- Should you cancel your Amazon Prime membership?
I'm here to help you answer that question today.
Hey guys, I am The Deal Guy, Matt Granite.
I uploaded a video not too long ago,
where I showed stores, that were shipping faster than Amazon
and based on everything going on right now,
with widespread shipping delays
and some non-delivery issues.
I wanna try and at least put the comments
on this video, help tackle the subject together.
If you've never seen me before,
I've worked for the last couple of decades,
as a consumer advocate, a consumer reporter.
I have an Emmy, believe it or not.
Which is kind of strange, considering now,
I just help people find toilet paper deals
and I am from mattsdailydeals.com.
The disclaimer is that, I do host programming,
as an independent contractor, for Amazon in New York City.
I am not an Amazon employee,
I am not speaking on behalf of the company
nor am I equipped, to speak on behalf of the company.
So these are my own opinions, none of which,
are a reflection of Amazon.
Now that we got that out of the way,
have you guys had any issues, with your Amazon membership?
Are you getting frustrated?
Let's talk quickly,
about what the Amazon membership includes.
I am a Prime member, I have been for a long time
and despite my recent frustration,
I need to remember that,
there's a lot going on in the world right now,
which is far beyond me
and there are a lot of people working very hard,
in warehouses and distribution centers and--
Well, let's talk about the Prime membership benefits first,
we'll figure out how many are you using
and then if the main reason,
you're paying your Prime membership fee right now,
is for same-day and two-day shipping
and that's the only reason,
you're using your Prime membership
and you're not getting that two-day shipping,
maybe this isn't worth your while,
but perhaps it is.
Let's talk first about what Amazon on their website,
lists as the Prime member, membership benefits.
At the time I'm recording this,
your Prime membership costs you about, $13 per month,
around $200 per year
and with that, all-you-can-eat, free shipping benefit.
They list their primary benefits as, free two-day shipping,
for millions of items delivered fast and free.
Free one day delivery available,
of more than 10 million items, no minimum purchase.
Free same-day delivery, like--
If you look right at the top of their Prime Insider
and Prime Membership Benefits, it's clearly the shipping,
that's listed right there.
And then they also have a full guide,
to the Prime delivery benefits.
That being said, you do have streaming benefits,
so you get Amazon's Prime Video collection,
that works similar to Netflix,
you can also subscribe just for that
and not for anything else, I believe.
And your ability to subscribe independently,
to your favorite networks.
Before I answer that question,
that I set out to answer in this video,
if you have never seen the,
Prime Video membership page before, you can use it.
You can subscribe to your favorite channels
and bypass your cable or satellite provider,
for nominal fees per month.
I'm gonna show you some tricks and tips,
to get beyond the slow shipping,
that you might be experiencing.
But that is one of the major benefits,
then of course on the reading benefits,
you can read one of next month's new releases for free.
There are some other reading benefits,
tied to your Amazon membership.
And then, Amazon Photos,
which is free unlimited photo storage for you
and five others, which is great.
I think the photo storage, the Prime Video
and then the delivery for me,
would be the the big benefits.
If you do happen to shop at Whole Foods,
Prime members will get 5% back,
for eligible Prime members and so on and so forth.
It goes on you can read,
it I'm not here to act as a commercial
or endorse any of this, just those are the major benefits.
That being said, if you go on to conduct searches,
for your most frequently purchased products,
right now on Amazon, the shipping delays are unbelievable
and the quoted shipping times, are also insane.
But we need to remember that,
they're no better at Home Depot or Lowe's or Macy's,
on many products and I've actually done videos,
detailing what stores have the most in stock products.
But, with that being said, let's search through,
I'm gonna give you a couple of examples.
So paper towel right now, not available anywhere
and if you scroll down a little bit further on the page,
if you look at these paper towels,
you get a shipping delay of April 30th to May 4th,
which is not bad, considering that I'm recording this video
on Thursday, April 23rd.
Let's look down a little bit.
So a lot of unavailable products.
So usually if you subscribe and save items, right?
You've signed up for product,
that you expect to be delivered, six to 10 days,
these are third-party offerings, where you are--
There's a shipping fee imposed, it just gets worse,
on certain products.
The frustration that I've heard from other subscribers is,
you think Amazon's prioritizing its own products.
So if you were to go on right now,
you're gonna find widespread availability
and product shipping very quickly, for things like,
the Echo Show 8 and you may be thinking to yourself,
"Why can you get an echo in a few days,
"but you can't get paper towel or toilet paper?"
Well the answer is, Amazon generally stocks,
its own products in warehouses across the country.
They control that distribution.
So again, I'm not speaking on behalf of the company,
but their products are already there.
So they have less hurdles to get through,
from point A to point B, to arrive at your door.
Something like toilet paper,
something that's coming from a third party manufacturer,
even like a thermometer right now,
which a lot of people are trying to order,
don't worry, I found those deals on mattsdailydeals.com.
You're going to have issues getting those products.
I'm gonna show you some tricks right now,
to unlock potentially faster shipping
and then, I'm also going to explain to you,
why I think we're seeing the extreme delays,
on certain products, that actually aren't that bad.
So let's look at this Extra-virgin Olive oil,
if you see right now, it has a delivery date of,
April 6 to May 4th, which is not bad.
