Amazon Prime. Worth it?

Peter_Blonde · 30-07-2015, 12:34

I am curious what people who have signed up to this service think. Is it worth it?

kegsie · 30-07-2015, 13:10

Well worth it I say. The £80 cost is at least partially offset offset by the free deliveries and there is a decent level of content for me.

Tassium · 30-07-2015, 13:49

Amazon have made an error in my view in combining their streaming service with their retail operation for one fee.

It's like offering for sale 64GB USB sticks with a 500g pack of ham for a combined priced.
It instantly limits the customer base.

johnathome · 30-07-2015, 16:41

Streaming of TV/Movies
Cloud Storage
Kindle Books
Streaming Music
Next Day Delivery on lots of items

All for just over £6.50 a month, it's worth it for me, just a pity you have to pay it all in one lump.

midlandsfirst · 30-07-2015, 16:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by johnathome

Streaming of TV/Movies
Cloud Storage
Kindle Books
Streaming Music
Next Day Delivery on lots of items

All for just over £6.50 a month, it's worth it for me, just a pity you have to pay it all in one lump.

Worth noting that If you just want the tv/movie streaming - you can pay £5.99 monthly... Its only if you want the full prime benefits that you have to pay in one lump. Also worth noting that i believe the £5.99 includes HD (the yearly plan certainly does) whereas Netflix charge extra for HD (£5.99 SD £7.49 HD)

Would be nice if they made it so you could pay the full thing monthly (Perhaps even committing to a 12 month contract - it would make it easier)

As with Netflix/Now TV it all depends what programmes/films you want to watch. One will have rights for some, another will have rights for others etc. Check out what you like watching and decide which is best for you.

Steve

midlandsfirst · 30-07-2015, 16:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tassium

Amazon have made an error in my view in combining their streaming service with their retail operation for one fee.

It's like offering for sale 64GB USB sticks with a 500g pack of ham for a combined priced.
It instantly limits the customer base.

Not really cos if you don't want the retail side - just pay the £5.99 a month. How does that limit the customer base?

Steve

wakey · 30-07-2015, 17:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by midlandsfirst

Worth noting that If you just want the tv/movie streaming - you can pay £5.99 monthly... Its only if you want the full prime benefits that you have to pay in one lump. Also worth noting that i believe the £5.99 includes HD (the yearly plan certainly does) whereas Netflix charge extra for HD (£5.99 SD £7.49 HD)

Would be nice if they made it so you could pay the full thing monthly (Perhaps even committing to a 12 month contract - it would make it easier)

As with Netflix/Now TV it all depends what programmes/films you want to watch. One will have rights for some, another will have rights for others etc. Check out what you like watching and decide which is best for you.

Steve

I suspect it's to protect themselves from misuse. The price will almost certainly be calculated on a basis that while at certain points in the year you may order say 10 items in a month there will be other months where you may order nothing so it offsets itself. Where as you could signup for a month, order 10 items and then cancel, the. 7 months later signup again and order another 10 items. All for the cost of getting next day delivery for two items so it's not very cost effective for Amazon.

Even with a 12 month contract these aren't always that water tight and you do have legal rights to get out of them within a certain period and in certain situations.

Also obviously upfront means Amazon can invest the money right away and earn a return from it so a monthly fee would almost certainly be higher than the all in one fee

wakey · 30-07-2015, 17:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tassium

Amazon have made an error in my view in combining their streaming service with their retail operation for one fee.

It's like offering for sale 64GB USB sticks with a 500g pack of ham for a combined priced.
It instantly limits the customer base.

