Imagine if I could have them consolidate those shipments; Get a weekly shipment for most items, or get it via normal prime when it's something I really need fast.
From http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=2...:
FREE No-Rush Delivery (typical delivery one week after placing an order). Note: You may receive promotional credit for selecting No-Rush Shipping. Credit will be automatically applied to your Amazon.com account once the first package from a No-Rush Shipping-eligible order ships. You'll receive an e-mail as soon as the credit is available. You may select No-Rush Shipping as many times as it's offered to you, but you won't be eligible for the credit if you cancel your No-Rush Shipping order or return items from it.
And from their forums: "You get a $1 mp3 credit if you choose the slower shipping option."
One order may need to go by air if it's at a distant warehouse, but another may go ground because it's available close by.
I'd like it solely for the convenience--several times I have wanted to order something but knew I would not be in town when the delivery happened. I'd love to say "deliver it to me next Wednesday" and Amazon figures out the cheapest way that would work instead of having to remember to make my Prime order on Monday.
I also feel the SmartPost shipping is a broken promise. SmartPost almost always turns out to be 3 day shipping. 2 days from Amazon to the post office, then 1 day from post office to me.
The reason you are annoyed by add-ons, is because you came to rely on Amazon for things you can and probably should by in neigbourhood store. I would buy thumbtacks and such things in dollar store acros the street.
I am similar in that I buy common things from Amazon, I like how it is organized and it makes sense to me when I order.
That bottle of melatonin, $7 on Amazon, prime add on.
$15 at the localish drug store that's a 5 mile drive each way. Yes, that's the closest store.
It's incredibly annoying.
Also, smya 107 helicopter tail booms w/motor, $4.00 prime add on, $4.00 shipped free from HK with a 3-4 week delivery time. Kid wants it fixed. Might as well just buy it, and another copter just to have spares around and to hit prime shipping.
Just let me pay shipping. It's worth it. Anything else is just a big fu. They've got the item, I've got the cash. Let me use it.
Lately even those, 'China Post' packages arrive fairly quickly within 3-5 days which is amazing.
I've got a couple batteries on order that I ordered before Kid burned out the tail motor that still haven't arrived. His came with a bunch of spare plastic parts, but not the electronic bits. Some day I'll replace the rotors and he'll see what undented leading edges can do for him.
I've gotten a bunch of stuff through China Post shipping, and never had them faster than a couple of weeks.
Amazon may well have decided to create the add-on program in lieu of removing them, but "wouldn't even exist" isn't the entire truth, as it doesn't acknowledge the fact that the items did exist before.
You are not too cheap to buy Prime, you just don't purchase enough from Amazon to make Prime worth it. A "cheap" person who uses Amazon a lot always has Prime, otherwise they are just throwing away money on shipping.
Once you start buying many items from Amazon, Prime easily pays for itself at the current level. And will pay for itself at the next level too after a certain use
Even with these add-on products Amazon is basically forcing you to adopt a Costco / buy-in-bulk model, and I think it's the only profitable and sensible direction.
Logically speaking, I would think this would actually be the fastest way to fulfill orders. Find the closest distribution center that has your stuff in stock and ship it.
The ten day delivery is a bit disconcerting for sure though.
I see what they are trying to do, namely get you to cough up $20 more to buy things you 'may' need but not yet (or ever) to increase revenue but it just feels particularly scammy.
I am a heavy Prime user.
I understand and accept the price raise, but as the article quotes "The more expensive Prime is, the more they are going to have to live up to their promises."
One promise that I feel is broken every day is on display with the "Add-On Items"
These are just annoying.
They show up in "Prime Only" searches and are typically <$5.
Which I understand Amazon really can't ship for free.
But there is literally no way to check out with just that item until you add up to $25, and it's typically stuff I actually need quickly.
Take thumb tacks.
They show the first result as $2.48 "add-on" for 100 of them.
Or you can select another package of 100 for $6.05 that IS actual Prime and shipped in 2-days.
The "add-on item" is just a confusing concept, that makes me - as a consumer - feel like Amazon's "2-day free shipping" promise is broken on a daily basis when I see these results.
Hide the results from me, show me how to hide the results, or charge me $2.00 extra to ship "Add-On Items" and problem solved.
But otherwise it's a constant reminder that Amazon hasn't kept their promise that I originally signed up for, even though I believe their intent is to offer more selection to consumers.