Amazon Changes Free Shipping Limit From $25 to $35

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Amazon has announced changes in its minimum order size for free shipping. The limit has been boosted from $25 to $35 but the company also recommends becoming a Prime member to get free shipping and all the other benefits that goes with it. Honestly, if you shop on Amazon as much as I do, the Prime membership really is the way to go. Here's the full press release:

Amazon's minimum order size for free shipping has changed to $35. This is the first time in more than a decade that Amazon has altered the minimum order for free shipping in the US. During that time, we have expanded free shipping selection by millions of items across all 40 product categories. Look for "FREE Shipping" on product pages to discover eligible items.

Millions of Amazon customers have already made the choice of faster shipping by becoming Amazon Prime members. Prime includes unlimited Free Two-Day Shipping, with no minimum order size, on more than 15 million items, as well as unlimited streaming of over 41,000 movies and TV episodes through Prime Instant Video and access to over 350,000 books to borrow through the Kindle Owners' Lending Library. The service is so popular that more than a year ago we began shipping more items with Prime than with free shipping. Click here to start a 30-day free trial of Amazon Prime.
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Prime ftw. $84 for free 2 day shipping is totally worth it, and you also get to watch some stuff for free.
 
that's BS...I never signed up for Prime because even with free shipping my order almost always ships out within a day or 2 max and it arrives just as quick...so Prime never made sense for me...but now that the minimum has increased to $35 it totally changes things...first BS thing that Amazon has ever done
 
The service is so popular that more than a year ago we began shipping more items with Prime than with free shipping. Click here to start a 30-day free trial of Amazon Prime.
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Not too surprising, when I had prime, I used to order stuff through amazon that A) I didnt really need (noticed one day I only had 2 spare HDMI cables laying around, better order one!) B) I could have gotten locally sometimes for just pennies more and C) stuff that I just wanted to stretch the limits of the service, like ordering a HT subwoofer. Now that its cancelled I order next to nothing.
 
Lucky for me, amazon warehouse is a state away. So I always get free next day shipping even if I pay for ground. Take that Prime members :p
 
Still worth it, even without Prime. Most other places still have $50 or higher minimums for free shipping, and some places don't even have free shipping (ahem certain former advertiser with expensive additive shipping costs and no discounts based on actual package weight or distance... and yet still manages to ship things poorly)
 
I pretty much quit shopping at Amazon once I could no longer get free Amazon Prime trials. It used to be that new Amazon accounts could sign up for a Prime trial, but Amazon started limiting trials to one per address and detected that the address had already had a trial. I have at least 10 different Amazon accounts.

I can assure you that Amazon is delaying shipping on the free shipping. Every single time I order with free shipping the order doesn't even leave the warehouse for one to two business days. I have never had a free shipping order get shipped the same day in recent history.
 
Amazon is one of the best, if not the best, e-tailers out there. I think this more than reasonable, especially after it's been $25 for so long. That said, I'm a prime member so I couldn't care :p
 
belfert said:
I can assure you that Amazon is delaying shipping on the free shipping. Every single time I order with free shipping the order doesn't even leave the warehouse for one to two business days. I have never had a free shipping order get shipped the same day in recent history.
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that's not the case for me...maybe it depends upon where you live but I live in NYC and get free shipping packages almost always within the same time period as Prime subscribers...only thing Amazon tries to trick you with is in the estimated shipping dates which are never true...they try and trick you into thinking that free shipping packages won't get shipped and delivered for a week or so to try and get you to sign up with Prime
 
belfert said:
I pretty much quit shopping at Amazon once I could no longer get free Amazon Prime trials. It used to be that new Amazon accounts could sign up for a Prime trial, but Amazon started limiting trials to one per address and detected that the address had already had a trial. I have at least 10 different Amazon accounts.

I can assure you that Amazon is delaying shipping on the free shipping. Every single time I order with free shipping the order doesn't even leave the warehouse for one to two business days. I have never had a free shipping order get shipped the same day in recent history.
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Delay shipping? You know how much backlog that would be?
 
