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Amazon Prime

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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.
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Comments

  • jon81uk
    jon81uk Posts: 3,882 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    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.
  • You can can cancel if you contact their love chat. 
  • pbartlett
    pbartlett Posts: 1,397 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    I do agree they use every trick in the book and for me at least it tarnishes their otherwise excellent customer service. 
  • MEM62
    MEM62 Posts: 5,291 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    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.        
  • 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
    NBLondon Posts: 5,697 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    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.
    I need to think of something new here...
  • maisie_cat
    maisie_cat Posts: 2,136 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Academoney Grad
    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
    Laz123 Posts: 1,742 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    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
    elsien Posts: 35,836 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    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.
    All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.

    Pedant alert - it's could have, not could of.
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