Amazon has just announced that it is bundling it’s streaming media service with the existing “Prime” membership and putting the price up from £49 to £79. I don’t know what the business motivation is for such a change, but it certainly doesn’t suit me.
I’ve heard that their streaming service isn’t that great, but that’s not important to me one way or the other because the bottom line is that it isn’t possible to get an internet connection in this area with sufficient bandwidth to make video streaming viable. At times I can’t even get a reliable embedded youtube video to play, let alone something I’d want in far better quality before I’d consider paying to watch it.
Amazon’s current view on this seems to be “Tough. That’s the service we’re selling” and they’re entitled to their point of view, but it’s not exactly considerate of those existing Prime customers such as myself who see the price going up more than 60% for absolutely no benefit whatsoever. I have the impression that they know this wasn’t going to be a popular move. It’s hardly been trumpeted from the rooftops for months as some compelling new service they’ll be providing. It seems rather more to have been sneaked in at the last moment in the hope that no-one would notice or complain. Oops.
So I guess that leaves me keeping my money and going back to waiting a few days for deliveries from Amazon or, since I no longer have a specific reason to prefer to shop with them, spending the money elsewhere instead. Whatever it was costing Amazon to provide me with the Prime service I wanted, it’ll cost them a whole lot more when I stop buying from them.
I’m with you; I understand cost have risen; I understand that Amazon kept their Prime annual cost flat for a decade; but (i) they get huge repeat business volumes from that and (ii) they have handled this very bluntly in a take-it-or-leave-it manner.
I will leave it.
John