They are free added extra's on their Free Shipping service though rather than supposed to be fully fledged products. There are better streaming video services (although Amazon does have some good and often exclusive content), there are better music streaming services, better cloud storage and better book subscription services (including their own Kindle Unlimited) because they are designed as just something extra as a thank you for subscribing

St@mmie · 30-07-2015, 18:15

I would say the movie/TV streaming service is nowhere near as good as Netflix,
I haven't sampled the music streaming service yet so can't comment on it and the reason I signed up for it being the free next day delivery is for me a waste of money.
That latter point will probably depend on where you live and if you have decent Amazon Logistics staff in your area, for me its a completely unreliable service and Amazon wont follow up any complaint about failed deliveries (and the outright plain lies from the delivery staff) merely offering a months extension the the Prime sub every time they mess up.
But if the service worked and combined with the video and music streaming services its probably good value at 80 quid a year but as this is the online entertainment section with the caveat of not trying the music service I'd say its probably not worth full sub to be entertained

treefr0g · 30-07-2015, 21:03

I got it a few weeks ago when they were doing a £20 off deal.

I only got it for the free next day delivery but this really is the gift that keeps giving.
I didn't expect to use the instant video but luckily it's built into my TV and I've watched quite a bit so far.
They have a lot of movies that haven't been shown on Sky( loved Paddington

)

Now they've added Prime music at no extra cost which is great for me as I don't like music enough to pay for it.

And now today I find out that Clarkson, Hammond and May have been signed up.
I will happily pay the full price when my subscription runs out.

neil79 · 01-08-2015, 18:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by treefr0g

And now today I find out that Clarkson, Hammond and May have been signed up.
I will happily pay the full price when my subscription runs out.

My renewal date for Prime is due soon and I am disappointed that Amazon are apparently signing up Clarkson a known thug and promoter of dubious driving practices.
I was hoping Sky would sign him if anybody had to

Mikenuk · 01-08-2015, 18:21

Thought Amazon Video was a bit rubbish.
But then I changed my country to US - Much more choice! and cheaper

ovbg · 01-08-2015, 22:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mikenuk

Thought Amazon Video was a bit rubbish.
But then I changed my country to US - Much more choice! and cheaper

Interesting. Are you talking about Amazon Prime? As the only way to switch between Amazon Prime US and UK is by having a subscription with both of them. You can't just switch via VPN or SmartDNS like Netflix.

As for Amazon Instant Video, I don't really see that big a difference in choice.

coachtrip_fan99 · 02-08-2015, 01:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by midlandsfirst

Not really cos if you don't want the retail side - just pay the £5.99 a month. How does that limit the customer base?

Steve

What if you ONLY want the retail side?

I'm subscribed to prime only because I get it half price as a full time student. I wouldn't pay the full £80.

I'm not interested in their streaming services. Nor kindle books or cloud storage.

I have only ever used the next day delivery. I've never used any of the other stuff!

Tony_Daniels · 02-08-2015, 03:05

Pay-monthly works better as it's a small, to most people insignificant, amount of money that people are happy to allow to be deducted from their account for the same reason people do with Netflix. They might not have watched anything on there for the month but they want it there just in case.

It's how these services work, things are kept for 'just in case' and it's justified by the low monthly amount.

£79 as a one-off payment is a completely different ball game.

wakey · 02-08-2015, 03:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mikenuk

Thought Amazon Video was a bit rubbish.
But then I changed my country to US - Much more choice! and cheaper

Except it's not really cheaper. It's $99 excluding tax. The tax differs by state, a couple have no sales tax and others have no slash tax currently on digital goods which this gets classed as but if you deduct VAT from the UK price they work out pretty much identical.

And by subscribing to the U.S. version you are missing out on the core part of the prime service and that's the delivery service so you automatically get les value out of it

ovbg · 02-08-2015, 07:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tony_Daniels

Pay-monthly works better as it's a small, to most people insignificant, amount of money that people are happy to allow to be deducted from their account for the same reason people do with Netflix. They might not have watched anything on there for the month but they want it there just in case.

It's how these services work, things are kept for 'just in case' and it's justified by the low monthly amount.

£79 as a one-off payment is a completely different ball game.

It just so happens that Prime UK Also have a video-only version of Prime without the additional features on a monthly subscription of £5.99.

I don't believe the US offers that to their customers.

