Buying baby nipples turned me onto a new Amazon shipping policy that really sucks! Via Shutterstock.
UPDATED: We updated this post on changes to Amazon Prime in April, 2014.
The price of Amazon Prime rose to $99 per year in March 2014. But Amazon also introduced a few new services to entice its customer base to renew at the higher rate (and of course to lure new shoppers).
Amazon’s new services include:
- Amazon Pantry, a grocery delivery service that directly competes with warehouse clubs like Costco, BJ’s, and Sam’s Club. There is a $5.99 fee for every pantry order, which is as much grocery products as you can fit in a four-cubic foot box without going over 45 pounds. Read more about Amazon Pantry.
- Older movies and TV shows from HBO, which is sweet because HBO has refused to make deals with Netflix or Hulu.
Previously, I was ticked off about Amazon’s reduction in Prime benefits by making certain items “add on items,” which aren’t eligible for free 2-day shipping unless you order $25 worth of Prime-eligible items. Here’s what happened:
I was trying to buy “fast flow” baby nipples for Lucy from Amazon Prime last night when a very frustrating thing occurred. I aded four items eligible for Amazon Prime to my cart – but I didn’t qualify for FREE SHIPPING, which is the main benefit of paying $79 a year to be an Amazon Prime member.
What the truck? Grrrrr!!!!!
Apparently, last October Amazon drastically changed their Prime Shipping Policy, erasing much of the benefit of being a $79 Prime member.
Old Prime shipping benefits: FREE 2-day shipping on thousands of items, even if your total is less than $25. (Non-Prime shoppers get free 3-5 day shipping on almost all orders totaling $25 or more).
Current Prime shipping benefits: FREE 2-day shipping on thousands of items as long as your order totals $25. Lower-priced items, like baby nipples, even if they are eligible for Amazon Prime, are categorized as “Add-on” items, which means that they ship free if you add them onto any order of $25 or more.
Under the new Prime shipping policy, the only benefit is that your crap arrives in two days, instead of 3-5 days. Big whoop.
What ticks me off is that “Add-on” items don’t count towards the $25 total. (You have to read between the lines to grasp this from Amazon’s page about Add-on items.) Until I hit $25 of higher-priced Prime eligible products, those add-on items don’t even show up in my cart. There’s not even an option to pay a little extra shipping to get those add-on items. How frustrating!
I understand the business reasons for restricting Amazon’s Prime shipping policy. It costs the company when shoppers order lower-priced items and still get free 2-day shipping. But that’s how Amazon set up Prime in the first place! And that’s why it costs $79 a year!
To back track now is going to tick off a lot of people. And lead to many, many canceled Prime memberships. Daily Finance has a good post that goes deeper into the rationale behind the new policy and why it might lead to a higher free shipping threshold for non-prime members. Note, Prime members still have access to thousands of free streaming movies and TV shows, and a Kindle lending library.
Is the new policy a “bait and switch”?
That’s what many users on an Amazon.com forum claim. User Peregrinn summed up the dilemma nicely:
I can understand that Amazon has created a category of “Add-On” items that do not ship for free, even for Prime members. But I think there should also be an option to Add-On to a Prime order, even if that order does not add up to $25. A few weeks ago, I ordered a Prime item (about $10) and wanted an accessory that cost less than $2, but since it was an “Add-On” item, I could not order it. Instead, Amazon shipped the Prime item in a box that would have had plenty of space for the accessory, which I then bought from another merchant (who shipped it at no cost to me). Inefficient, and Ammy lost a (small) sale.
Have you experienced Amazon Prime’s new, more-limited, more costly, shipping policy?
Welcome to Bargain Babe! I’m Mara, and I’m so glad you’re here. I am an obsessive bargain hunter and penny pincher, and I am determined to live a full life without EVER paying full price.
