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What is with this "Exclusively for Prime Members" BS Amazon has been pulling lately?

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A

alr1ght

bish gets all the credit :)
F4NJov4.png


Tried looking for an external HDD, found one I wanted, can't buy it due to it only available to Prime members. The kicker is that it was available for all us unwashed heathens a few days ago. It's not even an amazing price. It's only $1 more at BestBuy.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00W8XXYSM/?tag=neogaf0e-20

Want John Wick on Blu-ray but don't have Prime? Too bad.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00OV3VGP0/?tag=neogaf0e-20

Home Alone Blu-ray
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0145JUW0E/?tag=neogaf0e-20

I probably spend ~$500 a year on amazon, so no I'm not dropping an extra $99 so I can get the privilege to buy something from them.
 
J

jelly

Member
They want you to subscribe to Amazon Prime.

I haven't bought anything from Amazon in ages, they just aren't all that any more and I've got no need for Prime which is getting pushed across the board at Amazon. I'm not shopping at bloody Costco.
 
T

Tagyhag

Member
alr1ght said:
I probably spend ~$500 a year on amazon, so no I'm not dropping an extra $99 so I can get the privilege to buy something from them.
Click to expand...

Stuff like that sucks but it does sound like you should join, the savings are great.

And if you have an .edu account you can try a 6 month free trial.
 
S

stump sock

Member
if you spend $500/yr you'd probably make your money back in shipping but that's another story

I thought I read something like it's for limited stock items at sale prices? but that may have been old data
 
K

Kusagari

Member
Wow, I had no idea they were doing this because I have Prime. I've seen that they've been offering discounts on a lot of stuff only for Prime members, but not that they're literally not selling some products to non-Prime members.
 
S

soco

Member
That's pretty crazy.

It's not even the costco/sams club kind of thing. They're just regular items entirely.


Thankfully I have prime and find it entirely worth the 50$/year I pay, but would go elsewhere if i didn't have it and wanted to buy this shit.
 
M

Mutanthands

Member
Chariot said:
Holy crap, I have Prime, but I am still appalled that they do this. That's some bullshit.
Click to expand...

I'm not surprised. Amazon has been slowly inching their way over to the dark side for years now. They are not Walmart levels of evil, but it's about keeping the shareholders happy and making that money.
 
C

Chezzymann

Member
Mutanthands said:
I'm not surprised. Amazon has been slowly inching their way over to the dark side for years now. They are not Walmart levels of evil, but it's about keeping the shareholders happy and making that money.
Click to expand...

Well in amazons case they haven't really been profitable right? I'd imagine they're getting impatient
 
N

NYCmetsfan

Banned
Why won't costco or sams club let my buy things for their lower prices!

It's a membership club.

Theyve been around since forever. The only thing amazon really did to piss me off was demand 200 dollars to be able to use amazon fresh. Wtf.
 
M

Mutanthands

Member
Chezzymann said:
Well in amazons case they haven't really been profitable right? I'd imagine they're getting impatient
Click to expand...

Yes, I recall hearing that the shareholders may be getting impatient with trying to change things and want more focus on getting profitable.

Amazon is going to get more and more aggressive with the competition. They're going to increasingly throw their weight around to get what they want. They've already stopped selling competing media steamers, who knows how far they will take that sort of strategy.

It's normal business.
 
F

Fei

Member
Mutanthands said:
Yes, I recall hearing that the shareholders may be getting impatient with trying to change things and want more focus on getting profitable.
Click to expand...

I'm guessing they quieted most shareholder concerns with a 75%+ increase in their stock price this year...

As a Prime member, this seems stupid. Exclusive price is one thing. Exclusive products bring resentment.
 
M

Mutanthands

Member
Fei said:
I'm guessing they quieted most shareholder concerns with a 75%+ increase in their stock price this year...

As a Prime member, this seems stupid. Exclusive price is one thing. Exclusive products bring resentment.
Click to expand...

