Bl##dy Amazon

OceanSprint

OceanSprint

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Bought a nice cheap 2m by 3m tarpaulin through Amazon. Somehow I seem to have signed up for a £80 "super Amazon" account, and now it is too late to stop it. I think it is close to a con. Beware!
 
Assuming you mean Amazon Prime, I managed to do the same a couple of days ago. Fortunately I clicked the box for a free trial so I have to remember to cancel it before 10/12 :) - worth checking your account details for Prime membership and see if you can do the same. Also worth checking whether it falls under distance selling rulles and gives you 14 days to cancel but wouldnt know what the position would be if you've used the service. I'd very much agree that the popup that appeared at some point in the buying process was designed to get one to sign up for Prime either there and then or as a free trial!
 
On the other hand depending on how much you use it it is great! Next day delivery even on Sunday. Free tv stuff on lovefilm, and now free unlimited photo storage.

Of course you may think that Amazon are evil and you shouldn't use them as they are wiping out local business, grinding authors in to the ground, expoiting their warehouse workers, getting subsidies from the government (6 million in dunfermline apparently!) whilst avoiding all UK corporation tax.

Great service though and apparently thats progress!!
 
RobbieW said:
Assuming you mean Amazon Prime, I managed to do the same a couple of days ago. Fortunately I clicked the box for a free trial so I have to remember to cancel it before 10/12 :) - worth checking your account details for Prime membership and see if you can do the same. Also worth checking whether it falls under distance selling rulles and gives you 14 days to cancel but wouldnt know what the position would be if you've used the service. I'd very much agree that the popup that appeared at some point in the buying process was designed to get one to sign up for Prime either there and then or as a free trial!
Click to expand...

The tw ats got me too! I was highly pi ssed off! I found a setting that allows you to cancel immediately! They only give a couple of days before they take the dosh so act quickly!
S
 
OceanSprint said:
Bought a nice cheap 2m by 3m tarpaulin through Amazon. Somehow I seem to have signed up for a £80 "super Amazon" account, and now it is too late to stop it. I think it is close to a con. Beware!
Click to expand...

Confusion, due to excess excitement or the need for new specs.
Just tell them it was an error - they have to cancel, distance selling directive give you a fortnight in which to cool off.
 
Just to add a bit of balance to the record of Amazon, which I use a lot. I have seen the Amazon Prime 'invitation' and always declined, I wouldnt say it was a con and it is quite clear in its offer.

Also in defense of Amazon, earlier this year I bought an item from Amazon market place. The item was not as show in the photo but small print details did list it correctly. This was a in no way a fault of Amazon, but a slippery seller who told me to poke it and would not communicate. Amazon stepped in, gave me a full refund and I was left with the item, which after a purchase of the missing part from another supplier allowed me to use it. So IMO Amazon is a very fair purchasing portal. Not that the inland revenue would agree of course!
 
I signed up to Amazon prime a year or two ago, changed my mind, and they cheerfully cancelled and refunded. Some months later, I signed up again, this time to stick with it (but at £50, not £80). I buy quite a lot from them, having stuff turn up at my door usually the next day for "free" is a fair bargain for me, plus they've now started adding lots of other benefits like video streaming etc.

I know they are trying to encourage people to sign up and to use the features, but not to the point of it being a con. Read more carefully :)

Pete
 
Yes, I forgot to cancel my trial go on ' Prime ' and was horrified when £80 was syphoned from my account; a call soon had it sorted and a refund.

It does take dowsing rods to find a human phone number, but apart from the snags listed above, from a selfish point of view Amazon are fantastic.
 
It's a bit too easy to sign up to Prime. I inadvertently did it, as well. Fortunately, it was for the 30 day free trial. I cancelled it, but I'm still getting the full 30 days.
 
Just a reminder or for those who aren't aware, if you purchase from Amazon through this link on the RNLI site:-
http://rnli.org/howtosupportus/otherwaystohelp/Pages/Amazon.aspx
I quote
"Shopping with Amazon couldn't be easier. Whilst shopping you can support the RNLI at the same time. Using this link ensures that you can help raise funds by ordering from a wide range of products via our direct link to the Amazon website.
For every purchase Amazon will donate a minimum of 5% of the value of all orders to the RNLI."
 
