Amazon Prime Member Fee? Charged £48...

johnnyboyrebel

JWhite wrote: »

As I don't use PRIME account and don't intend to, it doesn't affect me personally and I am not interested in reproducing it. My daughter is just going to ensure she orders outside of the PRIME Account for 30 days and then cancel it, she doesn't want it either. Only offered this experience for "other" people's info to check for themselves if they use it. If they don't want to check for themselves, that's up to them my dear, not my loss !:cool:

For the record, I checked 4 different items all of which are the same price whether being logged in as PRIME or being logged in as a 'normal' account. If you insist what you are say is correct please give us the product ASIN that you were looking at as clearly if you are right then this is something both Amazon and fellow MSE'ers need to know about as that would be a big revelation against Amazon. Prepare for the legal backlash if you are lying though.

Feefie800

I too have been mis-led, by the Amazon Prime account. I opted for a next day free delivery, no where did I see, "sign up for free delivery for the next year and we will charge you £49.00. This is a free trial and we will take the money from your account in 30days," nor did I sign for any of the like. Having noticed the debit on my account (Pending), I contacted my bank who told me it was the above. I then contacted them and they advised me that I had purchased this on my last delivery, they were happy to refund the money as I had not got to my 30days trial end, but they had attempted to take the money out the day before it was due to end. I complained to the highest customer service about this and the fact that they had not told me they would take money out on this date, thankfully having money in my account!!!!!! They stated they had sent an email going over all the benefits of Prime and how much it cost, when the payment was coming out etc etc. I looked out the email whilst on the phone, and NONEof this information was on there. The email states that this is a free free free service!!!!! She then looked back the email sent, and apologised......stating it should have told me!!!! FULL REFUND!!!!!! Thank you very much!!!! Amazon Account closed!!!! Moral of the story is always read the small small small print....but only if its there!!!!!

cajef

Feefie800 wrote: »

I opted for a next day free delivery, no where did I see, "sign up for free delivery for the next year and we will charge you £49.00.

What is difficult to understand on the right hand side where it says 'Add to Basket with Free One-Day Delivery' and directly underneath is says 'Amazon Prime free trial required.' and there is a link to click on to 'Learn More'.


http://www.amazon.co.uk/Netgear-Wireless-N-Router-Modem-connections/dp/B003FS40KU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1353680274&sr=8-1

custardy

Feefie800 wrote: »

blah blah blah blah blah .............Moral of the story is always read the small small small print

agreed..............

Jhonnie64

Checked my bank statement £49.00 deducted..what did I buy at Amazon for £49.00??..it soon dawned after trawling my Amazon account. I had signed up to Amazon Prime without realising there was a charge for this 'service'. I'm usually so good about free trials etc and honestly didn't realise...they didn't even send an email to say it was being taken from my account...anyway cancelled and am getting £45.08 back for 11 months. Feel ripped off as a lopyal customer but as the saying goes buyer beware.

cajef

Jhonnie64 wrote: »

Feel ripped off as a lopyal customer but as the saying goes buyer beware.

Amazing the number of people that think they have been ripped off because they claim they never saw the T&C's when signing up for something when they are clearly stated if they had bothered to read them.

RuthnJasper

George_Michael wrote: »

Like this you mean?



Maybe one day some people will start taking responsibility for their own actions and choices in life.

I agree GM. I recently had cause to 'phone Amazon about a MAJOR b*lls-up by their courier (Hermes - no surprise there.... For the record, Amazon were brilliant about sorting out the mess).

Whilst I was on the 'phone the Amazon chap started praising Amazon Prime Member (as I daresay their managers force them to on every call), but he was VERY clear about the fact that it was a service with an annual fee (and I believe he even said that it was £49). He was also perfectly reasonable and no less helpful when I said that I wasn't interested in the service.

I don't get the impression that Amazon are doing anything underhand with this service (unlike some; a clothing catalogue company that I use - Simply Be - being one of them who, after a payment transaction shows you a box which says "Congratulations! Click here to claim your £10 discount!" - and it's a link to one of those firms who charge a monthly fee for sending often spurious or hard-to-claim "discount coupons").

