this post was submitted on 22 Sep 2023
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Oh boy, more enshittification

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[–] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 104 points 1 year ago (3 children)
[–] LongbottomLeaf@lemmy.nz 23 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Three cheers for ProtonVPN! Make Amazon walk the plank!

[–] swiffswaffplop@lemmy.world 15 points 1 year ago (3 children)

As someone who hasn’t sailed the 7 seas since PB and BitTorrent days. Is there a good guide on how to best utilize this now a days?

I literally pay for every single streaming service + YouTube tv and it’s ridiculous. Time to cut the cables again.

[–] Entropywins@kbin.social 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

PB and bittorent will always be there for you... use a vpn though

[–] LongbottomLeaf@lemmy.nz 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

!piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com

https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/10901

A good starting place. Hope this helps.

Stremio + torentio or downloading your movies + jellyfin

[–] DrMario@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Veee—-peee—-innnn

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[–] errer@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)
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[–] ekZepp@lemmy.world 89 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] Sharpiemarker@feddit.de 29 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yar! 🏴‍☠️

[–] ohto@lemmy.sdf.org 64 points 1 year ago (6 children)

I’ve been a Prime member from the very beginning, but I’m seriously reevaluating whether I should drop it. The value proposition is decreasing for me. At $99 I thought it was pretty good considering the perks like video and music. But then they crippled Prime Music a few months back so it’s a shadow of what it once was (pushing you to subscribe to Unlimited). Now Prime Video is getting ads. Those “extras” are becoming less compelling. So I’m paying $140 annually for just free shipping? Hmmm, these numbers don’t add up anymore.

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 30 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I cancelled last year. Slower shipping is annoying, but it also encourages me to shop elsewhere, which is nice. I haven't missed Prime Video, and I'm considering cancelling other streaming subscriptions as well (Disney+ and Netflix left, and both raised prices for my ad-free tier).

At current prices, I could probably just buy physical media for nearly everything I care about and come out ahead.

[–] saltnotsugar@lemm.ee 8 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Amazon typically hasn’t been two business days consistently for years for me. I also found out many of their prices are massively inflated for certain products. A lawn mower I was considering was at least 30% more expensive than the same one on a competing website.

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[–] nonearther@lemmy.ml 19 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Great news is that Amazon has also added delivery fee for same day and overnight deliveries for Prime members. At least in UK

So basically it's too much payment for not much of benefits

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[–] natedog526@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

If they are gonna run ads, I may drop it and just stick with their ad streaming service freevee if they gonna do that.

[–] DTFpanda@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You still get free shipping as a non member if you buy like $25 worth of shit. And you might get it in 3 days instead of 1 (the horror)

But yeah, that's about all you're getting and no it's not worth it.

[–] thessnake03@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

They just recently upped free shipping to $35 in stuff

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[–] NOT_RICK@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You’re getting it for 140? I think I pay 180. Seeing the service continually get worse and worse has me close to canceling too.

Just do it. For $140, you could buy like 10-15 DVDs and rip them onto a USB drive or something.

I also highly recommend your local library (if you're in an area with good library service), we get lots of shows and movies there for free.

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[–] IzzyData@lemmy.ml 57 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

This is a disturbing trend. Apparently a lot of these major streaming services are discovering that they can make more from ads than people paying for the service. At least when calculated with the subscriber counts they currently have. It seems they don't anticipate people leaving their services over this.

Personally there is no way I would ever pay for a service that has ads. I'm not going to pay for a service even if its paid service doesn't have ads if it has a free or cheaper service with ads as that would just be rewarding them for implementing ads.

For example with Amazon's plan here. If you pay this $3.00 to remove ads then you are paying Amazon $3.00 because they added ads. This only increases the amount of ads that will be added to things.

[–] queermunist@lemmy.ml 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

For example with Amazon’s plan here. If you pay this $3.00 to remove ads then you are paying Amazon $3.00 because they added ads.

That's just a stealth price increase that they can implement without admitting they're raising prices.

[–] IzzyData@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think it is a little different. They might even want you to not pay for it if you are a prolific user of Prime Videos.

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[–] Spzi@lemm.ee 6 points 1 year ago

Personally there is no way I would ever pay for a service that has ads.

Somehow we got used to it when it comes to sports events, a long time ago.

But yeah, I get you, and fully agree. Seeing no ads is like the major selling point.

[–] mindbleach@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 year ago

Apparently a lot of these major streaming services are discovering that they can make more from ads than people paying for the service.

