Cancelling Amazon Prime Video - Very Disappointed

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#2472928 28-Apr-2020 18:10

I had the US version of content and it was... just okay.

The app always proved to be inconsistent for me, whereas Hulu Plus and Netflix apps work particularly well.

Content aside, we use Hulu the most for TV shows ahead of broadcast, Netflix for a few standout shows (The Last Dance and Sunderland 'til I Die currently).

Amazon got cut for their lack of content and their app.

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#2472962 28-Apr-2020 18:45

Does an NZ Prime sub still get charged in US dollars? I’d have assumed it would be in NZ$ (OP says his amount varies each month, so from that I had assumed they had US Prime).

Our year’s free membership through 2D expires this month, and we are keeping it on for another month - primarily because my wife finds it has a wide range of Hindi content.
My experience has been some decent shows (Mrs Maisel, Goliath, Boys...), some mixed (Grand Tour, as long as I fast forwarded the tent bits; Jack Ryan, which started well and ended up in predictable US network bombastic territory), but most of it’s just filler. We’re paying well over twice the amount for Netflix but I know which I’d give up first!

Would really recommend Our Man in Japan, as mentioned above. Informative and interesting, and James May actually seems like a nice chap, unlike those two @rses.

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#2473047 28-Apr-2020 21:15

Charged 5.99 USD, I think it's worth the money for me. I get extra value with the free twitch prime sub($4.99US value/9.99NZD(lol twitch sucks)). It's nice to know Amazon gets screwed over every time I redeem that free sub :D

Hammerer

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#2473122 29-Apr-2020 08:17

I also have NZ Prime for USD 5.99 which is why the actual price varied in NZD:

-$9.52

-$10.78

-$10.25

jonathan18

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#2473124 29-Apr-2020 08:32

Hammerer:

I also have NZ Prime for USD 5.99 which is why the actual price varied in NZD:

-$9.52 -$10.78 -$10.25

Interesting; currently the amount 2D charges is lower than the converted rate charged directly by Amazon - my latest 2D bill shows a charge of $8.99.

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#2473132 29-Apr-2020 08:58

jonathan18:

Hammerer:

I also have NZ Prime for USD 5.99 which is why the actual price varied in NZD:

-$9.52 -$10.78 -$10.25

Interesting; currently the amount 2D charges is lower than the converted rate charged directly by Amazon - my latest 2D bill shows a charge of $8.99.

I subscribe via Apple and it's $4.49 a month

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#2473151 29-Apr-2020 09:28

I subscribe via Apple and it's $4.49 a month

I assume that's USD?

Weird that it's cheaper via a third party than direct.

chevrolux

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#2473169 29-Apr-2020 10:00

Delphinus:

Agree on all these points. Especially the subtitles, although for me it would often result in English subtitles that I couldn't turn off no matter what I did.

Yes not turning off is common too!

Had a fun one last night watching The man in the high castle - subtitles completely out of sync with the video. It was like watching a poorly dubbed foreign movie.

It blows my mind that a company who practically run the modern internet, and probably employ some of the most intelligent people on the planet, can't make a dam TV app work!!

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#2473228 29-Apr-2020 11:27

I think this is just the churn of the modern streaming content marketplace to be honest, especially as it gets even more fractured by every company releasing their own service. Find a service, subscribe for a month or two while you watch the things that interest you, then ditch it and move on. Cancelling a service shouldn't be big news, this isn't your grandad's Sky. As others have said, it sounds like you got your money's worth; you tried a bunch of TV shows you might not have normally, even if from your ratings system I can't tell if you liked. They didn't have anything after that to keep you hanging around, so boom, you voted with your wallet. I'm not saying this represents the best experience for the end user, but given they are trying to hit a moving target of a range of content for the massively varied tastes of their paying audience, its probably the most practical. Better that than trying to lock you in with 12 month contracts....

I have shuttled between Netflix, Lightbox, Disney Plus, Amazon Prime, Neon in the past 12 months. Netflix is going constantly as we work our way through a mix of older and newer TV shows, and Amazon as we have the 12 month deal through 2degrees, but Lightbox, Neon, and Disney+ only stuck around as long as we needed to get through specific content.

For D+, I think I watched like one Marvel movie, the oookkkkkk Mandalorian, and the deeply awesome series The World According to Jeff Goldblum. But after those things were done, as someone else said, there was no promise of new content, it's just Disney's (and all their respective IP) massive back catalog, so out it went. If Goldblum makes a reappearance, I will hit it up for another month and then probs ditch it again. Lightbox has more TV content, but ultimately went the same way (until the next season of The Handmaid's Tale or Preacher). And Neon; of all the services, I use them the most sparingly as while they have the content, their UX is TouchWiz bad.