I've pretty much stopped ordering from amazon, this is just the final nail. I went from spending ~$5k/yr on amazon to maybe spending $500 to date. Caving on sales tax was the big killer for me but delaying my super saver items really started to annoy me. Frankly, amazon isn't the cheapest anymore and their CS solution is "here's a $5 gift card" which doesn't solve the issue and doesn't pay for my wasted time.
 
polonyc2 said:
that's not the case for me...maybe it depends upon where you live but I live in NYC and get free shipping packages almost always within the same time period as Prime subscribers...only thing Amazon tries to trick you with is in the estimated shipping dates which are never true...they try and trick you into thinking that free shipping packages won't get shipped and delivered for a week or so to try and get you to sign up with Prime
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caddys83 said:
Delay shipping? You know how much backlog that would be?
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I've actually gone ahead and tested it, I ordered the same item to be delivered to the same address (southern california) one with super saver and the other with prime, the super saver item shipped out 4 days later than the prime item which shipped out same day. They both took the same time to arrive once shipped, 2 days. I did this because I noticed my items were taking far longer to ship once I stopped paying for prime and when I contact CS they would not confirm that super saver items weren't being delayed.
 
threeclaws said:
I've actually gone ahead and tested it, I ordered the same item to be delivered to the same address (southern california) one with super saver and the other with prime, the super saver item shipped out 4 days later than the prime item which shipped out same day. They both took the same time to arrive once shipped, 2 days. I did this because I noticed my items were taking far longer to ship once I stopped paying for prime and when I contact CS they would not confirm that super saver items weren't being delayed.
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technically if Free Shipping items were shipped and delivered at the same time as Prime then why would anyone pay for Prime??...there has to be some advantage to it...that being said in my experience the vast majority of my items ship at Prime or better speeds
 
caddys83 said:
Lucky for me, amazon warehouse is a state away. So I always get free next day shipping even if I pay for ground. Take that Prime members :p
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Same here, just like 3 or 4 hours from my house, but next state over.
 
I have been a Prime Member for a while. It pays for itself with the free two day shipping and the $3.99 next day shipping. Since I live in a rural area, I have to plan to "go to town" to make purchases. Sometimes that could mean that I have to travel as far as 45 miles to purchase one thing. With Prime, I let someone bring it to me.
I use Amazon Video quite a bit as well. That sweetens the deal for me, but I could see how some people would not care about that feature at all.
 
I guess that 90% of the orders I've placed with Amazon were greater than $35 so the minimum hike doesn't really affect me.
 
People that are close to a shipping warehouse may not notice it, but for everyone else the standard Amazon "Free" shipping has gotten progressively slower over the past couple of years...

From what I've heard from people who work for Amazon, this is mainly due to the fact Prime shipping always gets first priority at the warehouse for getting onto the trucks and out the door, and anything being shipped free to non-Prime subscribers goes out last.

I was also told for the people who don't live next door to a warehouse, and also live farther away from a major metro area and/or an Airport used by FedEx/UPS, there can also be an additional delay due to the fact that they can sometimes hold items at the shipping point if the trucks going out are already full with "Prime" stuff, or they hold back the free boxes till they have enough going in your direction to dispatch a truck for it

Not sure what that means exactly ... but I can say firsthand that starting a year or so back, when I bought anything from Amazon that qualified for free shipping, it would often take them 5 days to process and ship the order.

This was around the same time they really started pushing Prime, and since I've signed up... I always get anything shipped with Prime Free shipping in under 48 hours... Hell sometimes I get next day, and I still live in the same area about 60 miles from a big city or shipping airport.
 
I didn't have prime till last Thanksgiving. I would always get the free super saver shipping, and while it took two days to ship, the order did take several days to get processed.

After I got Prime, orders were processed the same day and shipped out immediately. There definitely is a difference with the processing of orders. I do like being in the same state (TN) as a warehouse, because it does make delivery quite fast.
 
polonyc2 said:
technically if Free Shipping items were shipped and delivered at the same time as Prime then why would anyone pay for Prime??...there has to be some advantage to it...that being said in my experience the vast majority of my items ship at Prime or better speeds
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I understand why they would do it and it would be easy for them to do it. What bothers me is pre-paying for prime super saver items were shipped same or next day, then I became a prime customer for a couple of years until they started charging sales tax, now my super saver items are delayed and I constantly get prime ad emails.

I'm 30miles outside of LA and right in between ontario and industry (the ups/fedex hubs) so it certainly isn't a location issue.
 
caddys83 said:
Delay shipping? You know how much backlog that would be?
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Another dozen posters have confirmed that they see free shipping orders leave the warehouse a day or more after they order the items while Prime orders leave the warehouse the same day.

Amazon probably converts more customers to Prime from the slow processing than it costs to warehouse items a few extra days.
 
How could they even cover the cost of shipping when you're only spending $25? Also why are you people in the USA so opposed to taxes? Don't you want free or better healthcare, schools, economy etc?
 
