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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

#41

Post by thechao »

altacc wrote: post #16

The UK government has a proposed law that customers must be able to end a subscription in a single clear process and all subscriptions entered into online must be capable of being ended online. Seems that if the US pushed this kind of law it'd have a significant effect on improving online services.

That "single, clear process" should be the website & app of the card issuer the subscription is through. The user should also be able to see clear limits & term durations via the card, before commute to the service, provider be-damned.

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

#42

Post by JohnFen »

paddw wrote: post #13

There are so many of these processes which are so difficult that they border on the outright criminal, but the FTC goes after Amazon because it is a big political target to hit. Maybe from a utilitarian perspective it makes sense.

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

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

#43

Post by version_five »

I still use amazon occasionally, but I think of it basically as interacting with a criminal that I know is completely dishonest and trying every trick to steal from me. Unfortunately there are sometimes still occasions when I have to hold my nose and do it, but they're getting fewer and farther between.

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

#44

Post by dcminter »

burkaman wrote: post #19

FTC complaint: https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/ftc_gov/pdf/amazon-rosca-pu... Significant redactions around Amazon executives being aware of a "nonconsensual enrollment problem" and blocking any changes. > the primary purpose of the Prime cancellation process was not to enable subscribers to cancel, but rather to thwart them. Fittingly, Amazon named that process “Iliad,” which refers to Homer’s epic about the long,…

Some of the redactions are single words trivially inferred from context; what's with that?

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

#45

Post by x86x87 »

JohnFen wrote: post #11

Is this process new? I cancelled my Amazon account a couple of years ago, and was genuinely surprised at how easy it was. They didn't even ask me the traditional "Why are you cancelling?" question. I remember it clearly because it stood out as the only time I interacted with them (outside of buying something) that went without complication.

Whole account or just prime?

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

#46

Post by Spivak »

version_five wrote: post #43

I still use amazon occasionally, but I think of it basically as interacting with a criminal that I know is completely dishonest and trying every trick to steal from me. Unfortunately there are sometimes still occasions when I have to hold my nose and do it, but they're getting fewer and farther between.

The motto "if a company wants me to do something it's probably not in my best interest" has served me really well.

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

#47

Post by paddw »

JohnFen wrote: post #42
paddw wrote: post #13

There are so many of these processes which are so difficult that they border on the outright criminal, but the FTC goes after Amazon because it is a big political target to hit. Maybe from a utilitarian perspective it makes sense.

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?

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

#48

Post by ekianjo »

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.

> 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.

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