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Customers Calling to 'Cancel' Amazon Prime After New Price Hikes Announced The new price hikes will go into effect on February 18 for new Prime members and after March 25 for existing members.

By Emily Rella Edited by Amanda Breen

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

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Bad news for loyal Amazon shoppers.

The retail giant announced that it would be increasing prices on its beloved Prime services by a whopping 17%, citing inflation and the need to offset costs due to pandemic-related disturbances, namely labor and transportation costs.

Annual Prime memberships will increase from $119 to $139, while monthly subscriptions will increase from $12.99 to $14.99, the first time increases in the service have been implemented since 2018.

The new price hikes will go into effect on February 18 for new Prime members and after March 25 for existing members.

Related: Netflix Is Raising Prices in the U.S.

Suffice it to say, customers and Amazon fans were less than thrilled about the new increases, calling for people to "cancel" the service and accusing Amazon founder and former CEO Jeff Bezos of using the money for his own personal benefit.

"With Amazon Prime going up in price after making billions of dollars in profits, after price gouging, after abusing their employees and union busting ALL DURING A PANDEMIC maybe you all should think about just canceling that sh*t?," one user said.

"Time for me to cancel Amazon Prime. They don't even have consistent 2-day shipping anymore, and now they're going up in price," another quipped.

Related: Parents of Amazon Worker Killed in Tornado are Suing the Company: 'Amazon Placed Profits First'

Amazon shares skyrocketed 17% after-hours on Thursday after an earnings report from the company's Q4 2021 showed impressive success, with overall sales increasing over 9% from the same time last year, bringing in a revenue of $137.4 billion.

The online retail giant isn't the only company to introduce impending price hikes for subscribers new and old.

Last month, Netflix announced that it would be increasing prices between $1 and $2 to help the streaming company pay for new programming to keep it competitive with other streaming platforms.

Amazon was down over 5.59% year over year as of early Friday afternoon.

Emily Rella

Senior News Writer

Emily Rella is a Senior News Writer at Entrepreneur.com. Previously, she was an editor at Verizon Media. Her coverage spans features, business, lifestyle, tech, entertainment, and lifestyle. She is a 2015 graduate of Boston College and a Ridgefield, CT native. Find her on Twitter at @EmilyKRella.

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