I do not ****ing want Amazon ****ing Prime !

[roadsmash]

According to most people on this forum I’m a complete idiot... but I’ve never accidentally signed up to Amazon Prime.

You must all be as thick as st.

[ST565NP]

bad company said:

Maybe that’s changed. I was able to cancel Prime online.

Ok, I was talking about Prime Video. And it was about 15 days ago. Cancelling only via customer support.

[Zirconia]

F1GTRUeno said:

With absolutely no due respect - 40 years of st experience then isn't it?

I fully admit they design the page exactly as it is because they know most people won't take notice and they'll click the shiny button but if you're saying you've 40 years of experience and you're not trained enough to take a second to look at the page and work out which button does what then what the fk were you doing with your life?

I'm not trolling, I'm being deadly serious. it takes all of a nanosecond to size up the page and work out what does what, especially if you're careful enough with your browsing anyway. If you're not in a frenzy of buying or you're not completely adsent minded when you're paying for things then you'd notice what said what and would never accidentally sign up for anything. They give you enough pages between the page the product is on to the purchase finally going through for you to have warning and take everything in.

It's the same as unchecking the boxes for all the additional ste that they tack onto programs you install and then people wonder why they've got a desktop and computer filled to the brim with ste that they didn't even know they had.

Amazon rely on people never checking and taking a second to go 'er, hang on' and then they've got all the legal recourse in the world when you suddenly turn around and go 'BUT I DIDN'T WANT IT' because it's your fking fault for falling for it, not their fault for knowing humans are stupid enough to fall for it.

And that goes for everyone whether they've never heard of the internet or they're writing fking artificial intelligence. You don't have to know how to code or set servers up or anything to be clever enough not to fall for easy tricks when online shopping do you?

Edited by F1GTRUeno on Saturday 10th August 00:36

Edited by F1GTRUeno on Saturday 10th August 00:37

Not everyone is as clued up as they could be with the internet, different life experiences and all that. I know people that do not have internet and might ask what something is when we look up something for them on our computer. I have to explain, scam. Con. Link to get you to click on something etc. etc. That is before you get past the search page.

Scams and cons work for a reason. It is why things like Facebook and Google exist as well as the down right dodgy stuff. Genuinely nice people can be screwed over be it your life savings and pension stolen or clicking a link for some dodgy web site. This Amazon link is engineered for that mistake.

[AlexC1981]

F1GTRUeno said:

it's your fking fault for falling for it, not their fault for knowing humans are stupid enough to fall for it.

No no no! Blame the conman, not the person who fell for it!

Remind me never to buy a used car from you. Or a timeshare or a forex trading scheme

[F1GTRUeno]

Zirconia said:

Not everyone is as clued up as they could be with the internet, different life experiences and all that. I know people that do not have internet and might ask what something is when we look up something for them on our computer. I have to explain, scam. Con. Link to get you to click on something etc. etc. That is before you get past the search page.

Scams and cons work for a reason. It is why things like Facebook and Google exist as well as the down right dodgy stuff. Genuinely nice people can be screwed over be it your life savings and pension stolen or clicking a link for some dodgy web site. This Amazon link is engineered for that mistake.

I agree they aren't but that's the problem. People are well aware and skeptical enough of the internet in conversation but when it comes to practice they're not in the slightest. It's not Amazon's fault that they can take advantge of laissez-faire, lackadaisical consumers who don't practice what they preach and treat the internet like it's the most innocent thing in the world.

And as for plenty of innocent, good people being taken for a ride because of it, I feel for them but honestly it's on us as users to know what we're doing and if we're not sure, don't agree to anything.

Healthy skepticism and checking and reviewing before every step should be mandatory as an introduction to the internet for people because yes, sites will do shady stuff to lure you into things but you've always got the option not to buy into it, it's on you not them, they just know their market.

AlexC1981 said:

F1GTRUeno said:

it's your fking fault for falling for it, not their fault for knowing humans are stupid enough to fall for it.

No no no! Blame the conman, not the person who fell for it!

Remind me never to buy a used car from you. Or a timeshare or a forex trading scheme

Well if you did you'd be a sucker that I'd gladly take advantage of (thankfully I hate sales jobs for exactly this reason, I don't like taking advantage of people and try to be as honest as possible)

[Blackpuddin]

A couple of weeks ago I received an email from Amazon telling me that I would need to update my payment method as my bank debit card was due for renewal, otherwise my Prime monthly payments wouldn't be able to continue. This was interesting news as I thought I had cancelled Prime in August last year (2018). Checked my emails to confirm that I had indeed done that and had a notification from them confirming the cancellation.
So what where they on about? A harder look at my bank statement revealed that they had stopped the payments last August (charging me 99p for that, for some reason), but then restarted them in January this year without so much as a by your leave.
I was gobsmacked and asked them what the hell was going on. Not expecting a reply, I contacted my bank who told me that they would refund all the 2019 payments to my account by the end of the day. Later that day I got an email from Amazon apologising and saying that the restart was triggered by a movie purchase in January and that they would issue a refund.
Just wonder how many people like me never notice this sort of thing going on. My bank told me that they got a lot of this with Amazon. Because Prime is classified as a subscription service the payments aren't on an immediately identifiable Direct Debit, they just blend in with all your other day to day debits. I wasn't even looking for Prime debits on there, having cancelled it last year. Very poor to say the least.

