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Amazon Offers 2-Day Shipping For $79/Year

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the that's-actually-tempting dept.

stevejsmith writes "Amazon.com has announced their Amazon Prime service. For $79, you get free two-day shipping on all items, upgradeable to overnight shipping for $3.99 per item. The offer applies to most media (books, DVDs, CDs, etc.) and can be shared among "up to four family members living in the same household." Apparently the only way they will enforce this family-only sharing clause is by mandating that your "family members" know your birthday."

3 of 325 comments (clear)

  1. Doesn't seem that great by ucblockhead · · Score: 4, Informative

    Seems to me you'd have to spend on the order of $1500/yr in merchandise in order to make this worthwhile. And then, it'd only be worth it if you would have paid for two-day shipping otherwise.

    --
    The cake is a pie
  2. Re:Family Members by rbarreira · · Score: 4, Informative
    Why would you assume that because it's limited to family members purchasing it should be limited in delivery address?

    Because it says "family members living in the same household".
    --

    The AACS key is NOT 0xF606EEFD628B1CA427BEA93A9CA9773F
  3. And this is the "introductory special price" by fv · · Score: 4, Informative

    Your $1500/year assumption also assumes that the price will stay $79/year. Their ad calls this a "special introductory price". The worst thing is that unless you pay enough attention to cancel before hand, they will charge the next non-special, non-introductory fee to your credit card in exactly 12 months without any notification to you. From the Terms and Conditions:

    "YOU UNDERSTAND YOUR MEMBERSHIP WILL AUTOMATICALLY RENEW AND YOU AUTHORIZE US TO CHARGE TO YOUR CREDIT OR DEBIT CARD (WITHOUT NOTICE TO YOU) THE THEN-APPLICABLE ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP FEE AND ANY TAXES, UNLESS YOU NOTIFY US BEFORE RENEWAL THAT YOU WANT TO CANCEL YOUR MEMBERSHIP."

    They don't provide (AFAICT) any option to buy just one year. By purchasing Amazon Prime you are giving them permission to choose any price and charge it to you next year. They may also "in our discretion change these Terms ... or any aspect of Prime membership without notice to you ... YOUR CONTINUED MEMBERSHIP AFTER WE CHANGE THESE TERMS CONSTITUTES YOUR ACCEPTANCE OF THE CHANGES." So they can change their terms without telling you, then you automatically accept if you don't immediately notice and cancel. Great!

    I hate it when companies try to pull this. Forcing an annual set fee on people is bad enough -- but to raise the price arbitrarily and still charge people's card without notification is outrageous. This is the kind of thing sleazy porn sites do (or so I hear :).

    There may be some advantages to this program, but I certainly won't sign up until they let me buy ONE YEAR at a known price. None of this blank check nonsense.

    -Fyodor
    Concerned about your network security? Try the free Nmap Security Scanner.