zlacker

>>qainsi+(OP)
I had been on the fence about renewing my decade+ long Prime membership in a couple weeks. The only thing that was seriously tempting me to keep it was Prime Video.

I have mixed feelings already about Prime Video, as a watching experience I find it quite annoying because I'll find a movie I'd like to watch only to find I have to pay another $5 to watch it. With the other services, I know if a movie comes up on the display, I can watch it without further cost.

I'm fairly sensitive to adverts, I really don't like seeing them, largely because I've isolated myself from them. The fewer you see, the more unsettling they are, the blatant attractive factor of them, do.not.want. And anther $40/yr is too much.

Apparently, dropping Prime with the shopping really does not impact the speed of delivery or cost. I'm already often selecting delayed delivery. With the increased prices, it's hard to justify the $140/yr.

>>linsom+1o
If you drop Prime and then go to order something on Amazon, more often than not, you'll be offered to have a "1 week trial" of Prime for $1.99. Sign up, get your delivery faster, and set a reminder to cancel it immediately or at least after your order ships.

If you spend enough, you'll sometimes be offered a full full month of Prime for free. Same thing, once your first order ships, cancel.

I did this all 2023. I had Prime for nearly every single shipment over the year, and it looks like I spent a whopping $14 total for all of it.

>>MrFoof+gp
Conveniently, the membership renewal reminder checkbox in the settings is unchecked - aka, you don't get a reminder before the trial automatically renews to a paid one.

>>chii+Yu
They're in a dark patterns class of their own

>>Rankin+8y
The class clowns of dark patterns.

I share my brothers prime, so I havent personally had it since this incident:

Prime I cancelled prime before it was to renew. When it renewed - they charged me the $99 and I had just paid my rent and in that window didnt have the $99 in the account when the prime renewed (that I had previously canceled)

I was hit with a $25 overdraft fee when prime hit.

I called them, complained, got a refund for my prime account, and I charged them the $25 overdraft fee - AND I added that I wanted a $25 inconvenience fee for having to deal with all this - and they paid it

So I got the embarrassment of an over draft, but I got it refunded and I was able to get them to pay an inconvenience fee.