Amazon to raise minimum order to $35 for free shipping

Agent Orange said:
Not even true.

I'm not sure I've ever seen a lighting deal where the $25 (now $35) minimum doesn't apply. Not saying it doesn't happen. I rarely pay attention to lighting deals during the year anymore, but during Black Friday the $25 minimum has always been in effect as far back as I can remember.

Now there are generally enough deals during black Friday that adding an extra item to hit $25 is not hard at all, but $35 is a pretty big jump. So I could see it being an issue.
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It is true in a lot of instances. Don't base your conclusion on the one or two items you buy a year.

 
TheRainCoat said:
I figure that only school children can't afford an annual $35 for prime, so this doesn't really affect anyone with a decent job.....

If you don't have Prime they you really shouldn't be buying stuff on the internet anyway
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Um, how are you getting Prime for 50% off? Showing as $79/year for me.

Totally sucks for me since bundling things together for FSSS is the only way I shop. I hope they honor FSSS on sub-$35 preorders since the Dragon's Dogma Design Works that I ordered is $31.

 
MetalSlugger said:
Um, how are you getting Prime for 50% off? Showing as $79/year for me.

Totally sucks for me since bundling things together for FSSS is the only way I shop. I hope they honor FSSS on sub-$35 preorders since the Dragon's Dogma Design Works that I ordered is $31.
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Amazon Student gets you prime at half price.
 
retrad said:
another nail in amazons coffin imo. Ive already been buying games elsewhere for the most part. This pretty much makes it a forgone conclusion that I wont be shopping there anymore for games.
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I have nothing against Amazon, but except for Black Friday I don't think I've bought a game from them in 2 years. I've bought a few blu-rays, but not nearly as many as I used to. I went through a phase where I bought a ton of stuff with Barnes and Noble (Criterion 50% off sales) - and lately almost everything has been either Bestbuy.com or Frys.com. Basically I go where the deals are.

Plus while I've never had any issues with receiving games or blu-rays, Amazon has screwed up "non-media" orders for me several times (broken items, poor packaging, obvious repacked item sold as new, DOA electronics, etc). It's amazing to me that they are still stealing market share and their stock keeps going up when their service seems to be slipping.

 
Agent Orange said:
Only "school children" pay $35 for prime. Working adults pay $79. ;)

I used to be a member of Prime, Barnes and Noble, Costco, etc. Then I added it up and decided it was incredibly stupid to "pay to shop". Especially when I get better deals elsewhere anyway. I also already pay for Netflix and Hulu+, so there's really no use for Prime other than the shipping.
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You're not paying to shop, you're paying for shipping beforehand. It is dumb if you aren't a frequent shopper, but for students who constantly order supplies and need a Netflix substitute for weekends, Prime is a godsend.

And yeah, that was my bad. Got the prices mixed up

 
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GBAstar said:
It is true in a lot of instances. Don't base your conclusion on the one or two items you buy a year.
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I've probably had years where i've done 100+ transactions with them, especially back when I was in college buying books, DVD's, and CD's like crazy. (long before Kindle, e-books, or IPADS).

Even today I'm sure I do more than "1 or 2". Probably more like 10-15. Mostly just blu-rays at this point. Unless it's something random during black Friday.

Please show me an item right now that is "free shipping" from amazon with no minimum. I'm not sure I've EVER seen that, or at least it's been so long I can't even remember it. Certainly not among the core categories of games, movies, books I don't recall seeing that.

 
All of you people who say "oh it's $40" are wrong. Prime is $80. Don't make the mistake of assuming everyone is a student.

 
retrad said:
another nail in amazons coffin imo. Ive already been buying games elsewhere for the most part. This pretty much makes it a forgone conclusion that I wont be shopping there anymore for games.
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The biggest retailer in the world is so far away from a coffin its not funny.
 
lzanagi said:
All of you people who say "oh it's $40" are wrong. Prime is $80. Don't make the mistake of assuming everyone is a student.
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Even so, that's about $7 a month.

If you are a casual instant-video Netflix user then you are killing two birds with one stone.

If you eat out once a week that's one more day of eating at home.

 
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Everyone who thinks this is the end of Amazon must be nuts. As long as their customer service and prices remain competitive with other retailers (plus the convenience of online shopping) then they won't be "ending" anytime soon.

 
benjamouth said:
They've done a lot of shady stuff this year, like those products that are less than $10 that I can't get shipped even with Prime unless I add something else.

Since I have to pay tax there now I don't shop at Amazon as much any more.
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Those bullshit items?

Easy workaround:

Add bullshit we wont ship with prime for free item to your cart.

Add a pre order game to your cart.

Checkout with both, will only pay for the one item as the pre order only pays for when shipped but will still trigger high enough "total" to go ahead and ship the not prime eligible item with 2 day shipping.

go back and cancel the pre order after you get shipping confirmation.

Profit.

 
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I still order a good bit from Amazon that has nothing to do with FSSS.  Headphones for example.

