What's with this Amazon 'Add On" thing?

[nunzia]

So, I finally cave and pay for Prime so I don't have to worry about shipping charges, and now when I try to buy a small something it is considered an 'Add On' and I have to add qualifying items to $25 in my cart to get the free shipping? This bugs me since I shelled out the Prime fee to avoid all the stupid shipping charges.

 

[Avonlady1001]

Prime only qualifies you for free shipping if you're purchasing something sold by Amazon. 3rd party sellers are not part of this.

Look for the blue Prime symbol next to the price, if it's not there, it's not included. When I search for items, on the left you can choose the option to see ONLY Prime products.

If this isn't the problem, are you logged into your account? The Prime only shows if you're logged in...

I can't think of anything else it might be. I've been a prime member for a while & I haven't run into this.

 

[HM]

You may not be logged into your account.

 

[rainydayplay]

Add on items sold directly by Amazon that are either:

A. small items in which shipping it by itself is expensive

or

B. items that are normally sold in bulk that they are now offering at one package instead of a case.

In both cases, the items are small and relatively inexpensive, and it seems Amazon feels that they are losing in shipping fees. It isn't a Prime-only add on, though.

I have faithfully paid my annual dues for Prime for 8 or 9 years, but I love free two day shipping. I like having pre-ordered items on my doorstep on release day (not sure if regular shipping gets you that or not) and having something two days after I've ordered it, and generally at a less expensive price than I could have gotten it locally. I would probably not order nearly as much from Amazon if I didn't have my Prime account, even though most of my orders are over the $25 required for free shipping, but, again, that free shipping gets you stuff in a week or two versus the two business days that Prime promises.

As for the add-ons...I like that I can get some things without having to buy a whole case. However, I want a new jump drive of a type I really like that I can usually get from Amazon for around $5. When I WANT to order it, it's now an add-on (the last two I got were not), and I never think about it when I'm ordering a larger order. Oh well. I'll eventually get it...or I won't. It's not like it is a desperate NEED.

 

[rainydayplay]

From Amazon

Add-on Items
The Add-on Program

The new Add-on program allows Amazon to offer thousands of items at a low price point that would be cost-prohibitive to ship on their own. We've kicked off the Add-on program with thousands of new Add-on Items, and we're adding more each day. Add-on Items ship with orders that include $25 or more of items shipped by Amazon, and you can get them delivered to your doorstep with free shipping.
Exploring Add-on Items

Add-on Items are products of all different sorts at a low price point. Previously it was only possible for us to offer many of the items like these in large multi-pack sizes (which for many families would have been too much of an item). Take a look at some of these new Add-on Items.
Identifying Add-on Items

Add-on Items are marked with a special icon when searching for items, viewing items, and during checkout:

The box around the "Add to Cart" button for Add-on Items also has a special blue title bar:
Buying Add-on Items

To purchase Add-on Items, just include them in an order with $25 or more of the millions of items shipped by Amazon. For example, you could order a $5 packet of teriyaki-flavored beef jerky that's an Add-on Item with a $20 thermos, an $80 pair of shoes, or anything else that gets your order to $25 or more of items shipped by Amazon.
Add-on Items and Amazon Prime

When you add an Add-on Item to an Amazon Prime order of more than $25, your Add-on Item will also receive Prime shipping benefits, including FREE Two-Day Shipping. For example, if you ordered five $5 pacifiers, each of which was an Add-on Item, your order would receive FREE Two-Day Shipping.

As a Prime member you can continue to choose from the over 15 million (and growing) Prime-eligible items sold on Amazon.com, plus access Prime Instant Videos and the Kindle Owners' Lending Library. Not yet a member of Amazon Prime? Learn more about the benefits of Prime membership.
Add-on Items and FREE Super Saver Shipping

If you're not a Prime member, you can combine your Add-on Items with other items and take advantage of FREE Super Saver Shipping. For example, you could include a $6 bath sponge that's an Add-on Item with two $10 paperbacks and receive FREE Super Saver Shipping on all three items.
Checking Out Without Add-on Items

If you have an Add-on Item in your cart but less than $25 of items shipped by Amazon you can still check out with the rest of your items. When you proceed to checkout we'll give you the choice either to keep shopping or to check out with the rest of your items and save your Add-on Items for later. We'll keep your Add-on Items in the "Saved for Later" section of your cart so that you can easily add them to a future order.

 

[Angie789]

You aren't losing out on any Prime benefit with add-ons. As the PP said, add ons are small items that you didn't use to be able to get individually - they were almost always sold in bulk. By separating them, they are making it easier for people without Prime to get to the $25 free shipping threshold.

You can't buy & ship them on their own with Prime, but they didn't use to be available in small quantities at all so as I said - you aren't losing anything that was available to Prime subscribers before the add-on program started.

 

[Avonlady1001]

From Amazon:[/URL]

Thanks for sharing this!! I had no idea.

