Amazon Prime for newbies

[heathpack]

I placed an Amazon Cyber Monday order today and mistakenly clicked the button for free 30 day Prime trial. Went back onto the Amazon website to cancel it but then I saw an option to send myself a reminder to cancel the free membership in 30 days. So I guess I could give it a try.

I remember people here love Prime so maybe y’all can school me.

I honestly don’t buy much stuff, so the shipping and deals on products will leave me a little flat. I can’t imagine doing much Christmas shopping on Amazon, but I’ll get a little bit of stuff I’m sure.

I saw the music and video features though and they looking intriguing. Can anyone tell me more about these features? How do I get the videos to play on my TV? I assume I need to buy something else?

Or other features that people love, let me hear em.

 

[tombanjo]

If you have a smart tv, connected to internet, it may have a option to connect to Amazon Prime.
They sell a million different types of "Fire" devices that connect to music or streaming video. Being Cyber Monday, they are all on sale today.
Third party boxes like Roku give an older or not "smart" TV internet access.
Apple universe has device mirroring if your TV supports it
As does Android and Chrome - using Chrome cast
Or just use computer, notebook or tablet to watch, listen to content.

 

[Passepartout]

If you have a smart TV, just load your Amazon username/password and it plays Prime content. Or on your phone. Or music. If you have an Echo of other Alexa device, just ask. There are playlists already loaded or play your own. All your photos will load on Prime photos so you can see them on any connected device.

There is more than just included shipping. Oh, and your DH can share the account.

Jim

ETA I was trying to avoid you buying something more, but if your TV is 'dumb', Amazon offers a TV 'Fire Stick' that just plugs into a handy port and offers voice control for about $25.

 

[Phydeaux]

If you're still driving to stores to buy stuff after Prime, I'd be very surprised. Even if you don't buy much stuff, there are things you must purchase on an ongoing basis, or from time to time. Then there are things that come up that you need, and have required you to buckle up & head to the store. I find those trips, for me at least, have essentially disappeared. Prime music is a fantastic perk.

 

[heathpack]

I assume our TV is dumb. It’s probably 6-7 years old. I downloaded the app and get $15 off a $30 purchase. Maybe I should just get the Firestick today.

I’m supposed to get a free 6 month subscription to the Washington Post. Can’t figure out how to access that.

I wanted to see if there’s any free books in Prime Reader on Sedona. I can search the kindle store but can’t figure out how to confine my search to Prime Reader.

It’s already frustrating.

 

[heathpack]

And more frustration. Decided to order the Firestick. Make it two, since the plug in on the back of our TV is hard to access. And that brings my order to over $30. All I need to do supposedly is place a $30 order in the app and there should already be $15 in my account that I can apply to the purchase. Nope, there’s nothing in my account and I see no obvious way of fixing that.

 

[MULTIZ321]

And more frustration. Decided to order the Firestick. Make it two, since the plug in on the back of our TV is hard to access. And that brings my order to over $30. All I need to do supposedly is place a $30 order in the app and there should already be $15 in my account that I can apply to the purchase. Nope, there’s nothing in my account and I see no obvious way of fixing that.

Hi Heathpack,

Amazon Customer Service phone number is: 1-888-280-4331.

Give them a call to help you figure some of this out.

For Washington Post (WP) - go to WP website- from homepage click on 'sign in' - one of the choices will be to sign in with your Amazon Credentials - Voila, your in WP.

Good luck.
Richard

 

[Passepartout]

Anytime you want help with Amazon, click the box with 3 dashes in the top left corner. Help is one option. Select what you want help with, and check 'call me', input your phone number, and in the blink of an eye, your phone will ring. Really!

