Amazon Prime Day

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

DullGreyGuy said:
  Do you really need same day delivery on everything? No but we are ever more impatient so suspect people like it. 

I think the question is do you need the things you are ordering? Most of the time I come to the conclusion "no I don't" and so don't bother, either that or I wait until I know there will be a discount.

Dunelm have 20% off most bank hoildays so I wait for those to order their paint rather than buying it now, most of the time I wouldn't get around to opening the tin until after the sale anyway.

DullGreyGuy said:

Outlet stores certainly dont and they are effectively passing off... looking at a suit jacket the original in store was model was 50% cashmere, 50% wool with a floating canvas construction, hand made button holes and working cuff. The Outlet version was 35% cashmere, 35% wool and 30% nylon, fused canvas, machined button holes and non-working cuff but the tag gave the model name and RRP as the in store version despite being materially cheaper to make.  

TK Maxx and their own brand items? I'd be highly surprised if they did as dont ever remember seeing anything in store that wasnt marked down. They also do the above, CK etc make budget versions of their products to be sold in store but TK Maxx list their price against the standard version's RRP. 

Some may be very happy to have budget features, an online India based tailor I've used occasionally charges $100 to have them hand make the button holes and in most cases I dont choose it but its the dishonesty of it that I've issue with.

I don't really know how they get away with it, I think the government has come to the conclusion we spend money because of all this nonsense and if it was stopped they'd be in trouble (money makes the world go round and all that).

I just felt the lack of the intervening price on the Amazon screenshot was particuarly misleading.

DullGreyGuy

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

DullGreyGuy said:
  Do you really need same day delivery on everything? No but we are ever more impatient so suspect people like it. 

I think the question is do you need the things you are ordering? Most of the time I come to the conclusion "no I don't" and so don't bother, either that or I wait until I know there will be a discount.

Dunelm have 20% off most bank hoildays so I wait for those to order their paint rather than buying it now, most of the time I wouldn't get around to opening the tin until after the sale anyway.

My wish list is full of things I'd like but dont need enough to ever pull the trigger on buying unless I note a significant drop in price. Think a discussion on materialism/consumerism is a bit too much off topic for the thread. 

Actually I think the Dunelm is the possibly the perfect example of where the express delivery may be beneficial... getting same/next day to make use of the bankholiday extra day off to do the painting -v- standard delivery meaning it'll come after the bank holiday has ended. 

There will always be benefit of learning retailers patterns; a query was raised on here about where to buy Miele "power disks" for the cheapest price, probably for 48 weeks of the year there are a few retailers that knock 5-10% off the price but at least once a quarter Miele do a 20% discount so bulk buy when its on offer to at least get you through to the next sale. 

Grumpy_chap

DullGreyGuy said:

Prime does include several things beyond just free fast delivery, Prime Video we do watch and there have been some good series exclusively there, Odeon ticket promo, unlimited photo storage, free e-books, music etc. Dont use all myself and see them more as a sweetener rather than the core reason for subscribing. 

Amazon don't really bring those "other benefits" to the attention of anyone, certainly never to my attention when I have a free trial.  I have no idea how to access any of those "other benefits" or how they will enhance my life.  As much as I don't want the hard sell, you'd think that Amazon would do all they can to promote the "other benefits" to me when I have a free trial to maximise the chances of me actually subscribing. 

Amazon must see that I regularly take the free trial, possibly linking that to a marginal increase in spend during trial periods which gives them value from the free trial, but not linking the profile to gain permanent Prime subscription...
Based on the free express delivery service this time being somewhat below par, I am barely tempted to even bother with the next free trial.  I also don't feel that I ever buy anything while in a Prime trial that I would not buy otherwise - though I may bring purchases forward to fit in the free quick delivery period.  I never pay for delivery from Amazon - if it is not free delivery I simply won't conclude the order.  The same as any other online purchase.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Grumpy_chap said:

Amazon must see that I regularly take the free trial, possibly linking that to a marginal increase in spend during trial periods which gives them value from the free trial, but not linking the profile to gain permanent Prime subscription...

It's a bit like the moblie games, the object is to break you, get you make that first payment as once you've done that you'll likely keep paying (this is why one of the offers they do is a week of Prime for 99p).

They do occassionally send out emails saying you have these unused Prime benefits (perhaps not if you have marketing preferences turned off?)

Same as DGG I rarely use the extras but if we have Prime for a month will watch a few bits on Prime video.

Grumpy_chap said:

I never pay for delivery from Amazon - if it is not free delivery I simply won't conclude the order.  The same as any other online purchase.

Out of interest do you meet min spends to gain free delivery?

A while back I "needed" screws, wanted a certain brand and CPC were cheaper than anywhere else (I used to buy them from Toolstation whose prices have just gone up and up), min spend was £25 for free delivery which is reasonable IMHO so was worth bumping the order for something I'll use.

Needed some ACO drains, free delivery on Tootlstaion but £90 for 3m where as I paid £30 on eBay with £7.99 delivery.

It must be a bit of swings and roundabouts rather than refusing to pay for delivery at all?

It seems a lot of places with free delivery have a higher price on the actual item so you end up paying for delivery one way or the other.

Grumpy_chap

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

Out of interest do you meet min spends to gain free delivery?

Yes.
It is very easy with Amazon, if I am below the threshold as we have some regular consumable items that are available on Amazon so we can just top up with those to make the basket value.  My wife's specific shampoo she likes is one such, so no shelf life to worry about.  More often, though, we'll just add things to the basket and leave them there until we have triggered the free delivery threshold.

My biggest gripe with the Amazon free delivery for spending above the threshold is that each item will end up being delivered separately in any case.