Nah. They're discovering they can make people pay and shove ads in their face.

Which is worse.

[–] MisterMcBolt@lemmy.world 42 points 1 year ago

“Must… make… exponential… profit… Line must go up!”

[–] LinkOpensChest_wav@lemmy.one 34 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Looks like I canceled Prime right on time. Literally just did it after having it for years because it no longer provides any meaningful benefit, and it's grossly overpriced for what it is.

When I used to get two-day shipping all the way here in bumfuck, South Dakota, then it was worth it, but it's faster now just to order from some other site.

[–] ApathyTree@lemmy.dbzer0.com 16 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Fun fact - if you order a bunch of stuff non-prime, the ship time will be like a week and a half or whatever. If you then upgrade to prime (even the free trial), the delivery estimate suddenly recalculates and it’ll be there in 2 days.

It’s artificially slowed, by obscene amounts, to encourage paying for the subscription. Which other sites don’t do.

[–] LinkOpensChest_wav@lemmy.one 9 points 1 year ago

I haven't received anything in 2 days since early 2020, and what finally made me cancel is they took forever to even ship one of my items that was in stock. I ordered two things, one was shipped by the seller and arrived in 3 or 4 days, the other was from the same seller but shipped by Amazon, and they didn't even initiate shipping until a week later.

I was paying for a service that's objectively worse than the norm.

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[–] Shepy@feddit.uk 28 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Ad free is the only way for a service im paying anything for. If they introduce ads then i will no longer be paying.

[–] Oneobi@lemmy.world 15 points 1 year ago

The minute something injects ads is the minute I pave my exit strategy.

I hate ads with a passion.

Amazon about to lose my membership. It won't hurt them but what it's done is made me consider whether it's something I want to support.

Companies need a new era of marketing because this generation reversing all their gains.

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[–] auf@lemmy.ml 21 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Ads EVERYWHERE! It's time for us to make ad-less web rebellion.

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[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 17 points 1 year ago

Well that's getting fucking cancelled then. The constant FreeVee ad supported shit was annoying enough, but they can properly fuck off now. Prime is just a vehicle to sell you more shit.

[–] CalcProgrammer1@lemmy.ml 15 points 1 year ago

I would pay for Amazon Prime if they offered purely a free 2-day shipping only version, but I refuse to pay for Prime if it supports the media companies, so I don't pay for Prime. I have zero interest in DRM-filled "you will own nothing and be happy" streaming bullshit, and I have negative interest in the same thing with ads. Enshittification at its finest.

[–] circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org 13 points 1 year ago

I canceled mine a year or two ago. Tbh I have not missed it much.

I also did not miss the shipping part as much as I thought I would. If I need to make an order, I wait until I have enough needs to hit the $35 level for free shipping. Even though amazon claims otherwise, I usually end up getting stuff in 2 days just like I used to with Prime.

This has the added benefit of making it less likely for me to be lazy and order a bunch of smaller things. I thus end up getting those things locally.

[–] jlarex@beehaw.org 13 points 1 year ago

Nope, fuck this. Been thinking about canceling Prime for a while now, they just keep raising the price while at the same time all their services get worse year after year.

[–] Poppa_Mo@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago

Time to cancel Prime. Removing perks. Increasing prices. Saturating us with ads.

Too much money is never enough! We need to monetize monetization! Assholes.

Imagine if any of these rich assholes were actually good guys?

[–] Happenchance@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Amazon Prime shows begin to be pirated by Amazon Prime Subscribers, until the end of the billing ear when they are no longer Prime Subscribers.

[–] SARGEx117@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

I get my prime half off.

The added cost is less than the difference so I'd still be paying less than a regular prime membership.

And even still, I'm canceling the second I get an ad.

Fuck your monetization.

[–] mara@pawb.social 6 points 1 year ago

Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum for me!

[–] ronondex@lemmy.sdf.org 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

This is exactly why I pay for a seedbox and a usenet provider. I get an .mkv with no ad.

[–] interolivary@beehaw.org 4 points 1 year ago

The real news (har har) is that USENET is still around, damn. Probably been 20 years since I last touched it

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Streaming was nice while it lasted but these companies have survived looking enough too become the villains they sought to replace. Sad but fuck them and hoist the sails I say.

[–] SlowNoPoPo@lemm.ee 5 points 1 year ago

I've been on the fence with prime for a while, this will be the end

[–] markr@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

Enshittification has just gotten started.

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