8 ms·

Does anyone without Prime really miss it? Or did you cancel and regret it? Mine is up for renewal at the end of this month, fairly certain I'm not going to rene

Does anyone without Prime really miss it? Or did you cancel and regret it? Mine is up for renewal at the end of this month, fairly certain I'm not going to renew regardless of a price hike.

justinwp 5y ago
I don't miss it. Just watch out that they select automatically the non free option for shipping even if there is a free option with the same expected delivery. (This is for > $25 orders.) I'm located far from a distribution center so that might make a difference.
granzymes 5y ago
I buy on the order of ~80 things from Amazon every year. Prime more than pays for itself for me.
- neogodless 5y ago
  Does it actually "pay for itself" or does it just get you items faster (which is you paying for something)? For me, I go without, and I only buy things with free shipping, so having Prime would not save me money; it would cost me money. (I also buy less things when I do not have Prime, so that saves me additional money!)
  - openknot 5y ago
    Similar experience here. I also found that Wal-Mart has a similar selection (lower prices for some items) to Amazon. It shares the same price threshold for free shipping, and also arrives sooner (reliably two to three days from Wal-Mart in my area, versus five to seven from Amazon without Prime).
    - missedthecue 5y ago
      I don't even live in a city, but prime gives me free overnight delivery on most items if I order in the afternoon.
legitster 5y ago
We cancelled once for about 6 months. We missed it. You never realize how many little things you buy are only available on the internet, and a couple of bad customer service experiences made me really appreciate Amazon.
hasbot 5y ago
It's easy enough to get free shipping without Prime (just wait until there are enough items in the cart to get free shipping). But I'm still getting value out of Prime streaming so I'm keeping Prime until that changes.
gundmc 5y ago
Cancelling has made me more deliberate about my purchases, which I think has been a net positive. There's a reason why every retailer wants to decrease friction in purchases and sometimes that little bit of friction is a good thing for your wallet.
Workaccount2 5y ago
I canceled a year ago after 15 years. I don't miss it at all. I do miss the amazon of 10 years ago though.
- bigthymer 5y ago
  > I do miss the amazon of 10 years ago though. Why? What about it do you miss?
  - pie42000 5y ago
    Not him, but I miss when search results weren't clogged up with 80 copies of the same piece of shit from the same Chinese factory branded as 80 different items, and rampantly astroturfed reviews. The website used to lead faster and was smoother to use, customer service was much better, less amazon pushing air fryers and rice cookers and other flavor of the month useless shit.
    - mrexroad 5y ago
      This. I’ll also add that the reviews themselves were a great resource when researching the a product space — 10 years back I’d use Amazon rather than google for learning before buying. Now both are garbage; I get some value out of restricting search results to Reddit and then filtering by time (past month, year, etc), but Reddit will inevitably destroy that once they have shareholders to appease. Sigh.
gpt5 5y ago
I just looked up past orders on my account and there are hundreds in 2021. I suggest you do the same, you might be surprised.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- Moeancurly 5y ago
  Only 22 orders placed in 2021, and a spot check of ~15 of the items would ship "free" anyways. I don't care enough to check every single item, but of the ones I checked I could not find a single one that would have an added shipping cost. The "2 day guarantee" doesn't really exist anymore, so I have to ask - what am I paying for?
- openknot 5y ago
  Yes, small purchases through Amazon (enabled by Prime due to no price minimum for 'free' shipping). I picked up a tip on Hacker News to avoid small ~$20 USD purchases because it adds up, and this habit has saved me a lot of money.
jeffsyacht 5y ago
Canceled 5 years ago and don't miss it at all. Sometimes I will have to spend 10 minutes longer looking for a supplier online, but I can get all the same things for a similar price and I haven't had any of the issues I used to with Prime like receiving fake shampoo (with brand names misspelled), I get equal or better product quality, and I feel better supporting local businesses. Added bonus is I found myself impulsively ordering less useless crap since it requires more thought to order and isn't delivered immediately.
fibers 5y ago
tried prime 10 years ago and it wasn't anything worth writing about. i dont order that many products from them anyway and if i do i would just batch them up to get free shipping
MattGaiser 5y ago
It probably depends on how you use it. Many of my relatives have cancelled it without a problem. I buy all sorts of one day/same day items that I would need to go to a store for otherwise (virtually anything that isn’t fresh food that you might want same day like toothpaste or soap or bandages), so I could never give it up.
- swagasaurus-rex 5y ago
  I think about the convenience often, but then I'm reminded of the human toil that has to happen to get me my convenience. Though I do have a pharmacy in walking distance so it's not much effort for me.
- FireBeyond 5y ago
  "Get it tomorrow" is entirely broken for me. Just earlier today, I was looking to buy some isopropyl alcohol spray. There was one that was listed as "Get by Sun Feb 6". Out of curiosity, I applied that filter. Now that item had disappeared. And a much smaller list of items where none of them were actually available tomorrow, and in fact, most were a week slower than the first I found.
- staticman2 5y ago
  If you buy your toothpaste and soap and bandages at the place you buy your fresh food, Amazon doesn't save you a trip to the store.
osrec 5y ago
I like the tennis streams on prime video, but they didn't show any of the Australian open. That made me consider cancelling prime... The faster delivery is a nice bonus, but I have prime for the live tennis content mainly.
ar_lan 5y ago
In addition to other listed benefits, some Amazon shows are pretty decent too. LOTR will be pretty massive.
Reason077 5y ago
What do you mean "up for renewal"? You can cancel Prime at any time, there's no contract term. (Personally I keep Prime mostly for Prime Video, and a few other perks. I typically only buy a few things from Amazon each month, so the free fast shipping is a bonus for me, not a must-have).
- Moeancurly 5y ago
  I have an annual subscription that renews in March
  - Reason077 5y ago
    You can cancel at any time, and receive a pro-rated refund if you paid in advance.
    - Moeancurly 5y ago
      Okay? My question is for people who canceled their subscription and regretted it, not sure what your point is here.
      - darkwizard42 5y ago
        Parent was trying to let you know that it is available for cancellation before the year, essentially you can cancel at any time. Their point was you might have erroneously assumed you had to make a decision now.
    - staticman2 5y ago
      I just cancelled and did not recieve a pro rated refund. It simply stops you subscription from auto renewing.
      - Reason077 5y ago
        OK, seems like they changed their policy at some point and it no longer mentions pro-rated refunds: "Paid members who haven't used their benefits are eligible for a full refund of the current membership period. We'll process the refund in three to five business days." https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=GTJQ7QZY7QL2HK4Y https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=... I have received a pro-rated refund when I cancelled in the past.
gordon_freeman 5y ago
Have cancelled mine a few years back as I realized the only thing I was using is 2-day shipping but I have been just ordering multiple items which exceed $25 to leverage FREE shipping and usually they ship fast. So no need for Prime for me!
stjohnswarts 5y ago
There is no way I could not renew. I use it way too much. I easily save that much in gas and probably 10x that in valuable personal time not having to go to walmart/best buy/etc
- coredog64 5y ago
  Walmart has their “Plus” offering that is $99 and gives the same kind of free shipping as Prime. If you’re okay with it, you can also get free grocery delivery from your local store.
lariati 5y ago
I have never had it. I just order enough to get free shipping and then they sit on it for a day or two and ship it prime.

