# Should Amazon Prime give partial refunds to customers? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 18, 2020, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-amazon-prime-give-partial-refunds-to-customers/852084 "2020-04-18T21:47:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Chingon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chingon/32/17645_2.png) [@Chingon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chingon)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2020, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-amazon-prime-give-partial-refunds-to-customers/852084/41 "2020-04-19T23:03:07Z")
Again, you should ask a lawyer. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2020, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-amazon-prime-give-partial-refunds-to-customers/852084/42 "2020-04-19T23:14:46Z")
> [@UltraVires](#): > > Individual items may be affected, but wholesale changes to entire classes of items are simply not what a contracting party is allowed to do. Says who? Cites needed for claims like this. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2020, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-amazon-prime-give-partial-refunds-to-customers/852084/43 "2020-04-20T02:12:33Z")
> [@Alley\_Dweller](#): > > Don’t forget discounts at Whole Foods, if you’re into that sort of thing. I _did_ forget that, because we don’t have any. ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2020, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-amazon-prime-give-partial-refunds-to-customers/852084/44 "2020-04-20T03:01:05Z")
> [@UltraVires](#): > > Would you agree with their decision if it was not an emergency situation? If you don’t, then I don’t see how it applies here at all. Would you agree with _any_ of what’s going on right now (stay-at-home orders, ban on public gatherings, travel restrictions, \>$2 trillion bailout of businesses, etc) if it was not an emergency situation? ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2020, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-amazon-prime-give-partial-refunds-to-customers/852084/45 "2020-04-20T05:34:27Z")
I have actually looked at what Amazon Prime entails, and it doesn’t promise 2 day shipping. It promises 2 day shipping _on items that are marked as 2 day shipping_, along with other options like 1 day shipping or 3 day shipping on those marked that way, and something called Prime “Free shipping” which is what still applies (though only to marked “Prime” items. So, sure, if it was still marked as 2-day Prime, some sort of refund would be good. But, currently, nothing is marked as 2-day prime, with 3-days being the minimum. I also note that, even if you get 2-day Prime, sometimes things happen. Amazon only promises to attempt to get it to you by the date they say. Also, BTW, there are tons of ways for people with lower income or who aren’t working to get Prime cheaper. I have it for $6 a month due to my SSI disability. The only restriction is I can’t do “Family Sharing”, which just means that everyone in the household uses my Amazon account to watch movies. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2020, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-amazon-prime-give-partial-refunds-to-customers/852084/46 "2020-04-20T12:12:25Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > I have actually looked at what Amazon Prime entails, and it doesn’t promise 2 day shipping. It promises 2 day shipping _on items that are marked as 2 day shipping_, along with other options like 1 day shipping or 3 day shipping on those marked that way, and something called Prime “Free shipping” which is what still applies (though only to marked “Prime” items. That doesn’t seem like a fair argument (and I know you’re not the only one making it). If part of prime membership is is free 2 day shipping on items marked as 2 day shipping, but none of the items are marked with 2 day shipping then that part of your prime membership is worthless, regardless of if they were following their own rules. It would be like if a movie theater charged you $30 a month for a membership. The membership gives you access to an unlimited amount of viewings of all eligible movies and a bucket of free popcorn every time you’re there. If they stopped showing movies that were eligible for you to see for free, would it be fair for them to to continue to charge you $30/month? Wouldn’t it be a bit of a slap in the face for them to remind you that you do still get free popcorn when you go to (and pay for) a non-eligible movie? Wouldn’t it kind of be insulting when they explain to you that they are, in fact, holding up their end of the bargain, they just don’t have any free movies right now? Also, as much as I love prime, the whole ‘2 day shipping’ thing kinda pisses me off. If you complain to them because something didn’t show up for, say, 5 days, they’ll explain to you that they make no guarantee that you’ll receive the item within 48 hours of buying it, but rather you’ll receive it within 2 days of them shipping it. That is, if you buy something on Monday and they don’t ship it out until Friday, so long as it’s in your hands by the following Tuesday, they’ve still me the requirements. I do seem to recall them trying to redefine the word guarantee a while back. I think they tried to make it mean something like ‘we’ll do our best, but no promises’. Luckily, they tend to offer refunds even in those situations. And it seems like Amazon, as a whole, does tend to bend if enough people make a big enough stink about things. I assume Prime Membership is a big enough part of their income that they worry about people cancelling it. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2020, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-amazon-prime-give-partial-refunds-to-customers/852084/47 "2020-04-20T13:22:37Z")
