Amazon Fixes The Prime Loophole

Shortly after its Prime Day last month, Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) has quietly changed its policies for Prime membership and fixed a loophole.

Editor-in-Chief of PC Magazine Dan Costa was on CNBC recently to discuss the change and how it will impact customers.

The Loophole

"So, up until today – and a lot of people didn't even know that this feature existed – but you'd be able to have a prime account and then share it with up to four other people and those people don't necessarily have to be living in the same house as you," Costa began. "You can share it with your parents, with your kids. So, basically four accounts for the price of one."

He continued, "Amazon is going to close that loophole and make it so that for you have one account, you have one adult and then you can share it with up to three people, usually children, in the same household. So, it's a fairly significant change for those people that knew about the feature."

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Prime Has Evolved Over Time

Costa was asked if this move by Amazon could be considered as a bait and switch. He replied, "The thing is, Prime has been changing pretty much since the day they launched it. Originally it was just a way to subsidize free shipping and sort of create more sticky customers, but it has evolved over time and Amazon has actually added a lot of new features to it.

"They have got a book. They have got a premium video service – content you can only get if you are a Prime member. They have got a music streaming service; it's actually really robust. They have got book lending. All these new features brought in. So, Amazon has actually added a lot to the service over time, and I don't think any customer has really complained about it when new features came for the same price," Costa concluded.