OT: WARNING: Amazon *forcing* "prime" on customers.

The last purchase I made (will make) on Amazon was for TaOE III x-chapters. Yes, they tried to push the benefit of next-day delivery :)

They also try to confound your assessing what it costs you by bundling it with other things like TV programmes.

Long ago I once selected Amazon Prime by mistake. I immediately used the process described in their help section to modify my account to stop subscribing.

The one Robert is describing is not a checkout button confusion but an absolute "we have upgraded you to Prime" offer with no get out if you actually want to make the purchase on that day. They did it to me in the UK a couple of months back. Ironically the transaction was unwound for supplier out of stock and never likely to be available again. This had the effect of automatically cancelling my forced Prime upgrade.

I don't think there is anyone who hasn't clicked the wrong button by mistake on their checkout page. It is designed that way.

I use the slow and cheapest shipping having discovered that where I live that it makes almost no difference to how soon things arrive.

What?! Bloody hell. Unacceptable.

I suspect that would fall foul of several consumer protection laws - but not necessarily in the future :(

Yes, and yes. Plus I don't usually need things /right now/.

Not quite. There has been a recent promotion where they automatically upgrade you to Prime with no option to opt out if you don't want it. I was sufficiently bemused by the sequence of events that the first time I cancelled the order and went round again. Result same forced upgrade. The goods were not available (despite showing "in stock") so the transaction was unwound. It struck me as funny that my Prime delivery was taking longer than the normal 3 day service at the time. Then I checked the email logs and found the order cancellation.

Whilst I agree that RB has form where computers are concerned. I have also seen this tactic from Amazon in the UK June this year.

I expect sooner or later you will see the same generous offer.

Martin Brown wrote in news:qqec7v$8s5$ snipped-for-privacy@gioia.aioe.org:

They use the unchecked box tactic or whatever.

All a consumer needs to to is be careful and observe each page in the checkout procedure, being sure to select options that do not trigger subscriptions to a service.

My last two buys there last month had options pre-selected, but I made sure to choose not to try the 'trial'.

All 'trials' like this on the webb auto-charge and enroll a 'new customer'. I had to bitch at the damned high school website for trying to bill me for 'joining' their 'sevice'. They put the money back, and I killed my account their and told them to delete it and my info.

I hate how squirrely all these 'modern' greedy bastard web sites have gotten and want us all to believe is 'just the way it is'.

Congress should be setting up a method for charging and fining the bastards for such shoddy, greedy web page design practices.

"How to Cancel Amazon Prime"

Some ebay vendors require that buyers use Amazon Prime. You might check if that is what happened. "Sell products with the Prime badge directly from your warehouse"

If you don't like what people are selling, go somewhere else.

I think Prime is wonderful. I must place over 100 orders per year.

I ordered 100 x-acto #16 blades and a 1000 watt MeanWell power supply yesterday.

Someone borrowed my Fluke benchtop DVM and claimed they needed it a while longer, so I Primed a new one.

Need a stick-on thermocouple or a stopwatch or an SMA attenuator or 50 AA batteries? X-chapters? USB bulkhead adapter? A good book? Prime.

Pay them. It's well worth it.

I tell eBay sellers, who put special requirements on their sales, that they would get more business if they open it up more. Limiting to Prime will not help their sales. Much like limiting your listings to national instead of international lets you out of many more customers.

We sell and ship internationally and the odd hiccup is well worth the extra business we get.

John :-#)#

It is the /way/ they are selling it.

Reminds me of inertia selling and double-glazing salesmen.

Quite possibly, but it should be opt-in not /repeatedly/ opt-out.

No it wasn't the usual tick box for free trial game. It was an entirely different checkout dialogue promoting a free Prime upgrade for 30 days with no option to opt out which I haven't seen before or since.

EU law in theory outlaws setting such traps but ICBA to chase it up.

It might be if I lived somewhere where next day delivery actually worked for the couriers that Amazon typically uses. I get true next day from Farnell (just down the road), Rapid and RS but where I live there is little very difference between Amazon Prime and boring 3 day service.

I don't mind having to repeatedly opt out but I do object a bit to not being given any option but to cancel the order or accept an upgrade. (even knowing that I can cancel it within 30 days)

Martin Brown wrote in news:qqeodl$8dt$ snipped-for-privacy@gioia.aioe.org:

Cancel it the next hour. Maybe if they see that stat, they'll see that it is only an annoying thing that could drive customers away.

If you dislike Amazon, never go there.

snipped-for-privacy@highlandsniptechnology.com wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

So what is it, Johnny? You think posting common sense one liners raises your station here?

Here's one: Since you think NASA sucks, go jump off a bridge, since you would not be where you are without the advances they ushered in.

The word for today is "ushered".

As in if you know what the cold war was, you know we had to be lickety split with our engineering. NASA ushered in an entire scientific era. That is regardless of any mistakes you want to outline or any other factor *you* come up with.

Too bad you always seem to have something in your brain where you think they are worthless. Maybe you should use your smartphone, which you wouldn't have, to google it up, which you wouldn't be able to do. Were it not for some of the advances NASA made.

Here's another: Let us not allow them to usher in forcd subscription pushes as if they are harmless. Amazon should be fined, because they are not so much interested in new subscribers as they are hanging on to that first money they took, until you get it back. That must generate some bucks. Like rebate offers that the buyer never turns in. Some take longer than one cycle to notice. Some folks do not notice at all. Amazon likes customers that do not even know they bought a product, much less pay on it long term.

Good thing you are smart enough to never buy from Amazon.

John Larkin wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

So, you are for Warren then?

I like Biden's stance. We can make our own decisions.

As Jaime Escalante said "Have a nice day..."

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I have always avoided prime by asking someone who has it to buy the item

for me and I'll pay them. Yes, a bit of a hassle, but still avoid it, or.......

I just try and find the item I'm looking for from a vender offering free shipping independent of prime. This can take some searching, but more than half of the time I can find my item that way.

Makes no sense to shell out $ since I don't purchase on Amazon more than

six times a year. I wont do it.

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I also feel that a fast growing firm like Amazon, as well as some others, probably won't stay at the top of their game long. Usually, the

fastest growers and the largest firms are the first to fall when the time comes.. Exceptions of course, but in general that's how it seems to work.

Jim Horton wrote in news:qqf3rv$tm8$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me:

Buy something from these guys...