Who is saying that they can force you to pay for a service you no longer find useful? I went to my Prime account and searched for “how to cancel.” It’s possible to cancel. ---
**Author:** ![Corry\_El](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecae2f/32.png) [@Corry\_El](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corry_El)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2020, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-amazon-prime-give-partial-refunds-to-customers/852084/48 "2020-04-20T14:18:39Z")
I don’t know how Amazon would fare in a class action lawsuit about this. If you see one start up that would probably tell you it’s not a legal slam dunk for Amazon, if one doesn’t that might suggest it is. Just reading disclaimers as a non-lawyer doesn’t help that much IMO, not to me anyway. You have to figure the terms and conditions virtually nobody reads before clicking ‘agree’ (or ever after) has language attempting to cover their ass when they don’t do what they say they would. However in a situation where they don’t and won’t for awhile have the capacity to do what they say they will in the top line (not the fine print), and they know it, but continue to collect full fees as if they are going to do it, do fine print disclaimers provide 100% legal protection? I don’t know but suspect they might not always. However it could easily become a PR problem where it’s worth it to give a one time partial refund. Or else they might figure to get things back on track fast enough for it to blow over. But I’ve read non-positive takes on the pandemic’s impact on Amazon and my own experience accords with that. On one level it’s a windfall of new business. On another the delays and lack of stock make people look to other online providers who might have been getting into the habit of just clicking through on Amazon when they bought stuff online without shopping around (a strategy to realize the huge future profits implied by Amazon’s stock price: build a huge customer base which uses Amazon by habit without shopping around, while Amazon gets out of any previous habit of its own of undercutting other outlets on price). ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2020, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-amazon-prime-give-partial-refunds-to-customers/852084/49 "2020-04-20T14:28:41Z")
they deliver Sat and Sun so if you order on Friday it should arrive Sun. I’ve been getting some stuff in 1 day lately. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2020, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-amazon-prime-give-partial-refunds-to-customers/852084/50 "2020-04-20T15:42:13Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > Who is saying that they can force you to pay for a service you no longer find useful? I went to my Prime account and searched for “how to cancel.” It’s possible to cancel. I don’t recall anyone saying that. However, if the point of this post is to imply that someone can simply cancel their prime membership if they don’t like how it’s been going. You’re right, they can, but that wasn’t the point of the OP. Can’t there be some middle ground between ‘just accept it, they’re not doing anything technically wrong’ and ‘cancel your membership’? ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2020, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-amazon-prime-give-partial-refunds-to-customers/852084/51 "2020-04-20T16:10:17Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > Can’t there be some middle ground between ‘just accept it, they’re not doing anything technically wrong’ and ‘cancel your membership’? there is no middle ground with Acts of God issues in a contract. That’s not to say Bezos can’t take some of the money lining his pocket and gift it to his customers. But there is no contractual entitlement. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2020, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-amazon-prime-give-partial-refunds-to-customers/852084/52 "2020-04-20T16:12:23Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > Can’t there be some middle ground between ‘just accept it, they’re not doing anything technically wrong’ and ‘cancel your membership’? Certainly there can be, but there’s nothing requiring there to be. In normal times, I’m sure it would be worked out differently. During a pandemic this is what Amazon Prime means. It doesn’t appear to violate the letter or spirit of the contract, so you have to decide if it’s worth it for you. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2020, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-amazon-prime-give-partial-refunds-to-customers/852084/53 "2020-04-20T16:22:14Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > It would be like if a movie theater charged you $30 a month for a membership. The membership gives you access to an unlimited amount of viewings of all eligible movies and a bucket of free popcorn every time you’re there. > If they stopped showing movies that were eligible for you to see for free, would it be fair for them to to continue to charge you $30/month? Wouldn’t it be a bit of a slap in the face for them to remind you that you do still get free popcorn when you go to (and pay for) a non-eligible movie? Wouldn’t it kind of be insulting when they explain to you that they are, in fact, holding up their end of the bargain, they just don’t have any free movies right now? What you describe is pretty much exactly what happened with MoviePass. