Amazon execs may be personally liable for tricking users into Prime sign-ups
Amazon execs may be personally liable for tricking users into Prime sign-ups
Emails reveal Amazon has pushed back on FTC demands for data on all Prime users.
I'll say this: Grabbed a free month of Prime through Google Play. Went to cancel it before it charged me again and I had so much trouble figuring out how I decided that I couldn't be the only one and ended up Googling it.
You couldn't quit in the Google Play Store. It wasn't even listed.
It wasn't any form of subscription or listed as a membership on Amazon.
You couldn't end it by following QR codes or links supplied to you on Amazon itself.
It wasn't in your Amazon profile or Google profile.
The ONLY WAY to cancel it was by scanning the QR code, following the link, clicking on a "Contact Support" button, clicking on another button under "Help Topics" that said, "How to end your Prime Membership", and finally you were taken to a page where you could actually end it. Obfuscated like a motherfucker.
But the plans were on display…”
“On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them.”
“That’s the display department.”
“With a flashlight.”
“Ah, well, the lights had probably gone.”
“So had the stairs.”
“But look, you found the notice, didn’t you?”
“Yes,” said Arthur, “yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying ‘Beware of the Leopard.That’s fucked. I believe subscriptions are so be as easy to cancel as they are to sign up.
My mom recently asked me to cancel her prime reading or whatever for her and it was infuriating. I was in the app and clicked cancel and it went to a browser where I had to click to cancel and that just opened the app where I had to click the same link that opened the browser that opened the app that opened the browser. I was getting fucking pissed when it suddenly finally opened the link in the browser so I could cancel. I'm 99% sure they actually have it coded to open in the browser after 10 tries or something to make it difficult but can't run afoul of legislation since you can technically do it if you are tenacious enough.
Companies that rely a lot on their phone apps, but exclude the “cancel/remove account” feature in the app are the worst. This should be illegal or regulated.
They claimed that the FTC never alerted them to any wrongdoing before filing the lawsuit, so how could they have known they were violating the law?
"The police never informed me I was doing anything illegal before arresting me, so how could I possibly have known?"
Ignorance of the law isn't a defense against breaking it in any other sector...
I'm sure their legions of lawyers never warned them it might be illegal
I'm sure they did, but they felt that this was more profitable, even if they got caught.
Ethical behavior is a thing for SO many reasons. One of them is it tends to keep you on the right side of the law.
That's literally the basis of qualified immunity. If law enforcement gets a pass explicitly due to ignorance of the law, why wouldn't their financiers? Further, if the punishment for the crime is a fine, then the law can only ever meaningfully punish the poor. The concept of law is working exactly as intended in this country.
You know what's been a great experience? Trying to quit Apple+. Took seconds to set up an account on my TV and weeks to cancel. Filled a complaint with my state AG.
Apple+ is the worst subscription service I‘ve come across. I was interested in 2 shows but it wouldn‘t let me subscribe, browse their catalog or unsubscribe in the browser. I had to use my old iPad to subscribe and unsubscribe because apparently it‘s only meant to be used by apple hardware users? And what‘s even worse I had to use online search engines to actually get to the pages of shows and movies in my browser so I could watch it on my computer. Whenever I tried to go to the catalog directly, it would give me an error. Needlessly to say the stuff that I watched was mediocre at best and I immediately cancelled my subscription as soon as I found out how.
Oh dang I know the free trial, we got that too. Fuck I hope it's not as much a pain to cancel for us.
If you have it from a new iPhone, you can literally cancel it from your settings >> Apple ID >> subscriptions. I have no idea how to do it on any other Apple device (because I don't own any others) but I know my dad had a hell of a time cancelling something for his Macbook.
Good luck o7
Spoiler, it will be. Fuck apple and every megacorp like it.
Literally can't stay ahead of it.
My kid re-activated prime on me a long time ago, before I had even started thinking about parental controls, by selecting a movie on the Kindle Fire playing with the remote.
Thought I'd learned my lesson, but no. Couple years later he reactivated Audible by asking the thermostat to read him a story. He was probably like 4 or 5 by then. Not only reactivated Audible, but wasted a credit on The Three Little Pigs
My 2 year old reactivated prime twice now, and a britbox subscription, all playing with the remote. I swear you can sit on the fire stick remote and it'll sign you up.
I actually was a prime member the first time, I cancelled it after that britbox subscription. We literally go out of our way now to avoid Amazon--- which is haaaard. At least you can get a refund if you bug them enough.
It's so easy, a toddler could do it.
Ok, you're the third person I've heard of that had an accidental britbox subscription. I'm not even sure you have to sit on the remote for that one.
The three little pigs lol, that part had me dying
I'm so confused how these devices ended up subscribing you to these services without further validation.
I use mainly Google products and I don't think I can even subscribe to audible if I tried, by voice alone.
Were these Amazon devices or something? I'm really confused.
Yes, Kindle Fire TV and Ecobee thermostat (with Alexa).
And for the record, I hate Alexa, or at least the version in my thermostat. Alexa makes Google nests look like a Nobel laureate.
These were also reactivations, so they already had all our account info, and entirely inside Amazons walled garden.
Lmao no they won't
Oh dear, had to pay a million dollar fine... What's this, a million dollar bonus? How did that happen?
I still haven't consented to the 2.99 price hike to no have commercials. I will wait until the lawsuit runs its course because fuck em.
How about the whole “sure you already paid for a year of Prime Video, but now you need to pay us again or we’re going to ruin the thing you already paid for” situation?
Boycott Amazon.
mayshouldOn the other hand, I didn’t sign up for Prime but have had it for 2 months now. Have yet to be charged and I can’t access the page to cancel it.
