I listened to a radio piece last week about people being inadvertently signed up for this, conveniently Amazon hold your credit card details too 👿

I checked my account tonight and saw I’ve been signed up to this too, at a cost of £79. I don’t have a clue how I did it, I think it’s set as a sneaky default when buying.
I immediately cancelled and got a refund of £66, I’m currently in an online chat to try and get the rest of the money back.

Dealings with Vodafone (ongoing…) and Amazon in one week. No wonder my Lagavulin has all disappeared…

They make it the default option every time you buy anything, so you have to keep deselecting it…

Several weeks/months ago I received a 30-DAY FREE TRIAL offer from Amazon Prime. I didn’t take it up. Is there any chance you (or someone in the house/on your account) did and subsequently failed to cancel it?

footflaps – Member – Quote
They make it the default option every time you buy anything, so you have to keep deselecting it…

Not IME

Edit: just checked. I think my address rules me out?

If your lagavulin keeps disappearing then no wonder you don’t have a clue how you keep signing up for stuff 🙂

They make it the default option every time you buy anything, so you have to keep deselecting it…

They do?

inadvertently

Heh.

Just had a look now and it’s not the default option. I suspect it may be made the default sometimes and I was caught out.

Full refund just been issued 🙂

I suspect it may be made the default sometimes and I was caught out.

No. You signed up for the free trial when it was suggested, it’s never defaulted to, and you forgot to turn off the auto-renew in the account settings.

Luckily, Amazon is a benevolent master, and usually refunds if it’s an obvious brain freeze.

I fell for this, and a refund doesn’t appear to be an option. I am a royal idiot!

I signed up for a demo to abuse the free postage on something, then forgot to cancel- they did charge me the full fee but refunded it without any trouble. You know when you’re all ready to push really hard on a door, and it swings open just as you reach it and you almost fall on your face? It was a bit like that

You signed up for the free trial when it was suggested, it’s never defaulted to

Are you 100% sure of that?

You may well be right, my point is though that I didn’t realise I did this. That suggests to me that that their sign up procedure could be much clearer. The fact they have just refunded me in full would imply they know this to be the case.

Are you 100% sure of that?

Yes. Don’t worry, it’s easy enough to do. To the point where I think Amazon realise as much, and usually refund you if you haven’t taken the piss.

For the future record, as the free trial gets reset every year so you may want to do it again, you can turn the free trial off as soon as you have signed up for it, and it will just run for the month then end before you’re charged.

Settings are here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/subs/primeclub/account/homepage.html?ref=lp_mem_manage

I was in a rush to get something ordered, a bit flustered the other day (loads of house and family crap going on) and I ended up with 30 day of Prime signed up for. It was a bit sneaky how it was a likely option even if not default.

I intend to exit the scheme though at 30 days, not really worth the £79 for us.

Amazon Peime is the bestest thing ever IMO. Order something anytime before 6pm and without fail it turns up the next day, even Sundays. I love it.

Given Amazon seem to sell everything (I’ve bought NASes to nappies) and for prices often cheaper than anyone else, I’m firmly in the ‘why wouldn’t you?’ camp.

I was in a rush to get something ordered, a bit flustered the other day

It was a bit sneaky how it was a likely option even if not default.

Not really. it offers a checkbox to tick if you would like to try a free months of Prime, and clearly states after a month it will charge you £79.99. Seriously, tho, when did people stop just holding their hands up when they made a mistake?

I would consider following my advice above, and cancel the membership now. You’ll still get the free month, and not risk being tricked again by those sneaky bastards at Amazon when you forget to cancel it a month down the line 8)

I used their prime trial a few times, forgot to cancel once but got a refund without issue, then I heard the price was going up to £80 from £40, joined then, no regrets, the next day delivery is superb and never ceases to amaze me.

I watch Amazon Prime a fair bit too. That was included.

PSA – if you use the Prime free trial, and they fail to deliver the next day, you can get it extended for another month.

Then cancel it. 😀

WTF, I was signed up and I didn’t realise !!!!!! 👿

Fortunately my credit card has expired so they didn’t auto renew. Trying to get a refund now.

Thanks OP, I am mad at myself for not noticing

You know when you’re all ready to push really hard on a door, and it swings open just as you reach it and you almost fall on your face? It was a bit like that

@northwind that’s your experience when debating stuff with me on here, no ? 😉

Update: Fee of £49 refunded. They might be bunch of tax dodging, low paying, dodgy amazon prime enrolment merchants but they did the right thing here. They charged me the £49 over a year ago. Their email confirmed I had signed up for the free trial and never cancelled it, also that I had never used the prime service.

EDIT @bedmaker I owe you a pint or two that’s £49 you’ve saved me

Similar thing happened to me – it offered me Prime when I was checking out, I thought I declined it, but found out I was signed up for a 30 day trial. Not sure exactly how it happened, but it must have been fairly obscure what the buttons were for. Luckily I was able to just cancel straight away.

Thing with Amazon – you ALWAYS need to check the right options are selected. Free postage isn’t the default, so you change that every time. Check you’re not signing up to Prime at the same time.

(that’s my little peom to help you remember 😉 )

But in better news do people know that if the price of the item you’ve bought goes down within the return period Amazon will refund the difference? 5 mins on chat led to a £52 refund this week. 🙂

Not really. it offers a checkbox to tick if you would like to try a free months of Prime, and clearly states after a month it will charge you £79.99. Seriously, tho, when did people stop just holding their hands up when they made a mistake?

Exactly.

I signed up for the free trial (kind of) without realising it. But when I realised I had been billed I checked out how it had happened and realised it was my fault.

As it happens it’s great, and it turns out I shouldn’t have been so mad at myself.

Claiming “trickery” is a weak excuse for basically not reading the info that’s openly offered. And ticking random boxes when you are in a rush.

jambalaya – Member

@northwind that’s your experience when debating stuff with me on here, no ?

Nah, you make a very good closed door!