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FTC sues Amazon over ‘deceptive’ Prime sign-up and cancellation process

cnbc.com

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Re: FTC sues Amazon over ‘deceptive’ Prime sign-up and cancellation process

#111

Post by dghughes »

squeaky-clean wrote: post #14
PaulHoule wrote: post #2

I wouldn't say the process of unsubscribing from Prime is 'deceptive' but it sure has many steps. They tried just about everything to persuade me to stay except offer to bring back two day shipping. (I know many of you in urban areas are getting one day shipping but those of us in less favored geographies, such as the same ZIP code as AMZN warehouses, have seen two day shipping turn into five, which makes Amazon unco…

I'm in NYC and two day shipping here is a crapshoot nowadays. Sure it says 2-day shipping on the store page, but counting my past orders, 6/10 were delayed delivery, usually taking 5 days. The last 2 times I tried buying bulk paper towels on Amazon (I had them set as a recurring purchase every 6 months) they have been lost in transit. Also really frustrating, if I go to "Order Details" for an order that was delayed,…

> Sure it says 2-day shipping on the store page, but counting my past orders, 6/10 were delayed delivery, usually taking 5 days.

When I signed up the guarantee (if not then?) was three days. At first it was good for small town Canada. But then the bottom fell out. But now something may say ship time a week or two but the thing arrives four days later. They're all over the place. One may think incompetence but it's benefiting me.

The other thing I hate it Prime Video more than once I've been two episodes from the end of a show and suddenly the show access is pulled. But oh look you can rent or buy it now for more $$$ on top of your subscription.

Re: FTC sues Amazon over ‘deceptive’ Prime sign-up and cancellation process

#112

Post by pwg »

kccoder wrote: post #86
njovin wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

California has already done this, so feel free to report any businesses that aren't allowing US-based customers to cancel immediately. https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displayText.x... .

SiriusXM needs to be reported mercilessly. Their cancellation process requires chatting with someone who tries to offer you better deals to stay, which of course only last for a few months, then the original price kicks back in. It takes 15 minutes to go through the process. The sad thing is that I'd love to activate their service for a month here or month there, but their cancellation process is too painful to do so…

I canceled my SiriusXM sub a couple months after the merger. I was an XM subscriber that was "merged in" and when the merger finished, one of the big reasons why I was an XM subscriber (no talking DJ's on the channels I listened to) vanished and suddenly all the old channels I listened to had talking DJ's everywhere.

I had to wait a couple months to cancel because of a weird clause requiring some amount of "sub time" before one could get a pro-rata refund in the agreement.

Cancellation had to be by phone, and the SiriusXM person went so far as to offer a full year of free service to keep me on board. She was quite shocked when I told her, no, not even a free year will keep me as a subscriber. I also asked her to be sure to tell her managers that the reason why they lost a sub was adding talking DJ's to channels that previously had none.

I switched to a commercial free, DJ free mp3 player for my commute, and eventually the "mp3 player" was replaced by my cell phone.

Re: FTC sues Amazon over ‘deceptive’ Prime sign-up and cancellation process

#113

Post by omginternets »

teeray wrote: post #107

It sure would be nice to have legislation mandating parity between sign up and cancellation. One-click signup? One-click cancel.

This seems like something that is reasonably easy to define and fairly tight in scope. Embarrassing question: what would be the first step to proposing such legislation?

Re: FTC sues Amazon over ‘deceptive’ Prime sign-up and cancellation process

#114

Post by scrum-treats »

As someone who managed to successfully cancel Prime, and then tried to purchase an item on amazon.com, it took me over a minute to figure out how to not accidentally sign up for Prime membership when trying to checkout.

There was only one place I could click that would allow me to advance to the next screen (simple text), the text was super small placed below a giant image, and my cursor didn't change to indicate that it was clickable, e.g., https://imgur.com/a/VNlU9L9.

Additionally, I received my package in the same amount of time as Prime said it would take. Which leaves the question, what is the benefit of Prime membership? It's not free shipping, it's not free grocery delivery, it's not Music or Video, it's not discount prices on Amazon retail website, and it is most certainly not any assurance of authentic goods.

Prime is snake oil.

After enduring the 10+ page questionnaire on why I was cancelling Prime, the only way to cancel my Prime membership, it is clear no one took the answers to the questions seriously.

This lawsuit is long overdue.

Re: FTC sues Amazon over ‘deceptive’ Prime sign-up and cancellation process

#115

Post by teeray »

omginternets wrote: post #113
teeray wrote: post #107

It sure would be nice to have legislation mandating parity between sign up and cancellation. One-click signup? One-click cancel.

This seems like something that is reasonably easy to define and fairly tight in scope. Embarrassing question: what would be the first step to proposing such legislation?

> what would be the first step to proposing such legislation?

Several large donations to the re-election funds of various congress critters.

Re: FTC sues Amazon over ‘deceptive’ Prime sign-up and cancellation process

#117

Post by timmytokyo »

paddw wrote: post #47
JohnFen wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure why people keep suspecting a political motive. That Amazon is huge seems sufficient explanation.

You don't think there's any political reason they are going after Amazon rather than, say, the New York Times? Just the impartial watchmen of Democracy studiously promoting the adherence to regulation here?

I'm glad they're going after the 800 lb gorilla. Then maybe all the 100 lb chimpanzees and orangutans will take notice.

Re: FTC sues Amazon over ‘deceptive’ Prime sign-up and cancellation process

#120

Post by dghughes »

adoxyz wrote: post #5

The whole Amazon.com experience has been getting worse and worse as the years go by. Everything from the products they sell, quality control, customer service, dark patterns in the UI, etc. I wonder how long until you have to call someone or mail in a 1,000 word letter on why you don't need Prime to cancel it.

Here in Canad Canadian Tire was notorious for Rewards Card pressure sign you up right there. Even roaming sales people in suits pestering you right as you walked in the door and cashiers as you were paying.

To cancel? You need to send in a letter via post. that may be changed but I'm guessing probably not.

Oh and the rewards used to be 5% of cash purchases now it's 0.5% dismal. Just a glorified spam farm for your info.

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