A few months ago, I decided to try Amazon's subscription service for diapers. I'd already signed up for Amazon Mom, which gives you 15% off things like diapers and wipes and signs you up for a few free months of Amazon Prime shipping. The subscription gives an extra 15% off. I thought, "Forty dollars worth of diapers for thirty? Sounds awesome!"
There's only one problem. After your first shipment or two, they will unexpectedly change your shipping from the free two-day shipping you get on all purchases when you have Amazon Prime to free standard shipping, which takes an entire week. Isn't it lovely when you have your diaper purchasing all timed out just to find out the day your order is sent that your diapers won't be there for an extra five days? I'm sure Kira won't mind holding it for that long, right?
Their description of their Subscribe and Save program doesn't mention this. It says merely "get free shipping." It isn't until you really look at their Terms of Service that it becomes (vaguely) clearer. They say only: "All Subscribe & Save orders ship for free. However, shipping upgrades are not permitted with Subscribe & Save orders." It may seem strange that I'm complaining. Hey, shipping is still free, right? But consider this: My Amazon Prime membership gives me a $9.99 shipping value for free. Standard shipping costs $4.99. That is $5 of savings that I just lost without warning. Besides that, I have to go to the store and pay $10 for 30 diapers just to make it until the delivery arrives. That is $.33 a diaper vs. the $.20 a diaper I thought I would be getting from Amazon. By the time I buy enough diapers to fill in the holes in their shipping, I might as well go buy diapers from Sam's Club when I need them.
If you want to use Amazon's subscription service, beware! You do get a pretty good discount, but you never know how long the package will take to get there.
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