Ye GODS, but Amazon are sneaky bar-stewards … !
I’ll happily admit, they’re good at what they do: I’ve been using Amazon’s shopping site for a while, and — generally —don’t have a problem.
But at some point? I’d signed up for a free trial of their Amazon Prime service. It allows for free video streaming, music streaming … and for free deliveries of stuff you’ve ordered.
Which is why I’d signed up for the free trial.
But … ? Well, yesterday, I tried ordering an internal hard-drive, along with a couple of other bits. Only to find my card getting declined for a lack of funds. Funds I’d believed were available.
It turns out they weren’t. Amazon had automatically charged me £79 for a year’s subscription: without sending me a reminder email, or warning that the trial was over.
Now, from what I can tell, they do tell you, in the Terms and Conditions that they’ll do this.
But how many of us sit down and read those?
I’m … annoyed. Yes, you’re right, I could well have read the terms and conditions.
But equally, Amazon could easily — oh so easily, I suspect, and much more preferably, from where I’m sitting — have sent out a reminder email: to tell me the trial was coming to an end, and asking if I’d like to continue using the service at such and such a price.
They didn’t. I spent about half an hour, yesterday, phoning my bank to see what had happened: then then getting a refund from Amazon.
That’s due in within the next few days.
Now … annoyed? Yes. Angry? Incredibly. Frothing at the mouth? You bet!
I could well have read the terms and conditions. But in burying the explanation of what will happen in the terms and conditions, and in NOT sending a cancellation email?
In behaving like this, I believe Amazon* have indulged in the worst kind of sharp practise. And would do themselves a huge favour, publicity-wise, in changing this practise.
~≈Ê≈~
