Although I buy a lot of stuff from Amazon, I rarely need it fast, so Amazon Prime is not useful to me and I never deliberately subscribed to it. But I noticed a $13 charge on my credit card statement a few times for “Prime Membership,” and called them on it (after cancelling online).
According to a clerk, who spoke good enough English that I don’t think I misunderstood, I am automatically signed up for a Prime Membership, with a continuing monthly charge, anytime I select 2 day shipping for an item.
Apparently the 2 day shipping option was the cheapest on the list, so I unwittingly selected it, either not knowing what I was signing up for, or didn’t see the fine print.
Oddly, the cost of the membership varies according to the item you first buy, as one charge was for $11. The explanation was, “Oh, that had a different tax amount,” which makes no sense, but I let it go, more concerned with the overall refund (which was made).
This is a fraudulent way of doing business, akin to a bait & switch ploy. Anyone else get caught in this, or do I have the procedure wrong?
That happened to me once too, it’s easy to do the way it is set up. Was out a bit of time to straighten it all out, but was one of the few times I was able to get through to a live person, and they were understanding enough to refund me back the prime charges too.
I’ve never had any problem getting through to a live person when I have an Amazon issue. They have all been well-informed and empowered to offer help such as refunds and account credits. And they have all been fluent in American English. Usually I request that they call me and the callback always comes within a few seconds. Sometime I just don’t feel like talking so I use the text-based chat. But this is one of the things that has always differentiated Amazon from the other large companies I do business with.
I agree that you have to be very careful when you are selecting the shipping options so that you aren’t inadvertently joining Prime. This happened to me once, and I discovered it at the payment screen, so I backed up two screens to the point before I started to check out, and did it again correctly.
I also agree that this tactic stinks. This sort of thing seems to be SOP for many online retailers, even if it’s only to get you to sign up for their emails.
Note to online retailers: I pay attention to these things, and I spend my money as much as possible on sites that treat me with respect and don’t try to trick me.
My main problem and time buster was just finding a number where I could talk to a live person. At one time, Amazon didn’t even have their number listed, it’s still like trying to find a needle in a haystack on their site. Scam artists are fully away of this, so when others opt to try to find their number through search engines, they can be miss-led to bogus sites.
Current wait time was 48 minutes when I just checked on this site. It says average time is generally 19 minutes, which isn’t bad at all if one can get out that quick.
Same here. But I couldn’t get them to accept PayPal (I’ve got a big balance to use up) so ended up getting the same thing cheaper on ebay. Never have any luck with Amazon.
I’m curious about it as well, we’ve had other threads and I’ve seen other complaints about exactly this subject.
That seems a little skeevy, if you don’t have prime or even moreso if you don’t use Amazon, you might not know what that means. Is there really nothing else that says you’re going to be billed for this?
I have prime, so I can’t say what the shipping page says. Someone above says they realized what was being agreed to, and so backed out. So it seems there is something that is more explicit. Maybe not explicit enough, I can’t say.
I see it as the price posted in a grocery store- 5.99 with bonus card. If you don’t have a bonus card, or don’t know what one is, you may want to look to see what the price is without a bonus card.
I’ve had prime just about forever so can’t see it either.
I wouldn’t compare it to a grocery store since most of their tags say the price, but then under it say a higher price if you don’t use a card. ISTM that this would be more like looking at your receipt a few days later and seeing that you were charged $12.99 for using the regular checkout lane instead of the self serve one.
As someone without Prime, I just logged on and looked at what was there.
When looking at the item, above the “add to cart” button, there’s a checkmark that says " Try Amazon Prime and start saving today with FREE Two-Day Shipping." I leave that unchecked and hit “add to cart.”
I (sometimes) get a big pop-up that says “do you want to try Amazon Prime and get free two day shipping?”
Once in cart, the delivery options are: “FREE two-day shipping with a free trial of Amazon Prime” “4-5 business days $5.99” “2 business days $11.29” etc.
I suppose OP can complain about the whole “free trial that automatically renews at cost” thing that all companies do, but as far as accidentally signing up, I think OP needs to get their vision checked. (At least, this is on desktop - might look different on mobile?)
That was me and one other person. I don’t remember now what it was on the payment page that made me realize that I was signing up for a Prime trial, but there was something.
The thing is, I am so used to skipping that “FREE 2-day shipping with Prime” option that it’s almost automatic. This one time I’m not paying so close attention, and they almost got me. I feel like a gazelle who just didn’t run quite fast enough one day to escape the cheetah. Or something. Why does shopping have to be that kind of experience?
If you find that you’ve unwittingly signed up for Prime, make sure you take advantage of that 2-day shipping guarantee. Anytime something shows up late make sure to complain and ask for a one month extension. I mean, that’s the whole point of a guarantee, isn’t it? If they can’t deliver on their promise, they need to do something other than just apologize. Sure it might be the fault of the courier, but that’s their problem, not yours