Stewie_C · 02-08-2015, 08:52

I think they should separate out prime delivery service and the instant video. I have prime because of the delivery, but have tried the instant video.

The trouble with the service for me is that the boxed sets are incomplete, the new episodes for a lot of things are way behind. But the biggest problem is the slow interface and constant buffering. Plus no app for Plex.

I would rather pay less for just delivery and not bother with the video.

ovbg · 02-08-2015, 09:09

What interface do you use that's slow and buffers?

I used to experience that back in LoveFilm days, but never now.

I generally use AirPlay or the AFTV, and the latter has possibly the fasted UI of any streaming service

JEFF62 · 02-08-2015, 09:12

What happened to the £5.99 option? I thought you could have Amazon instant Video separately for a monthly fee like Netflix? I last had Amazon Instant about 18 months ago when it was still called Lovefilm and kept it for two months. It changed to Amazon Instant during that time but you didnt have to sign up for the £79 option.

Sick Bullet · 02-08-2015, 12:01

As huge as Amazon are I just never bothered with it, but that will change next year when I subscribe to Amazon Instant TV for the boys, not interested in prime for £79 in advance for the year I don't use them for ordering items.

wakey · 02-08-2015, 15:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stewie_C

I think they should separate out prime delivery service and the instant video. I have prime because of the delivery, but have tried the instant video.

The trouble with the service for me is that the boxed sets are incomplete, the new episodes for a lot of things are way behind. But the biggest problem is the slow interface and constant buffering. Plus no app for Plex.

I would rather pay less for just delivery and not bother with the video.

You wouldn't get a cheaper service though. The delivery is the main cost of the service hence why regions that already had video as part of prime or regions that have no video service also got a price rise. Before the price rise Amazons annual report actually stated that while the old price was cost effective for Amazon when they launched Prime in the 7 years since with no price rises the delivery costs they were being charged had gone through the roof

neil79 · 02-08-2015, 16:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by wakey

You wouldn't get a cheaper service though. The delivery is the main cost of the service hence why regions that already had video as part of prime or regions that have no video service also got a price rise. Before the price rise Amazons annual report actually stated that while the old price was cost effective for Amazon when they launched Prime in the 7 years since with no price rises the delivery costs they were being charged had gone through the roof

The delivery drivers are being paid less than 2009 when I left the parcel industry.
How have costs gone through the roof ?

derek500 · 02-08-2015, 16:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by neil79

The delivery drivers are being paid less than 2009 when I left the parcel industry.
How have costs gone through the roof ?

Is that across the board? We had two Prime deliveries on Friday, one Royal Mail the other DPD.

wakey · 02-08-2015, 17:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by neil79

The delivery drivers are being paid less than 2009 when I left the parcel industry.
How have costs gone through the roof ?

Have you got proof of that? And just look at the price of a first class stamp. 2009 it was 39p and in 2015 it's 63p. And when Prime launched a first class stamp was 32p. And that's not restricted to just stamp prices, all of Royal Mails costs have gone up as have all the costs to to send via any courier firm.

30-07-2015, 12:34	#1
Peter_Blonde Inactive Member Join Date: Jun 2015 Posts: 300	Amazon Prime. Worth it? I am curious what people who have signed up to this service think. Is it worth it?

30-07-2015, 13:10	#2
kegsie Forum Member Join Date: Feb 2004 Posts: 2,611	Well worth it I say. The £80 cost is at least partially offset offset by the free deliveries and there is a decent level of content for me.

30-07-2015, 13:49	#3
Tassium Forum Member Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: It's Grim Posts: 24,412	Amazon have made an error in my view in combining their streaming service with their retail operation for one fee. It's like offering for sale 64GB USB sticks with a 500g pack of ham for a combined priced. It instantly limits the customer base.

30-07-2015, 16:41	#4
johnathome Forum Member Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Pompey Posts: 1,068	Streaming of TV/Movies Cloud Storage Kindle Books Streaming Music Next Day Delivery on lots of items All for just over £6.50 a month, it's worth it for me, just a pity you have to pay it all in one lump.

