA]

Yep, it was a painless process, I called and it was squared away in 2 minutes.

Yeah, I do mine online. Print the label and drop it off at UPS. Sometimes you don't even have to box/label it. You can go to Khol's and drop it off there and they take it from there.

 

[Waymer]

Keep in mind that you can buy a "Gift of Prime" which is their version of "Forever" stamps. Regardless of the price years down the road, you get it at the price you paid. I know a few people who still have $79 memberships I believe. Yes, you pay up front, so there's some opportunity cost, but some people are saving $60+ now. If nothing else, it's simple to do for one year with no real loss.

(If you decide not to use it towards prime, it always can convert automatically to an Amazon gift card, so there is no risk.)

More info here: https://www.doctorofcredit.com/amazon-prime-membership-price-will-soon-increase-to-139-up-from-119/

 

[FL_Saint]

Yeah that was my point. If you know it’s a knock-off and that’s what you want, fine. But I don’t want to be mislead to buying, for example, a specific brand of shampoo and then get it & it smells and looks different but is in the same bottle as my shampoo.

There’s a lot of bait & switch going on in the Amazon marketplace.

I bought a Zero Tolerance pocket knife off Amazon a few years ago. Figured it out past the return window. I escalated the issue and amazon refunded my money and "let" me return it. I believe that they try to deal with the knockoff fraud, but the shear volume of products and sellers would make it all but futile.

I am very particular about making sure I use shipped and sold by amazon unless I know specifically what I am looking for and who is selling it.

And I definitely price shop. Amazon isn't always the lowest. Before I changed brands, I was going back and forth on dog food between Amazon, Chewy and PetSmart. Now I am strictly Tractor Supply.

 

[jrdbrn]

I used to be a huge advocator for Amazon. They had what I needed with great prices and super fast shipping.

Now they are increasing the price of Prime again, their prices are meh on a lot of items, and shipping is a crap shoot. I often get items faster without Prime.

I cancelled my February renewal.

 

[Zztop]

They are also adding commercials to it next year, unless you pay $3/mo extra

Amazon Prime Is Adding Commercials To Its Prime Video Service, Commercial Free Will Now Cost Extra | Cord Cutters News

Earlier today, Amazon announced that it will be adding commercials to its Prime Video service. Now, its base Prime Video service that is included with Amazon Prime will add commercials starting in early 2024. If you want a commercial-free experience, it will cost you an extra $2.99 a month. The...

cordcuttersnews.com

Currently, Amazon Prime costs $14.99 a month or $139 per year. You can get just Prime Video for $8.99. Starting next year in the U.S. if you want comercial free, you will now need to pay an extra $2.99 a month.

If you qualify, you can get Amazon Prime at a discounted rate of $69 per year for students and $6.99 per month if you qualify with programs like EBT, Medicaid, NAP, and other government assistance programs.

Amazon joins a growing number of programs that have launched our will launch ad-supported plans. This includes Disney+, AMC+, Netflix, Max, and more.

 

[Rickboy]

They are also adding commercials to it next year, unless you pay $3/mo extra

Amazon Prime Is Adding Commercials To Its Prime Video Service, Commercial Free Will Now Cost Extra | Cord Cutters News

Earlier today, Amazon announced that it will be adding commercials to its Prime Video service. Now, its base Prime Video service that is included with Amazon Prime will add commercials starting in early 2024. If you want a commercial-free experience, it will cost you an extra $2.99 a month. The...

cordcuttersnews.com

Currently, Amazon Prime costs $14.99 a month or $139 per year. You can get just Prime Video for $8.99. Starting next year in the U.S. if you want comercial free, you will now need to pay an extra $2.99 a month.

If you qualify, you can get Amazon Prime at a discounted rate of $69 per year for students and $6.99 per month if you qualify with programs like EBT, Medicaid, NAP, and other government assistance programs.

Amazon joins a growing number of programs that have launched our will launch ad-supported plans. This includes Disney+, AMC+, Netflix, Max, and more.

For me, it depends on how long the ads are and how often.
I'm cool with a quick 10 second ad and perhaps 2-3 times per hour. The placement of the ads also matters. I don't want to be in the middle of the Star Wars trench run and have an ad pop up.

 

[Optimus Prime]

For me, it depends on how long the ads are and how often.
I'm cool with a quick 10 second ad and perhaps 2-3 times per hour. The placement of the ads also matters. I don't want to be in the middle of the Star Wars trench run and have an ad pop up.

And pleeease don’t show me the same 3 commercials every ad break

And if that’s the only block you have after I’ve seen it 2 or 3 times let me skip it

 

[gboudx]

I hope they don't extend this to the Great Courses videos. I already pay extra for that every month.

 

[Zztop]

They are also adding commercials to it next year, unless you pay $3/mo extra

Amazon Prime Is Adding Commercials To Its Prime Video Service, Commercial Free Will Now Cost Extra | Cord Cutters News

Earlier today, Amazon announced that it will be adding commercials to its Prime Video service. Now, its base Prime Video service that is included with Amazon Prime will add commercials starting in early 2024. If you want a commercial-free experience, it will cost you an extra $2.99 a month. The...

cordcuttersnews.com

They started rolling out the ads on the 29th. If anyone is curious what this is like, here is a breakdown and comparison vs other streaming services

Prime Video Now Comes With Ads; We Tested the Ad-Supported Service to Answer All of Your Questions

Prime Video introduced ads for all of its subscribers on Jan. 29, giving them the option to upgrade to an ad-free plan.

thestreamable.com

 

[Optimus Prime]

On Monday, Prime Video subscribers who visited the platform were greeted with a new prompt: "Movies and TV shows included with Prime now have limited ads. You can upgrade to be ad free for $2.99 a month."

