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Amazon fined $2.5B for using deceptive methods to sign up consumers for Prime

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Re: Amazon fined $2.5B for using deceptive methods to sign up consumers for Prime

#101

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

bombcar wrote: post #81
al_borland wrote: post #68

I cancelled Prime last year after getting fed up with Amazon in several ways. Bringing ads to Prime Video was the straw that broke the camel’s back. I do still end up ordering from time to time, and the checkout process for non-Prime members is horrific. Multiple Prime sign-up offers that I always need to carefully read so I don’t click the wrong thing, illogical default shipping options, with more tricks to try and…

Prime ain't what it used to be. Used to be reliably 2nd day delivery, by a real shipping company, and good movies added, etc. Now it's as slow as "free" delivery, by a random contractor who does God knows what to the package, and prices aren't even better than Walmart or Target on many things. The "avoid subscribing to prime" shuffle you have to do to even order anything anymore drives me away too, I only use Amazon…

I've never had Prime. Instant gratification isn't a draw for me and I can build up a shopping cart over months between orders. Funnily enough, about 75% of my boxes come with Prime tape on them. It used to signify expedited handling. Now it's just a branding exercise.

Re: Amazon fined $2.5B for using deceptive methods to sign up consumers for Prime

#102

Post by browningstreet »

bombcar wrote: post #81
al_borland wrote: post #68

I cancelled Prime last year after getting fed up with Amazon in several ways. Bringing ads to Prime Video was the straw that broke the camel’s back. I do still end up ordering from time to time, and the checkout process for non-Prime members is horrific. Multiple Prime sign-up offers that I always need to carefully read so I don’t click the wrong thing, illogical default shipping options, with more tricks to try and…

Prime ain't what it used to be. Used to be reliably 2nd day delivery, by a real shipping company, and good movies added, etc. Now it's as slow as "free" delivery, by a random contractor who does God knows what to the package, and prices aren't even better than Walmart or Target on many things. The "avoid subscribing to prime" shuffle you have to do to even order anything anymore drives me away too, I only use Amazon…

I've wanted to quit Prime a bunch of times, but my recent experiences in the Bay Area:

* Sometimes I want my order on my Prime day, but they insist on delivering it to me 3 hours from when I ordered it.

* When my son got COVID, we ran around town looking for COVID tests. Target was out of them entirely. So I ordered them on Prime and they showed up later that day. A bunch of them. And 3x cheaper than the COVID+FLU tests I found at CVS later that day.

* Yeah, ads on Prime suck. But I'm rewatching a 90s show and ponied up $3/mo for no ads.

Screw Jeff Bezos, but then again.. I got COVID tests when I needed them.

Re: Amazon fined $2.5B for using deceptive methods to sign up consumers for Prime

#103

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

bombcar wrote: post #78
udkl wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For good or for bad, I've switched to Walmart for many of my orders as well as home delivery of groceries now and then and they have been decent. It's good to have competitors who are catching up.

Walmart + Target + Home Depot cover much of what I would have used Amazon for, and all offer free shipping in some way without joining any club. Walmart pickup is great.

Home Depot reuses SKUs for different products. When they fulfill an order from a local store it's a gamble if you're going to get the item you wanted. You also can't exchange those orders online and are forced to go to the same store it came from.

Re: Amazon fined $2.5B for using deceptive methods to sign up consumers for Prime

#104

Post by paxys »

Amazon makes $50B per year from Prime, and there are an estimated 240 million subscribers. $10/user is an insanely cheap price for user acquisition (basically equivalent to a 1 month free deal), and any company will happily take this deal 10 times out of 10.

