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I've never found Amazon to have tricky one-click/gotcha features. I've found it very simple and straighforward for twenty years. (And that's increasingly rare among merchants who do try to upsell and load every order, even through moderate deception.)
I suggest that since you don't have an account and he rarely uses his, there might be issues with user familiarity in between his complete innocence and Amazon's depraved scammage.
Maybe I'm special to Amazon but whenever I accidentally click the Prime free shipping vs the normal free shipping, I get a notice on the review the order page informing me that I'm signing up for Prime. If I personally decide to ignore the notice or decide not to actually read what is being pushed into my face, well, I can see how the Prime signup could just slip on by someone. However, I do read each notice they provide cause I figure if it's important enough for them to put it on the screen it may be important enough for me to read it. Give them a call and if it was a Prime signup by mistake, they usually will reverse it.
We need more people to stand up to the monopolies. I have been a customer of Amazon for about 10 years now, but I am no fanboy. These days I only buy from them when I can't find the item I need elsewhere. And whenever possible I buy from local stores that offer either free shipping or store pickup.
Unless you seriously aren't paying attention, I can't imagine being tricked my Amazon. I don't like Amazon either, but the only thing I've really felt tricked about, is if you're not paying attention to the shipping time, and later realize you bought something from China and it won't arrive for a month.
You definitely have to pay attention, but, as long as you're paying attention, I can't imagine signing up for Prime without having decent warning.
And they are good about reversing things, if there's ever a problem. The easiest way to do it, in my opinion, is to use their support chat feature. At least there isn't a language barrier in chat - usually.
DH has used Amazon off/on for a long time. I don't have an account so he used his to buy something I wanted.
A month or so later, along comes a charge of $14.99 or $15.99 (can't remember) on his credit card from Amazon.
So who does Amazon think they are to automatically charge for an Amazon Prime account that DH did NOT request.. And that's a monthly charge!
I will pay more money somewhere else before I ever use Amazon for anything again -- except toilet paper if that were possible
I suspect he clicked on something, or failed to click on something, that told Amazon he wanted a Prime membership.
All you have to do is call Amazon and tell them it was a mistake. They'll cancel it. If you don't use PRIME, they may refund for that one month. That probably means that they'll charge him for shipping, since shipping was free for Prime members. Which makes sense.
I'm a Prime member, so I don't know how you order a Prime item w/o being a Prime member. The price is based on free shipping. So, I don't know. Neither did your husband, apparently.
I've been a member for years and have ordered a lot from Amazon. Customer Service is very good and very fair, from all reports I've read.
Yes.... theyre pretty flexible with that.
I suspect that the husband didn’t un-check the “ automatic renewal “ box. 14.99 is the monthly charge for Prime. They’re kinda sneaky about that feature.. I think everyone is put on auto renewal until they manually uncheck the box.. on the payment method page.
1. To be clear, it was NOT ME who did the ordering. It is Dh's account, he ordered for me.
He may have inadvertently clicked something that would invite Amazon to put a Prime charge on his account. I asked him but this was early December so he doesn't remember.
A co-worker of his uses Amazon frequently. According to him, just one wrong keystroke can get you something you don't want -- like a Prime account.
2. We never had Prime. DH MIGHT buy from Amazon once or twice in a year -- A Prime account would be flat out stupid.
3. The charge has been taken off his credit card, which --- he watches like a hawk so hopefully they don't put the charge back in, elst I will resurrect this thread and "go off on Amazon" again
4. The one good thing about Amazon is all the jobs they have brought to Tennessee.
This is very easy to clarify.
Ask your husband to check on the orders history and view invoices (they are online). Inspect them carefully to see if and when the Amazon Prime started.
If he clicked on Amazon Prime because he thought that 2 days shipping sounds awesome, then he initiated the process. Not Amazon. It's very important to review and understand the whole order before submitting.
This concept is not new, nor a scam. Remember how subscriptions of magazines worked decades ago? You wanted a free issue, you starter trial subscription. That trial automatically was converted to permanent subscription UNLESS you cancelled it on time.
It's the same with internet now, or trial channels on the TV. That's how they get you if you don't pay attention, but it's completely legal.
It's very important to pay attention to what you click on when you do stuff on the computer. Not only when you do banking or ordering, but also downloading stuff on Internet.
While I understand that humans do errors, they are to blame, not the Innternet.
Now, if after reviewing the orders, you get absolutely sure that your husband didn't initiated the Prime, your next step should be contacting your bank and asking to clarify the charges.
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