However, my FSSS list is actually quite small now so this makes it much harder.  My next $35 order will probably be the next Funimation sale.  :(

 
rockykai said:
I still order a good bit from Amazon that has nothing to do with FSSS. Headphones for example.

However, my FSSS list is actually quite small now so this makes it much harder. My next $35 order will probably be the next Funimation sale. :(
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There isn't a reason at all why Amazon bumped up the price. They are the world's #1 online distribution service, and make billions of dollars.

But those saying that this is the nail in Amazon's coffin are delirious.

 
TheRainCoat said:
There isn't a reason at all why Amazon bumped up the price. They are the world's #1 online distribution service, and make billions of dollars.

But those saying that this is the nail in Amazon's coffin are delirious.
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They may gross billions of dollars, but they haven't reported much in the way of profit in the past few years.

 
TheRainCoat said:
There isn't a reason at all why Amazon bumped up the price. They are the world's #1 online distribution service, and make billions of dollars.

But those saying that this is the nail in Amazon's coffin are delirious.
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There isn't a reason at all?

Yes there is; to increase profit margins on items that are already razor thin.

Regardless if it is called FSSS it's not free for Amazon. They have to make up the shipping costs somewhere. I've received many items from them that literally must have cost more to ship to me then I paid---even with logistically sound shipping hubs.

 
Bezos has to make enough profits to keep the Washington Post afloat somehow.  I've noticed lately that a lot of the prices tend to have the shipping cost built into them already anyway.   Between that and sales tax it really isn't the deal it used to be, hopefully this will encourage some competitors to fill the vacuum.

 
benjamouth said:
They've done a lot of shady stuff this year, like those products that are less than $10 that I can't get shipped even with Prime unless I add something else.

Since I have to pay tax there now I don't shop at Amazon as much any more.
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Workaround is to order those items with a preorder, then cancel the preorder. Obviously don't abuse it.

Kilik beat me to it.

 
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TheRainCoat said:
There isn't a reason at all why Amazon bumped up the price. They are the world's #1 online distribution service, and make billions of dollars.

But those saying that this is the nail in Amazon's coffin are delirious.
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To be fair, Amazon is not all that profitable. So I'm sure shipping and warehousing take up more of the share of their cost structure than some of us realize.

However from a customer point of view - it still sort of sucks. $25 vs $35 is a 40% increase per transaction. Not insignificant.

 
GBAstar said:
There isn't a reason at all?

Yes there is; to increase profit margins on items that are already razor thin.

Regardless if it is called FSSS it's not free for Amazon. They have to make up the shipping costs somewhere. I've received many items from them that literally must have cost more to ship to me then I paid---even with logistically sound shipping hubs.
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Why should I as a customer want to return profit margin to them? I'm only interested in finding the best deal. It's irrelevant to me whether the item ultimately sells for a profit or loss, I only care about MY bottom line. Not Amazon.coms or anyone else. I go where the best price is. Period. Which is why I buy blu-rays from anywhere (but same applies to games or anything else). I will only buy during sales, or clearances, or if I have a coupon. Doesn't matter whether it's Fry's.com. Deepdiscount.com. ImportCDS.com. BestBuy.com. Target. ANYWHERE. I will buy from any legitimate retailer at any time if there is an item I want for the right price, there is no reason at all for me to be loyal to just Amazon.

Obviously there are realities with shipping. It is not a mystery why Best Buy could not continue to do free shipping with no minimum as they had for a couple of years. I voiced my displeasure with that, but obviously I've known that would inevitably be temporary (my attitude with that one was more of a "it was nice while it lasted", and believe me it was very nice). With Amazon, they've been $25 for as long as I can remember, like decades, so moving to $35 is sort of a big deal.

 
I've had Prime for awhile, so I can't even remember the last time I even had to worry about this.  Sucks for those who don't use Prime though.

 
Agent Orange said:
Why should I as a customer want to return profit margin to them? I'm only interested in finding the best deal. It's irrelevant to me whether the item ultimately sells for a profit or loss, I only care about MY bottom line. Not Amazon.coms or anyone else. I go where the best price is. Period. Which is why I buy blu-rays from anywhere (but same applies to games or anything else). I will only buy during sales, or clearances, or if I have a coupon. Doesn't matter whether it's Fry's.com. Deepdiscount.com. ImportCDS.com. BestBuy.com. Target. ANYWHERE. I will buy from any legitimate retailer at any time if there is an item I want for the right price, there is no reason at all for me to be loyal to just Amazon.

Obviously there are realities with shipping. It is not a mystery why Best Buy could not continue to do free shipping with no minimum as they had for a couple of years. I voiced my displeasure with that, but obviously I've known that would inevitably be temporary (my attitude with that one was more of a "it was nice while it lasted", and believe me it was very nice). With Amazon, they've been $25 for as long as I can remember, like decades, so moving to $35 is sort of a big deal.
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You're wasting your breath... er, fingers. GBAstar doesn't understand anything about customers. He only cares about the poor struggling multi-billion dollar corporation. I know for a fact that he's a corporate drone. I've learned to not pay any attention to him, or rather, it.

 
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