Is Amazon Prime worth it?

[DreamWriter]

Originally Posted by jbcohen

What sorts of books can you buy from that leanding library? I do not order enough to make the service compensate me for the yearly cost.

I posted some links earlier, including one to a list of ebooks in the Kindle Owners' Lending Library. U.S. Amazon Prime members with a Kindle device can borrow only one ebook per calendar month. I don't believe the program is currently available to non-U.S. Amazon account holders, and the ebooks cannot be borrowed using Kindle apps and software. Here is another link that explains how the Kindle Owners' Lending Library works.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by nobylspoon

Amazon offers a free year of Prime to college students (no streaming). I changed schools and registered again with my new .edu address for the second year. After that, they offered me a full Prime account for 50% off so I was able to get three years for just $40 total

That's how much we paid. He got 6 months free and then we paid $40 for a year.

[memenow]

Originally Posted by Blossom

That's how much we paid. He got 6 months free and then we paid $40 for a year.

The $40 prime student upgrade doesn't get the video service or the prime lending library. You have to pay the full $79 for borh those

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by memenow

The $40 prime student upgrade doesn't get the video service or the prime lending library. You have to pay the full $79 for borh those

Not true. We have all those. The free trial is only the shipping service but once you pay the $40 you get Prime videos and the lending library.
We watch the videos on our Roku which connects to our TV. You can't however add anyone else to your account like you can with Regular Prime.

From Amazon's Student Prime Help page:

As an Amazon Student member you'll also get six months of FREE Two-Day Shipping with Amazon Prime on eligible purchases, and will automatically continue receiving Amazon Prime benefits at a cost of $39 a year for up to four years with automatic renewal. After you graduate or at the end of your fourth year of Amazon Student $39 Prime benefits, whichever comes first, your subscription will automatically upgrade on its anniversary date into a full paid subscription for Amazon Prime at $79 a year. Your Student Prime benefits can't be shared with another account, but if you continue with a paid membership you'll receive access to thousands of Prime instant videos, and a Kindle book to borrow for free each month from the Kindle Owners' Lending Library. Benefits are subject to restrictions, such as geographic limitations, as stated in our Amazon Prime Help pages. If you don't wish to continue with paid Prime benefits you can set them to not automatically upgrade at any time during the free period.

Once the $39 membership is selected, you'll no longer be eligible for the free period even if the paid membership is canceled.

If you'd like to upgrade to the $39 membership before the end of the free period in order to get access to Prime instant videos and Kindle Owners' Lending Library sooner, you can upgrade at any time by visiting www.amazon.com/join-student or www.amazon.com/prime.

If you'd like to share your Amazon Prime benefits with someone else, please cancel your Amazon Student membership and any existing Amazon Prime benefits under your account. You'll then be able to sign up for the $79 a year program and invite others to share your membership. You can cancel your Amazon Student membership by visiting the Manage Student Membership section of Your Account and clicking Cancel Student Membership. You can cancel your current Amazon Prime benefits by going to the Manage Prime Membership page. After these two things are canceled, visit our main Amazon Prime page (www.amazon.com/prime) to enroll at the $79 rate.

[nobylspoon]

I see they reduced Student membership to just 6 months now. When I first signed up for the student account Prime was only the shipping so there was no reason to upgrade early. When I registered again with my second .edu address, their streaming service didn't have PS3 or Xbox support yet so it was no loss.

I just recently upgraded to the full account and I will continue to do so as long as it is offered. The latest ePIX deal really added additional worth to the streaming service. Netflix stock just took a tumble (I dropped Netflix about 6 months ago due to lack of recent content when their contract with Stars ended).

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by nobylspoon

I see they reduced Student membership to just 6 months now. When I first signed up for the student account Prime was only the shipping so there was no reason to upgrade early. When I registered again with my second .edu address, their streaming service didn't have PS3 or Xbox support yet so it was no loss.

I just recently upgraded to the full account and I will continue to do so as long as it is offered. The latest ePIX deal really added additional worth to the streaming service. Netflix stock just took a tumble (I dropped Netflix about 6 months ago due to lack of recent content when their contract with Stars ended).

We have Amazon Prime, NetFlix and Hulu Plus. We just dropped Cable.
We bought a Roku box ($98) which is pretty cool. It has all kinds of channels to add not just the 3 services above.

[Ginwen]

I was actually able to share mine too even though it says in the help file I shouldn't be able, but I've had it for a while, and it was converted from regular (non-student) prime. When I converted from regular Amazon Prime to Student, it kept it on my wife's Amazon account (even when it was free). She only gets the shipping, though, not the lending library or videos (which is one reason her Fire is on my account rather than her account.

Originally Posted by Blossom

Not true. We have all those. The free trial is only the shipping service but once you pay the $40 you get Prime videos and the lending library.
We watch the videos on our Roku which connects to our TV. You can't however add anyone else to your account like you can with Regular Prime.

