To be so furious with amazon

[SEmyarse]

I rarely shop online but wanted to get dd1 an art set for her birthday, so used dh's account to buy one. While comparing items it popped up asking me if I would like a month's free trial with amazon prime. I didn't know what this meant so asked dh and he said to avoid it since a free trial will lead to ongoing hassle from them, so I immediately closed what i was looking at and avoided anything that had a prime logo against it.

The next day dh was annoyed because he got an email welcoming him to a free trial with amazon prime and wanted to know why I'd done it. But I didn't, it literally popped up when I clicked on one item and then I closed it a few minutes later without clicking on anything. We read the email in detail which just said about the free month and mentioned nothing of signing up properly, so he just said that he'd have to deal with any pestering correspondence when it came.

I have now discovered, a month later, that £79 has been taken from our bank account and dh has an email welcoming him to a year's worth of amazon prime. Seriously I feel like I've been mugged in the street! We did not agree to this at all. Can I do anything to stop it? I can't afford this at all and basically means the art set I bought cost £100!

I made a mistake with this too, I joined to get quick delivery on a couple of items for Christmas and then forgot to cancel. It was not a problem, I contacted them immediately to cancel and they refunded the 79 the next day.

They did this to my mum. She was only telling me about it a couple of days ago. She called amazon and was refunded straight away, no questions. It is so sneaky of them!

I honestly couldn't have read more if I tried. I am hyperlexic and actually cannot help myself reading everything that appears, it's a compulsion. i also have extreme anxiety regarding technology and am very paranoid about doing anything 'wrong' online. i avoided tech for years, but have had to get involved for various functional reasons, and mumsnet is something dh suggested to help me feel comfortable online. Mostly I use it like a book, but I sometimes get real panic attacks when I realise the hugeness of what i'm tapped into and i feel out of control. I quite honestly feel more anxious now than I would walking into the roughest pub in the country, which I know is stupid.

The email appeared after I bought the item, and dh has not bought anything for months so I'm pretty sure it was me.

The first time I ever used Amazon I bought the same thing twice and didn't realise until 2 parcels arrived and I am pretty good at reading fine print. Easily done without realising and easily cancelled :)

You must realise what free trial is though? You always get charged something after a free trial has ended

It's difficult to sign up by accident as you have to click through a few screens but Amazon will refund you without any hassle. To me Prime is worth its weight in gold as I use Amazon a lot and household members can share Prime too.

Muggers don't generally apologise, give you your money back or have customer service.

I've done the free trial about 4 times, I've never had any hassle and have never been charged.

If you had contacted them and cancelled it instead of ignoring it and waiting for it to be a problem you wouldn't have been charged. In that respect you mugged yourselves.

I read the email, it said nothing about being charged after the trial. I ABSOLUTELY did not click through several screens to get it.

I know nothing about free trials, i've never done one.

I use the free trials all the time. It's easy to deal with. Click on your account, click on Prime settings, switch to Do Not Upgrade. You get the month's trial without charge or annual upgrade.

As others have said, they'll refund you if you didn't use it beyond the first month's trial.

You need to calm down.

If it wasn't a trial then you obviously signed up for Prime membership. I can't see how you wouldn't notice but I guess if you're new to the site it might be possible.

Did the item arrive? If not, can you go into your account and cancel it? Then contact Amazon to cancel the Prime.

I think Amazon have the best customer service of any company out there. They are ridiculously helpful.

They did this to both my mum and my little brother.

Took £79 out of their accounts, just like that!

Now I keep checking my account to make sure they don't do it to me.
Cheeky fuckers.
Its not a mistake they are trying to pull a fast one, with a LOT of people.

Carla neither my brother or my mum signed up for amazon prime, my mum hadn't even been on Amazon in months.

I believe the OP, and she shouldn't calm down. Its totally out of order.

You're right, I need to calm down. Thanks. i wish I didn't get het up over stupid things.