 

[rockiesfan]

As for the add-ons...I like that I can get some things without having to buy a whole case. However, I want a new jump drive of a type I really like that I can usually get from Amazon for around $5. When I WANT to order it, it's now an add-on (the last two I got were not), and I never think about it when I'm ordering a larger order. Oh well. I'll eventually get it...or I won't. It's not like it is a desperate NEED.

When I have lower cost items that I need but not urgently, I put them in my cart and leave them there. Then when I'm placing a bigger order, they're already in the cart waiting to be purchased and I don't forget about them

 

[nunzia]

I disagree that is this is not diluting the Prime benefit. Lots of thinsg that used to be free to ship with Prime are now add ons and require the $25 to ship. I'm sure there are some that are split case type things, but I think you will all be surprised when you see how many things have been put into the Add On category..and they do have the Prime check by them. I bought an order of the Mickey head Peeps...which was 6 boxes..so not a single item at all. It was still an add on.

 

[tcufrog]

I have had Prime for a few years but I've never come across the add on issue.

 

[amcnj]

Another thing that may dilute the value of prime is Amazon opening warehouses to cut delivery times. They have been making deals with various states to open such facilities and start charging state sales taxes. A recent order of mine was placed on a Saturday and delivered the next Tuesday, quicker than past orders. Unless I just got lucky for some reason. And coincidentally, the order contained several add on items, about which I knew very little until reading this post!

 

[wiigirl]

I have had Prime for a few years but I've never come across the add on issue.

Me neither.

 

[mrudman]

I've been a Prime member for several years, and just a couple weeks ago, saw this "add-on" thing for the first time.

Happened to see it on their daily items list, for a banana slicer, and thought dh would like that for a stocking stuffer (he really likes bananas, lol), but when I added it to my cart, found out it was an add-on item.

So I just left it in the cart for a few days, since I knew I'd be doing more Christmas shopping for my dd's, and it worked out well. Was able to get the slicer for super cheap, and still use the free shipping.

But I can see where somebody would be very upset, if they had no other items to buy and only wanted this one add-on item.

 

[MomToOne]

I've seen lots of complaints on Slickdeals about the Add On thing - it is a dilution of Prime, whether Amazon is being open about that or not.

While they say "many" of the items used to be able to be purchased only in bulk, last time I checked "many" did not equate to "all" or even "most" necessarily. Many is one of those words that is open widely to interpretation - I may think many is thousands of items, Amazon may think that many is only a hundred or so. Quite simply, it's a hedge word.

I have come across several items that before I could order individually, that are now add-ons, especially in housewares.

 

[RachaelA]

I've seen lots of complaints on Slickdeals about the Add On thing - it is a dilution of Prime, whether Amazon is being open about that or not.

While they say "many" of the items used to be able to be purchased only in bulk, last time I checked "many" did not equate to "all" or even "most" necessarily. Many is one of those words that is open widely to interpretation - I may think many is thousands of items, Amazon may think that many is only a hundred or so. Quite simply, it's a hedge word.

I have come across several items that before I could order individually, that are now add-ons, especially in housewares.

This is just crappy on Amazon's part and I hope they see a decrease in their prime membership because of it.

 

[nunzia]

I still think Prime is worth it, but thought people would want to know about this new add on deal (although the first time I tried the whole lending kindle book thing the one I wanted wasn't available in the program). So how does the free streaming video work? Can you stream to your TV and do you need a Wii or something to go it?

 

[princessbride6205]

I still think Prime is worth it, but thought people would want to know about this new add on deal (although the first time I tried the whole lending kindle book thing the one I wanted wasn't available in the program). So how does the free streaming video work? Can you stream to your TV and do you need a Wii or something to go it?

The video streaming is 80% of the reason I finally got Prime this year.
I have a cable that hooks directly from my computer to the TV.

 

[sissy_ib]

I still think Prime is worth it, but thought people would want to know about this new add on deal (although the first time I tried the whole lending kindle book thing the one I wanted wasn't available in the program). So how does the free streaming video work? Can you stream to your TV and do you need a Wii or something to go it?

Unless you have a smart TV you need something connected to the internet. My husband has his computer hooked up to the TV and we use that. He pretty much uses the TV as a monitor. If you don't have or don't want the computer direct to the TV you could use a Blu-Ray player, Wii, X-Box, Roku, and probably a list of other devices.

 

[nunzia]

Unless you have a smart TV you need something connected to the internet. My husband has his computer hooked up to the TV and we use that. He pretty much uses the TV as a monitor. If you don't have or don't want the computer direct to the TV you could use a Blu-Ray player, Wii, X-Box, Roku, and probably a list of other devices.

Oh..didn't know a Blu-Ray would work..I'll have to look into that..thanks!

 

[3boymthr]

Oh..didn't know a Blu-Ray would work..I'll have to look into that..thanks!

But do be aware that not just any Blu-ray will work. You have to have one from the list of compatible devices. Amazon publishes a list on the prime video section of their website.