Its a shame that Amazon don't sell cars. If I can buy a Garmin Sat Nav which is invoiced through Luxembourg at 5% Vat why do I cant buy a car at 5% Vat. After all my Sta Nav was sitting in a Bonded warehouse in the UK before it was sent out.
 
Amazon were taken to task about this a few days ago either on watchdog or you and yours.
Easy to get in, hard to get out, but Amazon did point out that you could get a refund, even after the trial period when you realise that they are billing you.
 
stevebrassett said:
It's a bit too easy to sign up to Prime. I inadvertently did it, as well. Fortunately, it was for the 30 day free trial. I cancelled it, but I'm still getting the full 30 days.
Click to expand...

..you get 30 days irrespective of whether you do or don't want the full membership... all I did was sign up for the trial, and then immediately went to Account => Settings => "Manage Prime Membership" and unclicked/clicked the relevant fields.. no having to remember to do it in 30 days time..

...FWIW - Prime is amazing - but I don't do enough buying to make it worthwhile....
 
I have encountered plenty of IT literate people who have inadvertently signed up to Prime, unaware of the £80 annual cost. This suggests that their web design is either incompetent or deliberately misleading. Judging by the amount of editorial work that goes into the web site, I suspect it is the latter.
I discovered the £80 charge on my statement and, as I hadn't used my Prime entitlements during the year, I received a refund from them. But, many people will not get around to cancelling this unwanted service. It is an old sales trick, made famous by 'record clubs' in the US in the 20th century.

When you consider this sharp practice and Amazon's dubious morality when it comes to paying tax in the UK, it makes me a real hypocrite for buying from them! We reap what we sow.
 
Ravi said:
I have encountered plenty of IT literate people who have inadvertently signed up to Prime, unaware of the £80 annual cost. This suggests that their web design is either incompetent or deliberately misleading. Judging by the amount of editorial work that goes into the web site, I suspect it is the latter.
I discovered the £80 charge on my statement and, as I hadn't used my Prime entitlements during the year, I received a refund from them. But, many people will not get around to cancelling this unwanted service. It is an old sales trick, made famous by 'record clubs' in the US in the 20th century.

When you consider this sharp practice and Amazon's dubious morality when it comes to paying tax in the UK, it makes me a real hypocrite for buying from them! We reap what we sow.
Click to expand...
As I said, it happened to me! a pooter literate, cynical old barsteward, I more than suspect you are right!
S
 
If their kindle lending library allowed you to get more than one book a month, then that with the amazon prime video might be worth it. As it stands currently Netflix for me is the better deal.
 
I'm willing to stick my head above the parapit and say yes, I am a satisfied user of Amazon Prime. We live in the sticks, so the free delivery is probably worth more to the likes of us, compared to townies who are used to being able to nip round the corner for most things. My children are quite happy as well, they are using the bonus of Amazon Prime movies on demand. Even though I only let them watch the free rentals.
 
I sell through Amazon and they take 18% commission. About three years ago they kicked me off because I simply took the prices on my website and uplifted them before listing them on Amazon to cover their commission. They then sent me an email and told me that it was against their terms of service to sell at a lower price through "other channels". We as the margins on many of the product we sell are below that it meant I have to increase the prices on my own web site to equalise the p[rices with Amazon, something I was not keen to do since Amazon only accounted for about 5% of my web sales.

I tried to contact someone at Amazon to point out that in their terms and conditions it said the they "usually require" prices to be the same across all channels. I also pointed out that the only things we sell on Amazon where we are either the cheapest seller or the only seller, so kicking us off will either force customers off Amazon or will result in higher prices. All I got was an automated answer. I tried calling I could not speak to anyone as they don't take calls... each time I emailed I received a standard response as though no one had actually read anything I had written. As a consequence I made an OFT complaint about Amazons attempt to force me to participate in price fixing. They launched an investigation and as a result Amazon was forced to change its policy European wide.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-23881202
 
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If you buy a lot on Amazon it's very good value and priority delivery is given. You also get access to lists of other Amazon products too
 
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