Amazon Prime (2 Viewers)

[FreeBaGeL]

Just to put some numbers on it, I just went through and found all my orders that did not arrive by their "guaranteed" delivery date.  I counted 12 orders since the beginning of this year, so hopefully they'll honor their terms and extend me by a full year.

It's gotten so common now that I'm starting to split out my multi-item orders into separate orders so if it gets delayed I get 2-3 months instead of 1.  The basically perpetually free prime is pretty nice but it kind of sucks that I've had to go back to relying on B&M for time sensitive stuff, which for a procrastinator like me is unfortunately a lot of stuff.

 

[Galileo]

I thought Prime orders were always 2 day delivery.  I ordered two different books today and one showed up as a 2 day delivery but the other as a 3 day delivery. 

 

[DallasDMac]

I thought Prime orders were always 2 day delivery.

In theory, yes. In practice, less and less.

 

[Fat Nick]

Last year, I didn't buy a thing...this year:

• A second Echo Dot for the kitchen
  
• LED Bias Lighting for Behind TV
  
• Keen Sandal/Shoes
  
• HooToo Flash Drive for iPhone
  
• OralB electric toothbrush
  
• One of those 3 outlet/3USB wall plug things.
  

All-in-all, a pretty good score.  No buyer's remorse except maybe the USB wall plug thing.  I'll use it, but I didn't really NEED it.  It was only like $12 though.  A little bummed the tool and gardening deals weren't better.  I really needed a new lopper for pruning trees.

So I figured I'd post a quick review of the things I got - very brief.

• A second Echo Dot for the kitchen - Obviously awesome.  Love having a second to go with the one in the basement.  Drop-in is pretty cool, but a bit of a delay.
  
• LED Bias Lighting for Behind TV - For $11, works great.  DEFINITELY notice a difference in contrast on the TV.  Space scenes look infinitely black and deep now.  My only issue isn't related to the bias lighting - it's related to my Sony TV which apparently has the USB ports always-on...so I have to figure out a work-around for that in order to use it to power the LED's and actually cut off when I'm done.
  
• Keen Sandal/Shoes - Very nice.  Comfortable.  I'd never pay $100+ given how frequently (infrequently) I'd wear them, but for $55, I'm happy.  Size fit perfect as per site recommendations.
  
• HooToo Flash Drive for iPhone - This thing is awesome.  I can easily move photos/videos on/off my phone without having to go through the nightmare that is iTunes.  It's a game changer for me.  I finally have some space on my phone!
  
• OralB electric toothbrush - It's a toothbrush.  It's electric.  My breath doesn't smell. 
  
• One of those 3 outlet/3USB wall plug things. - Haven't gotten this one yet.  It's shipping from Shenzhen China...due in August.  If I'd have noticed/known that, I may have passed.
  

 

[Fishboy]

I ended up getting a Dot and Echo. 

Dot arrived in 2 days and ETA for Echo is August 21.  WTF?!?  You are Amazon, you have Prime Day, you should have approximate inventory on hand to support the price point you offered.  They could have built up inventory to support Prime Day.  Even if they produced too many, it's not like they don't sell enough of these things over the course of a couple of months to deplete that excess inventory. 

 

[Bull Dozier]

So I figured I'd post a quick review of the things I got - very brief.

• A second Echo Dot for the kitchen - Obviously awesome.  Love having a second to go with the one in the basement.  Drop-in is pretty cool, but a bit of a delay.
  
• LED Bias Lighting for Behind TV - For $11, works great.  DEFINITELY notice a difference in contrast on the TV.  Space scenes look infinitely black and deep now.  My only issue isn't related to the bias lighting - it's related to my Sony TV which apparently has the USB ports always-on...so I have to figure out a work-around for that in order to use it to power the LED's and actually cut off when I'm done.
  
• Keen Sandal/Shoes - Very nice.  Comfortable.  I'd never pay $100+ given how frequently (infrequently) I'd wear them, but for $55, I'm happy.  Size fit perfect as per site recommendations.
  
• HooToo Flash Drive for iPhone - This thing is awesome.  I can easily move photos/videos on/off my phone without having to go through the nightmare that is iTunes.  It's a game changer for me.  I finally have some space on my phone!
  
• OralB electric toothbrush - It's a toothbrush.  It's electric.  My breath doesn't smell. 
  
• One of those 3 outlet/3USB wall plug things. - Haven't gotten this one yet.  It's shipping from Shenzhen China...due in August.  If I'd have noticed/known that, I may have passed.
  

If you're a prime member, why aren't you using PrimePhotos to back up your pictures to keep room available on your phone?

 

[heckmanm]

I ordered those bamboo sheets someone shared on Prime day.  I have to say, they are pretty nice.  I was a little skeptical when they claimed to be softer than cotton, but I would have to say they are.  Feels like something between flannel and silk.  Very nice.

