With the addition of ads for paying users, is there anything subscribers can do to protest? I hate ads with a passion.

Maybe separate all shipping items to cost them more? I’m not seeing many options other than cancellation

  • ninjan@lemmy.mildgrim.comEnglish
    58·
    8 months ago

    The only power consumers have is voting with your wallet. Which in this case if this is important for you you need to cancel else they’ll let it be and then later down the road they’ll push even further. Also this is what always happens when a company gets big and think/know they can get away with it.

  • Ziggurat@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    324·
    8 months ago

    Don’t use amazon !

    The money you spent in a billionaire owned shop is less money for family owned shop in your community. Not only it transfer tons of wealth to billionaire, but having a nice neighbourhood bookstore, and other small business nearby is a real improvement to your local community and everyone benefits from it.

    • dfyx@lemmy.helios42.de
      17·
      8 months ago

      The sad thing is that at least here in Germany they are becoming the only option for more and more products. Most of the things I ordered in the last few years I couldn’t have gotten locally. Often my only other option is a different soulless and ethically questionable online retailer that asks a 30% higher price, uses the worst delivery service in the country and is just as much of a threat to family owned stores.

      This mainly applies to movies on DVD and BluRay but I even had to order some semi-exotic cooking ingredients from Amazon because nobody in my medium sized city has them in stock.

      • Yrt@feddit.de
        8·
        8 months ago

        I just wanted to buy safety pins. I couldn’t find any. Looked at the supermarket, dm even mall like stuff like Galaria Kaufhof, nothing. The only place at that time I could buy some was amazon or as you said, another soulless online retailer with the worst shipping companies.

    • InquisitiveApathy@lemm.eeEnglish
      81·
      8 months ago

      I go to great lengths to not use Amazon but in the US, unless you live in a large urban area Amazon and Walmart have systematically run most smaller, neighborhood retailers out of business already. If I wanted to go to a bookstore that wasn’t a Barnes and Noble, I would need to drive about an hour and a half.

      • dfyx@lemmy.helios42.de
        8·
        8 months ago

        No, I wouldn’t support someone’s family. I would support a large national or international chain. Where I live, family-owned stores have disappeared way over a decade ago. I’ll gladly spend a bit more to support a small store but if I have the choice between three different soulless and faceless corporations, I’ll put my own financial interests first. There’s exactly two things that I can still buy from independent stores: vinyl records and board games. In the game store I’m a regular to the point where the owners greet me by name and offer me a drink as soon as I walk through the door.

          • dfyx@lemmy.helios42.de
            4·
            8 months ago

            I think you misunderstood. I didn’t mean that I wouldn’t want to support family-owned businesses.

            I would LOVE to support small businesses. But there are almost none left where I live and the few that are still there are so important to me that I‘m basically friends with the owners.

            The only real choice I have left for most things is between Amazon, the German Amazon equivalent Otto and a few big chains like Müller, Kaufland and MediaMarkt-Saturn. Neither of them are small businesses by any definition. Between those and only those I pick the cheapest because in those cases my wallet matters more than which rich asshole I dislike the most.

            And no, that’s not because I ruined small businesses. For the longest time I’ve made an effort to buy as much from small businesses as I could. But that option is gone.

  • golden_zealot@lemmy.mlEnglish
    22·
    8 months ago

    Cancelled prime ages ago for a different reason. Don’t miss it. I don’t know about other places, but where I’m at the “prime 2 day shipping” pretty much never arrives in 2 days anyway.

  • JCreazyEnglish
    22·
    8 months ago

    I cancelled my Prime. You have the power.

  • JoBo@feddit.uk
    8·
    8 months ago

    If you are forced to use them:

    1. Do not use the app
    2. Find what you want on the website
    3. Copy the description with a reasonable amount of detail
    4. Paste description into your less evil search engine of choice
    5. Click through and buy

    That way, Amazon has to pay the search engine.

  • trapezohedron@lemmy.world
    6·
    8 months ago

    While you could go as extreme as canceling Prime completely, it’s not the only way to send a message.

    Stop watching Prime Video.

    They have as many metrics for what gets watched as they do what physical products get clicked on. Their Video division will see that their viewership has plunged. They will have to report reduced engagement to those who control the budgets. This will probably take a while, because they probably expected to ride out the initial subscriber backlash. Stick with it and show them that in the long-term, they’ll make more money by not being greedy.

    As to how you get your Amazon exclusive videos in the meantime… well, purchasing the same content on Amazon only shows them that they can make money in a different way through putting their “free with subscription” content behind a pay wall. You’re not hurting them in that regard. So look for other ways to get the same content, in whatever way your conscience and technical ability permits.

  • ninjan@lemmy.mildgrim.comEnglish
    83·
    8 months ago

    The only power consumers have is voting with your wallet. Which in this case if this is important for you you need to cancel else they’ll let it be and then later down the road they’ll push even further. Also this is what always happens when a company gets big and think/know they can get away with it.

  • Blizzard@lemmy.zipEnglish
    21·
    8 months ago

    What ads do you have in mind? Where do you see them? (Website / phone app?)