Re: Amazon fined $2.5B for using deceptive methods to sign up consumers for Prime

#105

Post by arcbyte »

al_borland wrote: post #89
bombcar wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Prime ain't what it used to be. Used to be reliably 2nd day delivery, by a real shipping company, and good movies added, etc. Now it's as slow as "free" delivery, by a random contractor who does God knows what to the package, and prices aren't even better than Walmart or Target on many things. The "avoid subscribing to prime" shuffle you have to do to even order anything anymore drives me away too, I only use Amazon…

I really have to wonder if non-Prime and Prime deliveries go through the same shipping pipeline to simplify the process. When I order without Prime, it seems my order just sits for a few days, then it hits my credit card and I get it 2 days later. Almost like giving everyone free 2 day shipping wouldn’t cost them anything at this point, so they just artificially delay normal users to make the service worse. Occasiona…

> it seems my order just sits for a few days, then it hits my credit card and I get it 2 days later

I have Prime and this is the majority of my orders. Lately I have been seeing a lot of free overnight deliveries tho, so maybe something is brewing.

Re: Amazon fined $2.5B for using deceptive methods to sign up consumers for Prime

#106

Post by GuB-42 »

I don't really understand all the fuss about Amazon Prime.

I found it really easy to cancel. They even refunded me when I canceled my subscription after the free trial expired (forgot to cancel before that despite being notified).

Clicking passed the "look at what you will lose if you cancel" screen is not my idea of "hard".

Yes, they push for subscriptions, usually using promotional offers. It is called marketing, and Amazon is relatively mild in that regard.

Maybe it could create a precedent and make the majority of subscription services pay.

Re: Amazon fined $2.5B for using deceptive methods to sign up consumers for Prime

#107

Post by paxys »

Larrikin wrote: post #3

Is this one of those situations where we sign up and get a bit of money from the company, or will we have already been contacted?

This wasn't a class action lawsuit, so the process will be a bit more strict. But yes, ultimately there is a pool of money set aside for payments and everyone will get a tiny bit ($51).

Re: Amazon fined $2.5B for using deceptive methods to sign up consumers for Prime

#108

Post by b112 »

5555624 wrote: post #88
inetknght wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do frozen foods get delivered still frozen? I live 15 minutes away from the nearest wal-mart and frozens/refrigerables are my biggest concern.

It's not any different than going to Walmart yourself and getting groceries -- they just put them in plastic grocery bags. I've never had a problem with anything refrigerated or frozen. (Well, I've never ordered ice cream.) The key is to be home when they deliver it; so, you can put those things away immediately. They offer two-hour delivery windows and usually deliver within the window. In my experience -- I'm disab…

I feel someone will soon start a website "melted-icecream.com", where someone tracks orders all over the country, from major online suppliers, and graphs how warm the ice cream is.

Would be interesting.

Once melted, ice-cream is never ice cream again.

Re: Amazon fined $2.5B for using deceptive methods to sign up consumers for Prime

#109

Post by niwtsol »

I moved my prime account to be on a family plan. Their systems sent me, IDK, 15 messages telling me my prime benefits were going away and to sign up. Either they completely do not cross validate that I had moved to another prime subscription, or, based off my read of this article, they really just wanted two people in the same household paying for prime for no reason.

Re: Amazon fined $2.5B for using deceptive methods to sign up consumers for Prime

#110

Post by bombcar »

al_borland wrote: post #89
bombcar wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Prime ain't what it used to be. Used to be reliably 2nd day delivery, by a real shipping company, and good movies added, etc. Now it's as slow as "free" delivery, by a random contractor who does God knows what to the package, and prices aren't even better than Walmart or Target on many things. The "avoid subscribing to prime" shuffle you have to do to even order anything anymore drives me away too, I only use Amazon…

I really have to wonder if non-Prime and Prime deliveries go through the same shipping pipeline to simplify the process. When I order without Prime, it seems my order just sits for a few days, then it hits my credit card and I get it 2 days later. Almost like giving everyone free 2 day shipping wouldn’t cost them anything at this point, so they just artificially delay normal users to make the service worse. Occasiona…

I suspect they’re doing some “intelligent batching” of some sort to save costs on shipping SOMEWHERE. But it’s all inscrutable to me.

I do miss the “$5 digital credit for forgoing prime shipping” I used to abuse.

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