It couldn’t last forever, and so today is the end of a personal era: Amazon figured out that I’m not a student anymore. Which is too bad, because now I’ll have to pay full price for Amazon Prime. I spent the last year of medical school (and two bonus years to hit three of the maximum total of four) thoroughly enjoying/using the “Amazon Student” service, which is Amazon Prime for half the cost, including their (nowhere near as good as Netflix) bundled video streaming service, free Kindle books, and tons of two day shipping. I first signed up for the six month free trial when I needed some holiday gifts quickly, and I haven’t cancelled since.
Upon receiving the email notification that my student membership was expiring and that I was going to be automatically “upgraded” to Prime, I immediately checked to see if there was a way to use an .edu address or student ID to continue being a student. My choices to confirm my “student” status were:
- A transcript or class list for the current term (must include the date/term)
- A copy or picture of your student ID (must include an expiration date or term)
- A tuition bill for the current term (must include the date/term)
- An official acceptance letter for the upcoming term (must include the matriculation date)
Er, so yeah. They thought this all out. None of that is going to happen.
Amazon may have some questionable/bizarre hardware efforts, but on the retail side, they figured out long ago that if they get you to sign up for prime, you get hooked/spoiled by unlimited two day shipping and then buy basically everything through Amazon.