Posted on 06/22/2023 7:29:51 PM PDT by anthropocene_x
Federal regulators have sued Amazon, alleging the company for years "tricked" people into buying Prime memberships that were purposefully hard to cancel.
The Federal Trade Commission, in a legal complaint filed on Wednesday, says Amazon illegally used "manipulative, coercive, or deceptive" designs to enroll shoppers into auto-renewing Prime subscriptions. Regulators also accuse Amazon of purposefully building a convoluted, multi-step cancellation process to discourage people from quitting.
"Amazon tricked and trapped people into recurring subscriptions without their consent, not only frustrating users but also costing them significant money," FTC Chair Lina Khan said in a statement.
The Prime membership costs $139 a year or $14.99 a month, with perks including access to faster two-day shipping and video streaming. Prime subscribers tend to spend more on Amazon than other shoppers. According to the FTC, Prime membership fees account for $25 billion of the company's annual revenue.
Amazon recently agreed to pay more than $30 million in fines to settle FTC's allegations of privacy violations involving its voice assistant Alexa and doorbell camera Ring.
In Wednesday's lawsuit, the FTC says Amazon's website used so-called dark patterns, or "manipulative design elements that trick users into making decisions they would not otherwise have made."
For example, the FTC describes the platform bombarding people with prominent options to sign up for Prime, while options to shop without Prime were harder to spot. In some cases, a button to complete the purchase did not clearly say that it would also enroll the shopper in Prime.
(Excerpt) Read more at npr.org ...
I personally do not have much love for Amazon
but I have prime for the same reason I have a costco membership.
I have never regretted the price of either one. I even pay extra on top of prime for ‘prime reading’ I get all I can read for free.
I have joked for years that every time I go through the purchasing process at Amazon and don’t end up unintentionally subscribing to Prime, I feel like I have won the lottery.
But to Amazon’s credit, when they give you an arrival date, they usually meet it and if they don’t it comes earlier.
I like Prime too. And I love Amazon cash - - so you’re not putting your financial information all over the internet.
There are a lot of seniors who don’t know they are paying for Amazon Prime. My mom got caught up on that and it forever to get her out.
I’ve noticed Walmart.com is usually cheaper.
I tend to use the Amazon site to find things, then go direct to the sellers website to get it cheaper.
With auto-renewal which a lot of people won’t pay attention to after they take their “free” trial.
It’s really an amazing waste of money...like many other subscription services.
You get free shipping on most orders anyway.
I had a computer component that was supposed to be in by last Tuesday. It had arrived here at the Honolulu Amazon warehouse on Monday, so I knew it was going to be on-time...
Well, Tuesday morning they shipped it BACK to California, and I was p!55ed.. Called them and asked them WTF!?!?
They said it was some sort of mistake (yeah, no duh..)... They are getting worse and worse (Incompetent red-dots...)
They're using your money to pay the Obamas and other radical leftist programs.
I’ve had the free Prime period a few times then cancelled with no problem.
I have been a Prime member for a long time.
I used their included streaming service to watch “The Expanse” and they do have good movies to watch almost all the time.
The free shipping on small items has come in handy. I ordered several items in recent weeks that cost less than 5 dollars and they shipped for free. Without Prime you need to buy a minimum amount of goods to qualify for free shipping, 35.00 I think.
I have great results ordering from Walmart and they use FedEx and the shipping seems a bit faster than Amazon’s UPS.
I live in the middle of nowhere, literally, and sometimes Walmart gets goods to me in less than 48hrs from ordering. This week I got a 43” 4K Phillips TV for 169.00 and got it within 48hrs... amazing, and it has 4 HDMI inputs :-)
Philips 43” Class 4k Ultra HD (2160p) Roku Smart LED TV (43PFL5756/F7)
Both Amazon and Walmart email you a return pre-paid shipping
label to make the return of faulty items easy, and that includes pickup at your door... no going to UPS or FedEx!
I order clothes from Amazon using Prime where you don’t pay up front, they ship it to you so you can see if it fits and if it does not they come pick it up and you owe nothing... I use it often. it’s a free home tryout, my late sister would order a size bigger than she thought she needed, a size smaller and the size she usually wears and send the poor fitting items back...
I’m 50 miles from the nearest big town to shop in, I save WAY more in gas than the Prime fee each month.
i just did this search:
https://www.google.com/search?q=cancel+amazon+prime
and got this:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=GTJQ7QZY7QL2HK4Y
didn’t look hard to me ...
think this is a BS lawsuit ...
Is that like tricking and trapping people to take the vaxx?
It’s called “capitalism”.
Seriously as much as I dislike the politics of the founder and chief stockholder, how can you live without them? I never felt “tricked” into PRIME. Are we idiots??? I actually canceled it way back when it was pretty much free shipping and PRIME video really stunk. Now Prime video offers me more than Netflix with a couple ad ons. I use the “free” unlimited photo cloud storage which few know about. The music is pretty dumbed down but I think they just added more access.
I’d rather see the government go after that search engine company that has a stranglehold over all commerce and news.
“Hmmm, I’ve got prime but the last thing I ordered (today) had a shipping charge.”
lots of 3rd party sellers don’t participate in Prime shipping ...
You have to be smart about getting the free trial. If I use the free Prime trial, I order everything I need right away, then, I wait, until, all of my orders, have been shipped, then I go into my account, and cancel the free Prime trial. I get a confirmation, in my email, of the membership change, which I keep, until the trial period is over, to have proof, I cancelled and won't be charged, after the end date.
The nice thing is, the trial does not end right away, but, goes, the whole 30-days. It, just, will not renew, and I will not be charged to continue. So, if I still need to buy things, I can still use the Prime trial, up to its end date.
Prime covers the shipping costs for most products, or increases the delivery speed. Plus you can watch Prime TV.
Prime is a membership and not required.
Whenever Amazon is hit with fines, they may well offer Prime in lieu of cash rewards or give you the money while blocking your account.
I lived in 6 different countries during a 12 year oversees group of assignments... Amazon was a lifetime for my family.
The FTC should have took a different approach to this prosecution and rather sought to break apart Amazon Web Services from Amazon.com to address the marketplace situation where the profits from Web Services supplement the storefront and allowing other internet marketers to complete.
Prime covers the shipping costs for most products, or increases the delivery speed. Plus you can watch Prime TV.
Prime is a membership and not required.
Whenever Amazon is hit with fines, they may well offer Prime in lieu of cash rewards or give you the money while blocking your account.
I lived in 6 different countries during a 12 year oversees group of assignments... Amazon was a lifetime for my family.
The FTC should have took a different approach to this prosecution and rather sought to break apart Amazon Web Services from Amazon.com to address the marketplace situation where the profits from Web Services supplement the storefront and allowing other internet marketers to complete.
I spend $2500 most months. I compare prices. My has made over 1M USD in his job at AWS in less than 3 years. I hate Obama and leftist causes but Amazon is indispensabletome..
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