Amazon Raising Pricing of U.S. Prime Memberships

[Tsing]

Image: Amazon



Amazon has announced that it will be raising the pricing of its Prime memberships in the U.S. for the first time since 2018. Prime’s monthly fee is increasing from $12.99 to $14.99, while the cost of the annual membership is increasing from $119 to $139. This new pricing will take effect beginning on February 18, 2022, for new members, but current members won’t see it until after March 25, 2022, on the date of their next renewal.



Amazon.com Announces Fourth Quarter Results (Amazon)



With the continued expansion of Prime member benefits as well as the rise in wages and transportation costs, Amazon will increase the price of a Prime membership in the U.S., with the monthly fee going from $12.99 to $14.99, and the annual membership from...

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[Grimlakin]

Man I sure hope Amazon employees see a 10% pay bump from this! /s

 

[Burticus]

I could gripe but we abuse Prime WAAAYYY to much, can't live without it now. And that's just the shipping.... video and music are gravy.

 

[Dogsofjune]

Well, first mark up in a few years. Meh. We use the ever lovin hell out of Amazon. Due to hours and the desire to avoid crowds, this works great. Plus, somethings that can't be found at stores, we can order. As an example, we couldn't find apple cider pouches at any of the local stores. Got a case next day from the megachainmart that is the Amazon

 

[Brian_B]

I find myself less and less enchanted with Amazon as the years go on. I don't think I'm quite to the point where I will ditch Prime, but it gets closer and closer every year.


My airing of grievances:
Have to watch really close to see if you are buying from Amazon, a branded "official store", a reputable reseller, or some random third party
Used to be mostly awesome prices, then ok prices, now it's rarely the best price and often crazy insane prices - esp from resellers who are just flipping scalped junk.
Prime Shipping. I'm rural, so ok, there is that. Used to be a pretty consistent 3-4 days to my house via UPS. Now it's whatever-random-dude-in-a-van who chucks it over the fence for the dogs to play with, or they just drop it off at the local post office and call it delivered and I have to drive down there to go get it.
Prime Shipping bitch #2. And it can be anywhere from 2 days to 7++++ days -- really have to watch the ship dates, even if it's in stock and Prime.
Subscribe and Save. It sounded neat when it first came out. Now I have an entire closet of water filters, vacuum cleaner bags, and peanut butter dog treats because I accidently hit "S&S" instead of order now, and never remember to turn it off.
Amazon's search is horrible, and the store is so big you probably aren't going to be able to just browse to get what you are after.
Gift options - used to be they would wrap a present for you with a nice note. Now they might chuck it in a colored plastic bag with a bow.

Prime video is ok, we do watch some of that, but ... $139/yr ... maybe, it's cheaper than most, but content is so-so on it's own. I've never used Prime Music. I've never used whatever Twitch crap they have. I do get those free games occasionally, but other than that, I have no idea what Amazon Gaming is. I do like that I can "subscribe" to other streaming services and they will then be available via Prime Video, and use my Amazon account to manage the sub. I do like that it has a nice Address Book - I use that more than my Contacts on my phone. I do like that occasionally you can opt for a bit longer shipping and get a buck or two off digitcal crap, and that will automatically credit towards Video channel subscriptions. And I do like reading books on my Paperwhite Kindle more than any other device - but Prime doesn't do much for Kindle other than a few free crappy books to read.

 

[LeRoy_Blanchard]

How can you change the shipping speed on orders? Like, say you want to buy something and you need it that day or the next day. I can never find the "overnight shipping" option on anything I order. It always just gets here when it gets here.

 

[Brian_B]

How can you change the shipping speed on orders? Like, say you want to buy something and you need it that day or the next day. I can never find the "overnight shipping" option on anything I order. It always just gets here when it gets here.

Yeah only thing I see are options to ship slower or group stuff together at checkout.

 

[LeRoy_Blanchard]

Yeah only thing I see are options to ship slower or group stuff together at checkout.

Before Prime, you had the ability to have things delivered next day or 2-day. Then prime came around and it still had the option, but the 2-day option would encourage prime membership since it was included... and then one day I stopped seeing the option for next day shipping.

 

[MadMummy76]

I'd order a lot more from amazon if they offered the same benefits, but for us it's the same price for prime, without the free shipping. So I only order from amazon what I absolutely can't get elsewhere. Their shipping prices are insane and they charge by item, not even order by order as any normal online retailer.