MSE News: Been charged for unwanted Amazon Prime? Here's how to cancel

Pollycat

ASOM wrote: »

To all you people saying its always the consumer's fault, how about this story:

I was charged for it (never signed up) and they took the £79 BEFORE any "trial" or other period had begun. I contacted them and complained, of course, and they admitted the mistake and agreed to send me a refund. Couple of weeks later, no refund. Contact Amazon, they say insist it was processed. I tell them I have definitely not had it.

So, they then send me a "refund reference number" which according to them, all banks everywhere know and use. My bank (Halifax) confirms no refund has ever been received and says this reference code is meaningless and they've never seen or used such a thing.

Back to Amazon. No, they insist this code is completely legitimate, essentially saying either I or the bank are mad, lying or stupid, but eventually after my insistence that my bank was a "normal" legitimate high street bank (bear in mind this conversation is happening with someone in a foreign call centre who might imagine some other scenario) and that if they say they don't/can't use the code, they can't use the code, and I still want me £79 back. So, they tell me that as long as I can get them a letter from the bank on headed paper confirming this, they will issue "another" (not that there was a first one) refund. So...back to the bank. The bank states that they aren't able to write such letters...

So, many many more hours (literally) on the phone going back and forth between Amazon (having to repeat the entire story from scratch over and over again) and my bank's equally incompetent debit card reclaims department, only to end up in a deadlock where Amazon won't budge unless they have confirmation from the bank, and the bank won't help me and give me any confirmation even though I have been through my accounts with staff in the branch and confirmed that there was no refund on the date Amazon claims it was made (or any other time).

So that's me, not only having had £79 essentially stolen from my account, at random, by Amazon, and having probably wasted about another £20 on phone calls to them not to mention hours of my time, but I don't EVEN have a year's worth of Prime to show for it as, their incompetence didn't quite manage to stretch to not being able to cancel my subscription, which is the only thing they did manage to do!

It's tempting to blame my bank here, and they certainly deserve some pretty significant criticism for not having really bothered to help out one of their customers AT ALL, but to me that's a somewhat separate issue and certainly doesn't let Amazon off the hook - they were the originators of the problem and it was their responsibility from the outset to sort it out.

Anyway, rant over, just wanted to prove it isn't always through stupidity or incompetence on the user's part. Although I have found some of the stories by journalists "shocked" to find out that £79 has been disappearing from their accounts ever year for several years - wish I earned enough to not have to pay close enough attention to my bank statements to be able to lose £79 a year and not even notice it!

It's the bit in bold that I don't believe.

sianhumph

Well I signed up to Amazon Prime in France last July on a trial basis intending to cancel it after month.( holiday home there) Even with auto translation and a bit of French I could not cancel it in time and I just accepted my loss as French consumer laws are pretty non existent practically. With the increase in costs last year, with no extra benefit to me , I decided to cancel my long standing English Prime and made this clear , it was not easy . However I was signed up again after two months despite my intention to queue for ages at Argos or support High Street shops. I know that mistakes are made by retailers but too many people go for the deal and do not read the large print and then bleat about it. It means higher prices for everyone all around . Read what you sign up for and if you do not understand it just do not sign up.

JoolzS

I got caught out by this sometime back in February - I'm usually very careful about selecting the correct checkout option with Amazon but I guess I got it wrong, so I got my one month free trial and now I've been charged. Oh well, my fault. I've been considering buying the Amazon Fire anyway, but paying for both the box and Prime seemed too much - but now I've paid for Prime I may as well run with it

The thing I'm most annoyed about is that I HAD THE FREE TRIAL and didn't use it ... lol

For me, it wasn't an awful financial mistake, but I can understand why some people are annoyed about it. Amazon have moved the buttons around on multiple occasions and I am usually careful about not accepting free trials of anything. I am fortunate that an extra £79 on my CC bill this month isn't that big of a deal. I am also happy that the information is getting out there for people who want or need to cancel.

I do like how Amazon responded - basically if you haven't used any of the thing you didn't want/intend to pay for, then they refund in full. That seems fair to me. So, if you hit the button in error and didn't compound it, they refunded without question. Not sure what else they could/should do.

Edit for grammar

technoterri

I had the misfortune to discover that my bank statement showed the purchase of Prime and checked my Amazon account. Where I discovered that I had unknowingly signed up for Prime nearly a year earlier and that my wife had inadvertently signed up over a month earlier.

