<p>To clarify, at the end of his FREE year he got an email offering the $39 deal. When we put that on the credit card today, thats when the auto renew option appeared. It is attached to the credit card payment, not the free offer, and didn’t say how much it would renew for ($39 vs $79)</p>
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<p>Do not feel bad. You only are delaying what you could (or should) do. Sign up for a full Prime account at 79 dollars and share it both freely and LEGALLY with your direct family. All four of you will enjoy the full benefits for 20 bucks each. Separate accounts for downloads, separate history, and all for one price. </p>
<p>You know that I believe that playing with the students’ accounts will contribute to Amazon perhaps killing one of the best deals around for … all of us.</p>
<p>^^xiggi: there is a simple way that amazon can stop the practice of sharing the student account among numerous people…</p>
<p>They could limit the acceptable shipping addresses to two: one for the student at the university tied to the email registered and one for billing address (assuming they are different). </p>
<p>Can’t really restrict the streaming capabilities though; same as Netflix…everyone can share the streaming account</p>
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<p>Wow, I sincerely appreciate that you directed that at me when you really don’t know anything about my students, where they go to school, how we use the accounts, etc. I understand you have an issue with the basic premise of how people are using this system but don’t place that on me because of what you are projecting on my post. </p>
<p>For clarification, my oldest son lives at home. We only shipped to one address for a single year (our home). When his account expired in July of this year we did not renew at the lower price. We got a new free student account in July for our younger son who is a first year at school this year (not living at home). So far we have only shipped things to him at school. Perhaps we will ship things home once in a while - as is provided for LEGALLY within the confines of the student account by Amazon, so you got me there. Don’t put me in any other category.</p>
<p>I don’t think I should feel bad about taking Amazon up on it’s free student offer either for a second year. My son was also living at home when he got his prime account last year. He took a College class while in HS and got an edu address. However, he still has four full years of college OOS and there will be lots of business for Amazon. I can say that I am much, much more willing to buy something from Amazon instead of someplace else because of the Prime account. Amazon is not losing money on our family.</p>
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My point precisely! Amazon knows what they are doing and they aren’t loosing any money on us. We’ll order from them as opposed to any other number of retailers. We’ve also taken advantage of the $4 overnight shipping on occasion because we are not paying for shipping. Many times we get ‘free’ overnight shipping by default when it’s determined that an item is in our area. Amazon has suppliers all over the country now. They are no longer shipping from a small number of locations. Distribution has changed dramatically.</p>
<p>Agree that Amazon is not losing any money in our house. Its now the first “go to” sight for many on-line prurchases, and with the 2 day free s&h its more likely to get our business than it may have been before.</p>
<p>It’s brilliant marketing. Amazon uses it to draw eyeballs to its website, the equivalent of foot traffic in retail business. And once you frequent Amazon enough, it becomes habit forming. Even if it’s a loss leader, they make money on volume, you always end up being tempted buying more than the original items. Think Costco and its $1.50 hot dog and coke deal! The price has not changed in at least 20 years, I doubt if they make money, but it draws customers to the door. But I digress…</p>
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<p>Fwiw, this was a case of mistaken quotation. I meant to address my post to Jym, and mixed up the sources. I am sure she knows since she called me the Amazon Police! </p>
<p>But regardless of this mistake, the point I made here and earlier is that my “beef” has been with people attempting to take advantage of the free student account offered to COLLEGE students. The marketing to this underused group is indeed brilliant, but it does not come for an invitation for parents to abandon their own Prime account. The web discussions about finding ways to extend the free college accounts to unauthorized members are simply … despicable. </p>
<p>In a number of threads, people have claimed to be great fans of Amazon, and especially love the Prime benefits. The fact that many spend considerable money purchasing do NOT justify abusing the generosity (and the TOS) of Amazon. If you want those benefits, just pay the 79 dollars! If you do not think they are worth this money, simply do not buy it. </p>
<p>Bottom line? No matter how one tries to justify (by the ease of beating the system or by pretending it is still good for them) it remains that it is unethical for parents to develop ways to abuse the free first year accounts and the hybrid form thereafter. Logging on a student’s account to order items to be shipped to your home (or to others) that are clearly not for the use of the student is WRONG. Just as it is wrong to steal your neighbors’ WIFI, pirate the cable and DirecTV box, or share a Netflix streaming account. </p>
<p>Just in case, you did NOT know that!</p>
<p>Quit picking on me! My DS would not have signed up for Prime if it wasn’t for me pointing this out to him, and Amazon has made plenty of money off of his purchases, and the few he has made on my behalf. Whether he orders something and has it sent to our home address or I order and have it sent to the home address is a moot point. Whether he puts the purchase on my credit card or his is a moot point. This is really, REALLY much ado about nothing. I never had a Prime account so they aren’t losing a penny from me. We just paid them $39! Enough already. You make it sound like poeple are running a business with mega purchases off of another account. Maybe others are doing that, but not us. The few things purchased sent to the home address can be counted on one hand with a few fingers left over, and doesn’t justify spending an extra $79. If it makes you happier for me to email my s and ask him to go on the website and click “send” , no problem.</p>
<p>Jym, I am not picking on you. </p>
<p>I am picking on everyone who has surfed the web to find ways to abuse the system, and I am especially picking on the ones who find it necessary to crow about their prowess. </p>
<p>Fwiw, you KNOW exactly what use I find despicable, and if it does not fit your case, you should not be offended by my position on the lack of ethics.</p>
<p>You said you were responding to my post xig. Not seeing anyone “crowing” about anything at all. What I KNOW is that this is a big ado about nothing.</p>
<p>I had to respond because I had quoted a different poster by mistake.</p>
<p>And, is writing what is below akin to making a big ado about nothing:</p>
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<p>??? Post #22 did look like it was in response to what blueiguana said, as she has several college students in the family, and he spoke about downloads, which I did not and don’t use. This is really, really not a big deal. There are many MANY other egregious examples of someone “gaming the system”. This is not one of them, IMO. And the next time I want some $12 hair oil, I’ll ask DS to buy me a present. It is not worth $79 to have a membership for a $12 purchase.</p>
<p>Are we talking about downloads now…not that it’s anyone’s business but we don’t have that. I’m way too confused who’s talking to me and who isn’t. I’m sorry jym! You take it from here…</p>
<p>OOps, my bad. I thought it was you, blueiguana, who talked about sharing streaming. I am totally confused as well. But, FWIW, my s will be graduating this coming spring and I UNCHECKED the auto-renew, even if they would have auto-renewed for 3 years at the student rate. Most students get an alum.edu email address after graduation, which would still qualify as an address with .edu. But he (hopefully) will not still be a student so would not officially qualify for the lower rate, even if they auto-renewed at the $39. I can avoid confessional for now, perhaps.</p>
<p>This horse is quite dead and not in need of any more beating.</p>
<p>Amazon is becoming stingy. About 4 years ago, you could get a student Amazon Prime account and it was good until graduation. They’ve shortened the time period little by little until it currently lasts for only 6 months. Evidently, it was just too much of a good thing for students or else people were abusing it.</p>