[Hilts]

Alex_225 said:

I accidentally ended up signed up to Prime as well. Was only when I went to place an order for something else a little while later I realised I had. Ended up paying a month of it then cancelling.

I would have it ordinarily but I have a Netflix account and my other half has Prime so I just don't need it.

They are cheeky in how they make it so easily available without really noticing. Yes you get a free month but they must make a fortune from people not realising until they've been billed for the second month.

I think a similar thing must have happened in the past with Kindle Unlimited, maybe still happening.

My mother asked for my help with a £7.99 payment being taken every month from her credit card. I initially thought well you've signed up for Prime which was strange as my father has Prime and she uses his membership.

Rang Amazon and they said it was for a Kindle Unlimited subscription which is a bit stranger as she does not own one. They looked at the account and agreed to refund the 12 payments taken. They're very helpful IME with any issues.

She doesn't know how it happened and Amazon couldn't really tell me. I tried to replicate it and found on one random order that there was a pre-checked box agreeing to a subscription for either Prime Video or KU. A bit underhand so I can see how people are falling for it. Don't know if they've changed it up but it seems to be fairly common.

[Hilts]

F1GTRUeno said:

It's not Amazon's fault that they can take advantge of laissez-faire, lackadaisical consumers who don't practice what they preach and treat the internet like it's the most innocent thing in the world.

I think it is their fault actually. They have absolutely no financial need to operate this way. They should be held to the highest standard.

F1GTRUeno said:

And as for plenty of innocent, good people being taken for a ride because of it, I feel for them but honestly it's on us as users to know what we're doing and if we're not sure, don't agree to anything.

Healthy skepticism and checking and reviewing before every step should be mandatory as an introduction to the internet for people because yes, sites will do shady stuff to lure you into things but you've always got the option not to buy into it, it's on you not them, they just know their market.

This is all correct and sound advice though but Amazon should be completely above things like sneak subscriptions. I think most people feel totally at ease using them as far as internet commerce is concerned so may pay less attention during the ordering process than if it was a site they've never used.

Amazon's defaults should allow for this IMO.

[F1GTRUeno]

Hilts said:

F1GTRUeno said:

It's not Amazon's fault that they can take advantge of laissez-faire, lackadaisical consumers who don't practice what they preach and treat the internet like it's the most innocent thing in the world.

I think it is their fault actually. They have absolutely no financial need to operate this way. They should be held to the highest standard.

F1GTRUeno said:

And as for plenty of innocent, good people being taken for a ride because of it, I feel for them but honestly it's on us as users to know what we're doing and if we're not sure, don't agree to anything.

Healthy skepticism and checking and reviewing before every step should be mandatory as an introduction to the internet for people because yes, sites will do shady stuff to lure you into things but you've always got the option not to buy into it, it's on you not them, they just know their market.

This is all correct and sound advice though but Amazon should be completely above things like sneak subscriptions. I think most people feel totally at ease using them as far as internet commerce is concerned so may pay less attention during the ordering process than if it was a site they've never used.

Amazon's defaults should allow for this IMO.

Have you seen or heard the stories of what it's like working for Amazon?

I'd say suggesting that they, or any big corporation 'should be above' anything is pie in the sky thinking.

They exist solely to make money and they make money so well because people are so stupid. There's no such thing as too much money to them.

If people weren't so easily coerced into going for the shiny thing then they wouldn't make things look the way they do.

It's our fault that we're so susceptible to not checking what we're doing and relying on our impulses rather than the rest of our brains.

They're merely taking advantage of it because they absolutely can.

[Zirconia]

F1GTRUeno said:

I agree they aren't but that's the problem. People are well aware and skeptical enough of the internet in conversation but when it comes to practice they're not in the slightest. It's not Amazon's fault that they can take advantge of laissez-faire, lackadaisical consumers who don't practice what they preach and treat the internet like it's the most innocent thing in the world.

And as for plenty of innocent, good people being taken for a ride because of it, I feel for them but honestly it's on us as users to know what we're doing and if we're not sure, don't agree to anything.

Healthy skepticism and checking and reviewing before every step should be mandatory as an introduction to the internet for people because yes, sites will do shady stuff to lure you into things but you've always got the option not to buy into it, it's on you not them, they just know their market.

