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Dear Amazon/Audible,
I like audiobooks. I like listening while driving, walking, cooking, doing chores… basically anything that makes adult life feel slightly less like a treadmill.
I want to give you money for this. And I’m not saying that as a casual, drive-by complainer.
I am exactly the kind of customer you want.
I have an Audible Premium Plus membership.
I have 564 Audible books in my library.
I’m sitting on 26 credits right now.
And I’ve been an Amazon Prime member for 21 years.
I’m in your ecosystem on purpose. I’m not trying to game the system. I’m not looking for loopholes. I’m the person who should be able to buy an audiobook with the confidence that I’m doing the obvious, sensible thing.
But your pricing and membership model makes me feel like I’m being trained to second-guess every purchase, and that’s a really dumb place to put a customer who is actively trying to buy books.
Here’s the core of the insanity:
- I pay for an Audible membership.
- That membership gives me credits.
- Credits are supposed to be the simple, no-brainer way to get audiobooks.
- And then… I’m on Amazon and I see the same audiobook offered for less than what my credit effectively costs me.
So now I’m in this ridiculous mental maze:
- Do I use a credit I’ve “already paid for,” even though it’s objectively more expensive?
- Or do I pay cash and keep the credit for a more expensive book later?
- But if I pay cash, it feels like I’m paying twice because I already paid for the membership.
- And if I use the credit, it feels like I’m lighting money on fire.
This isn’t “choice.” It’s friction. It’s cognitive tax. It’s a system that makes buying a book feel like solving a small finance problem.
And it’s happening in a category… books… where the entire point is to relax and enjoy the content.
The customer experience you’re creating
Instead of “Oh cool, new book,” it becomes:
- “Wait — what’s the best way to buy this so I don’t regret it?”
- “Is this price for members only?”
- “Is this a targeted promo that will disappear tomorrow?”
- “Should I hoard credits for expensive titles?”
- “Are my credits going to expire if I cancel?”
- “Am I being tricked into thinking I’m saving money when I’m actually just buying a different pricing tier?”
And I’m not saying this as someone with three books and a free trial. I’m saying this as someone who has 564 audiobooks in your system and 26 credits sitting there right now — someone who should be having the smoothest possible experience when I click “Buy.”
I’m not trying to be dramatic here. I’m trying to explain how this feels as a normal, willing customer:
It feels like the system is designed to make me uncertain.
And uncertainty is the opposite of what you want when people are browsing and buying.
The part that really breaks trust
Sales are fine. Promotions are fine. I love a deal as much as the next person.
What breaks trust is when the product you sell me (credits) is positioned as the simple best-value mechanism… and then you routinely undercut it with cash prices.
When that happens, credits stop feeling like a benefit and start feeling like:
- a liability
- a trap
- a weird gift card I’m pressured to use inefficiently.
And again: I’m not outside the tent yelling. I’m inside the tent, fully set up. Premium Plus. Twenty-one years of Prime. Hundreds of purchases. A giant library. If I feel like I’m being gamed, imagine what this does to someone who’s new.
That’s not “membership value.” That’s me wondering why I’m subscribed at all.
And yes, I use Kindle + Audible together… but there’s friction there too
To be clear: I do the Kindle + Audible combo all the time. I love being able to read on a Kindle and then pick up the audio version… especially when there’s a good “add Audible narration” discount.
But even there, the experience is more friction than it needs to be. It’s often unclear:
- whether the Kindle purchase will actually unlock the discounted audio price until you’re partway through checkout,
- whether the audiobook is cheaper via the “add narration” path versus a straight Audible cash purchase,
- whether using a credit is the “smart” move or the “wasteful” move compared to the bundle discount.
So even in the workflow you’ve clearly designed to be a value-add, I’m still doing math. I’m still comparing paths. I’m still trying to avoid the feeling that I chose the wrong door in a three-door pricing game show.
I should not need to run a mini optimization problem to buy a book in the same family of products from the same company.
What I’m asking for
I’m not asking for a revolution. I’m asking for sanity.
Pick a principle and stick to it. For example:
Option A: Make credits always the best deal
If I’m a member, a credit should never be worse than the best cash price offered to me in the same storefront. If you want to run sales, great — just don’t make the credit path the sucker’s choice.
Option B: Let credits convert to a clear cash value
If a title is on sale for $7.99, let me spend something like “0.5 credits” or let credits act like a wallet with a transparent dollar value.
Right now, credits are oddly rigid, which makes them feel intentionally opaque.
Option C: Make à la carte buying normal (without the psychological tricks)
Let me just buy an audiobook like I buy an ebook. If you want a membership, then make it about perks — speed, discovery, bundles, early access, Plus catalog — whatever. But don’t make the default purchasing experience feel like a shell game.
Option D: At least show me the math
If you’re going to keep this dual system, then please, for the love of all that is holy, show the effective per-credit cost next to the deal.
Let me get the Audible + Kindle version without visiting both websites and seeing whether it’s cheaper to add the book to the audible purchase or add the audible purchase to the book.
Let me make an informed decision without needing a spreadsheet and a minor in behavioral economics.
Why I’m writing this
Because I’m the kind of customer you should want to keep:
- I actually buy books.
- I buy them regularly.
- I tell people about them.
- I’m not hunting for ways to pirate or cheat the system.
- I’m trying to do the simplest possible thing: exchange money for stories and ideas.
I’ve been paying for Prime for 21 years. I have 564 Audible books. I’m a Premium Plus subscriber with 26 credits in the bank. If your system is causing me to hesitate — me, the person who is basically raising their hand and saying “please take my money for more books” — then something is fundamentally off.
It makes me annoyed at the moment I should be delighted.
It makes me feel like I’m being gamed.
That’s not a great vibe to wrap around reading.
So please: stop making me do mental accounting every time I want to listen to a book.
If you want to sell subscriptions, sell subscriptions. If you want to sell books, sell books.
But don’t sell me “credits” and then routinely make those credits the worst option on the menu.
Sincerely,
A customer who wants this to be simpler than it is