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Click to Buy? Sorry, Amazon Prime Membership Required.

posted by janrinok on Sunday November 13 2016, @11:03PM   Printer-friendly
from the we-just-want-your-money dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

Maybe some of have already seen this, but I hadn't seen it until it bit me in the ass today. Amazon is listing some of its standard products as Prime only, meaning only Prime members are allowed to buy it. Prime is an Amazon subscription service that gives you free 2-day shipping (to your local post office, not to your door), streaming services, and a bunch of other 'benefits'. They have gone to great lengths to push this $99 a year service on people, including delaying normal shipments and preventing you from buying what you want. I no longer qualify to reorder a SSD I bought last week since I'm not willing to become a member (nor can I try the 30 trial as I did that back when Prime was new). All that SSD research time wasted.

We were worried about net neutrality. It seems in the future we'll have to worry about subscribing to every store we want to do business with just to have the privilege of buying from them. I'll bet money within a couple years you won't qualify for sales like Cyber Monday unless you're a subscriber. I can easily see that spreading to every store: "Pay $10 at the door for big savings on all our in-store, on sale items." Stores used to give you discounts for going to them, now you'll have to pay for the honor of shopping there.

Here's an article about it.

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by SanityCheck on Sunday November 13 2016, @11:12PM

    by SanityCheck (5190) on Sunday November 13 2016, @11:12PM (#426374)

    What is your main gripe here? You can't use another free trial like in the AOL days? If you enjoyed the perks, maybe you should become a member. This is no different than Costco membership. Sorry but no one is compelled to sell you anything at a below margin price reserved to members.

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  • (Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Monday November 14 2016, @12:16AM

    by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Monday November 14 2016, @12:16AM (#426388) Homepage

    Paying premiums for Amazon Prime has always sucked, you still can't get all those obscure movies and shows you like.

    • (Score: 2) by Subsentient on Monday November 14 2016, @02:46PM

      by Subsentient (1111) on Monday November 14 2016, @02:46PM (#426540) Homepage Journal

      Oh BTW, can you send me a copy of Pink Flamingos in IRC or a working torrent for it? aqu4 takes messages. :^P

      --
      "It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." -Jiddu Krishnamurti