Casey Liss recently tried the Amazon Prime Now program, which allows customers to get free 2-hour delivery or $8, 1-hour delivery on a selection of products:

I placed an order for 5 items, all of which were physically fairly small, at just before 4pm. When I placed the order, I was able to choose a two-hour window for delivery. For delivery between 4pm and 6pm, it was $8 extra. For delivery between 6pm and 8pm, it was free. I chose the latter.

Deliveries run from 10am to 10pm, and I had the option of selecting a delivery window tomorrow.

A tip is strongly recommended; it must be charged to a credit card. You can’t give cash, and you can’t use a gift card balance. However, you can change the tip amount even for a little while after delivery. The app defaulted me to a 10% tip, rounded to the nearest dollar.

Sounds awesome enough, but a 10% strongly recommended tip isn’t exactly what I’d call free. Also, that they suggest a tip at all makes me think these couriers probably aren’t paid very well, which would discourage me from wanting to use the service in the first place.