Oh they ticked me off back in 2011 when I was ordering diapers at 30% off for the subscribe and save plan as a non-prime member. They switched it so that it was 15% I think. But then if you joined prime you could get 20 (or 25?) percent off. So basically they wanted me to join prime to get even less of a discount. I took my diaper business elsewhere and refused to become a prime member and for sure not now after reading this. A TON of mommas were mad about the 2011 changes and posted on Amazon Mom’s Facebook page, but Amazon didn’t care and didn’t address the concerns, so I know a lot of people posted that they were no longer giving Amazon their business. Not a wise move for Amazon. If they keep making stupid “strategic” moves like this, they will end up like Netflix where they lose a ton more customers when they raised their prices but gave customers less for their money.
@Holly I haven’t had the same issue with subscribe & save items, but I have noticed some items no longer being part of the s&s program. I saw the Amazon Mom discount went down from 30% to 20%. It’s hard to see discounts decrease, and I agree that it must have ticked off a lot of Moms. That’s the program Amazon faces – they want to offer a high discount to start to attract a lot of customers, but then by reducing the savings they make more money. I wonder how many Prime members and Mom members Amazon has lost because of these less customer friendly policies. So far, I’ haven’t heard of anything as severe as the Netflix backlash.
My daughter gets her baby “stuff” from Diapers.com. Have you tried their website?
@Michelle Ventresca I don’t use Diapers.com. The couple of times where I’ve compared their prices, they have always been higher. Plus, I use cloth gDiapers and I lot of times the best price is directly through gDiapers (though not always).
>My daughter gets her baby “stuff” from Diapers.com. Have you tried their website?<
– Diapers.com is by Amazon ! what's the difference !?
This policy change upset me but the one that upset me more was the changes to the subscribe and save program. Now if I needed a new subscription for anything I have to wait for my monthly subscription delivery date. Which could be 3 weeks away. So I can no longer use the subscribe and save program for new items because I always need them right away (which is why I am a prime member!)
@Staci That is really frustrating! I thought there was an option in the subscribe & save program to speed up a shipment. Seems strange they don’t allow you to buy their products sooner. They could just reset the delivery date. Other than this, I gain a lot of benefit from the subscribe & save program. It makes it easier for me to re-order products, purchase just what I need, and compare current prices to what I paid for my last order.
@BB ~ I, too, thought there was an option to speed up a shipment if you were running out early one time and that there was no penalty. If so, those days are gone. I have one subscription and just checked and found: “Add this to your Cart as an extra one-time order without the Subscribe & Save discount. Regular shipping charges apply.” I also saw if I wanted to delay the next delivery: “Changing your delivery schedule may affect your discount.”
@Diane Wow, that are pretty severe changes to the subscribe & save program. I checked in with my many s & s items and even changed the delivery date but didn’t notice these warnings. Perhaps they didn’t apply to my items so I didn’t get the warning.
I’m really surprised that Amazon is restricting the subscribe & save program. The way to build loyalty is to offer flexibility, not box customers in.
@Staci ~ I didn’t understand what you meant when you wrote a NEW subscription”for anything” requires you to wait for your monthly subscription delivery date. ??
Basically your subscribe and save “account” not has one delivery date. So ALL of your subscriptions ship on that date of the month if you are due for the item. It appears to me if you select the 5th of the month for your deliveries then anything you are due for that month will be shipped the 5th. So when I go to order something new…it says it will ship on the 5th, even if it’s only the 15th of the month before. You can go and change the day you prefer your deliveries but if you even make it close to the date that it is, it will change your deliveries to the NEXT month. It’s complicated but if you go and try to order a new subscription you can see what I’m talking about. It’s a pretty drastic change in my opinion and really has stopped me from adding any new subscriptions because the $1 or $2 I save isn’t worth waiting weeks for the shipment because it’s usually something I need sooner than that.
I’m with you. I don’t understand why the “add-on” items can’t be a part of the $25 threshold. As long as you’re paying them $25, why does it matter how much the items cost that get you there?
Since the benefit I saw to an Amazon Prime membership was shipping ANY order in 2 days for free, I don’t think I’ll be renewing my membership. I’ve never made use of their entertainment options, so those don’t matter to me.
@Lisa Exactly! Unless you are an Amazon prime member who uses the entertainment options, it’s basically no longer a good deal. I really hope Amazon change its policy to include add on items towards the $25 total. Very frustrating!