30-07-2015, 16:46	#5
midlandsfirst Forum Member Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Walsall, West Midlands Posts: 633	Quote: Originally Posted by johnathome Streaming of TV/Movies Cloud Storage Kindle Books Streaming Music Next Day Delivery on lots of items All for just over £6.50 a month, it's worth it for me, just a pity you have to pay it all in one lump. Worth noting that If you just want the tv/movie streaming - you can pay £5.99 monthly... Its only if you want the full prime benefits that you have to pay in one lump. Also worth noting that i believe the £5.99 includes HD (the yearly plan certainly does) whereas Netflix charge extra for HD (£5.99 SD £7.49 HD) Would be nice if they made it so you could pay the full thing monthly (Perhaps even committing to a 12 month contract - it would make it easier) As with Netflix/Now TV it all depends what programmes/films you want to watch. One will have rights for some, another will have rights for others etc. Check out what you like watching and decide which is best for you. Steve

30-07-2015, 16:55	#6
midlandsfirst Forum Member Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Walsall, West Midlands Posts: 633	Quote: Originally Posted by Tassium Amazon have made an error in my view in combining their streaming service with their retail operation for one fee. It's like offering for sale 64GB USB sticks with a 500g pack of ham for a combined priced. It instantly limits the customer base. Not really cos if you don't want the retail side - just pay the £5.99 a month. How does that limit the customer base? Steve

30-07-2015, 17:47	#7
wakey Forum Member Join Date: Apr 2002 Posts: 2,763	Quote: Originally Posted by midlandsfirst Worth noting that If you just want the tv/movie streaming - you can pay £5.99 monthly... Its only if you want the full prime benefits that you have to pay in one lump. Also worth noting that i believe the £5.99 includes HD (the yearly plan certainly does) whereas Netflix charge extra for HD (£5.99 SD £7.49 HD) Would be nice if they made it so you could pay the full thing monthly (Perhaps even committing to a 12 month contract - it would make it easier) As with Netflix/Now TV it all depends what programmes/films you want to watch. One will have rights for some, another will have rights for others etc. Check out what you like watching and decide which is best for you. Steve I suspect it's to protect themselves from misuse. The price will almost certainly be calculated on a basis that while at certain points in the year you may order say 10 items in a month there will be other months where you may order nothing so it offsets itself. Where as you could signup for a month, order 10 items and then cancel, the. 7 months later signup again and order another 10 items. All for the cost of getting next day delivery for two items so it's not very cost effective for Amazon. Even with a 12 month contract these aren't always that water tight and you do have legal rights to get out of them within a certain period and in certain situations. Also obviously upfront means Amazon can invest the money right away and earn a return from it so a monthly fee would almost certainly be higher than the all in one fee

30-07-2015, 17:54	#8
wakey Forum Member Join Date: Apr 2002 Posts: 2,763	Quote: Originally Posted by Tassium Amazon have made an error in my view in combining their streaming service with their retail operation for one fee. It's like offering for sale 64GB USB sticks with a 500g pack of ham for a combined priced. It instantly limits the customer base. They are free added extra's on their Free Shipping service though rather than supposed to be fully fledged products. There are better streaming video services (although Amazon does have some good and often exclusive content), there are better music streaming services, better cloud storage and better book subscription services (including their own Kindle Unlimited) because they are designed as just something extra as a thank you for subscribing

30-07-2015, 18:15	#9
St@mmie Forum Member Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 655	I would say the movie/TV streaming service is nowhere near as good as Netflix, I haven't sampled the music streaming service yet so can't comment on it and the reason I signed up for it being the free next day delivery is for me a waste of money. That latter point will probably depend on where you live and if you have decent Amazon Logistics staff in your area, for me its a completely unreliable service and Amazon wont follow up any complaint about failed deliveries (and the outright plain lies from the delivery staff) merely offering a months extension the the Prime sub every time they mess up. But if the service worked and combined with the video and music streaming services its probably good value at 80 quid a year but as this is the online entertainment section with the caveat of not trying the music service I'd say its probably not worth full sub to be entertained