I avoid anything that charges a annual fee.....talk about charges on your card you'd forget....lol
 
The difference between Prime and Super Saver is that Prime customers are going to get priority. It's not that Amazon purposely goes out of its way to delay Super Saver, it's just that those orders are lowest on the priority list. They don't have to go out of their way because the customer hierarchy makes this happen by nature. This is actually pretty typical of businesses. If you're any kind of "premium club" member with any company you'll get preferential treatment compared to the person that's just the average joe. As a result of this Amazon can say "well, become a Prime member and you'll get your stuff faster" without having to lift a finger to change anything.

I'm not too thrilled with the $35 minimum, but it's still better than not having any free shipping option. I'm cheap and not in a hurry, so I can almost always afford to wait a week or two or sometimes even a month to get my order. If I need something faster I'll pay shipping. It's still cheaper for me in the long run than a membership. I'm the kind of individual that Super Saver is aimed at. Someone ordering hundreds or thousands of dollars of stuff a year will see Prime as the better option.
 
Have had prime for years.. so this doesn't really affect me... The cost of prime is well worth it.. Especially since I will be dropping shop runner since I no longer use Newegg..
 
guitarguy6 said:
How could they even cover the cost of shipping when you're only spending $25? Also why are you people in the USA so opposed to taxes? Don't you want free or better healthcare, schools, economy etc?
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Healthcare, schools, and uh... shipping, aren't free.

Taxes = a percentage of life. We work for "free" until about May each year, to pay for the "free" stuff.

There are 4 levels of government taxation in US, most of it overlaps. Fed, State, County, and City. True tax burden from all 4 levels is >50% for the middle class.
 
maademperor said:
Not too surprising, when I had prime, I used to order stuff through amazon that A) I didnt really need (noticed one day I only had 2 spare HDMI cables laying around, better order one!) B) I could have gotten locally sometimes for just pennies more and C) stuff that I just wanted to stretch the limits of the service, like ordering a HT subwoofer. Now that its cancelled I order next to nothing.
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Yeah,I really need to cancel my Prime account...its just way to easy to 'click and ship"....I'm out of control with the impulse buying...:)
belfert said:
I can assure you that Amazon is delaying shipping on the free shipping. Every single time I order with free shipping the order doesn't even leave the warehouse for one to two business days. I have never had a free shipping order get shipped the same day in recent history.
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it must be your warehouse...Ive ordered stuff at 7PM and had it the next day on many occasions....every other time it was 2 days max
 
they didn't raise the cost of Prime right?...when was the last time they changed that cost?...like others have mentioned if you spend more then $300 or so a year with Amazon then Prime is worth it...if not the free option is better even if you have to wait a little longer...I wish Amazon would charge a 1 time flat fee for Prime instead of a yearly charge

when Amazon started charging NY sales tax that was honestly a bigger deal
 
Tip: If you are buying UPS's online, order them all at once, and sign up for Prime.
I almost feel bad for having 200lb of UPS's sent to me 2nd day for $80. Not.
 
polonyc2 said:
they didn't raise the cost of Prime right?...when was the last time they changed that cost?...like others have mentioned if you spend more then $300 or so a year with Amazon then Prime is worth it...if not the free option is better even if you have to wait a little longer...I wish Amazon would charge a 1 time flat fee for Prime instead of a yearly charge

when Amazon started charging NY sales tax that was honestly a bigger deal
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Prime has movies, tv shows, music and books, also. It's a yearly charge because it is a subscription.
 
xIronCrossx said:
Prime ftw. $84 for free 2 day shipping is totally worth it, and you also get to watch some stuff for free.
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Its more like 3-day shippping. I had the trial a few years ago and 2-days was usually from the time of order. Now it from when it leaves the facility which turns into 3-4 days really.
 
guitarguy6 said:
How could they even cover the cost of shipping when you're only spending $25? Also why are you people in the USA so opposed to taxes? Don't you want free or better healthcare, schools, economy etc?
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Have you ever compared Amazon's price with free shipping to the price with shipping at other websites? On low dollar items especially Amazon is almost always the highest cost. Amazon might charge $8 for an item while other websites are charging $4 or $5 for the same item. Amazon's price might be least expensive if you only order that one item, but if you order a bunch of stuff Amazon will typically be the most expensive for small items.

I have also seen large very heavy items on Amazon's website where Amazon's cost was like $200 more than others because the shipping cost is so high.
 
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