FTC press release direct link: https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2023/06/...
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
#32heh, a few years ago I cancelled my Prime membership but Amazon still charged me the $99 for the membership after I canceled...
So when I contacted them, I got a refund for the $99, but I also told them they needed to pay me a $25 inconvenice fee for having to waste my time to call them for this....
They paid it.
Re: FTC sues Amazon over ‘deceptive’ Prime sign-up and cancellation process
#33I need to buy a mattress and I had one in my cart from a week ago and last night I picked a different mattress and went to the checkout page. Then I saw there were two mattresses in it. It had the dark pattern of no cancel button so I had to click back and now I'm considering getting it elsewhere. Oh, and they also tried to get me to sign up for a Prime trial.
Sorry to say, but there's a "delete" option for every item on the checkout page. Just click the quantity dropdown and change it to "delete". Simple as.
Re: FTC sues Amazon over ‘deceptive’ Prime sign-up and cancellation process
#34I need to buy a mattress and I had one in my cart from a week ago and last night I picked a different mattress and went to the checkout page. Then I saw there were two mattresses in it. It had the dark pattern of no cancel button so I had to click back and now I'm considering getting it elsewhere. Oh, and they also tried to get me to sign up for a Prime trial.
Checkout pages never offer "cancel" buttons or "back" buttons. They are designed to corral you into the checkout process without recourse to returning to shop around some more. This is, of course, easily bypassed with browser controls, but I agree that it is a dark pattern which can trap less savvy people into pressing forward, because it seems there's nowhere else to go.
"Back" has the old anxiety of Confirm Form Resubmission, so a cancel or close button would be better.
Re: FTC sues Amazon over ‘deceptive’ Prime sign-up and cancellation process
#35Good. Let’s hope the fine is so high it means the end for Amazon. But I doubt it, so we’ll probably see them continuing to offer shitty UX for years to come.
Re: FTC sues Amazon over ‘deceptive’ Prime sign-up and cancellation process
#36I need to buy a mattress and I had one in my cart from a week ago and last night I picked a different mattress and went to the checkout page. Then I saw there were two mattresses in it. It had the dark pattern of no cancel button so I had to click back and now I'm considering getting it elsewhere. Oh, and they also tried to get me to sign up for a Prime trial.
Sorry to say, but there's a "delete" option for every item on the checkout page. Just click the quantity dropdown and change it to "delete". Simple as.
I don't mind, for whatever reason it wasn't usable for me. And maybe it wasn't there.
Edit: I checked again. It isn't there. Note that I said checkout, not my cart. It has big CTA buttons to go straight to checkout without first going to the cart.
Re: FTC sues Amazon over ‘deceptive’ Prime sign-up and cancellation process
#37Wild the FTC isn't suing the NYTimes, WSJ, or every other paid news outlet for far more egregious cancellation process practices. Almost as if the FTC is a political weapon.
Re: FTC sues Amazon over ‘deceptive’ Prime sign-up and cancellation process
#38Wild the FTC isn't suing the NYTimes, WSJ, or every other paid news outlet for far more egregious cancellation process practices. Almost as if the FTC is a political weapon.
I think this is more of a "target the big fish first" situation.
Re: FTC sues Amazon over ‘deceptive’ Prime sign-up and cancellation process
#39Dark patterns like this should be regulated. I'm tired of having to click through obfuscated menus to cancel subscriptions, notifications, and tracking.
> Dark patterns like this should be regulated.
If by "regulated", you mean that dark patterns should be prohibited, then I agree.
Re: FTC sues Amazon over ‘deceptive’ Prime sign-up and cancellation process
#40I've been tricked into signing up for Prime a few times. Luckily it was a free month each time, so I canceled as soon as I noticed and took advantage of the free offer. Thing is, over a certain value "free" means the free you get anyway and the Prime way. I stay away as much as I can. Hate them.