No More Free Amazon Cloud?

[McGonigle]

Maybe I'm paranoid. But I really don't like this wording in the mail:

"What happens to my current plan?
Your 5 GB plan is no longer available and has been replaced with a free 3-month trial of one of the Unlimited plans."

Does that mean that I will be billed if I don't cancel? And btw I can't cancel anything because I'm not a prime customer. And I don't intend to log on to Amazon Cloud because doing so implies my accept on the terms & conditions.

What country of law applies to Amazon? and does that law have anything to say about giving me, the customer a clearly worded, easily recognizable opt-out option? Or committing a company such as Amazon, not to unilaterally change the terms and conditions without clearly informing me of this change and giving me an opt out.

Would removing all my payment information from Amazon and effectively closing my account be the safest option? this is not about money anymore. This is about principle and I'll out principle anyone just as a matter of principle!

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by Purple Lady

Dropbox still offers free storage - use the link in my sig and get a total of 2.5 gb free. I have 7.25 gb right now and if you have Dropbox there are more ways to get free storage than just referrals. I'll look for some ways and post more when I get home.

Thanks. But I wasn't really using it except to read online as a quick way to sample a freebie or sample. I do have dropbox and use it to pass artwork back and forth when I'm working on art for someone.

[Josieb1]

Originally Posted by HarryT

That's one use for it, but certainly not the only one. You could use it as a backup system, or to have remote access to your documents on multiple devices, or to allow you to store more files than will fit on your Kindle. Cloud storage has lots of uses.

I have a Dropbox account that I pay yearly for, its 1TB of storage plus I have a 50GB Box account that is free. I don't need any more Cloud Storage. I've sideloaded the Dropbox app on my HDX and Box is on there too.

I also have multiple external harddrives on site and off. Hopefully I am sorted but if I did want more Cloud storage i'm not sure i'd trust it to Amazon.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by McGonigle

Maybe I'm paranoid. But I really don't like this wording in the mail:

"What happens to my current plan?
Your 5 GB plan is no longer available and has been replaced with a free 3-month trial of one of the Unlimited plans."

Does that mean that I will be billed if I don't cancel? And btw I can't cancel anything because I'm not a prime customer. And I don't intend to log on to Amazon Cloud because doing so implies my accept on the terms & conditions.

What country of law applies to Amazon? and does that law have anything to say about giving me, the customer a clearly worded, easily recognizable opt-out option? Or committing a company such as Amazon, not to unilaterally change the terms and conditions without clearly informing me of this change and giving me an opt out.

Read the sentence after the one you quoted. It answers your question:

Your 5 GB plan is no longer available and has been replaced with a free 3-month trial of one of the Unlimited plans. Access to your existing files has not changed. You can continue to download and view your content. In order to upload new files you will need to pick one of the free 3-month trials.

Ie nothing will be charged unless you choose to select one of the new plans. If you do nothing, there is no charge, but also no ability to upload anything else to the Cloud.

[shalym]

Originally Posted by Josieb1

The whole point of sending non Amazon books to the Cloud (Amazon's servers) is Whispersync, which I use daily. Without that option a kindle is of no more use than a Kobo.

Its quite apt this coming this week as I am begining to realise Amazon is becoming quite insidious.
Yes I do mean insidious, its meaning is 'operating or proceeding in an inconspicuous or seemingly harmless way but actually with grave effect'

I am the exact type of customer Amazon wants. I have a Kindle ereader and a Fire tablet, I have Prime, I have an Audible account and as long as everything works okay its hunky dorey, but the minute something goes wrong you realise how dependant you are on their infastructure and how uselss they really are.

I've spent weeks going back and forth with both companies over techincal issues with a Fire HD6 and a HDX7and neither company can solve the problems. Its been banging my head against a brick wall time.

Amazon is getting too big and too cocky now and long term I really don't think this is a good thing.

As far as I can tell, sending documents to the *kindle* cloud still works now, and from what I was told by a customer service person at Amazon, nothing is going to change with that. What IS changing is the Cloud drive, which is more akin to Dropbox, and will allow you to store any and all different kinds of documents, and is NOT accessible from an e-ink Kindle.

Shari

[jj2me]

Originally Posted by Josieb1

I have a Dropbox account that I pay yearly for, its 1TB of storage plus I have a 50GB Box account that is free. I don't need any more Cloud Storage. I've sideloaded the Dropbox app on my HDX and Box is on there too.

I also have multiple external harddrives on site and off. Hopefully I am sorted but if I did want more Cloud storage i'm not sure i'd trust it to Amazon.

Yeah, this is what's puzzling. Some amount of free online storage is offered by everyone, except SugarSync and now Amazon. As you said in another post, the concern is losing Whispersync. If we've lost that, then how can they market Whispersync anymore except as a subscription service?

Kindle just fell a notch in my estimation. Kinda disturbing, since I had such trust in the Amazon Kindle ecosphere before this. I'll have to think about this before pulling the trigger for future Kindle book and device purchases.