Jim

 

[rboesl]

As far as the books go with a reader, any book in the Book Store that's free with Prime will be clearly marked. I have had Prime for a few years and have not paid for a book since. There's a limit to how many you can have downloaded to your device but they give you a convenient option to "Return" (aka Delete) the book to download a new one. I've also been enjoying several exclusive Amazon Video series that are quite good. (Especially liked Goliath.) The video quality is very good. One very nice option with Prime Video is the ability to download several videos to your device to watch offline. This excellent when traveling. I download to my tablet (which I also use to read books), use noise cancelling headphones, and watch to my heart's content without disturbing anyone around me. If you don't have a Fire Tablet just download the free app (1 for books, 1 for video) and login with your Amazon Prime Account credentials. You can sync your content across multiple devices (Reader, Tablet, Smart Phone, & PC).

 

[isisdave]

If you get a "$15 credit after $30 order" you do actually get it afterward ... you can't use it on the current order. Kinda like Kohl's cash. It will show up when you next go to checkout, or you can find it in the (immense) Your Account pages.

Generally to use stuff like the Washington Post deal, go there and select "sign in with Amazon" on the login page. They know you're coming.

Honestly, with free shipping we hardly go to the store any more. For things you need later or "whenever," I just pop them in the cart and hit the order button every few days. Even though I'm retired, or maybe because, my time is valuable and it takes 30 minutes travel to go pretty much anywhere farther than the CVS down the street.

 

[WinniWoman]

I love Amazon Prime. We use a Roku stick to watch the movies and shows and our TV is an older one. You get a free library book every month.

The quick deliveries are much appreciated. I just ordered compression stockings I needed and will get them tomorrow. Not to mention a lot of the prices on Amazon can’t be beat and you can’t even find a lot of the stuff in stores.

Returns are easy. Customer services is really good compared to any place else.

 

[bogey21]

After reading a history of Amazon I decided I would never do business with them and haven't to this day. [political comment redacted] Maybe I read too much...

George

 

[mdurette]

If you're still driving to stores to buy stuff after Prime, I'd be very surprised. Even if you don't buy much stuff, there are things you must purchase on an ongoing basis, or from time to time. Then there are things that come up that you need, and have required you to buckle up & head to the store. I find those trips, for me at least, have essentially disappeared. Prime music is a fantastic perk.

Yes....this! I have had prime for a few years now and I admit, I need to really use it more (music, movies, etc). But, I do like it for this. The things I need, but don't have the time or desire to drive to the next town over to get. Planning for my Halloween party is a great example: I needed: tiny play-doh tubs to give away, paper soup cups for guests, glow sticks and gallons of glue for slime making. I would have had to hit 4 different stores for this stuff.....instead I just walked out to the porch to pick up

 

[Brett]

After reading a history of Amazon I decided I would never do business with them and haven't to this day. [political comment redacted] Maybe I read too much...

George

yes, or maybe you're reading the wrong stuff

But I admit I still buy groceries at a real physical store (not whole foods)

 

[presley]

I use it for the shipping. I buy many items from them for both my home and for my husband's business. Toilet paper, paper towels, lysol wipes, printer paper, printer ink, address labels are a few of the items that I buy on a regular basis. I also buy the occasional needed items like a TV, kitchen rug, shower curtain, etc. In my case, I hate shopping. So, Amazon saves me a lot of time and inconvenience.

I rarely watch the TV or the movies, but the ones created for Amazon Prime are very good quality.

 

[bbodb1]

Heathpack,

Like any other purchase you make, there will always be some good with the bad (or bad with the good....) Amazon Prime is like that - I hate the annual fee - and especially the unwarranted recent increase but I make use of Amazon in at least three ways (you may find more uses than I do):

1. As others have mentioned, watch Amazon Prime. Since you are paying for it with an Amazon membership, use it to help cut the cord from you cable and satellite bill. It does have a lot of content but how much of that content you will enjoy and find entertaining only you can answer.
2. The shopping and shipping (as has been discussed in this thread already).
3. Prime Photos. I have used our account as a collection point for all of the photos we take on our phones. Most phones have the ability to back up their photos to another source for sake keeping and we use Prime Photos as the collection point for all cell phone photos on a daily basis (meaning our new photos are added to the collection each day). In fact, I also dropped our family photo collection (which I have electronically) into Prime Photos as well. Why you ask - consider what just happened in California in the fires where so many people had to evacuate with little or no notice. At the very least, I would not have to worry about retrieving my photos in case of disaster as there would be copies available electronically. I view our Prime Photos account as something along the line of a safe deposit box for our photos.

