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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

#111

Post by rose-knuckle17 »

sib wrote: post #100

It's sad to see it come to this. When I worked there (more than a decade ago) senior leaders and old-timers were extremely proud of the fact that they did things like sending "your Prime membership will renew in (a month - I think) - be sure to cancel if you don't want it to" emails. This was quite different from typical subscription services providers at the time. In fact, I had more than one old-timer mention that…

Amazon started going downhill when they started losing their founding builders and started hiring cisco and other silicon valley insiders at executive levels. The Amazon Way is now a quaint retrospective, and the quality and attractiveness are quickly moving to the lowest common denominator.

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

#112

Post by Aloisius »

jq-r wrote: post #92
iancmceachern wrote: post #2

They should do legalshield next

Adobe. The only "free trial" subscription I actually had to pay to cancel. Despicable company.

The FTC sued Adobe last year for subscription dark patterns.

https://www.ftc.gov/legal-library/browse/cases-proceedings/2...

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

#113

Post by sershe »

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…

A much simple explanation is that each order is assigned a priority f(elapsed time, is prime) prime orders starting much higher so the processing of your order gets delayed behind all the incoming prime orders until its priority catches up due to longer elapsed time

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

#114

Post by guywithahat »

GuB-42 wrote: post #106

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, a…

My experience is they're more aggressive about prime ads when they think they can get you. So I'd get a bunch of ads and an extra screen to join prime student, and the buttons are deliberately confusing.

But I agree. It's just an extra button you have to press. Annoying, but not the worst thing a company has done to me

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

#115

Post by jstummbillig »

GuB-42 wrote: post #106

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, a…

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

Oh, the fuss is because Amazon is big. The big players receive a lot of scrutiny.

> I found it really easy to cancel.

I find it a lot easier to sign up. I think that's the issue at play here.

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

#116

Post by everdrive »

kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #103
bombcar wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Best feature for home depot (and lowes) is that you can always constrain your query to the store. And when you do this, each product's page will show the the aisle and row the item is located at. (yes, I know the smartphone app will help you here but 100% of smart phone apps are bad, as are those who recommend them) Just spend a few minutes writing down your items & aisles and go visit the store. Trust me, it's better. The convenience of delivery just is not worth the stupid roulette that online retail has become.

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

#117

Post by sershe »

For me prime still works fine most of the time. And so much random crap is overnight nowadays! Nothing like ordering a vent cap, finding it doesn't quite fit due to peculiar siding, and immediately returning and overnighting a different one for free. I just wish they'd pick up returns if they are rare enough, having to make a 10 minute stop to do it myself is completely unacceptable ;)

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

#118

Post by al_borland »

browningstreet wrote: post #102
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'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 te…

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

The $3/month for no ads felt like they were nickel-and-diming the customers.

I was paying something like $129/year for Prime. The idea of paying $3/month on top of the $129/year I was paying for Prime felt so petty.

Had they just raised the price of Prime, I probably would have shrugged and carried on. But adding a monthly charge on top of a yearly charge, nope. I was done.

This of course was on top of allowing the store to be flooded with low quality junk being resold from Alibaba, counterfeit products all over the place, pushing to send shipments in their retail boxes, review gaming, them ripping off popular products to sell through their own private labels, and other such practices that have eroded my view and trust of Amazon over the years.

I ordered some headphones from Amazon a month ago, because the company that makes them was sold out in the color I wanted. I felt the need to lookup how to tell authentic from counterfeit headphones while I was waiting for the shipment, so I could validate what I received was real. I’ve received counterfeit goods before from Amazon. I heard they keep everything in the same bin, so it’s luck of the draw when picked (I have no way to validate that). No other store makes me worry about things like this, just Amazon. If brick-and-mortar stores were like this they’d be out of business in a week.

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

#120

Post by bombcar »

sershe wrote: post #113
al_borland wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

A much simple explanation is that each order is assigned a priority f(elapsed time, is prime) prime orders starting much higher so the processing of your order gets delayed behind all the incoming prime orders until its priority catches up due to longer elapsed time

They obviously have some metric that if you buy something, you’re likely to buy something again within two days so by holding the first shipment until you do the second purchase, they combine shipping and save costs.
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