Yeah, cotton sheets feel like burlap now.

 

[Bigboy10182000]

scored some mirrored swim goggles for 10$ for my son who lost his

Finally had a chance to use these (bought 3) with my kids and these were really good. They're still being sold for $12 which is still worth it IMO

 

[JoeSteeler]

I ordered those bamboo sheets someone shared on Prime day.  I have to say, they are pretty nice.  I was a little skeptical when they claimed to be softer than cotton, but I would have to say they are.  Feels like something between flannel and silk.  Very nice.

How much were they on prime day?

 

[Bull Dozier]

How much were they on prime day?

$60

 

[apalmer]

I thought Prime orders were always 2 day delivery.  I ordered two different books today and one showed up as a 2 day delivery but the other as a 3 day delivery. 

A lot of the Prime Day items were listed as "4-day".

 

[Fat Nick]

If you're a prime member, why aren't you using PrimePhotos to back up your pictures to keep room available on your phone?

I am...but for things like photos, I just feel safer when they're backed up on-site for me.  Call me old fashioned, but the cloud concept still makes me nervous with photos specifically. 

Personal preference I guess. 

 

[GroveDiesel]

I am...but for things like photos, I just feel safer when they're backed up on-site for me.  Call me old fashioned, but the cloud concept still makes me nervous with photos specifically. 

Personal preference I guess. 

I like backing up on-site as a second backup as well. You never know when someone like Amazon or Google will decide to change their policy and suddenly you find your self needing to move gigabytes upon gigabytes of files.

 

[Bull Dozier]

I am...but for things like photos, I just feel safer when they're backed up on-site for me.  Call me old fashioned, but the cloud concept still makes me nervous with photos specifically. 

Personal preference I guess. 

I can understand that.

On the other hand I have a brick sitting in my house that used to be a desktop computer.  I have to find some CPU guru to get it running and get the picture files off of it for me since I didn't back it up enough.  I love Amazon.

 

[FreeBaGeL]

Just to put some numbers on it, I just went through and found all my orders that did not arrive by their "guaranteed" delivery date.  I counted 12 orders since the beginning of this year, so hopefully they'll honor their terms and extend me by a full year.

It's gotten so common now that I'm starting to split out my multi-item orders into separate orders so if it gets delayed I get 2-3 months instead of 1.  The basically perpetually free prime is pretty nice but it kind of sucks that I've had to go back to relying on B&M for time sensitive stuff, which for a procrastinator like me is unfortunately a lot of stuff.

So I heard back from them and they said best they can do is 1 month total for all 12 missed orders, not 1 month each.

There used to be a page on Amazon's site that mentioned the 1 month extension and that it was limited to 12 extensions per year (not 1 extension), but now I can't find it.  Does anyone know where that is or have a copy of it?

 

[cockroach]

I was able to remove the ads from the Moto G5 without having to pay Amazon. Pretty cool. 

 

[Mr. Ected]

I thought Prime orders were always 2 day delivery.

In theory, yes. In practice, less and less.

You have to keep an eye on it, sometimes it will say 'Delivery will be X days.'

 

[DallasDMac]

You have to keep an eye on it, sometimes it will say 'Delivery will be X days.'

Yep, totally get that. But I've had a few that I contacted them after a lengthy delay only to tell me the order was back-ordered. To which my response is basically, were you going to bother to tell me? Apparently in many cases the answer is no. But, I suppose every business has it's bad days.

 

[Sand]

I like backing up on-site as a second backup as well. You never know when someone like Amazon or Google will decide to change their policy and suddenly you find your self needing to move gigabytes upon gigabytes of files.

I have a couple hundred GB of photos, so this would be a nightmare.  Flickr is enough for onsite and we have a couple external HDs that stay at work - in case the house goes up in smoke at least the pictures will survive.

 

[rascal]

I was able to remove the ads from the Moto G5 without having to pay Amazon. Pretty cool. 

How?   Not that the adds are much of a nuisance

 

[Dragons]

How?   Not that the adds are much of a nuisance

My wife has not complained about the ads at all, but I'd also like to know how to remove them for her.

Will the phone still get security updates? Will the updates reset the ads?

 

[JoeSteeler]

Amazon Echo (Black or White) on sale 2 for $159.98 when you apply promo code ECHO2PACK 

https://slickdeals.net/f/10391836-amazon-echo-2-for-159-98-making-them-79-99-each-when-buying-2-today-only

Not sure how long this will last

 

[cockroach]

How?   Not that the adds are much of a nuisance

My wife has not complained about the ads at all, but I'd also like to know how to remove them for her.

Will the phone still get security updates? Will the updates reset the ads?