30-07-2015, 21:03	#10
treefr0g Forum Member Join Date: May 2004 Posts: 10,342	I got it a few weeks ago when they were doing a £20 off deal. I only got it for the free next day delivery but this really is the gift that keeps giving. I didn't expect to use the instant video but luckily it's built into my TV and I've watched quite a bit so far. They have a lot of movies that haven't been shown on Sky( loved Paddington ) Now they've added Prime music at no extra cost which is great for me as I don't like music enough to pay for it. And now today I find out that Clarkson, Hammond and May have been signed up. I will happily pay the full price when my subscription runs out.

01-08-2015, 18:07	#11
neil79 Forum Member Join Date: Aug 2005 Posts: 506	Quote: Originally Posted by treefr0g And now today I find out that Clarkson, Hammond and May have been signed up. I will happily pay the full price when my subscription runs out. My renewal date for Prime is due soon and I am disappointed that Amazon are apparently signing up Clarkson a known thug and promoter of dubious driving practices. I was hoping Sky would sign him if anybody had to

01-08-2015, 18:21	#12
Mikenuk Forum Member Join Date: Nov 2012 Posts: 3	Thought Amazon Video was a bit rubbish. But then I changed my country to US - Much more choice! and cheaper

01-08-2015, 22:07	#13
ovbg Forum Member Join Date: May 2003 Posts: 1,348	Quote: Originally Posted by Mikenuk Thought Amazon Video was a bit rubbish. But then I changed my country to US - Much more choice! and cheaper Interesting. Are you talking about Amazon Prime? As the only way to switch between Amazon Prime US and UK is by having a subscription with both of them. You can't just switch via VPN or SmartDNS like Netflix. As for Amazon Instant Video, I don't really see that big a difference in choice.

02-08-2015, 01:22	#14
coachtrip_fan99 Forum Member Join Date: Jun 2009 Posts: 2,127	Quote: Originally Posted by midlandsfirst Not really cos if you don't want the retail side - just pay the £5.99 a month. How does that limit the customer base? Steve What if you ONLY want the retail side? I'm subscribed to prime only because I get it half price as a full time student. I wouldn't pay the full £80. I'm not interested in their streaming services. Nor kindle books or cloud storage. I have only ever used the next day delivery. I've never used any of the other stuff!

02-08-2015, 03:05	#15
Tony_Daniels Inactive Member Join Date: May 2015 Posts: 3,529	Pay-monthly works better as it's a small, to most people insignificant, amount of money that people are happy to allow to be deducted from their account for the same reason people do with Netflix. They might not have watched anything on there for the month but they want it there just in case. It's how these services work, things are kept for 'just in case' and it's justified by the low monthly amount. £79 as a one-off payment is a completely different ball game.

02-08-2015, 03:42	#16
wakey Forum Member Join Date: Apr 2002 Posts: 2,763	Quote: Originally Posted by Mikenuk Thought Amazon Video was a bit rubbish. But then I changed my country to US - Much more choice! and cheaper Except it's not really cheaper. It's $99 excluding tax. The tax differs by state, a couple have no sales tax and others have no slash tax currently on digital goods which this gets classed as but if you deduct VAT from the UK price they work out pretty much identical. And by subscribing to the U.S. version you are missing out on the core part of the prime service and that's the delivery service so you automatically get les value out of it

02-08-2015, 07:04	#17
ovbg Forum Member Join Date: May 2003 Posts: 1,348	Quote: Originally Posted by Tony_Daniels Pay-monthly works better as it's a small, to most people insignificant, amount of money that people are happy to allow to be deducted from their account for the same reason people do with Netflix. They might not have watched anything on there for the month but they want it there just in case. It's how these services work, things are kept for 'just in case' and it's justified by the low monthly amount. £79 as a one-off payment is a completely different ball game. It just so happens that Prime UK Also have a video-only version of Prime without the additional features on a monthly subscription of £5.99. I don't believe the US offers that to their customers.

