8mm Forum: Beware of Amazon

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Posted by Dominique De Bast (Member # 3798) on June 21, 2016, 02:10 PM:

I hope it is not so in other countries but that happened here. I was surprised, while checking my Visa card payments to see 49 € for Amazon on last Saturday. As I hadn't bought anything of this amount from them recently, I called my bank to get some détails. I was told on the phone that I was not the first Customer to report this. Amzon is (here, anyway) upgrating the accounts without noricing people and take 49 € automatically. The lady from the bank told me that once you send them an e-mail you get a quick refund with apologies. With my vision of things, this absolutely not honnest. What's more, it is not easy to find an e-mail address on their site...My advise if you're an Amazon Customer : check your credit card history !

Posted by Raleigh M. Christopher (Member # 5209) on June 21, 2016, 03:46 PM:

Upgrading you to what?

Posted by Terry Sills (Member # 3309) on June 21, 2016, 04:59 PM:

I have sympathy with Dom on this matter. Not only with Amazon but on all websites that are keen to sell their products/services but when things don't go according to plan, it is difficult to contact the seller/website to register a complaint and get matters rectified. It appears that they purposely do this to dissuade the less enthusiastic complainers. I guess the Internet mentality encourages this dishonourable behaviour.

Posted by Brian Fretwell (Member # 4302) on June 21, 2016, 05:44 PM:

Could this be Amazon Prime?

Posted by Dominique De Bast (Member # 3798) on June 21, 2016, 06:03 PM:

Amazon Premium (no idea if it has the same name in all the countries). I found through their labyrinth the way to send them an e-mail. I got a quick answer, as described by the lady from the bank who had several complains, they apologyze and say they will refund within two or three days. The e-mail says I accepted a free one month trial for the Premium account and it was automatically converted to a paying thing after 30 days. I don't remember that but even if true (which is doubtfull given that I'm not the only one who called the bank), I still don't think it is honest to charge without any warning 49 euros. This Premium upgrade is supposed to let you have what you order the following day. Well, I ordered two items recently, one took several days and the other over one week. So, the only difference with the basic account and the "upgraded" one is...49 euros !

Posted by Brian Fretwell (Member # 4302) on June 22, 2016, 03:27 AM:

Yes, that's it. It's called Amazon Prime in the UK. I accidentally signed up for it but noticed and managed to cancel the same day so did not trigger the payment.

Posted by Maurice Leakey (Member # 916) on June 22, 2016, 05:19 AM:

Same with me.

I ordered a DVD from Amazon with free postage. Only after clicking to buy did I realise I had inadvertently become a member of Amazon Prime. This was for a free 28 days membership, which at the end of this period my credit card would be debited with the membership fee unless I cancelled my membership before the end of the trial period.

This I hastily did!

Posted by Winbert Hutahaean (Member # 58) on June 22, 2016, 12:22 PM:

This kind of marketing strategy had been applied by many companies since a long tome ago before the Internet era.

Remember the free magazine subscription....for the first 6 month as long as you provided the CC details? The same thing with any membership fees or movie club membership fee for buying VHS, etc

The fine prints that customer are mostly not reading it is the statement that "I agree to continue this subscription unless I request to stop" (or sort of).

Most of customers do not read the fine prints just go straight away to the signature box ....and signing :-)

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on June 22, 2016, 12:34 PM:

Wow, talk about a timely post ...

I just had to deal with a company, "blue-host", that charged my credit card 395.00 dollars for renewing my subscription, when i had already cancelled with thier company years ago, and they had stated that, (three years ago), they had closed my account with them.

I had to go thru the "rigor-marole" of cancelling that specific card and getting a new creditr card so that they couldn't possibly try this again.

Thier excuse was that i had supposedly clicked a box that stated "automatcially renew subscription", which i have always NEVER clicked, for this very reason, that, if you're not happy with the company, leave it and have no more expense with them ...

Fortunately, my credit card company credited that payment off my card. [Smile]

Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on June 22, 2016, 03:22 PM:

My wife bought some clip-arty thing from some graphic arts company a couple of years ago for a couple of bucks. Months later something like a $50 charge showed up on the credit card. I raised a fuss and they told me it was our "annual subscription" so we could get "discounts" on future orders.

The thing is if you don't scan through your statements this could go on for years before you caught wise!

-you multiply that by a couple of thousand "customers" you are talking about a great deal of income for basically nothing!

Posted by Pasquale DAlessio (Member # 2052) on June 22, 2016, 04:58 PM:

Will all of these companies you have to read the fine print. The so called "terms of service" that will tell you what you are going to be charged. It will not be prominent but it is there. For example, today I looked at a new add for the "super flashlight" supposedly used by Navy Seals etc. The item was free but there was a 9.99 shipping charge. Well that's not free. I looked into the "terms of service" and there it was, the dreaded fees for membership to get further discounts. In other words "Let the buyer beware"! You get nothing free.

Posted by Dominique De Bast (Member # 3798) on June 22, 2016, 05:53 PM:

Exactly, Steve ! A friend of mine to whom a sent an a-mail to warn her as I know she buys from Amazon replied that she had been caught laste year ! She only realized recently, when Amazon tried to charge her again to renew the Premimum's fee that she had been a member of this unseless and expensive thing. She got a refund only for the renewing but not for the past year...

Posted by Antoine Orsero (Member # 41) on June 23, 2016, 04:36 AM:

I buy a lot on Amazon but never with Premium! I've never had a problem and the goods arrived very quickly.

Posted by Dominique De Bast (Member # 3798) on June 24, 2016, 05:55 AM:

I got my refund [Smile]

Posted by David Roberts (Member # 197) on June 24, 2016, 08:51 AM:

same happened to me. I ended up joining Amazon prime by mistake,when buying a DVD.
I did get a refund.

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