There are other reasons / uses you may find for your account and in the end, only you can determine if it is worth the (approx) $10 / month cost.

 

[jehb2]

I love Amazon Prime. 2 day shipping is awesome. It’s my main movie & tv show source.

 

[Steve Fatula]

I find it to be a fantastic bargain still. Shopping is my smaller use, though I have used the early access to lightning deals a few times to my benefit. I find endless content for TV and Movies there, been watching for 2 years now and have a watchlist a mile long. This combined with no cable or satellite to be very cheap actually, I consider it a money saver enabler. We use antenna and PVR software (Emby) for network shows, and, Philo for the rare so called cable show we like, so, all that is an entire $16/mo. The years price for Prime is about the same as Netflix (A little less actually), so, the rest of the stuff I use it for is essentially free. We enjoy the music "stations" in the car and at home. I use Prime Photos (unlimited space) as not only a backup for all our photos, but, the primary place we show them from as we can get them from most anywhere on any device. I like their first reads feature too, have gotten a number of good books for $0 extra,

 

[Bucky]

We’ve had Prime for many years and the number one benefit to us has always been the CS. They have always went above and beyond for us. When the first readers came out we bought the large 10” model that cost around $400. We had it for over two years and it was out of warranty but when we complained that the joy button had broke they replaced the whole unit, free of charge. I’ve bought shoes from them occasionally and love their free return policy if for some reason you don’t like them. But, you need to make sure who the actual seller is on their website and check out that retailers return policy on anything before purchasing. Shoot, I actually even purchased running boards for my SUV from them.

Have had many more times that be used their chat service with excellent results also.

We use the music, videos and Prime Now, which is a great additional service. If you need something now, use the Prime Now app and get it delivered within a few hours. Works perfect for when something out of the blue like a router or modem crashes and you want it fixed now without having to go out and pick it up yourself.

BUT, keep in mind that Amazon is not the cheapest retailer out there, just one of the most convenient. As with anything, do your due diligence before hitting the buy now button.

 

[WinniWoman]

Heathpack,

Like any other purchase you make, there will always be some good with the bad (or bad with the good....) Amazon Prime is like that - I hate the annual fee - and especially the unwarranted recent increase but I make use of Amazon in at least three ways (you may find more uses than I do):

1. As others have mentioned, watch Amazon Prime. Since you are paying for it with an Amazon membership, use it to help cut the cord from you cable and satellite bill. It does have a lot of content but how much of that content you will enjoy and find entertaining only you can answer.
2. The shopping and shipping (as has been discussed in this thread already).
3. Prime Photos. I have used our account as a collection point for all of the photos we take on our phones. Most phones have the ability to back up their photos to another source for sake keeping and we use Prime Photos as the collection point for all cell phone photos on a daily basis (meaning our new photos are added to the collection each day). In fact, I also dropped our family photo collection (which I have electronically) into Prime Photos as well. Why you ask - consider what just happened in California in the fires where so many people had to evacuate with little or no notice. At the very least, I would not have to worry about retrieving my photos in case of disaster as there would be copies available electronically. I view our Prime Photos account as something along the line of a safe deposit box for our photos.

There are other reasons / uses you may find for your account and in the end, only you can determine if it is worth the (approx) $10 / month cost.

How do you store the photos? I tried putting our photos into the Amazon photo cloud from my PC and it seemed so cumbersome and took so long that I gave up.

i have a lot of photos on my PC. I currently use my Iphone to take the pics and then send them to my PC.