02-08-2015, 08:52	#18
Stewie_C Forum Member Join Date: Dec 2006 Posts: 1,715	I think they should separate out prime delivery service and the instant video. I have prime because of the delivery, but have tried the instant video. The trouble with the service for me is that the boxed sets are incomplete, the new episodes for a lot of things are way behind. But the biggest problem is the slow interface and constant buffering. Plus no app for Plex. I would rather pay less for just delivery and not bother with the video.

02-08-2015, 09:09	#19
ovbg Forum Member Join Date: May 2003 Posts: 1,348	What interface do you use that's slow and buffers? I used to experience that back in LoveFilm days, but never now. I generally use AirPlay or the AFTV, and the latter has possibly the fasted UI of any streaming service

02-08-2015, 09:12	#20
JEFF62 Forum Member Join Date: Aug 2005 Posts: 3,539	What happened to the £5.99 option? I thought you could have Amazon instant Video separately for a monthly fee like Netflix? I last had Amazon Instant about 18 months ago when it was still called Lovefilm and kept it for two months. It changed to Amazon Instant during that time but you didnt have to sign up for the £79 option.

02-08-2015, 12:01	#21
Sick Bullet Forum Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Middleton Posts: 13,839	As huge as Amazon are I just never bothered with it, but that will change next year when I subscribe to Amazon Instant TV for the boys, not interested in prime for £79 in advance for the year I don't use them for ordering items.

DS Forums

Amazon Prime. Worth it?

02-08-2015, 15:43	#22
wakey Forum Member Join Date: Apr 2002 Posts: 2,763	Quote: Originally Posted by Stewie_C I think they should separate out prime delivery service and the instant video. I have prime because of the delivery, but have tried the instant video. The trouble with the service for me is that the boxed sets are incomplete, the new episodes for a lot of things are way behind. But the biggest problem is the slow interface and constant buffering. Plus no app for Plex. I would rather pay less for just delivery and not bother with the video. You wouldn't get a cheaper service though. The delivery is the main cost of the service hence why regions that already had video as part of prime or regions that have no video service also got a price rise. Before the price rise Amazons annual report actually stated that while the old price was cost effective for Amazon when they launched Prime in the 7 years since with no price rises the delivery costs they were being charged had gone through the roof

02-08-2015, 16:48	#23
neil79 Forum Member Join Date: Aug 2005 Posts: 506	Quote: Originally Posted by wakey You wouldn't get a cheaper service though. The delivery is the main cost of the service hence why regions that already had video as part of prime or regions that have no video service also got a price rise. Before the price rise Amazons annual report actually stated that while the old price was cost effective for Amazon when they launched Prime in the 7 years since with no price rises the delivery costs they were being charged had gone through the roof The delivery drivers are being paid less than 2009 when I left the parcel industry. How have costs gone through the roof ?

02-08-2015, 16:56	#24
derek500 Forum Member Join Date: Feb 2002 Posts: 20,375	Quote: Originally Posted by neil79 The delivery drivers are being paid less than 2009 when I left the parcel industry. How have costs gone through the roof ? Is that across the board? We had two Prime deliveries on Friday, one Royal Mail the other DPD.

02-08-2015, 17:07	#25
wakey Forum Member Join Date: Apr 2002 Posts: 2,763	Quote: Originally Posted by neil79 The delivery drivers are being paid less than 2009 when I left the parcel industry. How have costs gone through the roof ? Have you got proof of that? And just look at the price of a first class stamp. 2009 it was 39p and in 2015 it's 63p. And when Prime launched a first class stamp was 32p. And that's not restricted to just stamp prices, all of Royal Mails costs have gone up as have all the costs to to send via any courier firm.