I thought I posted this, maybe it got removed.  Anyway, it's only removing the ads, everything else functions as usual

https://www.reddit.com/r/MotoG/comments/6e1cc4/moto_g_amazon_edition_remove_app_that_displays/dilfhsq/

 

[Dragons]

I thought I posted this, maybe it got removed.  Anyway, it's only removing the ads, everything else functions as usual

https://www.reddit.com/r/MotoG/comments/6e1cc4/moto_g_amazon_edition_remove_app_that_displays/dilfhsq/

Awesome, thank you!

 

[Tick]

I have a couple hundred GB of photos, so this would be a nightmare.  Flickr is enough for onsite and we have a couple external HDs that stay at work - in case the house goes up in smoke at least the pictures will survive.

I have a free program called EaseUS Todo Backup that runs once per week at 2 AM, and backs up any new pictures to an external hard drive plugged into a USB port.  It's no effort.

 

[BoltBacker]

I have a free program called EaseUS Todo Backup that runs once per week at 2 AM, and backs up any new pictures to an external hard drive plugged into a USB port.  It's no effort.

But do you keep it on-site or off-site? If there is a theft/fire/flood etc it may be no backup as well as being no effort.

Whenever I hear people using automated USB backup I always think of this story....

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/sep/29/argentina.film

 

[Hawks64]

I have a free program called EaseUS Todo Backup that runs once per week at 2 AM, and backs up any new pictures to an external hard drive plugged into a USB port.  It's no effort.

But do you keep it on-site or off-site? If there is a theft/fire/flood etc it may be no backup as well as being no effort.

Whenever I hear people using automated USB backup I always think of this story....

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/sep/29/argentina.film

If you're worried about one cloud provider then use two. Significantly safer than USB hard drives, soooo many times have I run into a dead drive after it sat for a while with no real use. HDs will fail at some point and the longer they are on the higher the risk.

 

[tonydead]

If you're worried about one cloud provider then use two. Significantly safer than USB hard drives, soooo many times have I run into a dead drive after it sat for a while with no real use. HDs will fail at some point and the longer they are on the higher the risk.

Someone told me the other day that SSD drives have a finite number of times they can write to then they automatically die.  No idea if true or not.

I use Windows 10 Storage Spaces.  Automatically sets up a storage raid for you and notifies you when a drive fails.  If you have enough drives your raid can be set to handle multiple drive failures at once.

Then I use remote desktop to access remotely.  

 

[Hawks64]

Someone told me the other day that SSD drives have a finite number of times they can write to then they automatically die.  No idea if true or not.

I use Windows 10 Storage Spaces.  Automatically sets up a storage raid for you and notifies you when a drive fails.  If you have enough drives your raid can be set to handle multiple drive failures at once.

Then I use remote desktop to access remotely.  

Correct SSDs also have a finite number of times they can be written to. I also have a NAS that I use for movie storage but that's local. I want it saved to the cloud, and use Google and Amazon to back them up. The risk there is infinitely less than a RAID set at my house, especially one managed by Windows regardless of the flavor.

 

[BoltBacker]

Someone told me the other day that SSD drives have a finite number of times they can write to then they automatically die.  No idea if true or not. 

ALL media has a finite life. Differing life spans that can be extended by handling them properly.

 

[BoltBacker]

Correct SSDs also have a finite number of times they can be written to. I also have a NAS that I use for movie storage but that's local. I want it saved to the cloud, and use Google and Amazon to back them up. The risk there is infinitely less than a RAID set at my house, especially one managed by Windows regardless of the flavor.

That's true for me, and probably most people, but there are instances where security is a big issue. In some instances having your own encrypted copies both onsite and offsite is better than having it in the cloud.

 

[Hawks64]

That's true for me, and probably most people, but there are instances where security is a big issue. In some instances having your own encrypted copies both onsite and offsite is better than having it in the cloud.

For your pictures? Really? That's what this has been about not about your other data. Prime and google offer unlimited free storage.

 

[tonydead]

Correct SSDs also have a finite number of times they can be written to. I also have a NAS that I use for movie storage but that's local. I want it saved to the cloud, and use Google and Amazon to back them up. The risk there is infinitely less than a RAID set at my house, especially one managed by Windows regardless of the flavor.

ALL media has a finite life. Differing life spans that can be extended by handling them properly.

I'm talking about an almost pre-determined number of write times.  link   Regardless of how well you take care of them.

I've had my server for about 10 years, had too many to count drives fail and switched operating systems a half of dozen times with very little data loss.  I prefer that route than giving all my private documents to google and amazon.  If you think your data is private with google or amazon it's not, they will at least use it against you.***

***Huge fan and stock holder of both google and amazon.  Still don't trust them with anything to do with privacy.  

 

[tonydead]

For your pictures? Really? That's what this has been about not about your other data. Prime and google offer unlimited free storage.

