I've been an Amazon customer since 1998 back when people shopped there almost exclusively for physical books.
When Prime was offered, I signed-up to save on shipping costs. Streaming was a secondary benefit considering the sheer volume of orders I was making. Since 2012, when I relocated to Mexico, I came to really depend on Amazon for household goods, food, and other hard-to-come-by necessities. My Amazon usage peaked in 2016 with a 157 total orders placed. I estimate my total amount spent that year at around $30,000. As you can see, I was not a casual user.
Prime was a non-event for me while in Mexico as Amazon won't stream content outside the US. In the early days of VPN, I could spoof my IP address over to the US but I knew, correctly so, that sooner or later IT departments would catch-up to gray-hat tech and start locking down VPN exit points and, sure enough, that's come to pass.
[ Side note: For the uninitiated, a VPN is a Virtual-Private-Network. It serves to encrypt your internet traffic making it impossible for anyone, including your ISP (internet service provider) to eavesdrop on your data streams. Since most internet traffic is sent clear-text, a VPN ensures that your privacy is maintained. While most web-sites today employ their own encryption via HTTPS, other protocols, such as email, are still sent in clear-text.]
I relocated back to the US recently. I live in Texas now but my employer is head-quartered in California allowing me to telecommute. I work on back-end database systems, have specialized in creating heath care systems managing personal information under HIPAA guidelines. As such, I use a VPN for business reasons as I ferry significant amounts of proprietary data (code, mostly) back-and-forth from Texas to California.
Of course, I took the lazy programmer approach to VPNs. With almost 30 devices on my network (I have a several sharded-clustered database systems for application testing) I found it easier to initiate a VPN connection on my DMZ router (A second router that sits behind a primary router) so that any device (computer, tablet, cell-phone, Pi, etc.) that connected to router, either over the wire or wireless, will enjoy VPN encryption protection. This was time-saving, and vastly more convenient for me -- instead of initiating a VPN connection on a per-device bases, the router ensured that ALL traffic was encrypted.
I did enjoy a brief period of time sans-VPN on first moving to Texas and, during that time, I enjoyed frustration-free streaming from Amazon Prime. I also signed-up for a trial Netflix account, giddy with the joy of discovering previously untapped entertainment!
All that, however, came to a screeching halt once I re-instituted my VPN protocols at the router level. Both Netflix and Amazon refused to stream content any longer.
This is the point where I was struck by the incongruity. And, after receiving an on-screen message stating that my IP-exit point was associated with illegal activities such as hacking an piracy, I was offended.
First, I've legitimately paid for these streaming services. If I want to view them over clear-text or over an encrypted channel, who's to say that's improper, illegal, or immoral?
Secondly, neither company had any problems, whatsoever, in collecting payments from me over the same encrypted channels. This incongruity was extremely offensive to me.
I cancelled both accounts immediately. Netflix, of course, gave absolutely zero-f**ks and said "kthxbai" and have a nice day. When I cancelled Prime on Amazon, I was escalated to no less than five service "managers", each of which wanted to know why I was cancelling. I was candid in my responses and that was pretty much that.
Amazon's official response was: "Prime Video streaming is not supported through Virtual Private Network (VPN) or proxy connections. To watch Prime Video, you must disable these services for your device or try switching to another available connection."
I chose to interpret that statement as: "You're paying us $100+ dollars/year and for that, we get to mandate how you will use our services. Except when you pay us. For that, we'll happily accept your money over a VPN."
As one of the "little people" in this teeming biomass, I realize that the only power I have, as an individual, is how and where I choose to spend my money. If a company, even one as big as Amazon, serves up such a blatant contradiction as "we'll take your money but we're going to limit your contracted services as a result of your choices", I have to respect that. I also am free to chose to no longer provide them with continuing revenue.
Netflix was no great loss. Their catalog is growing ever smaller and gets stale after the first week of the month. I shed not a single tear. Amazon would have been more painful, losing my Prime membership, but WalMart and Jet (a subsidiary of WalMart) have stepped-up to fill that void by offering free shipping and NOT requiring a (paid) membership. Sure, I don't get streaming (not even sure if it's offered) but they're not my first go-to for streaming entertainment.
I'm happy that both Netflix and Amazon have grown so large that they no longer be concerned with the complaints of an individual and I wish them nothing but the best. They'll just have to struggle-on without my help as difficult as that may be. Me, on the other hand, I'm happily saving roughly $300 per year as a result in membership fees alone!