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

YorkieMan

I have been using Amazon since 1999 so I think I could be counted as a seasoned customer. I placed an order this afternoon and clicked Go To Basket as usual. Instead of going to my Basket to checkout an Amazon Prime full screen window appeared with just two options (1) Try Amazon Prime for 30 days or (2) Continue to receive free delivery. (Wording may have been slightly different). There was no other option so I clicked the second option and checked out. I then received an email headed "Your Prime Free Trial Membership Confirmation - Welcome to Amazon Prime"


Underhand or what?


I did not want this and did not request it yet now I have to go through the actions of cancelling it.

Pollycat

YorkieMan wrote: »

I have been using Amazon since 1999 so I think I could be counted as a seasoned customer. I placed an order this afternoon and clicked Go To Basket as usual. Instead of going to my Basket to checkout an Amazon Prime full screen window appeared with just two options (1) Try Amazon Prime for 30 days or (2) Continue to receive free delivery. (Wording may have been slightly different). There was no other option so I clicked the second option and checked out. I then received an email headed "Your Prime Free Trial Membership Confirmation - Welcome to Amazon Prime"


Underhand or what?


I did not want this and did not request it yet now I have to go through the actions of cancelling it.

I've not looked at the Amazon website lately as my OH has a Prime account (through choice) so I just pass anything I want to order over to him.

There are instructions in the first post on this thread about cancelling (although I'm not sure how up to date they are as the article was dated Feb 2015).

Can I cancel Prime and get a refund?
Whether you see this as Amazon's fault for potentially misleading customers, or its users' faults for not reading the terms and conditions, we want to tell people how to get their money back. Here's what you need to know:

• I'm within the free trial period. To cancel, go to 'Your Account' > under 'Account Settings' select 'Manage Prime Membership' > Click 'Do not continue', which is the second option on the left-hand side of the page. Once done you'll continue to receive Prime services until your free trial period ends. Then your membership will cancel, and your card won't be charged.
• My free trial has ended. To cancel, go to 'Your Account' > under 'Account Settings' select 'Manage Prime Membership' > Click 'End membership', which is the second option on the left-hand side of the page. If you've not used any Prime services since the trial ended you'll automatically get the £79 fee refunded. If you've unwittingly used any of the services, your only option is to contact Amazon, explain what's happened and urge it to refund you.
• I subscribed to Prime without a free trial. To cancel you have 14 days to go to 'Your Account' > under 'Account Settings' select 'Manage Prime Membership' > and Click 'End membership', which is the second option on the left-hand side of the page. As long as you or your invitees (with Prime you can invite up to four eligible family members living at the same address to use the membership at no extra cost) haven't used any Prime services you'll automatically get the £79 refunded. If you or your invitees have unknowingly used Prime services, your only option is to contact Amazon, explain what's happened and urge it to refund you.

custardy

YorkieMan wrote: »

I have been using Amazon since 1999 so I think I could be counted as a seasoned customer. I placed an order this afternoon and clicked Go To Basket as usual. Instead of going to my Basket to checkout an Amazon Prime full screen window appeared with just two options (1) Try Amazon Prime for 30 days or (2) Continue to receive free delivery. (Wording may have been slightly different). There was no other option so I clicked the second option and checked out. I then received an email headed "Your Prime Free Trial Membership Confirmation - Welcome to Amazon Prime"


Underhand or what?


I did not want this and did not request it yet now I have to go through the actions of cancelling it.

So they put a box up on screen,emailed you and have an online option to no continue the trial?

bod1467

What point are you trying to make, caller?

If you're intimating that the poster can easily cancel the trial, the rebuttal point is that the poster shouldn't even have been put in the position of having to make that additional effort.

AlaninGateshead

I should probably relay my experience in light of the comments above.

Having used Amazon for a number of years my wife and I activated the trial Prime membership on her account 2 years ago primarily for quick delivery of items for Christmas. I then spent that Christmas break watching quite a bit of TV with Prime Video, and couldn't give it up. We let the trial period take its course and auto enrolment happen and have continued with Prime ever since..... on my wife's account.

My own original account was seldom used after that, I had no real need for it, until this Christmas I wanted to order something covertly as a present for my wife from Amazon but didn't want her to receive the info. on her account, obviously. When I logged in I noticed that it said that I was a Prime customer, "how could this be?" I asked myself (but not my wife, as she wasn't supposed to know I was ordering anything, remember?). Upon checking account info. and bank statements it was clear that this apparently dormant account was in fact a fully paid up Prime account and had been since April this year.

Now I don't think for one moment that Amazon activated Prime without any input from myself, I don't even think that they go well out of their way to mislead anybody into signing up, they just make it very easy to sign up. I can only assume that I logged into my account by mistake possibly using a browser that had my account's login details stored and that once in, thinking that I was logged in on the other Prime account, it's not a stretch of the imagination to assume that I could then click on a button that said "Use Prime for this delivery!" and be enrolled either in a trail or directly. I would probably then have been guilty of just deleting immediate subsequent emails, as I often do, assuming them to contain mundane order receipt information that is always available on the account should I every really need it.

