Amazon Prime Member Fee? Charged £48...

peter.a_3

on 22nd May I ordered an item and was offered free next day delivery as part of a months free trial. The item was delivered as promised. On checking my bank account I found that I £47.97 had been deducted from my debit card under the heading Prime Member Fee on 22nd June. I had no idea what this was for. After googling it I found this thread resulting in me going to the amazon site and my account there. If you have not used the delivery service sinc the fee was deducted Amazon will refund the fee. This can be done on line. I have received an e mail advising my account will be credited. I was not aware when I used the trial that I was agreeing to pay a fee. I use Amazon so rarely that it really would not justify the cost. I don't think the trial entry was very clear at all.

cyclingyorkie

i signed up last November and it paid for itself very quickly - did a load of Christmas shopping when I was at home with a chest infection. Have since shared it with daughter (housebound with ME).

It was very clear that I was signing up for a trial - but that may have changed.

custardy

peter.a wrote: »

on 22nd May I ordered an item and was offered free next day delivery as part of a months free trial. The item was delivered as promised. On checking my bank account I found that I £47.97 had been deducted from my debit card under the heading Prime Member Fee on 22nd June. I had no idea what this was for. After googling it I found this thread resulting in me going to the amazon site and my account there. If you have not used the delivery service sinc the fee was deducted Amazon will refund the fee. This can be done on line. I have received an e mail advising my account will be credited. I was not aware when I used the trial that I was agreeing to pay a fee. I use Amazon so rarely that it really would not justify the cost. I don't think the trial entry was very clear at all.

its perfectly clear to anyone who bothers to read what they are agreeing to.
bit ironic for a company that started selling books.

i bet amazon are tired of hearing the same calls

willo65

I just signed up, placed my order and have already changed in options to "Don't auto-upgrade" so won't get charged and can use the service for the next 30 days, It was really clear when I did it with the big pop up box that told me everything i needed to know.

I think amazon are spot on with this

funkymonkey1150

Wow, thank god I read this article, I went to my Prime Settings on my Amazon account page and it was about to charge me the £48 on the 17th, two days time! You saved me lots of money and hassle, whoever discovered this, thank you very much.:beer:

pork_pie

I was recently duped by this so called "free trial". I am disgusted with Amazon who i thought was running a reputable business. The cynical way that the £47.94 was plundered from my account as a point of sale transaction (using my card details held after an on line purchase) and shown only as "Prime Member Fee". Was this a deliberate ploy as initially my bank (Natwest) was unable to identify the merchant and it took about a week to re-credit my account? A nice little interest earner if you times this by the x number of members caught out. As a point of sale transaction my bank was unable to recall the money and it was only actioned by managing my Amazon Prime account. I have asked my bank to look into this as it appears they have had numerous complaints from other customers. I am still smarting and may go down the road of Trading Standards, Office of Fair Trading or Watchdog (next series) and anyone else who can nail them on the slightest technicality.

pork_pie

Why do i get the feeling that Amazon are closely monitoring this thread? Surely the spirit of this site is to make people aware not try to undermine individuals when a mistake has been made. It is pretty evident from the postings that this not as black and white as painted. I would now like as many people as possible to relate their experiences with the Amazon Prime fee even if it takes 88 pages! It seems that somebody is trying to suppress this debate. As to looking at the T&C's and whether there has been a breach of data protection by using stored card details for other purposes and any banking issues be assured Amazon will hear of it first! Only then will i post it here.

Nilrem

The thing is, it is pretty black and white.
It makes it clear that it's a free trial of the Amazon Prime shipping method, and even pops up a warning/information screen, and has made it very clear since it started that it was a free trail that people will get charged for if they didn't end the trial.

At the checkout we're offered this. I've highlighted a couple of key points.





Which then gives further information here




It's pretty clear that it's a free trial of a faster shipping method, without even any "small" print as the information on cancelling is the same font/sizing apart from headers as the rest of the text, and in a prominant position - the only small print is the full details at the bottom, and even that isn't particularly small.

biscit

pork_pie wrote: »

All this pontificating about gene pools the reality is show me the man who has never made a mistake! As the saying goes it's human to err. Its the learning from mistakes that matters. Amazon has lost yet another customer.

It's not that I never make a mistake, I make plenty, at least one a day.
I don't work for Amazon either. I've been caught out by stuff too in the past. I would hope that if I were caught out due to my own lack of care, attention or thought that I would not seek to blame others.

Most people regard not accepting responsibility for your own mistakes, or the consequences of those mistakes as bad manners and obnoixious behaviour. Some people feel that defining the average level of savvy and nouce as lower than they think it should be is a wide and sweeping insult to the general population.

Have you ever been passed an email with a series of apocraphal stories people who have done something stupid and then sued someone for basically not preventing their stupidity? It is called the "Stella awards" in some itterations. It is the same sort of buttons that reading stories of people making mistakes and blaming others pushes.

biscit

Nilrem wrote: »

It's pretty clear that it's a free trial of a faster shipping method, without even any "small" print as the information on cancelling is the same font/sizing apart from headers as the rest of the text, and in a prominant position - the only small print is the full details at the bottom, and even that isn't particularly small.

Isn't it standard practice that if you sign up for a free trial you have to cancel before the end of the trial to save rolling over into the actual paid service? I think this is basic general knowledge that it is reasonable for Amazon to expect their customers to posess.