Amazon

[gwr]

Hi I was just checking my bank statements and noticed a payment to amazon prime for £79.00 not knowing what this was I asked my wife as she uses amazon.

She said she had seen it while shopping online but never knew what it was.So I called Amazon and asked why they had charged me for this.
They said my wife must have pressed on it to take the 30 day free trial and not realised.Without a fuss she agreed to cancel the subscription and refund the £79.00 within 2-3 working days which I was pleased with.

Moral of the story is scrutinise those statements

 

[DTR]

Exact same thing happened to my missus.

 

[RogerP]

It happened to me and likewise to a friend. We definitely did NOT press that button . They refunded in both cases without a quibble and now I'm hearing it's also happened to more people. It all seems very odd............?

 

[Silverbirch]

I think Amazon must be desperately trying to boost take up of Prime by fair means or foul. I buy quite a lot on Amazon, so I signed up to Prime for a year, to take advantage of free next day delivery. At that point, it cost £40 +, so arguably worthwhile . Shortly after, they added movie downloads and online photo storage to the mix, upping their charge to £79 :shock:
Neither is of any interest to me, so, needless to say, I won`t be renewing at the new price.
I suspect lots of others may well feel the same.

 

[DiscoStu]

I did the trial before Christmas but cancelled it immediately (still go the 30 days free). I did find it useful over Christmas but I don't use Amazon much.

 

[Mrwilson]

Sometimes the delivery method defaults to " Free with 30 day free trial of Prime" , depends I think on the item and supplier. You have to select your preference so it's easy to miss if you don't read carefully. I always check basket total price with item prices as they don't always give you the free delivery option first either even if you've exceeded the minimum spend figure. Source of some amazing deals though so probably worth the hassle.

Shug

 

[RobinBHM]

Amazon seem to offer me prime quite often. They are pretty good about the way they go about, you can sign up and then cancel in the my account section. Even if you cancel they give you the free trial for the month and clearly states when the trial ends.

Much better than which? They make it really hard to find out how to cancel membership and you can only do it by writing an email to them.

 

[undergroundhunter]

This just got me, I checked my online banking and noticed something wrong, checked my pending transactions and what do you know £79 from amazon prime. Credit to them I went on the online chat and he refunded it for me within a few mins. I don't agree with the whole free for a month and then we will take money without telling you thing but I have to admit their speed of rectification was fantastic. Thought I was in for a fight.

Matt

 

[Eric The Viking]

There's been a big fuss about this in the media, and I think it's fair to say a poor sales strategy has rebounded on Amazon.

I nearly got caught - signed up for a 'free trial' of Prime before Christmas, to get presents sent promptly. A couple of days later I got cold feet and it took quite a few irrelevant pages before I could find the low-key unsubscribe page.

I am amazed Amazon have been so stupid about this. It smacks of the eBay/PayPal business 'ethics'. I've had quite enough of that lot to never trust eBay or PayPal again. Good examples are the 'feedback' system, which now favours dishonest buyers and unscrupulous traders (but not normal, honest, small businesses), and the incestuous and expensive requirement to accept PayPal payments.

Way back, when Amazon just sold books, you knew who you were dealing with and what you were buying. These days it's haphazard and risky. It's also usually quite expensive, compared to a bit of DIY Googling, and Prime doesn't help.

I wonder if Amazon has realised the extent of the reputational damage yet. Big mistake, chaps.

E.

PS: It's depressing that Amazon bought out Abe Books too. Thankfully, so far they've generally left it well alone, but I can see some marketing genius deciding to 'integrate the two shopping experiences' at some point, destroying yet another brrilliant internet idea.

 

[finneyb]

Just got my letter from Amazon offering the 30 day free trial of Prime.
In the very small print at the bottom of the page it says that if you don't cancel then you are subscribed at £79 pa
The letter has been 'filed'

Brian

 

[artie]

I found out that you can share prime with 4 friends,

It would make it quite cheap if everyone chipped in.

Only problem is I don't have 4 friends,.

 

[RobinBHM]

Just got my letter from Amazon offering the 30 day free trial of Prime.
In the very small print at the bottom of the page it says that if you don't cancel then you are subscribed at £79 pa
The letter has been 'filed'

Brian

I think you can cancel straight away but you can continue to use prime until the end of the trial period.