Amazon Prime 23 February at 11:46AM in Praise, Vent & Warnings 21 replies 1.5K views

Laz123

Just ordered a gift card for my grandson. These sneaks try every possible trick in the book to get you to sign up for Prime. I thought I'd negotiated their minefield but no, at the last hurdle on delivery they'd sneaked in another landmine and before I knew it I was unknowingly signed up. I then saw on my confirmation email that I was on the trial. So I went back to cancel and further mines were put in place to make it very hard and complicated to actually cancel. Now I'm fairly savvy when it comes to this type of procedure as I've been buying online for years from various companies but never before got tricked like this. There ought to be a law to protect people from this type of selling.

jon81uk

Maybe just send a gift of cash next time? If you don't like Amazon and they way they operate you can choose not to use them.

ReecesWaffle

You can can cancel if you contact their love chat. 

2021BJ

ReecesWaffle said:

You can can cancel if you contact their love chat. 

Amazon have a sex line now too?

Wow, they're into everything aren't they?

pbartlett

I do agree they use every trick in the book and for me at least it tarnishes their otherwise excellent customer service. 

MEM62

A law is hardly needed, in fact, their system works out quite well for me.  I do not buy from Amazon that often (three or four times a year) and almost every time I am offered a trial of Amazon Prime.  Therefore I get most of my deliveries on the Prime service and have never actually paid for it.  And let's face it, it hardly the most difficult thing in the world to cancel.        

greyteam1959

pbartlett said:

I do agree they use every trick in the book and for me at least it tarnishes their otherwise excellent customer service. 

Totally agree.
Amazon should really rise above these somewhat sneaky tactics.

NBLondon

MEM62 said:

A law is hardly needed, in fact, their system works out quite well for me.  I do not buy from Amazon that often (three or four times a year) and almost every time I am offered a trial of Amazon Prime.  Therefore I get most of my deliveries on the Prime service and have never actually paid for it.  And let's face it, it hardly the most difficult thing in the world to cancel.        

We're on our fourth free trial in the last 12 months.   Yes, it does require you to read each page and not fall into the trap of "just click the yellow button to proceed" but  it's worth that bit of effort for me.

maisie_cat

I've had amazon prime trials over the years and  I've never found it the least bit difficult to say no or cancel later

Laz123

Complaints against Amazon’s click-heavy process for Prime unsubscribing are being filed by consumer groups in Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Switzerland and Norway and the US — so a variety of national and regional consumer protection laws are involved.

This article is from our very own MoneySavingExpert site:
Reclaim unwanted Amazon Prime
Jenny Keefe
Jenny Keefe | Edited by Steve Nowottny
Updated 21 September 2020

Have you been hit by a £79 fee for unwittingly using Amazon Prime? We've seen scores of complaints from confused shoppers whose accounts have been debited by Amazon without them knowing why. Here we show how to get your £79 back (or £7.99+ if you were on its pay-monthly plan).

OK, so first things first... what exactly is Amazon Prime? Amazon's Prime* service gives users who sign up for it unlimited free one-day deliveries on eligible items and access to its music and video streaming services. They can also borrow certain Kindle books for free and get unlimited photo storage on Amazon Drive, its cloud-based storage system.

Prime's free if you sign up for a 30-day trial, but if you don't cancel during the trial period, it automatically enrolls you for either a year, taking a £79 fee from your account, or pay-monthly, in which case it will take £7.99. How much it takes will depend on which option you chose when signing up for the trial.

Why do some people not realise they’re signed up? Some users tell us they signed up for a 30-day trial and didn’t realise they needed to cancel during the trial to avoid the fee.

Others say they clicked a certain button to buy online and simply didn’t realise they had signed up to Prime by doing so.

In March 2015 the Advertising Standards Authority also banned Amazon from continuing to use a direct mailing offer for a 'free trial' of Prime after it found the online retail giant misled consumers about the cost (see the Amazon Prime 'free trial' ad banned MSE News story).

elsien

I do the free trials and then cancel. Only got stung once when I missed the cancellation date, which I don’t recall getting any reminders for. Now I cancel the following day as you still get the rest of the trial time anyway.