Stung by Amazon? [Resolved!]

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Touring Mars

Touring Mars

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I just got my bank statement, which (to my shame) I don't always check - not in much detail anyway... however, this month was very tight for a number of reasons, but I was still a bit surprised that I went overdrawn for the first time in years... so I checked my statement for anything unusual, and to my shock, there is a £49 charge from Amazon.co.uk for "Amazon Prime Membership"...

Now, I don't even recall signing up for Amazon Prime at all, let alone authorising them to charge me £49 for the pleasure... I don't even remember receiving an email saying that I was being given the choice, let alone clicking anything to say "OK"... Frankly, I'm stunned, and now I have just fired off an email to ask for a refund...

Has anyone else noticed this? It seems that it's happened to a few people, after a quick Google search... I'm about to dig through my emails to see what happened :confused:
 
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I had the option of signing up for a trial of Prime and the draw was faster shipping for free. I'm glad I wasn't tempted. They could have snuck it in there, perhaps?
 
Interesting to hear. The only bad experience I've had from Amazon was them not honoring one of their shipping dates during the Christmas rush. But I've even been impressed with the returns process -which I expected to be a nightmare.

I'll be on the lookout for erroneous charges.
 
I've never had any problems with Amazon checks bank statement. Nope, still no problems.

Did you take up the free trial for the prime membership?
 
I bet that you clicked on the Free Shipping option without making sure it's the Free Super Saver Shipping option.
 
Dave A
Did you take up the free trial for the prime membership?
Click to expand...

Duke
I bet that you clicked on the Free Shipping option without making sure it's the Free Super Saver Shipping option.
Click to expand...

Damn, you're both right... thanks guys 👍... it makes sense now... apparently I must have accepted the offer of a free trial when I ordered a book back in June... but I had no idea that it meant that I had to cancel the trial or they would charge me £49... since then I've only made one purchase, and I didn't notice that I got free delivery on it... It wasn't at all clear that I was actually buying something. Anyway, I've now cancelled my membership and asked for a refund... I should have paid more attention probably, but it still feels like I've been conned.
 
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That's not right. If it's a trial, it shouldn't then immediately go into a full membership without asking you.
 
Sureshot
That's not right. If it's a trial, it shouldn't then immediately go into a full membership without asking you.
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Unfortunately most things are like that nowadays.. they always state that once the trail period ends you will be automatically debited for the service... its just a way of catching people out.

Besides, amazons free delivery is excellent, it says like a week but ive had things that have come within 2 days!

Robin
 
Yeah, that's always bugged me. I've nearly been burned by it before.
 
And I might be lucky to get a refund since I stupidly have used Amazon since accidentally signing up...

Robin.
Unfortunately most things are like that nowadays.. they always state that once the trail period ends you will be automatically debited for the service... its just a way of catching people out.

Besides, amazons free delivery is excellent, it says like a week but ive had things that have come within 2 days!

Robin
Click to expand...
It brasses me off, though, since I almost always make orders that qualify for free delivery anyway. I have no complaints with Amazon in terms of their speed and their competitive prices, and hence I have been a loyal customer for some years now - so I feel a bit aggrieved to be duped into forking out £49 for something I will not use...
 
49 quid is a rip, man. It wasn't that expensive for me. Amazon has always been good to me, though. I was prime two years ago and the cost of prime was justified for all the crap I bought. The only caveat was that they set prime membership on auto-renewal by default. That's where they get you. So, I had prime for another year and pretty much everything and anything I needed was purchased from Amazon.
 
Well, I'm very pleased to say that Amazon have refunded my money, despite the fact that I've used the service once already - albeit without realising it. 👍

If the deal had been £20 or even £25, then I might not have bothered cancelling, since I probably make about 10-12 purchases a year, but £49 is too much to make it worth my while.

Anyway, I'm delighted that they've made an exception to their refund policy, although I still think they should be clearer on their store front and not rely on people spotting the email which informs you that you will be charged if you don't cancel the automatic upgrade... since I recently changed jobs, my Amazon account still sends emails to my old work email address, which I don't check often. And given the amount of Amazon "recommendation" emails I get, I tend not to notice their promotion emails anyway...

Still, Amazon are back in my good books now - and they responded to my panicky email (two, actually :p) very quickly!
 
Funny this is brought up, and thank god it did. I just purchased a DVD off of there and used the trial for Prime, where do I go to cancel it? I really don't want to be charged for it specially since I don't have the money for it.
 

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