Amazon is pulling the plug on 16-year old Prime feature this week: here's what's changing
Amazon is discontinuing the Prime Invitee program on October 1, ending the ability for family members to share free shipping benefits. Instead, users can utilize Amazon Family, which requires all members to live at the same address to access shared Prime benefits.
Amazon is ending a 16-year-old program which allowed family members to share free shipping benefits. The program, called Prime Invitee, will end on October 1st, after which point, the enrolled users will lose access to free delivery.
Launched in 2009, the feature allowed Prime members to share free two-day shipping benefits with another adult, even if they lived at a different address.
What did Amazon say on Prime Invitee program ending?
"Prime members can instead share a broad range of Prime benefits with Amazon Family, including: fast, free delivery; access to exclusive deals and shopping events like Prime Day; movies, series, and live sports with Prime Video; Amazon Music and additional digital entertainment; access to a free Grubhub+ membership; and fuel savings at more than 7,500 bp, Amoco, and participating ampm locations," Amazon said in a statement to USA Today.
The company also says that the new change will impact members who enrolled in the program from its creation in 2009 to 2015—when it stopped accepting new members.
Amazon is also offering the customers impacted by the Prime Invitee Program cancellation a limited-time Prime deal where users will get 12 months of Prime for $14.99 and will be available until December 31st.
What choice do customers have?
In place of the Invitee Program, Amazon now has the Amazon Family model which requires all the members to live in the same household.
According to the company’s help page, Amazon Family will allow one Prime member to share their benefits with:
One additional adult
Four children
Up to four teenagers
However, all members must reside at the same physical address as the primary account holder.
Amazon had also earlier told CNBC that the new structure aligns better with its service goals and is now the only way to share Prime benefits.
In order to manage their Amazon Family settings, prime members can go to:
1) Go to Prime Membership settings
2) Open the Share Prime Benefits section
3) Add adults through invitation or joint sign-in (for verification)
4.)Add children by selecting Add Child
Amazon says users can leave and rejoin families. However, anyone who leaves the household must wait 12 months before joining another.
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