Prime Video has some great original content now; The Boys, Fleabag, The Expanse (even with the fooking random German subtitles), Tales From The Loop, The Grand Tour I have had first hand experience with, and I am looking forward to trying out Our Man in Japan, possibly American Gods, The Man in the High Castle, Good Omens if I get the time. But once the 2D deal is over, and if they don't have anything new, it will be getting the hose.

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#2473235 29-Apr-2020 11:38

jonathan18:

I subscribe via Apple and it's $4.49 a month

I assume that's USD?

Weird that it's cheaper via a third party than direct.

No it's NZD - I assume I got some sort of intro deal that has carried on? Didn't realise it was that cheap to be honest. On that basis, I get great value for money.

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#2473245 29-Apr-2020 11:51

ShinyChrome:

(until the next season of The Handmaid's Tale or Preacher).

Season 4 was the end of Preacher :(

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#2473248 29-Apr-2020 11:52

Handsomedan:

No it's NZD - I assume I got some sort of intro deal that has carried on? Didn't realise it was that cheap to be honest. On that basis, I get great value for money.

There was a half price for X months deal running at some point, maybe that? I had the same deal previously, it was around that price I believe.

cshwone:

Season 4 was the end of Preacher :(

Stinkbuzz. I only got a few episodes into S3 before something else got in the way, but always meant to revisit it with a new season. I do now remember S3 being a bit meh at the start, was S4 any better?

openmedia

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#2473258 29-Apr-2020 12:11

I'd be interested if it worked on imported Amazon Fire Sticks.

Generally known online as OpenMedia, now working for Red Hat APAC as a Technology Evangelist and Portfolio Architect. Still playing with MythTV and digital media on the side.

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#2473303 29-Apr-2020 12:58

ShinyChrome:

I think this is just the churn of the modern streaming content marketplace to be honest, especially as it gets even more fractured by every company releasing their own service. Find a service, subscribe for a month or two while you watch the things that interest you, then ditch it and move on. Cancelling a service shouldn't be big news, this isn't your grandad's Sky. As others have said, it sounds like you got your money's worth; you tried a bunch of TV shows you might not have normally, even if from your ratings system I can't tell if you liked. They didn't have anything after that to keep you hanging around, so boom, you voted with your wallet. I'm not saying this represents the best experience for the end user, but given they are trying to hit a moving target of a range of content for the massively varied tastes of their paying audience, its probably the most practical. Better that than trying to lock you in with 12 month contracts....

Yes I agree.

My partner nicely (ahem) reminded me that we have 1 years Apple TV+ free subscription for the iPad mini he bought at the beginning of March 2020 which the take up expires around end of May.

So will look at that first, then think about the Disney+. I mean free is better than $10. May cancel ATV+ after 12 mths, then, as stated previously, might relook at Amazon Prime. Who knows Hulu might even be in NZ by then.

We will keep Netflix and Lightbox as it comes with our Spark deal and Netflix is mostly watched at least once a day in our house.

But as ShinyChrome stated above, people will more and more churn their SVOD requirements.

(wash, rinse and repeat)

Whilst the difficult we can do immediately, the impossible takes a bit longer. However, miracles you will have to wait for.

ShinyChrome

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#2473346 29-Apr-2020 13:40

FineWine:

Yes I agree.

My partner nicely (ahem) reminded me that we have 1 years Apple TV+ free subscription for the iPad mini he bought at the beginning of March 2020 which the take up expires around end of May.

So will look at that first, then think about the Disney+. I mean free is better than $10. May cancel ATV+ after 12 mths, then, as stated previously, might relook at Amazon Prime. Who knows Hulu might even be in NZ by then.

We will keep Netflix and Lightbox as it comes with our Spark deal and Netflix is mostly watched at least once a day in our house.

But as ShinyChrome stated above, people will more and more churn their SVOD requirements.

(wash, rinse and repeat)

I am really hoping we will see Hulu as part of their international push next year for the more mature versions of Disney's IP. It will also be interesting to see how Apple TV+ finds its stride in the marketplace, but I guess they have the captive market to fund a lower-cost quality-over-quantity business model. We might even see HBO Max and Peacock with a bit of luck.

With more production companies pushing into the marketplace, it will be interesting to see what happens to local middle-players like Lightbox and Neon. One side effect of this is I hope we will stop seeing these stupid archaic region-locked content deals and more globally available content. There is no need for that in this day-and-age, local content laws aside of course.

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