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

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

#151

Post by dylan604 »

teeray wrote: post #115
omginternets wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That’s just a light knocking on the door. If they even hear it to open that door, you’ll find sitting comfortably inside the much more well funded lobbyist from Amazon whispering sweet nothings into the ear of the Congress critter you just wasted money on

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

#152

Post by vladvasiliu »

scrum-treats wrote: post #143
Beldin wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it's not Music or Video Weird. Around here, Prime does give access to video. I know folks around here who have prime just for that. I doublechecked just to be sure; it still is like that (according to a quick google search).

Video streaming is broken. 4K is a lie, UI and UX is clumsy and uninviting at best. There's predatory sign-ups for supplemental packages that customers have no idea about until they've been charged (sometimes for more than a year). Customer Service then tries to only refund for 1-6 months, unless the customer hires a lawyer. TV and Movie Titles that were available for free one week suddenly disappear (without warning…

Maybe it's not the same in all regions (I'm in France), plus sample size of one and whatnot, but I actually enjoy Prime Video. I don't watch many movies / series, so its being cheap matters a lot to me. It has enough shows to keep me busy.

There's a visible toggle to only show content that's "free for me", so I don't end up accidentally clicking on something that's not included. Plus, everything that's not free for prime members has a big icon attached to it, and it'll actually ask clearly if I want to pay to view it.

The UI is OK, I can easily find my way around it. I haven't used Netflix much, but it was much more of a pain to navigate, even for shows that I was already watching and wanted to get back to.

For shows disappearing, I've always seen a text saying they'd be leaving prime in X days.

I haven't tried Amazon Music, but I did buy a Fire TV stick, and I love that, too. I have a dumb PC monitor with terrible sound and the stick is the only player I've had that managed to only output the sound in stereo, so I can hook it up digitally to my stereo amplifier (through an HDMI toslink extractor I've got off Amazon for cheap). It's also able to tweak the remote signals so that it controls my amp volume instead of its integrated volume control.

I've seen shows that pretend to be in 4K (my monitor is 4k). They look pretty good, but I don't know how to be certain they're actually 4k.

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

#153

Post by pwg »

kevincox wrote: post #128
ekianjo wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The whole Amazon.com experience has been getting worse and worse as the years go by. Maybe, but they are still miles better than most other online shops, so they still get to grow. Just for the return policy, they are kind of worth it.

Have you tried searching for anything? They include any vaguely related product and support no negative search terms. Want a glass container, they are going to include dozens of products that don't contain any glass. Want a screw top bottle? They include product listings that don't contain the work screw or any synonyms. It is basically impossible to find specific objects. If you want a pack of clothes pins you are p…

Sadly, this has always been how Amazon's search has behaved. It has never been any good at all, unless you already knew a specific model number, in which case that might cause the first entry to be the actual thing you are looking for. But the results page is always filled out, even if searching returned zero hits -- they just stuff something in front of you, because doing that to enough people will result in some percentage of them buying something from those bogus results.

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

#154

Post by from »

Seems they're also mad about Amazon delaying discovery and (allegedly) not giving them everything. Why don't companies just use Signal/some enterprise equivalent with auto deleting messages so by the time the investigation starts there is nothing to discover?

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

#156

Post by tracker1 »

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,…

Yeah, I'm in PHX, and sometimes it's the same day, sometimes the next, sometimes a week later, despite saying 1-2 days on the order page. It's really kind of a crapshoot. I mean, there are grocery options here and most of the secondary services work too. I also happen to watch a few things on Prime Video (Jack Ryan, Reacher, The Boys, and Terminal List have all been very good). So it's been mostly worth it for me.

The UX, and product reliability are a completely different thing. I won't by any Amazon Basics products ever again, and many technical products (USB Cables, Chargers, etc) are a total crapshoot unless you buy from known mfg and even then who knows for sure.

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

#157

Post by thewebcount »

hospitalJail wrote: post #75
everdrive wrote: post #69

I remember when this was first rolled out. You'd go to buy something on Amazon, and the whole page would be a Prime ad, while some tiny little text would say something like "no thanks take me to checkout." This change was when I knew that Amazon had jumped the shark and was certainly no longer "obsessively customer focused." We had actually bought Prime accidentally via this method. Now in my family we make it a spec…

Same. This was scary to me. It means Amazon knows they are kings of online retail and have no problem abusing customers now. Walmart online is sometimes cheaper, but also sometimes more expensive. Makes it really hard to make the switch. I have refused to give money to bad companies, but with the rest of the world being manipulated into giving them money, I realized I never made a dent.

> Walmart online is sometimes cheaper, but also sometimes more expensive. Makes it really hard to make the switch.

I respect that you have to make decisions based on your own financial situation. For me, getting a few things for less money with the possibility that you might suddenly get hit with a big charge for something you didn't actually sign up for voluntarily is not worth it. To me it's like putting off fixing a car problem. You're saving money in the short term, but it could cause other much more expensive (or fatal) problems later. It's just too much risk for me. (But I have also been in a position where I had to put off a car fix because I simply didn't have the money. It absolutely sucked.)

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

#158

Post by anonymouskimmer »

scrum-treats wrote: post #127
timmytokyo wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Now that Amazon is mostly low quality drop-shipped garbage from fake brands like KULUZU and PORKTI, fast and cheap shipping are about the only thing they have going for them. If that's gone, what's left?

I would say, new "lows" are in store for Amazon. Amazon is now requiring customers to file police reports in order to have any chance at refunds now. Customer Service spews tons of lies, customers half-heartedly believe in good faith, and then get screwed. Customers then take to social media forums such as Reddit to request help and to vent. Instead they are met with Amazon employees who gaslight them further. Again,…

> Amazon is now requiring customers to file police reports in order to have any chance at refunds now.

This was the case 4 years ago. I don't think it's new.

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

#160

Post by kevincox »

pwg wrote: post #153
kevincox wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you tried searching for anything? They include any vaguely related product and support no negative search terms. Want a glass container, they are going to include dozens of products that don't contain any glass. Want a screw top bottle? They include product listings that don't contain the work screw or any synonyms. It is basically impossible to find specific objects. If you want a pack of clothes pins you are p…

Sadly, this has always been how Amazon's search has behaved. It has never been any good at all, unless you already knew a specific model number, in which case that might cause the first entry to be the actual thing you are looking for. But the results page is always filled out, even if searching returned zero hits -- they just stuff something in front of you, because doing that to enough people will result in some pe…

> because doing that to enough people will result in some percentage of them buying something

Yeah, it might have improved things at first. But now I avoid Amazon because I don't want to have to wade though pages of results to find what I am looking for. So they probably shipped this with a temporary blip in sales but didn't consider the long-term effect.

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