Does anyone without Prime really miss it? Or did you cancel and regret it? Mine is up for renewal at the end of this month, fairly certain I'm not going to renew regardless of a price hike.

justinwp 5y ago

I don't miss it. Just watch out that they select automatically the non free option for shipping even if there is a free option with the same expected delivery. (This is for > $25 orders.) I'm located far from a distribution center so that might make a difference.

granzymes 5y ago

I buy on the order of ~80 things from Amazon every year. Prime more than pays for itself for me.

neogodless 5y ago
Does it actually "pay for itself" or does it just get you items faster (which is you paying for something)? For me, I go without, and I only buy things with free shipping, so having Prime would not save me money; it would cost me money. (I also buy less things when I do not have Prime, so that saves me additional money!)
- openknot 5y ago
  Similar experience here. I also found that Wal-Mart has a similar selection (lower prices for some items) to Amazon. It shares the same price threshold for free shipping, and also arrives sooner (reliably two to three days from Wal-Mart in my area, versus five to seven from Amazon without Prime).
  - missedthecue 5y ago
    I don't even live in a city, but prime gives me free overnight delivery on most items if I order in the afternoon.

legitster 5y ago

We cancelled once for about 6 months. We missed it. You never realize how many little things you buy are only available on the internet, and a couple of bad customer service experiences made me really appreciate Amazon.

hasbot 5y ago

It's easy enough to get free shipping without Prime (just wait until there are enough items in the cart to get free shipping). But I'm still getting value out of Prime streaming so I'm keeping Prime until that changes.

gundmc 5y ago

Cancelling has made me more deliberate about my purchases, which I think has been a net positive. There's a reason why every retailer wants to decrease friction in purchases and sometimes that little bit of friction is a good thing for your wallet.

