this post was submitted on 25 Mar 2024
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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

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[–] [email protected] 55 points 3 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] billbasher 33 points 3 months ago

I canceled ✊

[–] [email protected] 31 points 3 months ago (3 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 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.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 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.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I cancelled my Prime. You have the power.

[–] phubarr 8 points 3 months ago

Same. Canceled last month. You vote with your dollars, people.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 3 months ago (2 children)
[–] billbasher 7 points 3 months ago
[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

Yes, the correct answer is to pirate Prime Videos. Keep paying for services that are reasonable, pirate the ones that aren't.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 3 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.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 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.

[–] PP_BOY_ 6 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

If you're still on Amazon Prime in [current year] I doubt you'll listen to reason, but the only thing you can do is to cancel and tell them that the ads are the only reason for your decision.

Then pirate everything for free because only idiots are paying for streaming in [current year].

[–] billbasher 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

The thing is, I want to pay the creators for the content I watch, to an extent. If it is ridiculous or includes ads I’m not for it. I have a year sub so yeah I’ll listen to reason but it has a lag time ha

[–] andrewta 4 points 3 months ago

If you want to pay them then buy the physical media. No ads and they get paid.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

This was precisely how and why we cancelled, and you can bet I'm still not missing my shows.

[–] trapezohedron 6 points 3 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.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago

Not really a protest but if you want to still watch content you can use the Firefox addon Streaming enhanced: Netflix Disney+ Prime Video, it removes the ads from the videos.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Me trying to imagine how

The only power consumers have is voting with your wallet.

is getting downvotes.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

In this particular case it's likely because it was a double-post so this duplicate is getting pushed down while https://lemm.ee/comment/10561771 currently shows 0 downvotes.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago
[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] billbasher 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Yeah, the answer here is cancel prime and pirate whatever amazon video content you want. if you absolutely have to have prime for some reason, don’t sign in to amazon video on any of your devices and pirate the stuff you want to watch so at least your not contributing to views or their prime video ad revenue.

Edit - I see in another comment you said you unsubscribed, good on you.

[–] billbasher 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

It’s the Plex life for me now

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

That’s been my life for the past 10 years, you won’t regret it at all.

[–] doublejay1999 -1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Write a letter to Jeffery Bezos

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

He's the ceo of a failed space company now. Not the current ceo of Amazon.