Amazon purchases

I inadvertently signed up to Prime and didn't know until I received my Visa statement. I promptly stopped payment and took all details of my CCard off the account. I am not using Amazon anymore because I do not know how I set it up.
Could there be one of those boxes that you must un tick rather than tick?
28% of people surveyed unintentionally signed up for Prime - https://www.which.co.uk/news/2019/07/accidentally-signed-up-to-amazon-prime-youre-not-alone/

You’re not alone. To be honest I don’t know how Amazon have been allowed away with it for so long. They take very deliberate measures on their site to trick you into signing up to it. I imagine they succeed in tricking older less tech savvy users particularly effectively.

FWIW they’re very quick to issue a refund if you contact them to say you didn’t want the service.

Note you do get the Amazon TV service with Prime, and there’s some good content on there, the price isn’t so bad if you use this.
 
28% of people surveyed unintentionally signed up for Prime - https://www.which.co.uk/news/2019/07/accidentally-signed-up-to-amazon-prime-youre-not-alone/

You’re not alone. To be honest I don’t know how Amazon have been allowed away with it for so long. They take very deliberate measures on their site to trick you into signing up to it. I imagine they succeed in tricking older less tech savvy users particularly effectively.

FWIW they’re very quick to issue a refund if you contact them to say you didn’t want the service.

Note you do get the Amazon TV service with Prime, and there’s some good content on there, the price isn’t so bad if you use this.
I am afraid to go on Amazon site in case I sign up again, this could be counter productive for Anazon
 
About 4 years ago I ordered a large item from Amazon to be delivered to a UK address. I must have filled out form wrong as it came to my Dublin address. No one was home so a note was left to say at local parcel post office. In fact I was in UK awaiting its arrival. I left it 5 or so days to fetch same to be told it had been returned to sender! When I enquired further they told me it had originated in Co Dublin and uncollected national parcels were returned in 5 days. Foreign items were kept longer. It seems it had been sent to a warehouse (Amazon?) in Rathcoole and from there went into the An Post system. Well it saved me the bother and trouble of returned rather a large and heavy unwanted item and I was refunded the cost eventually.
 
I am afraid to go on Amazon site in case I sign up again, this could be counter productive for Anazon

Aw c'mon. If you can use AAM, then you obviously can control your mouse and click finger and can also read what's written on the screen.

As stated you have to actively 'opt in' for prime and in doing so this information is displayed clearly on the screen, including how much you will be paying and your renewal dates. You then go on to 'accept' this. To my mind it is quite transparent and is not in any way 'sneaky', unlike a well known budget airline where you used to have to 'opt out' of extras, up to a few years ago.
If people do not take the time to read what they are signing up for then it begs the question, should they even be on an E-Commerce site.

BTW the above linked Which 'survey' doesn't even constitute a 'straw' poll, while using the headline '28% of people....'. They interviewed 1199 people which represents 0.00038677% of Amazon customers.
Amazon have a customer base of over 310,000,000 so hardly counter productive as you opine.
 
Aw c'mon. If you can use AAM, then you obviously can control your mouse and click finger and can also read what's written on the screen.

As stated you have to actively 'opt in' for prime and in doing so this information is displayed clearly on the screen, including how much you will be paying and your renewal dates. You then go on to 'accept' this. To my mind it is quite transparent and is not in any way 'sneaky', unlike a well known budget airline where you used to have to 'opt out' of extras, up to a few years ago.
If people do not take the time to read what they are signing up for then it begs the question, should they even be on an E-Commerce site.

BTW the above linked Which 'survey' doesn't even constitute a 'straw' poll, while using the headline '28% of people....'. They interviewed 1199 people which represents 0.00038677% of Amazon customers.
Amazon have a customer base of over 310,000,000 so hardly counter productive as you opine.
the fact that I don't know how it happened worries me,
 
Aw c'mon. If you can use AAM, then you obviously can control your mouse and click finger and can also read what's written on the screen.

As stated you have to actively 'opt in' for prime and in doing so this information is displayed clearly on the screen, including how much you will be paying and your renewal dates. You then go on to 'accept' this. To my mind it is quite transparent and is not in any way 'sneaky', unlike a well known budget airline where you used to have to 'opt out' of extras, up to a few years ago.
If people do not take the time to read what they are signing up for then it begs the question, should they even be on an E-Commerce site.

BTW the above linked Which 'survey' doesn't even constitute a 'straw' poll, while using the headline '28% of people....'. They interviewed 1199 people which represents 0.00038677% of Amazon customers.
Amazon have a customer base of over 310,000,000 so hardly counter productive as you opine.
All I can say is I think you’re dead wrong.

On the figures, I’m not sure what your argument is. Of 600 of their Prime users, ~30% had signed up accidentally. Unless you can make a clear case for why this is unlikely to be more widely representative of the UK/Irish market, then this is far more meaningful a figure than your 0.00038677%, conveniently underlined for us dullards who accidentally sign up to Prime subscriptions :) .