Workaccount2 5y ago

I canceled a year ago after 15 years. I don't miss it at all. I do miss the amazon of 10 years ago though.

bigthymer 5y ago
> I do miss the amazon of 10 years ago though. Why? What about it do you miss?
- pie42000 5y ago
  Not him, but I miss when search results weren't clogged up with 80 copies of the same piece of shit from the same Chinese factory branded as 80 different items, and rampantly astroturfed reviews. The website used to lead faster and was smoother to use, customer service was much better, less amazon pushing air fryers and rice cookers and other flavor of the month useless shit.
  - mrexroad 5y ago
    This. I’ll also add that the reviews themselves were a great resource when researching the a product space — 10 years back I’d use Amazon rather than google for learning before buying. Now both are garbage; I get some value out of restricting search results to Reddit and then filtering by time (past month, year, etc), but Reddit will inevitably destroy that once they have shareholders to appease. Sigh.

gpt5 5y ago

I just looked up past orders on my account and there are hundreds in 2021. I suggest you do the same, you might be surprised.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
Moeancurly 5y ago
Only 22 orders placed in 2021, and a spot check of ~15 of the items would ship "free" anyways. I don't care enough to check every single item, but of the ones I checked I could not find a single one that would have an added shipping cost. The "2 day guarantee" doesn't really exist anymore, so I have to ask - what am I paying for?
openknot 5y ago
Yes, small purchases through Amazon (enabled by Prime due to no price minimum for 'free' shipping). I picked up a tip on Hacker News to avoid small ~$20 USD purchases because it adds up, and this habit has saved me a lot of money.

jeffsyacht 5y ago

Canceled 5 years ago and don't miss it at all. Sometimes I will have to spend 10 minutes longer looking for a supplier online, but I can get all the same things for a similar price and I haven't had any of the issues I used to with Prime like receiving fake shampoo (with brand names misspelled), I get equal or better product quality, and I feel better supporting local businesses. Added bonus is I found myself impulsively ordering less useless crap since it requires more thought to order and isn't delivered immediately.

fibers 5y ago

tried prime 10 years ago and it wasn't anything worth writing about. i dont order that many products from them anyway and if i do i would just batch them up to get free shipping

MattGaiser 5y ago

It probably depends on how you use it. Many of my relatives have cancelled it without a problem. I buy all sorts of one day/same day items that I would need to go to a store for otherwise (virtually anything that isn’t fresh food that you might want same day like toothpaste or soap or bandages), so I could never give it up.

swagasaurus-rex 5y ago
I think about the convenience often, but then I'm reminded of the human toil that has to happen to get me my convenience. Though I do have a pharmacy in walking distance so it's not much effort for me.
FireBeyond 5y ago
"Get it tomorrow" is entirely broken for me. Just earlier today, I was looking to buy some isopropyl alcohol spray. There was one that was listed as "Get by Sun Feb 6". Out of curiosity, I applied that filter. Now that item had disappeared. And a much smaller list of items where none of them were actually available tomorrow, and in fact, most were a week slower than the first I found.
staticman2 5y ago
If you buy your toothpaste and soap and bandages at the place you buy your fresh food, Amazon doesn't save you a trip to the store.

osrec 5y ago

I like the tennis streams on prime video, but they didn't show any of the Australian open. That made me consider cancelling prime... The faster delivery is a nice bonus, but I have prime for the live tennis content mainly.

ar_lan 5y ago

In addition to other listed benefits, some Amazon shows are pretty decent too. LOTR will be pretty massive.

Reason077 5y ago

What do you mean "up for renewal"? You can cancel Prime at any time, there's no contract term. (Personally I keep Prime mostly for Prime Video, and a few other perks. I typically only buy a few things from Amazon each month, so the free fast shipping is a bonus for me, not a must-have).

Moeancurly 5y ago
I have an annual subscription that renews in March
- Reason077 5y ago
  You can cancel at any time, and receive a pro-rated refund if you paid in advance.
  - Moeancurly 5y ago
    Okay? My question is for people who canceled their subscription and regretted it, not sure what your point is here.
    - darkwizard42 5y ago
      Parent was trying to let you know that it is available for cancellation before the year, essentially you can cancel at any time. Their point was you might have erroneously assumed you had to make a decision now.
  - staticman2 5y ago
    I just cancelled and did not recieve a pro rated refund. It simply stops you subscription from auto renewing.
    - Reason077 5y ago
      OK, seems like they changed their policy at some point and it no longer mentions pro-rated refunds: "Paid members who haven't used their benefits are eligible for a full refund of the current membership period. We'll process the refund in three to five business days." https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=GTJQ7QZY7QL2HK4Y https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=... I have received a pro-rated refund when I cancelled in the past.

gordon_freeman 5y ago

Have cancelled mine a few years back as I realized the only thing I was using is 2-day shipping but I have been just ordering multiple items which exceed $25 to leverage FREE shipping and usually they ship fast. So no need for Prime for me!

stjohnswarts 5y ago

There is no way I could not renew. I use it way too much. I easily save that much in gas and probably 10x that in valuable personal time not having to go to walmart/best buy/etc

coredog64 5y ago
Walmart has their “Plus” offering that is $99 and gives the same kind of free shipping as Prime. If you’re okay with it, you can also get free grocery delivery from your local store.

lariati 5y ago

I have never had it. I just order enough to get free shipping and then they sit on it for a day or two and ship it prime.