Amazon [Archive] - Simple Living Forums

Rogar

2-23-16, 11:20pm

That sort of sucks. I suppose they are pushing Amazon prime? I keep a wish list and hold off til I can get free postage, but it might take a while to work up to $49 in smaller items. If I am buying books I check out the prices they list for used books from other sellers. Unless it's a popular new book I can usually beat the new book Amazon price, even with media mail postage on a used copy.

Williamsmith

2-24-16, 4:26am

When crude oil and gas prices were rising it always seemed like service businesses like Amazon passed the costs on to the customers. And we took it like good consumers that we are. But now that crude oil and gas prices are falling to near record levels.......are they passing on the savings? Well no.......sticking it to you even more.

Simplemind

2-24-16, 1:15pm

I also keep things in my wish list in order to have enough for shipping. I'm too frugal to throw something in just for free shipping so sometimes it takes awhile to get enough for an order. I won't ever have enough for $49. I'll just have to haul myself up off the couch and go to the brick and mortar.

freshstart

2-24-16, 2:19pm

wow, $49 is too much, especially considering Prime was on sale for $79 recently. If I hadn't tried that and minimum free ship was $49, I would not be ordering much from there. I order little things from there all the time (I used to have my brother's prime for years), it opens the world to someone who can't drive. If I can wait two days, no one has to drive me anywhere.

CathyA

2-24-16, 2:39pm

Well poop! I didn't know that. I order from Amazon alot. I agree with Williamsmith. So many things went up in price when the gas was $4.00/gal +. But then they all stayed that high ever since.
DH has Amazon Prime at his job. I don't think there's a free shipping limit on there, is there?

freshstart

2-24-16, 2:43pm

jp1

2-24-16, 4:44pm

I don't think there is a limit but they do catch you up sometimes with small things, call them 'add-ons' and not eligible for prime unless bought with something else that is prime eligible.

I ordered a very heavy recumbent bike from them, shipped free with Prime, I was impressed

Yes, I use prime regularly. A few small things can only be shipped free as an add on, but out of 25 orders last year I only ran into it once or twice. Also, depending on where you live some things actually get delivered in one day instead of two for the same free shipping price. Since I use amazon as my store for pretty much every random thing that's not food or petfood, I consider the roughly $4/shipment to be a great value. And the one time there was a problem and the items didn't ship for two days I complained and immediately got a $10 credit. Not bad considering that it was an $8 item.

ApatheticNoMore

2-24-16, 4:48pm

yea it's too much, so is Prime really. Guess I'll just pay shipping ... there are worse things.

freshstart

2-24-16, 5:30pm

I like that with Prime sometimes you can choose slow shipping still for free but you get a $1 credit for an ebook or video content. Half the time I do this, the item shows up earlier than I was told.

Simplemind

2-24-16, 6:30pm

When I first started using them I found that they had some great prices. Better than near by stores. I got lazy and stopped price checking but recently I started comparing and they were more than the store. I would also have things in my cart for awhile and when I would log in I would see that the prices had changed. Sometimes down for a few cents but most times, up by several dollars.
I have also been hearing complaints from people who have prime. That two day shipping isn't happening and things are coming USPS instead of UPS. Returns have been getting problematic. I have never cared how long it took something to come. I don't order things I need right away. I have only had a problem with a return once.
I have heard a lot of people are moving over to Jet.com

freshstart

2-24-16, 6:48pm

maybe it was because it was new but I had a terrible time with Jet. I ordered food items and cleaning supplies, medical stuff for my mom, I gave them many chances. It would say something would be there in 3-4 days and not show up for 6 weeks. They would say "it should be there tomorrow" when I complained. Their discount system was confusing, supposedly the more you bought in certain categories you would save more. I would save 27c after having tried putting the 'specials' in my cart that I didn't need really but wanted to see the "save 20% or more" in action. They used to post the Amazon price for comparison, I liked that but apparently they had to stop doing that.

I should go back in and try again, maybe it's better. I think I got a free membership with free shipping for a year but they stopped that, I was grandfathered. I wouldn't pay for a membership there, too frustrating. And I stopped my brother's free prime because I love Jeffrey Tambor and really wanted to see Transparent and some of their other original shows, so fell for the $79 deal. Sadly, no Jeffrey Tambor at Jet.

JaneV2.0

2-24-16, 7:24pm

I have Prime and buy enough from Amazon to justify it. I'm happy to get things delivered to my mailbox--I'm a big supporter of the USPS. I always check prices, and sometimes I buy elsewhere, but Amazon is usually in the ballpark. And of course, I support local businesses. (insert ROFL emoticon here). Delivery is generally prompt.

Simplemind

2-24-16, 10:15pm

Thanks for the heads up on Jet.com Freshstart.
JaneV, I also bought frequently from Amazon but if it was "enough" then I figure I wouldn't need Prime because I would always have the shipping minimum. It is part of my simple living that I don't pay for what I don't need. If I can easily get to $35 for free shipping, I don't need prime. I also started seeing items that you could only get if you had Prime Pantry? I think they got too big for their britches and are struggling to fulfill their promises.

