Amazon changing payment method, claim is normal and legal

stclaim_2

I bought an item from Amazon on friday (not black friday). I had a little left on my gift card, so that was used then the rest on my debit card. I had an email to confirm this, I assume this is a contract. (?)
I then, on sunday, topped up my gift card with £50. Checking my gift card transactions showed everything ok. The last payment being the £15 on friday.
Later on sunday I made some more purchases and was surprised to see that I did not have £50 available on my gift card.
Looking into my purchase transactions I could see a refund to my debit card for some reason.

After a lot of investigation and checking emails, I saw a confirmation of despatch of the item bought on friday, showing a different amount used from my gift card and the refund to my debit card.
Checking my gift card transactions showed that the £15 used on friday had disappeared and a new one, today, for the item bought friday.

So Amazon had changed payment types and amounts, altered transactions, altered a contract(?)

They claim that this is perfectly legal.

Is it?

Aylesbury_Duck

Not sure.  I suspect the contract isn't formed and you aren't charged until dispatch, and there is probably something in Amazon's terms that says they will use gift card balance before other payment methods.  If that's the case, it would seem perfectly lawful to me.  Have you checked?

Alderbank

Aylesbury_Duck said:

Not sure.  I suspect the contract isn't formed and you aren't charged until dispatch, and there is probably something in Amazon's terms that says they will use gift card balance before other payment methods.  If that's the case, it would seem perfectly lawful to me.  Have you checked?

I've checked.

Amazon's Gift Card terms and conditions say:

We'll automatically apply your Gift Card balance to eligible orders when you check out. If you would rather not use your balance, you can deselect it in the Payment Selection step at checkout. 

That seems quite fair and it appears to be what they have done.

user1977

They do explain this fairly clearly, if you go to the page for "Redeem an Amazon gift card":

"If you recently paid for part of a purchase using a Gift Card, and that item has not yet shipped, then any new funds added to your Gift Card balance up to the full purchase amount will be applied to that order once it’s shipped."

35har1old

Alderbank said:

Aylesbury_Duck said:

Not sure.  I suspect the contract isn't formed and you aren't charged until dispatch, and there is probably something in Amazon's terms that says they will use gift card balance before other payment methods.  If that's the case, it would seem perfectly lawful to me.  Have you checked?

I've checked.

Amazon's Gift Card terms and conditions say:

We'll automatically apply your Gift Card balance to eligible orders when you check out. If you would rather not use your balance, you can deselect it in the Payment Selection step at checkout. 

That seems quite fair and it appears to be what they have done.

That's not what has happened the OP completed  the order by using what was left on his gift card and paid the remaining amount by debit card.
He returned 2days later to topup a gift card the balance showing was what he had added that day he made a purchase.Then he returned for a second time that day to discover that his gift card balance had reduce by the payment that he had  made by debit card on Friday
There is a way of deselecting the gift card if you do not want to use it but in his case he wanted to use what was left and pay the remainder by DC so the box would not have been ticked on the Friday so it would appear to be a glitch in the system

Jenni_D

But a contract is not formed until despatch notification, and only then are the funds "grabbed". So (to me) it seems that Amazon have complied with their T&Cs. But IANAL 🤷‍♀️

ArbitraryRandom

35har1old said:

Alderbank said:

Aylesbury_Duck said:

Not sure.  I suspect the contract isn't formed and you aren't charged until dispatch, and there is probably something in Amazon's terms that says they will use gift card balance before other payment methods.  If that's the case, it would seem perfectly lawful to me.  Have you checked?

I've checked.

Amazon's Gift Card terms and conditions say:

We'll automatically apply your Gift Card balance to eligible orders when you check out. If you would rather not use your balance, you can deselect it in the Payment Selection step at checkout. 

That seems quite fair and it appears to be what they have done.

That's not what has happened the OP completed  the order by using what was left on his gift card and paid the remaining amount by debit card.
He returned 2days later to topup a gift card the balance showing was what he had added that day he made a purchase.Then he returned for a second time that day to discover that his gift card balance had reduce by the payment that he had  made by debit card on Friday
There is a way of deselecting the gift card if you do not want to use it but in his case he wanted to use what was left and pay the remainder by DC so the box would not have been ticked on the Friday so it would appear to be a glitch in the system

I think the problem is two fold.

1. you can't choose how much you pay on gift card - so you either choose to use all available gift card funds and pay the remainder via an alternative method if required, or to not use the card.

2. the contract isn't actually formed until dispatch: 

We only accept your offer, and conclude the contract of sale for a product ordered by you, when we dispatch the product to you and send e-mail confirmation to you that we've dispatched the product to you (the Dispatch Confirmation E-mail).

So, when the payment was actually taken (when the legal sale took place), the balance on the gift card was used first... which, as above, seems entirely in keeping with the T&C of the gift cards (so legal). 

Olinda99

yes what happens is that Amazon ship the order and at that point take the payment i.e not when you make the order

so when the order is shipped at that point of the decision has made to use any gift card balance first

born_again

stclaim_2 said:

I bought an item from Amazon on friday (not black friday). I had a little left on my gift card, so that was used then the rest on my debit card. I had an email to confirm this, I assume this is a contract. (?)
I then, on sunday, topped up my gift card with £50. Checking my gift card transactions showed everything ok. The last payment being the £15 on friday.
Later on sunday I made some more purchases and was surprised to see that I did not have £50 available on my gift card.
Looking into my purchase transactions I could see a refund to my debit card for some reason.

After a lot of investigation and checking emails, I saw a confirmation of despatch of the item bought on friday, showing a different amount used from my gift card and the refund to my debit card.
Checking my gift card transactions showed that the £15 used on friday had disappeared and a new one, today, for the item bought friday.

So Amazon had changed payment types and amounts, altered transactions, altered a contract(?)

They claim that this is perfectly legal.

Is it?

Are you talking about authorisations here?

Grumpy_chap

I think, for most people, the desire would be to use any Gift Card balance (at the latest point possible) first so that the amount then charged to credit card is minimised.  Gift Card is effectively payment in advance (and an accounting liability for Amazon).  It seems correct that advance payment funds should be used in the first instance and only when that resource is exhausted do Amazon draw additional funds.  

Olinda99

I suspect the op was aware that gift card balances would be used first but unaware that payment is not taken until later i.e they topped up their gift card after making the order assuming it wouldn't be touched