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Amazon Quietly Lowered Its Free Shipping Minimum to $35 (fortune.com)
Retailers have been busy over the weekend with Presidents Day promotions and sales, but Amazon had a significant surprise discount of its own. From a report: In a blink-and-miss-it move, the online retail giant quietly reduced its free shipping minimum rate to $35. The change was picked up and reported by a number of news outlets over the weekend, and was spotted by Fortune as well during the online checkout process. Amazon confirmed the change on its shipping guidelines and options page, designating which items and regions for delivery are eligible for free shipping. Amazon's free shipping rate, arguably one of the promotions on the site that has been the most popular and vaulted it to its e-commerce throne in years past, has gone up and down over the years. The free shipping minimum has been as low as $25 in the past and was most recently as high as $49.
Would be nicer if they rolled back the shipping on used CDs/DVDs. Used to be $2.99 (or lower), but went up to $3.99 a few or couple of years ago.
This is one of the lamest Slashdot articles I have ever seen. In what way is this at all news for nerds? And in what way is this any more news worthy than 10,000 other random news items of day? What about if Walmart has a one-day sale on Nintendo games. Should we get a Slashdot headline article for that?
msmash is not a competent Slashdot editor. I'm going to give Slashdot some feedback here.
Its not really free, you're still paying for it - The cost is just built into the product prices.
I want to PAY the market cost, for MY CHOICE of shipping method and carrier.
And I want to be able to specify that choice, and verify the pricing, BEFORE I enter a credit card number or any other financial info, and even without having to "log in" first. And I definitely don't want my card number stored from one purchase to the next, partly because I use disposable numbers, but also because for EACH PURCHASE I want positive control over the transaction. Its the same reason I keep my wallet in my pocket until the cashier has rung up my total at a brick&mortar.
When Amazon offers that, then it will be news worth reading.
I don't shop at Amazon because it's cheaper - it's usually not much, if any. But it's much less work for me. Get online, check inventory, make sure it's in stock, drive twenty minutes each way, hunt for the item while in the store, wait in checkout line... if I don't need it right now, I can get online, click "place order", and it appears on my doorstep two days later. Huge time-saver for me, as my work is intermittent - I have lots of three-to-five-minute idle periods, which means I can get personal stuff done during the day, instead of wasting that time and having to invest even more after work.