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 ...
Prime works for me. I buy a lot from Amazon, and the amount I save on shipping is a lot more than $139 a year. The Amazon Prime shows and movies would be icing on the cake if I could just find anything on there worth watching.
I believe you but it’s not happened for me
Now the saved items yes they have gone down sometimes
Just wait until ALL retail stores are closed in the cities and malls because of theiving Dindus, and the Soros D.A. that protect them. Then you only be able to buy using your home VisionPro or AI-fitted clothes, all delivered. The Dindus will descend on suburbia en masse to steal every package.
We ain’t tricked and we ain’t trapped and we don’t see no pride shit neither.
I signed up like this accidentally but I use it so much and watch the Thursday games so I kept it
Show me a “conservative” company that can do what Amazon can, and we’ll switch.
You won’t find one.
“perks including access to faster two-day shipping”
We’ve noticed that the old Prime two-day shipping now takes much longer. Annoying, but we keep the service.
On Subscribe And Save, we get the pet food for our diabetic cat every three weeks, and some vitamin supplements.
A few times I’ve forgotten to check if an item is returnable and have been stuck keeping things I don’t want. They weren’t expensive. Just have to be careful.
Have bought refurbished computers from them and they have been more reliable than some new ones we have. (Knock wood; I’m using one now.) One we got in 2014, another in 2018.
There have been several iterations of that screen and you also tend to get a couple of places in checkout where they make it really easy to accidentally subscribe. I’ve always managed to make it through the Prime subscription minefield, at least so far.
The other day, I was researching and ended up buying a convection oven with rotisserie. During the 3 hours of researching, something on my Save for Later list dropped in price and then went back up to it's original price.
I try to use amazon only for research(reviews) and then purchase elsewhere but some things aren't available elsewhere at a competitive price.
It's always been UPS for me here in rural MO and I don't have to worry about porch pirates being rural but I have read a ton reviews about damaged items. I've been lucky so far but I only order from amazon once or twice a year. One reason I don't order from amazon much is due to having read those damaged item reviews.
“Trick”?
Only morons who don’t keep track of their stuff are “tricked”...
If that's true that it had a shipping charge, you had to know it BEFORE YOU CHOSE TO BUY IT.
You pretend to be surprised by what every prime user knows, some products are sold by vendors that do not waive the shipping charge, and it's is clearly stated.
It's your choice to pay for prime or not or even to buy from Amazon.
If you don't like it, don't do it, but don't act shocked at a shipping charge.
Try "Top Gun", Tom Cruise is great, the movie is fabulous and it is FREE {with Prime}.
> but don’t act shocked at a shipping charge.
I didn’t act SHOCKED, just noted it.
I have 1-click purchase disabled. Just for fun I checked. It took less than a minute to find it on my desktop or phone.
Desktop: Account>Ordering and shopping preferences>1-Click settings>disable on all devices
Phone: Menu>1-click settings>disable on all devices
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