Amazon Prime Membership Is NOT Worth It’s Annual Fee

I’ve been an Amazon Prime member for several years. But after a second missed delivery debacle I cancelled my prime membership on it’s renewal date. Sure prime has lots of perks, but is it really worth it’s annual fee? FREE Shipping is often as fast or even next day delivery! 😉

Yesterday I Ordered a $99.00 Item and was promised FREE Prime Delivery by 9:00 PM . The order didn’t arrive on time. Amazon’s app showed the driver was a few stops away. At that time it was 8:39 PM and i could see the drivers location on the app.

I had been in bed watching WWE Monday night raw, and keeping an eye on the drivers location, in the prime app. At around 8:45 i got up and went out to our porch as the driver neared. It had rained earlier and more rain was forecast. I didn’t want the item to get wet, and being nighttime porch pirates was a concern.

9:00 PM came and i witnessed the driver head the other way on the prime app. At 9:06 PM the Amazon prime app said, we’re sorry we missed your delivery. If you still have not received it by Thursday 08/02/18 contact us. I’m saying to myself WTF!

Still thinking the prime delivery item would be delivered I hung out on my porch until 9:30 PM. It didn’t show so really pissed off i went in and cancelled my prime membership.

Next task was to get a Amazon customer service rep on live chat. Amazon’s prime app has great functionality and i got a cs rep nearly instantly.

I explained what the problem was and the guy apologized several times during the session. The cs agent promised to schedule my delivery tomorrow before 10:00 AM. Several times during my cs chat with Amazon’s agent i asked for a chat transcript which never came.

By then the time was after 11:00 PM and I tried getting to sleep, but was still wound up tight about my negative experience with Amazon prime same day delivery. At 1:00 AM still restless i grabbed my smartphone to check if the delivery was scheduled that morning before 10:00 AM. I click on my orders and tracking and there’s a photo showing my prime package sitting in front of my porch door. Once again I’m saying to myself, WTF!

So i got up and got dressed went outside and picked up the package that was wet from a thunderstorm earlier. Luckily the item, an electronic diagnostic scanner did not get wet. By then it was nearly 2:00 AM and i eventually got to sleep.

This is the second prime delivery that was late so far this year. Some of Y’all might think I’m being nit-picky. But as a retiree i am from the old school where a persons word was their bond. On top of the fact I’m paying Amazon $128 for my prime membership. When told I’d receive my item by 9:00 PM that same day I expected it! 😉

This morning over coffee i give amazon a call. Actually i had to put my phone number and item number into a form to request Amazon call me. Got a call back within a minute. The customer service rep pulled up the chat transcript from last night. He apologized and extended my prime membership a month (it’s still set not to renew.)  I requested he send my notes to app development team.

Amazon’s prime app should be modified to where even if a delivery time is missed it keeps working showing the delivery persons location. The rep agreed and promised to send my suggestion to their app development team.

As for the value of the Amazon prime membership at this point I’m still leaning toward not renewing it in two months.

My thoughts are.

Amazon Drive is useful. But as a webmaster i have web-server backup files larger than 2GB those exceed the upload limits on a 5GB plan. I’m not interested in sharing my photos and videos with Amazon.

Prime Movies are mostly low budget and in my personal opinion just plain suck. Our Netflix subscription beats prime movies. I’m not really interested in prime music either. When I’m at my computer i usually live stream a local radio station that plays classic rock oldies.

I like the option to get 2 day prime delivery though. But before i had my prime membership Amazon regular free shipping 90+ percent of the time my items were delivered in 3-4 days. If i need an order quicker i could pay for faster delivery and still save money.

Amazon is a great company and Jeff Bezos is no doubt one smart cookie. It’s said Jeff Bezos is now the richest man in America beating out Bill Gates. And Amazon company is said to soon become the 1st Trillion Dollar company. And to think eBay trashed their once successful business model trying to compete with amazon! 🙄 😆 🙄

Update 08/05/18: I needed a new set of foam pads for my headset. Headed over to amazon and found what i needed. Added the PRIME item to my cart. Went to checkout and found it will take 5 days to deliver. No thanks Amazon. I’m not paying $128 year for Prime 5 day shipping!

Oh well.. As Usual.. Just my two cents worth!