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2020, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-amazon-prime-give-partial-refunds-to-customers/852084/54 "2020-04-20T16:58:02Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > there is no middle ground with Acts of God issues in a contract. > > That’s not to say Bezos can’t take some of the money lining his pocket and gift it to his customers. But there is no contractual entitlement. There was no act of god that caused shipments to be delayed. Shipments are delayed because they actively decided to prioritize the delivery of essential items while pushing normal deliveries back anywhere from a few days to a few weeks. There’s a big banner right at the top stating as much. If the pandemic knocked out half their workforce or a wildfire destroyed a warehouse, that would be one thing, but it’s not what happened. Also, I’d ague that changing the status of items from Prime to non-prime or ‘Two day delivery’ to ‘2-3 weeks’ violates the spirit of the membership. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2020, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-amazon-prime-give-partial-refunds-to-customers/852084/55 "2020-04-20T16:59:14Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > What you describe is pretty much exactly what happened with MoviePass. How’d that work out for them? Nevermind, I looked it up (never paid much attention to moviepass), their wiki page starts with “Moviepass was…” so that answers that. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2020, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-amazon-prime-give-partial-refunds-to-customers/852084/56 "2020-04-20T17:08:27Z")
And, just to state my position again. I’m not saying they’re breaking any rules (legal or civil) or that they are in anyway required to give something back to the subscribers. I’ve only been saying that they should give something back to us. Deliveries are weeks late because they’re sending out essential items, but essential items are out of stock. A goodwill credit would be nice for all of us that haven’t been able to get our usual deliveries. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2020, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-amazon-prime-give-partial-refunds-to-customers/852084/57 "2020-04-20T18:35:46Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > I’ve only been saying that they should give something back to us. You know what the situation is but you continue to pay for Amazon Prime. If you are not getting what you want, why haven’t you cancelled? They are prioritizing shipments for the common good; it’s something society should want to incentive. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2020, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-amazon-prime-give-partial-refunds-to-customers/852084/58 "2020-04-20T20:26:58Z")
> [@UltraVires](#): > > I signed up for Amazon Prime with the promise that I get next day delivery on Prime items for a nominal fee and free second day delivery on these items. > > Now we are in a pandemic and Amazon has delayed these shipments, up to a week or more to prioritize shipments of household necessity items. > > Of course, I understand that need and I agree with it. But still, they are not fulfilling the promise made to me in exchange for what I paid. It is certainly not Amazon’s fault, but it isn’t my fault either. > > Shouldn’t Amazon refund some of their customers’ Prime payment money? I am good since the shipping is still free. And I get the TV and other benefits. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2020, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-amazon-prime-give-partial-refunds-to-customers/852084/59 "2020-04-20T21:36:30Z")
They’ve been waffling about the 2-day thing since well before the whole shutdown. I can’t find a cite at the moment but I gather it had to do with certain sellers or certain items being too tough to fulfill. You had to check very carefully if it was something you truly needed in 2 days. I think they were finding that the program had become too successful - and they were trying to find ways to let people bundle things together for slower shipping. There was the “amazon day” concept where you could opt to get all your stuff on a specific day of the week - which always sounded absurd to me unless you knew you would only be home on a specific day or something. You would basically be volunteering to let them delay your stuff for no benefit to you except maybe fewer boxes to drag inside. Their “no rush shipping” was a nice alternative: by saying “yeah, take your time” and letting things come a few days later, you’d get a dollar or so credit toward digital purchases. They bumped that up to 3 dollars on one recent order (I think in response to covid). Back to the OP: I think it would be a very nice gesture for them to extend everyone’s membership by 2 months or similar, but I suspect they are under no legal requirement to placate us. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2020, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-amazon-prime-give-partial-refunds-to-customers/852084/60 "2020-04-21T00:41:58Z")
That reminds me—there used to be an option at check out for “I want all my items in a single shipment,” but that doesn’t seem to be available any more. I’m guessing it’s because Amazon is no longer shipping from a single warehouse. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-amazon-prime-give-partial-refunds-to-customers/852084.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-amazon-prime-give-partial-refunds-to-customers/852084.md?page=4)