MSE News: 'Just got my Amazon Prime £79 back': Find out if you can do the same

SHill

Read the forum thread about Amazon Prime subscription.

I tend to think I'm quiet good at pressing buttons when purchasing items on the internet.
No I did not receive any emails saying that I signed up to Prime.

I followed the process to check I had a Prime account and I did.

I emailed Amazon a short succinct polite note. I got reimbursed my £79 the following day.
Thank you Amazon for being quick in your response.

JasonLVC

I'm a fully paid member of Amazon Prime, this includes access to Amazon Music.

Amazon have two offerings, a standard version with 4m or so tracks to choose from and is "free" under the Prime membership and the second offering is Amazon Prime Unlimited, which is £79 per year and gives you access to 10m+ music tracks.

The Amazon music app, which you use to access the music service, when you open the app there is a "do you want to upgrade to Unlimited", everytime you open the app, I've inadvertently clicked yes (instead of the smaller "skip" button.

Amazon were good to refund me the £79 but only after I picked up on it when checking my credit card statement, otherwise I'd never have known.

The constant reminder to upgrade is naughty and appreciate they have a "skip" option but when the "yes" option is a massive orange button and the skip one is just underlined text in dark blue against a black background, its clearly designed to be disingenuous/trick people into using the unlimited service.

mrBlue

The Amazon system has today, for the second time in 3 years, signed me up to Prime without my knowingly doing anything or placing an order. It seems to me that their site is deliberately defaulting to join Prime whether you want it or not. Isn't it about time that Amazon was forced to have a confirmation screen or their existing buttons made explicitly clear? Deliberately misleading cusrtomers is a serious offence.

custardy

mrBlue wrote: »

The Amazon system has today, for the second time in 3 years, signed me up to Prime without my knowingly doing anything or placing an order. It seems to me that their site is deliberately defaulting to join Prime whether you want it or not. Isn't it about time that Amazon was forced to have a confirmation screen or their existing buttons made explicitly clear? Deliberately misleading cusrtomers is a serious offence.

Seriously? didnt we cover confirmation screens etc many times before?

geofh

The marketing team for Amazon Prime seem to have a mission to trash the Amazon brand. To buy anything these days (2018) on Amazon, you have to hunt for the button that permits you to buy something WITHOUT joining Amazon Prime by default. However, whereas you join Prime by default, they have carefully designed the cancellation process to be slow and difficult (it was hunt-the-button on 3 slow-refresh pages last time I was tricked).


Most retail companies would regard this as bad practice. Amazon seem to have grown so big that it doesn’t matter.


So if using Amazon and you don’t want to join Prime, here is my suggestion:

• Use Amazon for reviews and price benchmarking, but before buying on Amazon, have a look for some other retailer selling the same product(s) at a similar price. I use Google Shopping (try searching for: “<product name> -Amazon”) and eBay for finding alternative retailers.
• If you do decide to buy from Amazon, always double-check any Continue or Proceed button on the checkout journey. You can be certain that one of them will try to trick you into signing up for Prime.
• Christmas is the most challenging time for online shopping. I know of friends who sign up for an Amazon Prime Free Trial in the first week of December, with an alert to cancel on Jan 1st. Products don’t generally arrive next day during that busy period, but they arrive sooner than Standard Delivery. But do remember to cancel ASAP after Christmas.

custardy

geofh wrote: »

The marketing team for Amazon Prime seem to have a mission to trash the Amazon brand. To buy anything these days (2018) on Amazon, you have to hunt for the button that permits you to buy something WITHOUT joining Amazon Prime by default. However, whereas you join Prime by default, they have carefully designed the cancellation process to be slow and difficult (it was hunt-the-button on 3 slow-refresh pages last time I was tricked.
The last time? How many has their been? If you find pages slow then I suggest you look at your internet set up
Most retail companies would regard this as bad practice.Which ones? Amazon seem to have grown so big that it doesn’t matter.So if using Amazon and you don’t want to join Prime, here is my suggestion:

Use Amazon for reviews and price benchmarking, but before buying on Amazon, have a look for some other retailer selling the same product(s) at a similar price. I use Google Shopping (try searching for: “<product name> -Amazon”) and eBay for finding alternative retailers.
If you do decide to buy from Amazon, always double-check any Continue or Proceed button on the checkout journey. You can be certain that one of them will try to trick you into signing up for Prime.Christmas is the most challenging time for online shopping. I know of friends who sign up for an Amazon Prime Free Trial in the first week of December, with an alert to cancel on Jan 1st. Products don’t generally arrive next day during that busy period, but they arrive sooner than Standard Delivery. But do remember to cancel ASAP after Christmas.

We have covered this many times with screenshots etc. I really struggle to see how people cant see whats in front of them.

gassey

I have just found out I have been subscribed to Amazon Prime without knowing, a friend pointed it out that if I am receiving the prime delivery on packages I will be paying for this service. I have checked my account and it was right, I have been using Prime as a delivery option for some years without thinking I was paying a subscription.
To cut a long story short I have just contacted Amazon with this enquiry and they were happy to reimburse the yearly fee of £79 straight away, I pushed them a little and got 2 years fees back £158, not bad for a 5 minute phone call, try it.

Pollycat

gassey wrote: »

I have just found out I have been subscribed to Amazon Prime without knowing, a friend pointed it out that if I am receiving the prime delivery on packages I will be paying for this service. I have checked my account and it was right, I have been using Prime as a delivery option for some years without thinking I was paying a subscription.
To cut a long story short I have just contacted Amazon with this enquiry and they were happy to reimburse the yearly fee of £79 straight away, I pushed them a little and got 2 years fees back £158, not bad for a 5 minute phone call, try it.

Then it would be a good idea to start checking your financial statements (bank/credit cards) on a regular basis.

MountainAga

I received an email from Amazon this morning suggesting that I took advantage of free access to films etc. This seemed odd so I checked my account to find that I had been signed up to Prime. I did not do so and I have received no email from them confirming that I did sign up. I have cancelled that membership and not been charged but I am alarmed and how this could have happened and wonder how many more people are being caught out. Apparently I joined Prime when I bought something recently. At the very least they should make it much clearer that one is signing up simply by clicking on free 1 day delivery.

custardy

MountainAga wrote: »

I received an email from Amazon this morning suggesting that I took advantage of free access to films etc. This seemed odd so I checked my account to find that I had been signed up to Prime. I did not do so and I have received no email from them confirming that I did sign up. I have cancelled that membership and not been charged but I am alarmed and how this could have happened and wonder how many more people are being caught out. Apparently I joined Prime when I bought something recently. At the very least they should make it much clearer that one is signing up simply by clicking on free 1 day delivery.

Except you didnt 'just click free one day delivery'