Fortunately, Amazon automatically gave me a small refund when I cancelled on line. I also sent an email detailing both charges and received a full refund as '... as my Amazon experience was less than perfect...'. A nice comment as our years of buying have been pretty perfect. :beer:

Amazon - I think your amazing :cool:

morrit

Have just had my prime membership renewed. when I think of the times where I have thought 'You know what... I want xyz' pop onto amazon, get the next day delivery and job done. I think I've probably fleeced Amazon really with the amount I've saved in PnP, petrol to the shops, parking time etc etc. lol. Lifesaver for cat food and other bulk purchases.






So I think it's worth it for the benefits but only if you are a regular amazon user though. If not then no...it's not worth it.

foxtrotoscar_2

Since Amazon first launched in the UK I've probably ordered things on average once a month and have never managed to accidently sign up for Amazon Prime. But then I read what I'm agreeing to pay for.

Midnighter

I managed to accidentally sign up for an Amazon Prime trial earlier. Safe to say I promptly cancelled it, and will be keeping a eye on my debit card statements.

ilovemymonkey

Yup, totally agree, it's plainly obvious that you'll be charged after the initial trial.

One handy thing worth noting though, I've had 3 orders now not turn up next day using Prime. Each time I've been in contact with Amazon and asked for a free month and currently have an extra 3 months on my initial year, worth knowing.

GreatBeyond

ASOM wrote: »

To all you people saying its always the consumer's fault, how about this story:

I was charged for it (never signed up) and they took the £79 BEFORE any "trial" or other period had begun. I contacted them and complained, of course, and they admitted the mistake and agreed to send me a refund. Couple of weeks later, no refund. Contact Amazon, they say insist it was processed. I tell them I have definitely not had it.

So, they then send me a "refund reference number" which according to them, all banks everywhere know and use. My bank (Halifax) confirms no refund has ever been received and says this reference code is meaningless and they've never seen or used such a thing.

Back to Amazon. No, they insist this code is completely legitimate, essentially saying either I or the bank are mad, lying or stupid, but eventually after my insistence that my bank was a "normal" legitimate high street bank (bear in mind this conversation is happening with someone in a foreign call centre who might imagine some other scenario) and that if they say they don't/can't use the code, they can't use the code, and I still want me £79 back. So, they tell me that as long as I can get them a letter from the bank on headed paper confirming this, they will issue "another" (not that there was a first one) refund. So...back to the bank. The bank states that they aren't able to write such letters...

So, many many more hours (literally) on the phone going back and forth between Amazon (having to repeat the entire story from scratch over and over again) and my bank's equally incompetent debit card reclaims department, only to end up in a deadlock where Amazon won't budge unless they have confirmation from the bank, and the bank won't help me and give me any confirmation even though I have been through my accounts with staff in the branch and confirmed that there was no refund on the date Amazon claims it was made (or any other time).

So that's me, not only having had £79 essentially stolen from my account, at random, by Amazon, and having probably wasted about another £20 on phone calls to them not to mention hours of my time, but I don't EVEN have a year's worth of Prime to show for it as, their incompetence didn't quite manage to stretch to not being able to cancel my subscription, which is the only thing they did manage to do!

It's tempting to blame my bank here, and they certainly deserve some pretty significant criticism for not having really bothered to help out one of their customers AT ALL, but to me that's a somewhat separate issue and certainly doesn't let Amazon off the hook - they were the originators of the problem and it was their responsibility from the outset to sort it out.

Anyway, rant over, just wanted to prove it isn't always through stupidity or incompetence on the user's part. Although I have found some of the stories by journalists "shocked" to find out that £79 has been disappearing from their accounts ever year for several years - wish I earned enough to not have to pay close enough attention to my bank statements to be able to lose £79 a year and not even notice it!

The transaction will be showing as cancelled and refunded on Amazons system, this is usually an automatic process straight back to the card that you paid from. For some reason the refund hasn't shown up in your account, obviously as as far as Amazon can see the refund has been accepted by the bank obviously they are not going to be able to just refund another £79.

I don't see why your bank are unable to get a letter typed and and just say no refund has went in to the account and they are unable to use the refund reference number to trace it. I have no doubt whatsoever that if that letter can be provided to Amazon they will refund you again. I can't be sure of this, but I think that in cases like this they will refund via bank transfer or to a Gift Certificate depending on what is most convenient for you.

nblake

I researched Amazon Prime, Netflix etc a while ago and in doing so unknowingly subscribed to a Prime free trial. I didn't know I had done so and never used it but I suddenly found £79 had disappeared from my credit card. I emailed Amazon and accused them of theft, cancelled my membership on their website and will hopefully get a refund. I think they are conning a lot of people with this thing and it is damaging their reputation. Pretty stupid thing to do in my opinion.