I know it sounds harsh, but if anyone clicks on a service and doesn't read the legal terms and conditions they're agreeing to be bound by then they have no-one to blame but themselves.

I love online shopping - but it's too easy for people to assume that because it's online it isn't "proper". There's absolutely no excuse for not reading the text properly before making a commitment whether online or otherwise. It's certainly not Amazon's fault. xx

uniquespitfire

Let's all be honest. When you signed up to this forum, who read the terms and conditions before accepting them?
Honestly? If you said yes, then I don't believe you.
When taking out such a large sum of money, it should be made abundantly clear, in large print, right next to the accept button, that this trial will become a subsription with not a monthly, but an ANNUAL payment being taken at around the time of year when everyone is broke!
Yes. Its in the small print. In light grey in font 7.5 when the rest of the e-mail is 12-18 font. Small print is viewed with disparagement by ofcom. This is a extract from a recent case invlolving a phone company. If have displayed this in grey small print for your enjoyment.

"the issues are addressed in the seven-page bulletin. But the final point was on font size for the terms and conditions. Ofcom said it was noticeably smaller than that used in the rest of the documents in the information bundle given to new customers. And Ofcom considered that this could be potentially unfair."

So. All you smug folks who say "You should have checked it" clearly don't understand that a business, should try at all times to be transparent understood to the best of its ability. They are probably legally in the clear, but ethically, i'm not so sure. At christmas there are many people who shop on the internet who are not regular e-shoppers. Compnaies should make every effort to ensure that customers fuly understand what they are signing up for.
Make it big. Make it bold!
By the way, i know there are spelling mistakes, but I can't turn off the bloomin overtype function. Any help with that is appreciated. Thanks

custardy

uniquespitfire wrote: »

Let's all be honest. When you signed up to this forum, who read the terms and conditions before accepting them?
Honestly? If you said yes, then I don't believe you.
When taking out such a large sum of money, it should be made abundantly clear, in large print, right next to the accept button, that this trial will become a subsription with not a monthly, but an ANNUAL payment being taken at around the time of year when everyone is broke!
Yes. Its in the small print. In light grey in font 7.5 when the rest of the e-mail is 12-18 font. Small print is viewed with disparagement by ofcom. This is a extract from a recent case invlolving a phone company. If have displayed this in grey small print for your enjoyment.

"the issues are addressed in the seven-page bulletin. But the final point was on font size for the terms and conditions. Ofcom said it was noticeably smaller than that used in the rest of the documents in the information bundle given to new customers. And Ofcom considered that this could be potentially unfair."

So. All you smug folks who say "You should have checked it" clearly don't understand that a business, should try at all times to be transparent understood to the best of its ability. They are probably legally in the clear, but ethically, i'm not so sure. At christmas there are many people who shop on the internet who are not regular e-shoppers. Compnaies should make every effort to ensure that customers fuly understand what they are signing up for.
Make it big. Make it bold!
By the way, i know there are spelling mistakes, but I can't turn off the bloomin overtype function. Any help with that is appreciated. Thanks

how many 'free' trials have you done that dont become payable services after the trial is over?

Azari

custardy wrote: »

how many 'free' trials have you done that dont become payable services after the trial is over?

You have to remember that there are people joining the 'shopping-force' on a regular basis. It takes time for people to become aware of the various 'rules' of the world (and the internet world in particular).

Most of us, here, know that there is no such thing as a free lunch, and 'free' trials are almost never free unless you take some specific action at a future date.

Personally, I can't see how you can miss the nature of the Amazon trial but people have done so and continue to do so.

So why do Amazon not take everyone opting for the free trial to a page that says:

"Welcome to the Amazon free trial. You do not have to pay anything for a month but if you do not cancel by the end of the trial a payment of £48 will be taken from your card on the <date>.

Please tick the checkbox below to indicate that you have read and understood this message."

It would be little effort and would all but eliminate the problem.

And the answer, of course, is 'inertia'.

Amazon know that a proportion of people will not realise that they are being debited until too late (or knew perfectly well they needed to cancel but simply forgot) and will just continue to use the service. They give refunds to those who complain but also gain a lot of unintentional customers for the service.