After a swift click on "not now," this viewer cued up one of the more successful titles currently gracing Amazon's roster - the second season of beefcake vigilante drama Reacher. Interruptions, which included a spot for another series (Hudson & Rex, starring a German Shepherd detective) and a reminder from the folks at Intuit Turbotax that filling season has commenced, were indeed limited. But in an era where more and more viewers are culturally conditioned to be repulsed by ads on any broadcast but the Super Bowl, even limited spots are conspicuous.

"We fought so hard to get rid of commercials," says Alan Poul, executive producer and director of Max original Tokyo Vice which returns for a second season on Feb. 8. "It was one of the biggest steps in bringing the worlds of TV and film closer together, in getting that higher level of artist to participate. It was such a seminal gain, and now it's reversing."

If you're not willing or able to part with an extra $2.99, $6 (Disney+ and Max), $8.50 (Netflix) or $10 (Hulu) to go ad-free, commercials are the new (old) normal. Paramount expands its own ad-supported tier internationally later in 2024 - and though no official plans have been announced, recent hires at Apple TV+ suggest the tech behemoth will eventually introduce ads as well. Subscriber frustrations, especially in a climate of unabated inflation, are a given. Feelings in the creative community, which vary from indifference to outrage, largely depend on where and how one works.

For Poul, whose stateside platform is still expanding its global reach, Tokyo Vice has to be made in a way that allows it to be sold to multiple platforms in other territories. Some of those have advertising and others don't. And while act breaks - those are moments of deliberate transition in scripts which double as natural windows for commercials - aren't written into accommodate the potential for ads, Poul says such breaks are discussed with editors in post-production.

Many scribes still pen scripts with those broadcast-friendly act breaks in mind. One of them, Terry Matalas, operated under the assumption that Star Trek: Picard might eventually find its way to a platform with an ad-supported tier while working on the series. When Paramount+ expands ads in a few months, his instincts will have been proven right. "I'd just hope showrunners have a say where the ads are," says Matalas, "and that [episodes] don't just break in the middle."...........

MSN

 

[DaveXA]

On Monday, Prime Video subscribers who visited the platform were greeted with a new prompt: "Movies and TV shows included with Prime now have limited ads. You can upgrade to be ad free for $2.99 a month."

After a swift click on "not now," this viewer cued up one of the more successful titles currently gracing Amazon's roster - the second season of beefcake vigilante drama Reacher. Interruptions, which included a spot for another series (Hudson & Rex, starring a German Shepherd detective) and a reminder from the folks at Intuit Turbotax that filling season has commenced, were indeed limited. But in an era where more and more viewers are culturally conditioned to be repulsed by ads on any broadcast but the Super Bowl, even limited spots are conspicuous.

"We fought so hard to get rid of commercials," says Alan Poul, executive producer and director of Max original Tokyo Vice which returns for a second season on Feb. 8. "It was one of the biggest steps in bringing the worlds of TV and film closer together, in getting that higher level of artist to participate. It was such a seminal gain, and now it's reversing."

If you're not willing or able to part with an extra $2.99, $6 (Disney+ and Max), $8.50 (Netflix) or $10 (Hulu) to go ad-free, commercials are the new (old) normal. Paramount expands its own ad-supported tier internationally later in 2024 - and though no official plans have been announced, recent hires at Apple TV+ suggest the tech behemoth will eventually introduce ads as well. Subscriber frustrations, especially in a climate of unabated inflation, are a given. Feelings in the creative community, which vary from indifference to outrage, largely depend on where and how one works.

For Poul, whose stateside platform is still expanding its global reach, Tokyo Vice has to be made in a way that allows it to be sold to multiple platforms in other territories. Some of those have advertising and others don't. And while act breaks - those are moments of deliberate transition in scripts which double as natural windows for commercials - aren't written into accommodate the potential for ads, Poul says such breaks are discussed with editors in post-production.

Many scribes still pen scripts with those broadcast-friendly act breaks in mind. One of them, Terry Matalas, operated under the assumption that Star Trek: Picard might eventually find its way to a platform with an ad-supported tier while working on the series. When Paramount+ expands ads in a few months, his instincts will have been proven right. "I'd just hope showrunners have a say where the ads are," says Matalas, "and that [episodes] don't just break in the middle."...........

MSN

I'm just tempted to quit all of it cold turkey. I can live without all of that if I need to.

Fwiw, if the ads are before or after a movie or show, I don't mind. During? Eh, no.

 

[St. Widge]

I'm just tempted to quit all of it cold turkey. I can live without all of that if I need to.

Fwiw, if the ads are before or after a movie or show, I don't mind. During? Eh, no.

I can't quit steaming at this point. But, I may get rid of YouTube TV which is crazy expensive to defray the cost of the stand alone streaming services.

I can't help but think that we have reached the point that the old Cable/Satellite TV system with a subscription to Netflix for movies on CDs was cheaper and almost as good. There is still probably more variety available now and on demand, but it's just gotten so expensive that you have to spend too much time balancing cost with content and going through the cancel/subscribe circles.

Plus, kids keep getting on my lawn.