Zoe Girl

2-24-16, 10:36pm

I do a lot of ordering from there for work and it has always gone well. Now I have to re-set up for tax exempt and I haven't had time! So I have these pending shopping lists that I need to take care of but I haven't gotten to it, I think that I am working this weekend, sigh. But I will say that Amazon has been good for getting a wide variety of things from one source and not driving all over town. I can get beads, construction paper, chemicals for water balls, and office supplies all in the same order and no driving!

kally

2-24-16, 11:50pm

we order very little online. With shipping to Canada it is so often not worth it. I think I can live without most things that I get online. But my dh does order some hobby parts from another company, but they always offer free shipping and low prices.

freshstart

2-25-16, 10:39am

I emailed Jet because I wasn't remembering the details of being grandfathered in. They wrote back promptly and said I do have free shipping during my first year's membership. So I looked for the lifesavers I buy my mom in bulk, $20 Jet, $15 Amazon. But I am going to start looking at Jet when I am considering an Amazon purchase because their prices are so all over the place, you never know when they might have the lowest.

jp1

2-25-16, 10:52am

In some places, like my city, amazon uses a new, non-union, shipping company (here it's a company called OnTrac). They aren't as reliable as USPS or UPS, but they deliver 7 days/week, so I can order something Friday evening and it will (usually) arrive Sunday.

rosarugosa

2-26-16, 5:09am

Sometimes I find better deals on E-bay with free shipping for smaller purchases that don't meet the free shipping minimum for Amazon. These are "buy it now for $X" offers; I've never has the patience to go through the auction process.

Gardnr

2-26-16, 6:33am

With Prime, can you ship to a different address or only to your own?

We draw names in my family for Christmas so we each have just 1 person. I hate how much $ I spend on shipping gifts.....we are a large family spread across 4 states.

freshstart

2-26-16, 8:51am

jp1

2-26-16, 10:44am

With Prime, can you ship to a different address or only to your own?

As many addresses as you want.

Gardenarian

2-26-16, 6:05pm

Amazon Prime has been really handy for us, as we don't live near a city. I can order things like specialized art supplies, music stuff, and curtain rods that would be difficult if not impossible to find anywhere nearby.

I really dislike the amount of packaging, though. I try to reuse as much cardboard and paper in my garden as we can. Even though we get free shipping, we try to bundle our orders so there won't be so many boxes.

Maybe the cost of packaging is why they raised the minimum to $49.

mschrisgo2

2-26-16, 7:57pm

Rogar

2-26-16, 8:51pm

The amount of packaging is making me rethink using Amazon at all! This past Christmas I ordered almost all of my gifts on Amazon, and every single one of them came in their own, way-too-big box!! It is just ridiculous to get a CD in a box that is 12x10x8!! And FedEx and UPS and OnTrac were having a terrible time keeping up-- they were busy delivering mostly empty boxes!!

I've had a similar beef. I suppose the alternative of driving around to buy things, especially the ones that are hard to find, is the other alternative. I have a couple of the big box stores that are on my normal routes and their prices are usually as good as Amazon's.

creaker

2-27-16, 6:40pm

The amount of packaging is making me rethink using Amazon at all! This past Christmas I ordered almost all of my gifts on Amazon, and every single one of them came in their own, way-too-big box!! It is just ridiculous to get a CD in a box that is 12x10x8!! And FedEx and UPS and OnTrac were having a terrible time keeping up-- they were busy delivering mostly empty boxes!!

It is crazy - I try to rationalize it imagining what the packaging might have been like shipping it to store. Or imaging one truck delivering a pallet of items via the most conservative route possible vs. 100 cars driving to different stores.

I just don't understand how it's cost effective - you know if they could save money using smaller boxes, fitting more of them into delivery vehicles, etc., they'd be doing it.

freshstart

2-27-16, 6:48pm

and yet they survey you about the packaging as if it matters to them

Rogar

2-28-16, 5:46pm

Sort of related. I picked out a larger sized area rug at a local home furnishings store. It was not in stock so had the choice of having it delivered to the store about 15 miles away and picking it up with no delivery charge, or having it delivered by FedEx to my home. Turns out it was actually cheaper to have it delivered because of a lower tax rate, some of which I didn't totally understand, but I avoided some local sales taxes even though it was from the same store. Although I don't like the excess packaging from Amazon, I really don't have any great love for the local big box stores either. Amazon has started collecting state sales tax on purchases in my state, but is still a decent deal for some things, even if you have to shipping occasionally.

freshstart

2-28-16, 6:21pm

I ordered a 10ft phone cable with the slow ship option to get the $1 video credit. Two days later, my mother wanted one so I placed that order with slow ship. With all my complaints about wasteful packaging, they showed up together as one order in an appropriately sized padded envelope. Weird.

Rogar

2-29-16, 5:07pm

I went to Amazon to browse books and noticed it says free shipping on at least $25 in books.

freshstart

2-29-16, 7:07pm

I had placed 3 small orders separately to get the $1 video credits. Amazingly, all 3 came today, in one very packed box, they did a good job. I wonder if they will eventually not allow me to place 3 orders to get those credits

ToomuchStuff

3-4-16, 1:20am

I haven't been on much, because of a hardware failure in my computer (using another machine, that is air gapped from the rest). I found out about the new price as one day I was pricing parts, and the next day, the shipping charge changed.
The good, I needed a bit more so I met the free shipping.
The bad, when I order, I tend to have something small I want or need, that I can add to meet it. However, in most of those cases, my experience has been, they ship from different locations, so that "free shipping" actually costs them (there by me) more. Sometimes free shipping isn't the cheapest price, I frequently, when I want a book, tend to order a used copy and pay shipping, and beat the free shipping price by a large margin.

Gardenarian

3-4-16, 2:44pm

Sometimes free shipping isn't the cheapest price, I frequently, when I want a book, tend to order a used copy and pay shipping, and beat the free shipping price by a large margin.

Agreed! I was surprised to discover that the Amazon Prime products are often more expensive than the non-Prime + shipping. And as you said, it's especially true with used books.

catherine

3-4-16, 2:54pm

Agreed! I was surprised to discover that the Amazon Prime products are often more expensive than the non-Prime + shipping. And as you said, it's especially true with used books.

It's funny how things that go around come around. For a while I was ordering books on Kindle because they were cheaper than books. I just bought a used copy of Paul Hawken's Blessed Unrest because it was a lot cheaper than the Kindle price.