Absolutely should not be "on you". That should be part of the equation, hopefully, not the sole reliance. Various laws, regulations etc. are in place because we cannot be all powerful knowing everything and there are people that will engineer and thieve and attempt to take everything all the way down to playing loose with the measures in place to garner an extra bob or two and rely on people to do what people do just keeping to the right side of any regulation.

Not every user is clued up in every single walk of life. I would not expect them to be so. May as well do away with all the employee and consumer protection regulation and open it up for a free for all.

[The Mad Monk]

Apropos

I find that adding 'ebay' to the search phrase in Google eliminates Amazon and is better for my blood pressure.

[Zirconia]

I avoid google......
Blood pressure already low.


Fake reviews, paid for reviews and forcing copied stuff to the top of any searches on amazon was a bit of an issue recently. Had some vouchers to spend and fancied a bit of tech but wading through weird named gopro look alike then finding their incomplete web site tied to business in China I have never heard of, I can guess a lot of people fell for that was well.

[Hilts]

F1GTRUeno said:

I'd say suggesting that they, or any big corporation 'should be above' anything is pie in the sky thinking.

They should be above simple stuff like surreptitious sign-ups for services that people don't want. That's usually been the realm of small developers, even Adobe have stopped the routine practice of installing McAfee because the box was left checked.

F1GTRUeno said:

They exist solely to make money and they make money so well because people are so stupid. There's no such thing as too much money to them.

You could say exactly the same thing about those Nigerian grifters fleecing numerous people in this country on a regular basis. We're talking Amazon here who at a guess are making the vast majority of site profits on sales and legitmate service sign-ups. I don't have the figures but the accidental sign-ups less refunds must be a very tiny percentage of profit so why not make the company look better and more trustworthy by dispensing with the sneak sub?

F1GTRUeno said:

If people weren't so easily coerced into going for the shiny thing then they wouldn't make things look the way they do.

It's our fault that we're so susceptible to not checking what we're doing and relying on our impulses rather than the rest of our brains.

They're merely taking advantage of it because they absolutely can.

Yes I agree that's the situation for a lot of folk but Amazon should front up and change this. I think overall they're great, I have bought thousands from them over the years and will continue to do so.

This thread was about sneak subscriptions, my idea is for Amazon to fix it, so easy and perhaps has been done already due to the high number of complaints. You seem to be content to let them carry on as they are but it is the buying public who should change ie. smarten up and pay more attention. This is generally sound advice of course for all of us as I mentioned but essentially doesn't work for the masses in this situation.

I think your estimation of the mental calibre of the gen. pop is ambitious.

[ging84]

The problem is no big company is above this. There success is measured purely in financial terms.

Once a company has 10s of thousands of customers they become expendable and they can start experimenting with sample groups to see what makes them buy and what they'll put up with. When you've got hundreds of thousands of customers this sort of thing become really profitable so you can only imagine the effect on companies with hundreds of millions of customers like Amazon.
It's not all bad though at least not for most people, because to a certain extent it works both ways. They will take liberties but they also will avoid doing anything you simply won't put up with.
You've only got to look at organisations like the nhs to see what the alternative is.

[bad company]

My free Prime trial has expired (I didn’t want it in the first place and ended up the trial in error) and I just went to buy a couple of items again. After going to the basket I was presented with the screen below, so where is the button to proceed without another Prime trial?

!!!!

Cheeky Bar Stewards !!!

[snuffy]

bad company said:

so where is the button to proceed without another Prime trial?

[bad company]

snuffy said:

bad company said:

so where is the button to proceed without another Prime trial?

The one not highlighted and not working.

eta It may have not worked because I left the page for a while in exasperation.

Edited by bad company on Sunday 25th August 14:38

[Hilts]

snuffy said:

bad company said:

so where is the button to proceed without another Prime trial?

That's not a button.

It's a line of text.

Slippery.

[funkyrobot]

This is starting to p*as me off a bit too. Bought some things off Amazon the other day and was presented with a screen similar to the above. The proceed without signing up button wasn't as obvious as the other option.

You have to be careful with Amazon and check every page before you buy anything. So many people could just be clicking through to crack on and accidentally sign up.

[twister]

Hilts said:

That's not a button.

It's a line of text.

Slippery.

It's a link, like how things were back in the days before the interwebs started going all graphics heavy, and rather like how certain UI designs are headed back to now - anyone who can successfully navigate the flat and featureless expanse of the Windows 10 UI, for instance, should have little difficulty in figuring out which part of that page to click. If anything, they night be more confused about what that weird colourful rectangle is for, given how unlike a clickable W10 UI element.it looks.

Now for sure it's a bit naughty of Amazon to have such a large visual difference between the two options, but anyone who genuinely can't tell where on that page they'd need to click to decline Prime is likely going to struggle to navigate an increasing number of UIs these days. It's not exactly hidden away in a locked filing cabinet in the basement...