I'm gonna give you a couple of tips and tricks right now,
to perhaps get you a faster shipping speed.
So first thing, on something like this, Grapeseed oil,
it's going to default to subscribe and saving,
you're gonna see something that says,
first delivery on May 29th.
It immediately goes to that
and I'm using my friend's Amazon Prime membership account,
just so I can try and calculate,
the different shipping speeds,
based on his zip code versus mine.
We're gonna go to my account in a moment.
If you switch up to one-time purchase,
you're gonna notice that it becomes in stock
and a much earlier delivery date of May 5th.
So that's a quick thing that you can change,
also a lot of you guys get frustrated when you see,
additional shipping charges and that's because,
some of the products being sold on amazon.com,
are not fulfilled or distributed by Amazon,
they're just coming from different places.
I think Amazon needs to improve some of its settings,
so you can see exactly what's going on
and not all of these items show up in your search,
at the same time, but I'm gonna share with you,
the good news.
Get ready for the good news.
So I have essentials that I've ordered
and Amazon has quoted me crazy, long delivery dates.
I'm gonna show you right now that those delivery dates,
have all been moved up, in fact,
in all of my tests, at least 60% of the products,
that I've ordered, have shifted to a delivery date,
three weeks earlier, than what Amazon quoted or more.
You guys look at this Amazon order,
that I placed on April 3rd,
I ordered all sorts of products.
And one of the products that I ordered with,
Prime express shipping was just,
pure Canola oil to cook with.
And Amazon on April 3rd, gave me a delivery date of,
Tuesday, May 12th and I thought to myself,
"That's completely ridiculous.
"I'm paying a prime membership fee,
"what is taking that long?"
And I think Amazon lists the longer delivery dates,
to give themselves longer to fulfill,
based on what's going on right now.
But I was pleasantly surprised when that item,
with the May 13th delivery date,
actually showed up a month early, on April 14th.
So despite that really long delay,
where I thought to myself, "I'm paying per month,
"I'm supposed to get two-day shipping,
"I'm supposed to get at least shipping,
"that is considered acceptable on my standards,
"on something like cooking oil."
It arrived early.
Maybe cooking oil is not as much of a necessity,
but let's talk about diapers.
Not for me, for my 21 month old baby daughter,
she's stage five by the way, for those of you wondering.
But I ordered diapers for her on Sunday, April 5th.
Regularly stocked, available diapers
and I was told that, with Prime express shipping,
these diapers were not going to arrive, until May 14th.
That's more than a month for diapers and at this point,
I was angry, I was livid, I was thinking to myself,
"Come on."
I rely upon Amazon for the service,
I pay a $200 per year fee, to get my products quickly,
I understand what's going on in the world,
but there's a warehouse and a distribution plant,
probably within, I don't know, 10 miles of where I live,
what is taking so long?
And then sure enough, just like the cooking oil,
the double box of diapers,
arrived, delivered, on April 12th.
When I searched and when Amazon quoted me,
a delivery date of Thursday, May 14th,
that was more than a month away,
from when I ordered on Sunday, April 5th.
But guys, it arrived, April 12th.
Just because things appear a certain way right now,
doesn't mean it's gonna be that way forever
and certainly doesn't mean,
the delivery times you're being quoted,
are the delivery times you are gonna receive.
I'm gonna log back in to my friend's account for a second,
just to--
So we can get a second basis of comparison right here
and you're going to see that,
if you try to contact Amazon Customer Service right now,
there's basically no one to talk to.
That's very frustrating, there's limited email support,
limited phone support
and with the order issues that I've had,
it takes a long time to get someone to respond to you.
Here's what I can tell you,
if Amazon is consistently missing your delivery dates,
those are the delivery dates that you're quoted
and it's arriving later, you can get a one-month credit,
for your Prime membership, for that particular month,
which would be like a 13 dollar credit.
I found that, as long as you're not abusing the system,
Amazon is very receptive,
to passing along those credits to you
and that might be the best way to balance out,
the issues that we're facing.
But, if they are quoting delivery dates
and they're delivering earlier
and you're still having trouble reaching customer service
and you're just not happy, I think if we all bear in mind,
what's going on right now, maybe it's worth it for you.
Again, everyone is different, but in my case,
as you guys saw, for all those crazy long delivery dates,
that I was quoted, the products all arrived earlier.
I think out of the last 20 or 30 products,
that I've received and I'm getting,
a lot of deliveries per day,
I've had maybe one missing item and for me,
that's not enough to cancel my membership.
But it might be completely different and this is different,
per country, per zip code.
I again, work in New York, I record in Toronto,
with really depends on what warehouse
and what day that I'm using
and where I happen to be living, at the time.
So I'd love to hear from you guys.
Why don't I let you guys take it from here?
Should you cancel?
Are you going to cancel?
Are you still happy with what you're receiving?
I'm gonna let you guys continue this conversation,
there are comments that I'll be reading.
Everyone else will be reading your comments.
Do please, go ahead take it from here.
You guys like this content that you saw,
to at least start the conversation.
Feel free to like this video, subscribe,
turn your notifications on
and don't forget to, head on over to mattsdailydeals.com.
If you wanna see the rest of what I'm doing
and some of the blogs that I have
and hopefully, we'll make the decision together.
I hope you guys stay safe, I hope you stay healthy
and we'll see you in my next upload.