Time to give up with Amazon?

[Jeff Layman]

I just visited Amazon to order a couple of items. I have never been and am not interested in Prime, and previously found there was a checkbox (often in an obscure position!) that I could uncheck to remove this option. Not this time.

Today I was met with a couple of identical message boxes (why two of them?) stating that "we are giving you a free 30-day trial of Prime". No boxes to uncheck, but a link in the box to "Try Prime free >". Out of interest I clicked on the box to be given more info, which included a "No Thanks I do not want a 30-day free trial" link. Clicking on that link appears to do absolutely nothing, other than cycle back to the previous box. :-(

The next stage in the process was to "Buy Now" with no further option to remove Prime. I just logged out before progressing, and wiped the cookies.

This seems to be sharp practice to me. Anyone else seen this, or found a way to avoid signing up to Prime?

[newshound]

I suspect that in our case Prime pays for itself in the savings on delivery charges. For many online sites, in the old days it was easy to be tempted to add extra items to get over the "free delivery" threshold. Once you start using Amazon for everyday domestic items such as lightbulbs, next day delivery is nice.

[Smolley]

Generally the prime items are more expensive, because not all lower cost suppliers are prime compliant.

[Andrew]

It's just variation of the "Let's annoy the captive punters as much as we can" theme.

Yesterday I tried to renew my 3-yr rail discount card online. I've done it before, no problems. Now they have insisted on a photograph, which is fair enough, but they have now also made 'Mobile Phone' a

*mandatory* field. FFS.

I don't have mobile phone !, and I ticked the "Deliver by post" option, so there is absolutely no need for this brick-wall restriction.

[newshound]

I agree, you do have to watch out for that. You will often find eBay dealers selling the same product at a significant discount.

Rather the same way that Google often requires you to scroll down past their "sponsors" to find the best stuff.

[Tim Streater]

You don't need a box to untick. Just click where it says Order without Prime. Just because it says "We are giving you a free 30-day ..." doesn't mean that they already have done.

[JNugent]

Agreed.

[Pamela]

This isn't the first time I've heard complaints about over-aggressive selling of Amazon's Prime. I use Prime but others shouldn't have it pushed down their throat.

A friend takes out Prime for a couple of months around Christmas and then cancels because she has little use for it for the rest of the year. She gets a free month each time.

[alan_m]

Everything I've looked at recently on Amazon I've found cheaper elsewhere, for exactly the same item. You really do have to look at some of their prices and don't assume they are the cheapest. And. I'm not writing about pence but maybe 30% more on £100+ items.

[Mike Clarke]

There's been a few occasions when I've taken advantage of this 'offer' to get next day delivery at no cost. I've never had any problem in cancelling afterwards so I've never been landed with any Prime membership charges. Even after cancelling, your membership continues right up to the end of the 30 day period so you cancel soon after ordering and avoid the risk of forgetting to cancel later and still use the membership for the remaining time.

[John Rumm]

They sometimes have some deals (typically on small items offered with free delivery) where they are only available on prime, and if you buy one then you have to either be a member or join at the time. (you can normally find the same product without free delivery)

But they are masters of the "dark pattern" web designed designed to guide you though the path that most benefits them.

[Andy Burns]

Yes, I've deliberately taken the free trial a few times, and been "tricked" into it once, though they do cancel the paid one if you complain.

Last time I had been using it quite a lot, so I did take a paid subscription, since then of course I don't seem to want much from amazon :-(

[Peter Johnson]

+1 There's no problem with cancelling a trial immediately after it's been started. I currently have two days left of a trial that I got because I hadn't ordered anything for a while, that I cancelled an hour or so after accepting it. As to whether items on Amazon can always be bought cheaper elsewhere, I think that must depend on the nature of the purchases. Often, for things I want, Amazon is cheaper, although a few years ago I bought a TV from an Amazon marketplace seller who included a link to their website in the listing; a phone call to them and I got it for £50 less. I agree that eBay can often be a good place to purchase, smaller items in my experience.

[John Rumm]

Some of the TV shows are pretty good...

[whisky-dave]

Yes we use amazon quite a bit but always look out for cheaper things sometimes unexpectedly cheap come up and you can't just not buy it.

Baby Persian Cat Robotic Toy £3.49 but £12 P&P unless you order more than £200s worth. although it acts more like a dog !

$40 on ebay

Often, for

For some reason our finance department don;t like us ordering from ebay. I presonally think it comes down to if anything goes wrong then they have to sort it out, whereas with our other suppliers even amazon we sort out any problems.

[Martin Brown]

There is a phrase just to the left of the "Giving you Prime free" that you can click on to decline their generous offer. I always do so.

It doesn't look like much at all ISTR grey on light grey and small so easy to miss.

It is mildly annoying but no more than that. I find that even without signing up for Prime things often come the next day anyway (just not guaranteed). I reckon online sales are down at the moment.

[Graham Nye]

^ This. It does seem to be designed for maximum confusion.

[Pamela]

[Jock]

But you are free to cancel the free trial later.

Corse it is.

The obvious approach is to cancel the free trial later if you can't work out how to not receive it.

[Jeff Layman]

Thanks for all the replies.

I wiped all cookies and cleared Firefox's cache, closed it and reopened it. I then tried exactly what I did before, Interestingly Amazon behaved

*differently* this time, and from which prompted my OP. Previously, there was no "Order without Prime" (as Tim had suggested, and which had appeared on previous orders). I had checked that it wasn't "hidden" text by search for the word "Prime", and it only appeared on screen in clear, contrasting, text. That phrase just wasn't there first time around.

This time, after I logged on, the on-screen wording was different, and the "Order without Prime" appeared. It was also interesting that Amazon had retained the order from my interrupted session when I logged out without progressing, as the order reappeared as soon as I logged on even though I had deleted all cookies. I was able to order without Prime, despite Amazon pushing it all over the screen!