 

[heathpack]

Well I’ve been poking around in Amazon Prime.

The free day shipping thing so far: meh. I don’t have tons of desire to buy stuff.

The Prime Music looks pretty cool. We’re in Sedona and I wish I brought a Bluetooth speaker to listen to some stuff.

Have downloaded some video- TV shows, documentaries, movies- to my IPad. But not watched anything yet, too busy hanging out with friends, riding mtb, exploring Sedona.

Have borrowed a few books, I commute via train and it’s good to have something to read on the train.

Which led me to Audible, signed up for a free trial with them and got two free Audiobooks. We like audiobooks for long drives, so we’ll try this out on the drive back to LA. That would be an additional monthly cost if I stuck with it but I could see listening to audiobooks being even better than reading on my train rides.

I did wind up using the Customer Service chat feature over my issue with the lack of my $15 credit. Not sure it’s been solved yet but the guy seemed determined to be helpful. I wound up getting two Prime firesticks- the idea being it’s hard to access our wall mounted TVs connection for the Firestick, so one to stay permanently with the home TV and one we can travel with. We’ll see.

Haven’t explored the photo hosting service yet...

 

[Glynda]

Questions about the photo service. Are photos uploaded as you have saved them? In album form, etc? Are you able to make them private and also to share with certain individuals? Do they automatically upload or can you choose which to upload? I've always used Flickr and the iCloud so those are my reference points.

We love Amazon Prime! Something comes up several times a week that we need. A part, a gadget, dog items, etc. I like reading the reviews and using the compare option. But mostly, I recognize that by the time I run all over town trying to find something, I can already have it via the 2 day shipping, and probably for less. Returning items has never been a problem. It's easy.

We've mainly used Netflix and still have many desired programs/movies we want to watch there but recently started binging on Bosch on Amazon Prime. There are also some Italian shows with English subtitles that I have watched, or want to, since I am studying Italian...sorta.

I've been an Audible member from before it became part of Amazon. I am constantly listening to either an Audible book or a podcast. I have a mini Bose speaker in my bathroom where I listen in the morning while getting dressed or in the evening when getting ready for bed. I travel with that speaker so I can listen wherever we are. I listen in the car. When I go out to walk alone, even when shopping, I listen wearing Apple airPods which I love!!!! So I am rarely without stimulation in the form of something audible. When not listening, I am in front of my laptop and/or the TV! I've been thinking I need to take meditation to learn to clear the clutter in my mind. Lately it seems as if it is always racing!

 

[Steve Fatula]

Amazon photos can be uploaded at you take pictures on your device, it's an option in the Amazon photos app. Starting from 0, it does indeed take a while depending on how fast your internet connection is. We have close to 10GB pictures out there right now. The photos are private, you can share them. I don't use the auto upload, but, I don't think they organize into albums on their own. I usually upload all at the end of a trip and put them into their own folder and then create the album (one click). Doesn't take long, I usually upload them the night before we fly back. Once I get home, I download the uploaded pictures to a desktop so it's also organized by album and I have another copy.

A lot of good content on Prime, and the popular SyFy show The Expanse has moved to Prime for new episodes. Can't wait for the next season! If you have kids, a lot of good kids shows.

 

[amycurl]

Quick! Binge watch The Man in the High Castle...and then cancel.

 

[WinniWoman]

I just ordered a pair of boots. It actually gave me an option for free one day shipping instead of free 2 day shipping, meaning I will get them Friday instead of Saturday. Of course, I chose that option. If they don't fit- it is so easy to return stuff with Amazon I don't worry about it.

This summer I ordered a bunch of bathing suits and it was great to try them all on at home and return the ones that didn't fit or look right. Not to mention the bargain price I got on the one I chose!

Much better than going from store to store and the dressing rooms- getting undressed and dressed- and all that and paying an arm and a leg for one. UGH!