From Amazon's Student Prime Help page:

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by Ginwen

I was actually able to share mine too even though it says in the help file I shouldn't be able, but I've had it for a while, and it was converted from regular (non-student) prime. When I converted from regular Amazon Prime to Student, it kept it on my wife's Amazon account (even when it was free). She only gets the shipping, though, not the lending library or videos (which is one reason her Fire is on my account rather than her account.

Yeah that's the bummer part I can't watch them on my Fire because it's on my account. I can't switch accounts either due to a large library.

[dakini]

eh, Amazon Prime actually made me vow to never use Amazon again.

I had a free trial of the Prime. It was great. Wonderful. But, it's a marketing tool: they're trying to get us to spend more on books. And I and several of my friends who had trials at the same time did that ... so I cancelled it at the end of the year, as did several of my friends. My trial expired about a year ago. Since the expiry, either Amazon super saver shipping has become a lot, lot worse than I remember, or they're not shipping stuff well.

My last order took several weeks to arrive, not the 508 business days. Amazon's response when I asked where my stuff was (it took ages after it said "delivered" for it to actually be delivered) -- "You should have paid more for shipping." Sorry, but if you say 5-8 days, I assume it will be here in a couple weeks, max. Not in 5 weeks.

This last go-round, which resulted in them issuing a credit, and involved my credit card company getting involved, saw that one package was marked 'delivered' over a week before I received it.

Minimum time post-Prime to get a package was 3.5 weeks. And no, I don't live in the back of nowhere.

Meanwhile, my neighbor who never had a Prime membership trial isn't noticing anything being slower ... her packages come in about a week.

We've started tracking how much time it takes folks without Prime to get their packages around my department ... and we're noticing those of us who gave up Prime it's taking unconscionably long periods of time. Just a warning to people who might try it and then let it drop.

So yeah, now I'll spend the extra couple bob to have packages arrive in a timely fashion and source them from other places. I just can't trust Amazon any more. Which is sad, since they used to be so good.

[Blossom]

I use free shipping on stuff on my account. I had a free trial that expired last year and I don't have any of the problems you described.

[dakini]

that's good. I fully admit we feel paranoid to think Amazon could 'punish' those of us who dropped Prime by mailing our stuff slower ... but like I said, too many of us are noticing it where I am and the difference in shipping times is so stark ... one week versus 5 ... one person it took 9 weeks to get her stuff this past spring!

so, hopefully it's an anomaly, but it's something we're tracking where I work now ...

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by dakini

that's good. I fully admit we feel paranoid to think Amazon could 'punish' those of us who dropped Prime by mailing our stuff slower ... but like I said, too many of us are noticing it where I am and the difference in shipping times is so stark ... one week versus 5 ... one person it took 9 weeks to get her stuff this past spring!

so, hopefully it's an anomaly, but it's something we're tracking where I work now ...

For me it's usually takes about 3 to 4 days to ship then it comes Smartpost which is about 3 to 5 days depending on which warehouse it comes from. Once I called Amazon about an order that hasn't shipped and they were great! They told me there had been delay due to something at the warehouse and they upgraded the shipping to 2 UPS for free. I have no complaints. He even called me later that week to make sure I got the item and everything worked out.

[blue_skies]

Originally Posted by nobylspoon

Amazon offers a free year of Prime to college students (no streaming). I changed schools and registered again with my new .edu address for the second year. After that, they offered me a full Prime account for 50% off so I was able to get three years for just $40 total

Ah, I see. Thanks for your response.

I wish they had a cheaper Prime option for single people - like the student version where you can't add anyone else. I don't think I can place enough orders each year to make it worthwhile just for me.

It does seem Amazon's regular free shipping has gotten worse in recent years.

If they had more shows and movies I'd like to stream, I could probably justify the cost. I tried it for one month and it was nice, but I only got free Prime shipping on three orders (and one was a subscribe and save that I ordered regular and paid a tiny bit more just so it would ship sooner.)

[JohnGalt]

Prime is essentially seven dollars per month, so consider the following:

Books - do you currently spend $7.00 or more per month on books on this list (Reading one per month): http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=...blishmarket-20

Shipping: Do you spend more than $7.00 per month on shipping with Amazon on items that Amazon stocks and ships themselves?

Movies: Do you currently use Netflix or Hulu and might you be willing to lose a little on selection in order to cancel one of those services?

Add up the value you expect from each of these - Maybe you'll read a $6.00 prime book every other month (note this needs to be read on a kindle, it will be downloaded directly onto the device,) and spend about $50.00 per year on shipping. My wife and I do the bulk of our non-grocery shopping online, so the shipping was worth it in of itself, but we also found that cancelling Netflix was pretty easy (note the selection is not as large, but there are some things that Prime has that Netflix hasn't - Little Britain for instance.) My wife just got a kindle, but before that, we hadn't even considered it in our decision - it's now just gravy.

[vxf]

I tried Prime. Was ticked off by the limit to one ebook per month - the borrowing limit, I mean. I have a long backlog of books to read - and two-day shipping is not something I care about.
So I dropped it.