I recently had to give evidence at an inquest. Dh couldn't believe how calm I was, it didn't faze me at all, whereas I become a mess over such daft things.

Amazon are not trying to pull a fast one at all, do you really think a company with one of the best customer services in the world would do that? People are not reading everything, that's not Amazon's fault.

If you do have prime then you need to go into your prime membership and ensure recurring payments is disabled, then when your free trial ends they won't take any payment.

Glad you are feeling a bit better op.

So its ok for them to take best part of a hundred quid out of accounts of those who didnt agree to give them that money?

SURE! Thats fine. Because your the best customer service in the world!

RestingFuckFace it's not Amazon's fault that people don't read everything for whatever reason. It's made perfectly clear during the signup process that unless the user cancels the trial, they will be charged 79.

Amazon prime membership email:

You?ve upgraded your membership from Prime Instant Video to Amazon Prime. Start exploring all the benefits you now have access to:

Unlimited One-Day Delivery on millions of eligible items.
Over 15,000 movies and TV episodes with Prime Instant Video.
Free unlimited photo storage with anywhere access.
Borrow one Kindle Book for free per month, with no due dates.
Happy shopping, watching and reading.

All Prime benefits are immediately available to you as soon as you sign up for membership.

If you have a free trial, you can avoid extension to a paid service by adjusting your membership settings in Your Account within 30 days of signing up.

If you paid your membership fee as soon as you joined Prime, you may cancel within 14 days after you signed up. If you choose to cancel, we will refund your full membership fee if you and your invitees have not made any eligible purchases or taken advantage of Prime benefits. Otherwise, we may charge you (or withhold from your refund) our regular fees for Prime benefits used by you and your invitees. To cancel, just adjust your membership settings in Your Account or use this model cancellation form.

You can always cancel your membership in Your Account at any time and we will refund your full membership if you cancelled before you or your registered guests made any eligible purchases or used any Prime benefits.

This service has an annual duration and will be extended automatically. If you don?t want your membership to extend automatically, you may change this in Your Account at any time.

For any complaints, please click here and for any queries, please contact our Customer Services.

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I was signed up for prime when I pressed a button thinking I was closing the pop-up as there was no cross to close it so it seemed like the only option at the time. I cancelled it straight away but was annoyed that I had to. I feel that another window asking you to put your password in then tick a box to show you have read and understood how prime works would be better and much more honest of Amazon in the long run.

Did you click on the free next day delivery or just a standard delivery?

just ring them and they will refund
They actually refunded me even though I had used prime for 6 months because dh had a prime membership at the same address!

There was nothing I needed to read, the pop up came up at check out and my item was eligible for free delivery any way so there was no reason for me to want to sign up to get a free delivery item sent free. What annoyed me most was the fact that I clicked what I thought was no and it processed it so what was on my screen was misleading to me as no means "no I don't want this" not "we will just process it and and take your cash anyway and hope you don't notice"!

I've done the free trial ...more than once. Can't remember how exactly but it tells you in the emails - you go to their webpage and set it to send you an email a few days before they are due to take the money at the end of the trial ... so you can use it for the month then cancel before you pay...
Only problem with that is I get lots of Amazon emails advertising things - so last time I nearly dismissed the 'reminder to cancel' as one of those...

I'm not overly keen on the next day delivery thing anyway ..it isn't guaranteed - so you can't really count on having it for eg a birthday party and they are more likely to split the order for fastest delivery.
For my last one they split into 3 parcels - one arrived at 8.30pm the next day, the next one the next day and the final one 3 days later. So I found myself waiting in/expecting three parcels to be delivered rather than one. Often the standard 3 day or whatever delivery arrives in one parcel 2-3 days later anyway (usually the day before the predicted delivery day IME). That suits me better...

This happened to me about two years ago, the panic was unreal when I saw such a huge amount of money come out for something I wouldn't use or need and had no idea I'd even signed up to! Thankfully if you haven't used it they do refund you very quickly and easily. Email them and ask for a refund and cancellation.