It think the problem is that this wasn't advertised very well, if at all. You know that you can't buy stuff at Costco without a membership, because it's advertised as a membership store.

Up to this point, Prime has been about free shipping and media. These exclusive items are new. It's a weird thing to do when you are a general store, of sorts. At least without advertising it and letting everyone know about it. I'm on Amazon every day, and I had no idea.

Edit: this seems different from the previous exclusive discounts, in that you could still buy the item without the prime discount. Am I wrong about that? It's been years since I've had to buy anything on Amazon without prime.
 
L

Lucreto

Member
Amazon UK has its own bullshit starting if you are getting the free delivery to Ireland.

I ordered the Uncharted Collection, usually it takes 3 days to arrive. It was out on a Friday the launch so I should have it by the Tuesday. I have yet to get it. Tales of Zestiria dispatched the day before launch and it is due tomorrow. Finally I ordered Star Trek The Next Generation season 7, dispatched last Sunday and won't get it until the 11th November.
 
M

Marty Chinn

Member
Basileus777 said:
They already have. Look at Until Dawn, you can't buy it unless you have Prime.
Click to expand...

Wow, what? They're going to do this right before the biggest shopping period of the year? They're either going to get hurt in sales, or they're going to have a surge in Prime subscriptions. I'm not sure which way it's going to go yet.
 
Velcro Fly

Velcro Fly

Member
Yeah I just buy from Best Buy now instead.

Amazon's shipping is so fucking slow. Even on my Prime free trials shit takes like 4 days to get to me and I live right outside of Chicago.

Needing to pay $99 a year to shop at your place is fine if I'm getting the best deal out there but often times you aren't.
 
F

FStop7

Banned
I don't begrudge Amazon collecting sales tax, fair is fair. But combine that with their switch to OnTrac and I've practically stopped using them. The only reason I keep Prime is for the movies.
 
S

Struct09

Member
I love Amazon Prime, but this seems like a bad idea on Amazon's part. I don't think people seeing that they need to be a Prime member just to buy something will get them to sign up for the service, but it might get them to start looking where else they can buy the product(s) they want.
 
M

Marty Chinn

Member
FStop7 said:
I don't begrudge Amazon collecting sales tax, fair is fair. But combine that with their switch to OnTrac and I've practically stopped using them. The only reason I keep Prime is for the movies.
Click to expand...

OnTrac is great compared to Amazon's own internal shipping service.
 
R

ReturnOfTheRAT

Member
I'm a Prime Member and see the value. I don't have a problem with this. If you do, you're well and free to go to your mom and pop.....brick and mortar big box store and purchase it that way.
 
N

NervousXtian

Thought Emoji Movie was good. Take that as you will.
Wow, kind of messed up honestly.. never noticed.. been Prime for years now and never bothered to read that part.

I just wish they got their streaming service a little more on par with Netflix.. but I still use it quite a bit.. so with that and the free shipping in 2 days it pays for itself for me.. but it's kind of one of those things if you use it.. it's worth it.. if you only buy a few things it sucks.. but I knew at some point they had to do something to make money.
 
C

clav

Member
You should have Prime.

Keep one-person occupied cars clogging up the streets.

ReturnOfTheRAT said:
I'm a Prime Member and see the value. I don't have a problem with this. If you do, you're well and free to go to your mom and pop.....brick and mortar big box store and purchase it that way.
Click to expand...

Yeah, there's always that.
 
K

King_Moc

Banned
Since they doubled the price of prime, added their shitty video service to it and made the free delivery order amount £20 I've flat out stopped using them.

ReturnOfTheRAT said:
I'm a Prime Member and see the value. I don't have a problem with this. If you do, you're well and free to go to your mom and pop.....brick and mortar big box store and purchase it that way.
Click to expand...

You don;t see the issue with have to pay a yearly subscription to be able to pay a company for products and services. Like, really?
 
S

SwiftDeath

Member
Wait, stock saved exclusively for Prime members? If so that's kind of messed up. I can understand doing exclusive sales offers but stock should be made available to anyone
 
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