Yes, really.  Don't you think who you're seen with and when is important?  Do you care that someone might find out that you take a week long trip every December the week before Christmas and your house might be sitting empty full of Christmas presents?  For a simple example.  350 million photos are uploaded to facebook everyday and that's free data for whomever wants to use it.  

 

[Hawks64]

Yes, really.  Don't you think who you're seen with and when is important?  Do you care that someone might find out that you take a week long trip every December the week before Christmas and your house might be sitting empty full of Christmas presents?  For a simple example.  350 million photos are uploaded to facebook everyday and that's free data for whomever wants to use it.  

So we are talking two different things, I never said use FB as a backup for photos. FB does not equal my google or amazon accounts both of which are setup with MFA. And no I don't care whom I am seen with, if I or my family are taking pictures of me it's not going to be salacious. Lot of in your post.

 

[Mr. Ected]

I've been using CrashPlan for several years for my online storage (couple TBs with movies and music.) I haven't had any issues with them; you pay for it but you get what you pay for. No limit on data.

 

[AAABatteries]

I've been using CrashPlan for several years for my online storage (couple TBs with movies and music.) I haven't had any issues with them; you pay for it but you get what you pay for. No limit on data.

Say what?

 

[Mr. Ected]

I've been using CrashPlan for several years for my online storage (couple TBs with movies and music.) I haven't had any issues with them; you pay for it but you get what you pay for. No limit on data.

Say what?

I have a ton of movies and music that I uploaded to iTunes. You pay $60/year and it is as described below.

Truly Unlimited Storage


Whether you require gigabytes or terabytes of online backup, a subscription to the CrashPlan Central cloud will set you free from file type and size roadblocks. Plus, we’ll never charge you extra to restore your files. They’re yours, after all.

 

[BoltBacker]

For your pictures? Really? That's what this has been about not about your other data. Prime and google offer unlimited free storage.

Actually, pictures of a..... "personal" nature(between two consenting adults of course) are precisely what I meant. But I was also speaking just in a broad sense of backing up data.

 

[Hawks64]

Actually, pictures of a..... "personal" nature(between two consenting adults of course) are precisely what I meant. But I was also speaking just in a broad sense of backing up data.

There are apps for that where the pictures aren't stored in your albums.

 

[Sand]

But do you keep it on-site or off-site? If there is a theft/fire/flood etc it may be no backup as well as being no effort.

Whenever I hear people using automated USB backup I always think of this story....

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/sep/29/argentina.film

I rotate mine off site.  I'm not OCD about much but if everything I own goes up in smoke if I lost a lifetime of memories I'd be crushed.  So what I do may be overkill, but I'll always have this stuff.

 

[tonydead]

So we are talking two different things, I never said use FB as a backup for photos. FB does not equal my google or amazon accounts both of which are setup with MFA. And no I don't care whom I am seen with, if I or my family are taking pictures of me it's not going to be salacious. Lot of in your post.

FB is just a known hard number example of personal data that people freely give.  Because I don't think Google or Amazon publish how many photos they have access to, daily, for good reason.  There is also a good reason why Amazon and Google provide those services for free.  There is a bunch of EXIF data that goes along with each photo, doesn't take long for them to develop a pretty good profile of someone.  

 

[Mr. Ected]

Dropbox is another that works well. You plug in the device and it checks to see if there are new pics, and they are then uploaded automatically. Again, you pay for it, but...you get what you pay for.

 

[GroveDiesel]

This happens in tons of other stores too, but pretty disappointing to find out that Amazon pulled the "raise prices before a sale and then sell the item for its normal or even higher price" scam on customers for Prime Day.

 

[lumpy19]

This happens in tons of other stores too, but pretty disappointing to find out that Amazon pulled the "raise prices before a sale and then sell the item for its normal or even higher price" scam on customers for Prime Day.

that's why camelcamelcamel is such a great tool

 

[Sand]

that's why camelcamelcamel is such a great tool

CCC and IsThereAnyDeal notifications are awesome.  Great tools.

 

[cockroach]

getting stuff delivered to an Amazon Locker for the first time.  You just go in and show your ID to the slurpee guy and get your stuff or what?

 

[NutterButter]

This happens in tons of other stores too, but pretty disappointing to find out that Amazon pulled the "raise prices before a sale and then sell the item for its normal or even higher price" scam on customers for Prime Day.

I think they're just trying to help their customers feel better about their purchases.  

 

[DallasDMac]

getting stuff delivered to an Amazon Locker for the first time.  You just go in and show your ID to the slurpee guy and get your stuff or what?

I think you get a locker number and a code for the lock.

 

[JoeSteeler]

High Noon added to streaming.