[voodoo.mutt]

Originally Posted by McGonigle

Maybe I'm paranoid. But I really don't like this wording in the mail:

Does that mean that I will be billed if I don't cancel? And btw I can't cancel anything because I'm not a prime customer. And I don't intend to log on to Amazon Cloud because doing so implies my accept on the terms & conditions.

if you don't accept the trial, you won't be charged....this is from an email i got from Amazon Customer Service.

""The trial is free for three months, during which time you can choose to cancel the trial at any time by going to your Cloud Drive Manage Storage page (https://www.amazon.com/gp/photos/storage). If you cancel before the end of the trial, you will not be charged.

If you decide not to select a free trial when you first login to your Cloud Drive account, you will be moved into an over-quota state and will not be able to upload new files until you select one of the new unlimited free trials."

Kindle Personal Docs will still be stored in Cloud Drive; however, your Kindle Personal Docs no longer count toward your storage limits. ""

[issybird]

Originally Posted by crich70

Legally it may not be wrong but they are likely to price a lot of customers out of it if they keep it up, and that is morally wrong I think. Certainly for $11.99 they could give their customers a bit more space than just 5 GB for non-photo files. And this is the 1st I had heard of the change over. What happened to sending out a notice to customers some time in advance of such a decision being made company policy? There is another word for such action as that. It's called common courtesy.

Amazon couldn't send out an advance notice, since they're doing their customers the courtesy of allowing them to retain access to files already uploaded. Advance notice would just have meant that people uploaded everything they could lay their hands on, before the change. An advance notice would only have been necessary if it said, "Move 'em or lose 'em." There's nothing immoral about a company's pricing people out of their market, especially for quasi-luxury items. Amazon's under no compulsion to subsidize people's data storage.

I'm no Amazon apologist, but I don't see the issue here.

[DiapDealer]

I'm guessing that at least twenty-five first-time Prime subscriptions will be sold for every one person who "takes their business elsewhere" over this. *shrug*

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I'm guessing that at least twenty-five first-time Prime subscriptions will be sold for every one person who "takes their business elsewhere" over this. *shrug*

Or people will keep the subscription because of it. I'm not sure it's a huge selling point if you don't already have it, but I don't already have it so obviously the targeting isn't at me in the first place...(or it doesn't work for me, however you want to look at it.)

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by jj2me

Yeah, this is what's puzzling. Some amount of free online storage is offered by everyone, except SugarSync and now Amazon. As you said in another post, the concern is losing Whispersync. If we've lost that, then how can they market Whispersync anymore except as a subscription service?

Because the overwhelming majority of Kindle users buy their books from Amazon, and nothing is changing as far as storage and synching of Amazon-bought content is concerned.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by shalym

As far as I can tell, sending documents to the *kindle* cloud still works now, and from what I was told by a customer service person at Amazon, nothing is going to change with that. What IS changing is the Cloud drive, which is more akin to Dropbox, and will allow you to store any and all different kinds of documents, and is NOT accessible from an e-ink Kindle.

Shari

I believe you're mistaken, Shari. Personal document storage was integrated into the Amazon Cloud quite a while ago. This change affects all personal document storage. You're right in saying that an eInk Kindle can only access ebooks, and not other types of file stored in the Cloud, but that book storage is a part of the Cloud drive.

[copyrite]

Originally Posted by jj2me

the concern is losing Whispersync. If we've lost that, then how can they market Whispersync anymore except as a subscription service?

Kindle books will still continue to have Whispersync - it's just personal docs that won't if you don't have cloud storage.

I do read - and sync across- multiple devices in the course of the day, mostly Kindle books but some are in the form of personal docs, too, but I do have Prime so this doesn't affect me, at least - yet.

Why not offer a paltry 2 gb cloud space fore free (document files tend to be rather tiny as a rule - 2 gb would be a lot of ebooks!), it might entice people to pay for a bit more for 5 gb, or more? The 5 gb plan only comes out to just a bit more than 3 cents a day (still you shouldn't have to pay for something that you're used to having for free).

[crich70]

Originally Posted by Purple Lady

Dropbox still offers free storage - use the link in my sig and get a total of 2.5 gb free. I have 7.25 gb right now and if you have Dropbox there are more ways to get free storage than just referrals. I'll look for some ways and post more when I get home.

Do other cloud services like Drop Box work well with music files (as in accessing and downloading them to the KF)? I know they have had a certain # of music files (250) that you can load from your own music (non-Amazon) and Amazon charges if you load more than that.

[cfrizz]

Originally Posted by issybird

Eh, Amazon doesn't owe you anything. It's a business decision and you're free to take your business elsewhere. You might deplore the decision, regret the change, even think it'll be bad for Amazon's business, but I don't see how you can call it unfair. Did Amazon promise free storage in perpetuity and renege?

Precisely, It's a business which exists to make money. If you don't like it, then save your pennies and get yourself a 2TB hard drive or whatever size you need and store everything on that. You just have to buy it once and it is under YOUR control.

This is precisely why I don't use any of these services since the corps can change their minds in the blink of an eye or simply go out of business taking your stuff with them.

People need to start relying on themselves again rather than someone else.