Okay then, I screwed up somehow, I could even see how it could have happened, but I was still mad as hell, I still felt cheated even though I had only, probably, cheated myself. I consider myself proficient technologically having never, to my knowledge, fell pray to any scam. How could I have paid for something and had no benefit from it was really my cause of frustration, so I too this to Amazon.

After hunting high and low on their website, without success, for a place to vent my frustration I eventually found the contact us link on this very forum. I would repost it here but can't apparently as this is my first post.....

I was going to send a strongly worded email in which I would demand my money back but was prepared to probably only end up being able to demand the remainder of fee pro-rata and call it quits. For some reason I chose the online chat option and proceeded to set out my case in a form that wasn't too dissimilar to the above in both detail and size.... (don't worry, I'm almost done here too). After getting to my point, that I had unknowingly/unwittingly paid for something that I hadn't received and that surely they would be able to verify this with some account check at their end, there was a long pause, well a minute maybe but it feels longer when staring at a chat window that doesn't give any indication that the person on the other end is even real never mind if they are still there and taking notice.

The reply came back, "No problem, I'll cancel it now and issue a full refund" no sooner had the virtual words left Mary's (the probable chatbot's designation) virtual lips, an email arrived confirming that everything was complete, cancelled and refunded, I could relax not feel cheated/stupid and get back to watching "The man in the High Castle" on my wife's Prime account.

Whether you think you were cheated or whether you think you simply made an honest mistake when faced with the complexities of modern commercial interactions, it's good to know that companies that know what's good for them know that seeing reason and keeping the customer happy can be far more valuable than sticking to the T&Cs.

Now if we can just get them to pay their taxes.....

Money_Saving_Dude

Just tried to buy a book from Amazon.

Got to the end and I accidentally clicked the 'sign up for Prime' option. Bar stewards: they set it up so the button I wanted to click -- no thanks, I don't want Prime -- was smaller print and not as noticeable.

I knew as soon as I had clicked it. I immediately aborted my book purchase and went to check. Yep, there it was. I had signed up for Prime.

My account says I have been with Amazon since 2001. Well I don't take kindly to this sort of shifty behaviour. They have always been my first choice when looking for stuff, but if they are starting to behave in this underhand way I want none of it, thank you very much. They can go forth and multiply.

I don't know how to close my account but I have removed my credit card and address details. It was the free trial so I have cancelled that. I will look elsewhere in future.

custardy

Money_Saving_Dude wrote: »

Just tried to buy a book from Amazon.

Got to the end and I accidentally clicked the 'sign up for Prime' option. Bar stewards: they set it up so the button I wanted to click -- no thanks, I don't want Prime -- was smaller print and not as noticeable.

I knew as soon as I had clicked it. I immediately aborted my book purchase and went to check. Yep, there it was. I had signed up for Prime.

My account says I have been with Amazon since 2001. Well I don't take kindly to this sort of shifty behaviour. They have always been my first choice when looking for stuff, but if they are starting to behave in this underhand way I want none of it, thank you very much. They can go forth and multiply.

I don't know how to close my account but I have removed my credit card and address details. It was the free trial so I have cancelled that. I will look elsewhere in future.

Yes,how dare they give you faster delivery for free and an easy opt out auto renew.

Mr_Singleton

custardy wrote: »

Yes,how dare they give you faster delivery for free and an easy opt out auto renew.

I completely agree a local garage is giving a free Ferrari when you sign-up for the newsletter. The newsletter cost £325,000.

custardy

Mr_Singleton wrote: »

I completely agree a local garage is giving a free Ferrari when you sign-up for the newsletter. The newsletter cost £325,000.

Except this newsletter is free.
so free Ferrari for a month? Sounds good.

Bogalot

Money_Saving_Dude wrote: »

Just tried to buy a book from Amazon.

Got to the end and I accidentally clicked the 'sign up for Prime' option. Bar stewards: they set it up so the button I wanted to click -- no thanks, I don't want Prime -- was smaller print and not as noticeable.

I knew as soon as I had clicked it. I immediately aborted my book purchase and went to check. Yep, there it was. I had signed up for Prime.

My account says I have been with Amazon since 2001. Well I don't take kindly to this sort of shifty behaviour. They have always been my first choice when looking for stuff, but if they are starting to behave in this underhand way I want none of it, thank you very much. They can go forth and multiply.

I don't know how to close my account but I have removed my credit card and address details. It was the free trial so I have cancelled that. I will look elsewhere in future.

You pressed the wrong button, you didn't read what it said.

And you're blaming someone else for this?