Amazon prime fiddle

letsbehonest

Whilst checking my CC account recently I discovered that Amazon have charged me for Prime for which I have never signed up for, even more annoying they did the same last year and I missed that. Amazon refunded me the £158 straight away but I am still waiting for a satisfactory explanation. Not to put to finer point on it this is theft.

iammumtoone

Regardless of the fact you didn't check your CC statement.

Didn't you notice you had prime when you were ordering on amazon? It is quite clear that you are using the prime service.

I think amazon are being very generous in giving you the money back after all this time. I bet you did sign up for the trail without realising it, it is very easy to do, as I remember its the default option you have to actively choose that you don't want it rather than the other way round (which I agree is wrong, I am not sure if they have changed this practice now).

pogofish

Did you hit the "trial membership" link for Prime when making an order?

IME that's the usual way for people to be caught like this.

You need to decline the trial when offered, then it reverts to the normal checkout process - and yes, its not made particularly clear what to do.

meer53

You've had access to Prime for the last 12 months, how is it theft ?

Chalkius

I'd be certain that you, before the first charge came out last year, ticked the Amazon Prime trial option when you ordered something. So at the end of the trial which needs to be actively cancelled, they took the first payment, then the second a year after that. It's not theft if you clicked on something by accident, and they've been good enough to refund you. Don't see what more you want from them?

teddysmum

Beware that the scammers are sending out emails about Amazon Prime being charged if you don't use the given link to cancel. (Unfortunately, for the scammers, they included the 'security' email address which Amazon points out is a giveaway that it's not a legitimate notice.)

Pollycat

Chalkius wrote: »

I'd be certain that you, before the first charge came out last year, ticked the Amazon Prime trial option when you ordered something. So at the end of the trial which needs to be actively cancelled, they took the first payment, then the second a year after that. It's not theft if you clicked on something by accident, and they've been good enough to refund you. Don't see what more you want from them?

^^^^ this +1

Lots of discussion on these threads:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5177478

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/1800095

I think I'd be grateful that Amazon refunded me £79 x 2 and start to check my back/credit card statements more often in future.

kwikbreaks

I think they got a lot of stick over the site changes which made it extraordinarily easy to sign up for the trial if you were in a hurry. I managed to click the wrong button and was put on the trial - luckily I spotted that immediately and found out how to cancel so it didn't cost me anything. Around that time one of the monster threads on this started up on MSE and neither of us were the only ones caught out.

I still think you were very lucky to get the refund.

parkrunner

So not theft then.

Basic definition of theft.

A person is guilty of theft if he dishonestly appropriates property belonging to another with the intention of permanently depriving the other of it; and “thief” and “steal” shall be construed accordingly.

IAmWales

kwikbreaks wrote: »

I think they got a lot of stick over the site changes which made it extraordinarily easy to sign up for the trial if you were in a hurry. I managed to click the wrong button and was put on the trial - luckily I spotted that immediately and found out how to cancel so it didn't cost me anything. Around that time one of the monster threads on this started up on MSE and neither of us were the only ones caught out.

I still think you were very lucky to get the refund.

Neither of you were caught out. You either made an active choice to sign up or you failed to pay attention to what you were doing.

kwikbreaks

Guilty as charged. It must be so comforting to be perfect (even if it's only a perfect !!!!).