Today I noticed a payment from my bank account of £49 going to Amazon Prime. What? I don’t think I’ve bought anything lately – certainly not that much. Maybe £2.50 for an e-book, or something.
So I checked my account. Nothing. Then I checked again. The payment was for my annual membership of Amazon Prime, in return for which I’d get free delivery for the whole family. That’s ok then.
What?
No it isn’t. Unless it’s for delivery the whole family to somewhere quite a long way away, it’s very not OK. And sneaky.
Apparently after the initial free trial (which I don’t remember agreeing to), the deal is you pay £49 a year for Amazon Prime. Fortunately if you cancel before you use the ‘prime’ service they’ll refund you, in full.
I’ve cancelled and I’m waiting. But I wonder how many years have I been paying for this nonsense and not noticed. After all Amazon payments aren’t that unusual from my account – though not for much longer after this.
Maybe it was there in the blah, blah small print that you don’t read and that you signed up to one-click shopping to avoid. Maybe it said that if I didn’t stand on one leg and phone someone in Brazil they’d assume I wanted to be part of the deal. But, quite clearly, no one in their right mind would think this was worth it. Not really.
Amazon know this but they bank on the fact that, if you’ve cancelled, you’ll be so relieved to get your cash back that you won’t make a fuss and, if you didn’t, you simply didn’t notice.
I wonder how many years they’ve been scamming me thus.
They probably aren’t breaking the law with this immoral charge, but it’s definitely and certainly a wrong and dishonest thing to do.
Beware and don’t let them get away with it. It’s a Prime example of daylight robbery.
Another sneaky thing they do, I've noticed, is up the price on prime eligible goods. It's often cheaper to buy it through a different seller (still on amazon) and just pay the postage.
I'm a mug as I haven't got around to cancelling Amazon Prime!
I hadn't noticed that, but then they probably bank on people not checking. I will from now on.
I get loads of things from amazon, and pay for prime as it works out much cheaper for me in the long run… plus it's next day delivery which means I know when I'm going to get my packages rather than “3-5 days” that you normally get.
Mind you, I'm really fussy about signing up for any “free” trials. 😉
I signed up for the trial because Boyzilla couldn't wait for something or other, but I cancelled it as soon as that had arrived. I agree though, I bet there are loads of people who've forgotten about it.
I can see how that might work, but it was the fact it happened without me noticing.
That's the sensible way to do it, not blundering on like me