I believe they have changed this now. You can even order $25 of just “Add On” items and it will ship with your Prime shipping benefit.
@Jason Good to know. I’ll check it out and update.
I was just going to join the prime membership. I shop all the time on amazon because I’m not able to get out because of waiting on knee replacement surgery for two years now. I think this really sucks!!! I got one free month which turned out to be two weeks. My husband bought me a kindle fire for Christmas. I was suppose to get one free month but the kindle they sent me was returned by someone else. So it wouldn’t set up on my end. I was on the phone with them for over four hrs. So I only got the two weeks of prime instead of the one month free that was suppose to come with it. Very disappointed.
@Barbara What a terrible experience? Did you let customer service know what happened? Did you speak to a manager? I hope he or she rectified the situation!!
I noticed the add-on thing a couple months ago, however, the restriction is really more weight-based than dollar amount. And I kind of get it…to ship something as lightweight as bottle nipples, I’m sure they’re losing money. There have been a few things I’ve wanted to order that were “add-on” items, and yes, it’s frustrating. But, there are plenty of items on there that are less than $25 that are not add-ons (eg: a fire extinguisher I was looking at this morning for my new house). The bottom line, though, for me is…Amazon is cheaper for most of the items I buy, so in turn, between Boyfriend and I, we are already getting several packages a week from them. So I don’t see it as a deal-breaker, since I’m already ordering so much from them anyway. In the end, I’m still saving money, and I still think Prime is the best thing that has ever happened to Amazon!
@Maggie Sounds like you are the ideal Amazon customer! You pay for the $79 yearly Prime upgrade, and your place multiple orders a week over $25. For you and your boyfriend, and others with similar buying habits, Prime still saves you money. And I agree, a lot of the times when I do price comparisons, Amazon has the best deal (though not always).
But folks like me, who order from Amazon maybe once a month, Prime is not as good of a deal as it used to be. Luckily, I’m splitting my membership with friends and only pay $20 a year. http://bargainbabe.com/2012/10/05/we-gave-up-netflix-cheap-movie-and-tv-alternatives/
Still, it’s annoying like light-weight items are essentially not ever eligible for free shipping. I wonder what would happen if I ordered $25 of baby nipples (or $25 of all add on items???) Perhaps a checkout experiment is in order!
Yes, agreed, I didn’t realize you were using it so infrequently! Our thinking is…we are already so busy with work and a new house, as it is…anytime we can cut down on trips to the store and get it on Amazon instead, we do! We will also be first in line to sign up when they start same-day shipping…it’s only a matter of time…
My complaint with the Prime membership is the lending library – you are only allowed to borrow one book per month-heck, I read a book a day when it’s something I can’t put down! I figured I am paying about a dollar more to borrow the book rather than just buy it outright! I called and complained but of course it didn’t make a difference. I won’t renew my membership when this one expires.
@Rhonda If enough Prime members quit, maybe they will change the rules (of the lending library or of the add-on shipping policy.
Does your local library have ebooks? I’ve checked out a few onto our Nook and I’ve been surprised by how easy it is!
Not talking about add-ons, but…
I’ve been a Prime member for a couple of years and it’s ALWAYS had a $25 qualifying order for free 2-day shipping.
@Mike1951 That’s crazy. I’ve never had a $25 minimum purchase requirement for Prime eligible items. If an item is not eligible for Amazon Prime, and many aren’t, then yes, the $25 minimum applies. Are we on the same page?
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They used to accept reviews from people who got items at no cost in return for their review. We received an email from (?) someone supposedly from amazon asking if we would like to join their program & give reviews of items we would receive at no cost. Their second email was so scam like! We turned them in to Amazon & now amazon bans us from leaving a review or asking a question about a product because we get a message that says we are not in “good standing”. They erased all our old reviews. Many emails to Amazon & still nothing.
That is really strange! It makes you wonder about the integrity of the reviews system. Have you tried chatting with an Amazon rep? I get better results when I do that rather than emailing.