The screenshots and detail in the article make it pretty clear to me there is an effort to pressure users into the service. For a non-savvy user you’re presented with a screen telling you you’ll get faster shipping with this thing called Prime, and if you choose it the Prime fee doesn’t show on your bill for that order, it pops up later on your credit card.

I would in no way trust that my elderly parents could navigate the payment process regularly without at some point signing up accidentally, it’s that simple really. Consumers should not need to be this much on their toes on a marketplace that has such a monopoly in online sales,
 
All I can say is I think you’re dead wrong.
I'm not going to argue with you. I just don't agree with you.


Of 600 of their Prime users, ~30% had signed up accidentally.

Quote from article:- " 28% said that they had accidentally signed up to Prime,...." . (168 people) A miniscule amount were initially involved
in the survey and an even smaller amount claim to have 'accidentally' signed up to prime. Hardly a basis to form any opinion.


and if you choose it the Prime fee doesn’t show on your bill for that order, it pops up later on your credit card.

But IMMEDIATELY on the screen. Even the article shows this picture, which clearly displays what the cost will be and a bright yellow box that states "Sign up and Pay", which the user then has to select and click on. All this sits above even more text, again stating that it will cost £7.99 per month. Surely it is the users responsibility to read what they are selecting to click on ?? I mean, it is in plain and simple English.

4960


conveniently underlined for us dullards who accidentally sign up to Prime subscriptions :) .

Just in case it was missed.
 
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IIRC I made my first Amazon purchase 19 years ago. I’ve never signed up for Prime, intentionally or otherwise. I’ve occasionally been offered Prime, but have rejected it with a single click.
 
I haven’t signed up accidentally either, but I know my wife and our Business account were signed up accidentally, so two of the three accounts I’m involved in paying for have been caught. And there are countless articles of others in the same scenario.

This is a consumer rights forum and I’d hope our aspiration for the defence of those rights amounts to more than ‘buyer beware, suckers!’ :rolleyes:
 
About 4 years ago I ordered a large item from Amazon to be delivered to a UK address. I must have filled out form wrong as it came to my Dublin address. No one was home so a note was left to say at local parcel post office. In fact I was in UK awaiting its arrival. I left it 5 or so days to fetch same to be told it had been returned to sender! When I enquired further they told me it had originated in Co Dublin and uncollected national parcels were returned in 5 days. Foreign items were kept longer. It seems it had been sent to a warehouse (Amazon?) in Rathcoole and from there went into the An Post system. Well it saved me the bother and trouble of returned rather a large and heavy unwanted item and I was refunded the cost eventually.
Rathcoole only has foundation laid.

Amazon pick, pack and dispatch most irish orders from a massive fulfillment centre in Warrington.

Here they apply local irish an post labels.

Amazon themselves send trucks of parcels from Warrington to anpost parcel center in Dublin and an post only take responsibility at that stage. Hence they are seen as "local" parcels.

The Amazon returns center is the an post mails center in portlaoise.

Amazon also use dpd. But this seems to be for goods dispatched from European fulfillment centers
 
Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, etc.

I've found Amazon.de very poor. I first used it about 15 years ago to get a camera and it was great. But now it seems to be focussed on books. I've browsed for t-shirts, fishing equipment, barbecue tools, etc, and it's not a patch on Amazon.co.uk

I recently made a purchase from a Dutch site. "Ireland" appeared in the address dropdown menu along with about a dozen other European countries. I also selected "Delivery" rather than "Collection" and paid for it.

A day later I got an email advising that my purchase was collection only. I then asked how much delivery to Ireland would be. The reply said they don't deliver to Ireland. I then asked for a refund (but didn't point out their shoddy software issues).

I heard no more from them. About a week after I got an alert from Revolut informing me that I'd received a refund,

Caveat emptor.
 
I've found Amazon.de very poor. I first used it about 15 years ago to get a camera and it was great. But now it seems to be focussed on books. I've browsed for t-shirts, fishing equipment, barbecue tools, etc, and it's not a patch on Amazon.co.uk

I recently made a purchase from a Dutch site. "Ireland" appeared in the address dropdown menu along with about a dozen other European countries. I also selected "Delivery" rather than "Collection" and paid for it.

A day later I got an email advising that my purchase was collection only. I then asked how much delivery to Ireland would be. The reply said they don't deliver to Ireland. I then asked for a refund (but didn't point out their shoddy software issues).

I heard no more from them. About a week after I got an alert from Revolut informing me that I'd received a refund,

Caveat emptor.
I agree that Amazon.de isn't a patch on Amazon.co.uk.
I've pretty much stopped using Amazon since Brexit. I'll probably cancel Prime now as well, when I bother to get around to it.
 
I’ve actually went back to Amazon.co.uk twice this week.

On of the items cost less with the additional VAT and free postage than it did from Amazon.de with paid postage.

Then another item I wasn’t charged any additional VAT and got a message to say it was being shipped by Deutsche-Post.

There’s a bit of a juggling involved...
 
yep, i've had a similar experience. It has been cheaper to shop on the .co.uk site than the .de even when all the added charges are added on.

:)
 
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