TOT Amazon prime

[alan_m]

There are a number of items on the Amazon site that are priced competitively but ONLY come with a Amazon Prime delivery although this may not be that obvious. If you attempt purchase one of these items you are not given the normal option of selecting a non-prime delivery but appears that you are automatically signed up to the 30 day Prime trial.

I assume that if you don't realise and fail to to cancel within the 30 days the CC or Debit card used to purchase the item will be used for the circa £100 prime subscription.

I really hate the sneaky ways that Amazon are attempting to sign people up to Prime.

Strangely the listing also had [quote] Note: Available at a lower price without Prime delivery from other sellers [/quote] The price from other Amazon Marketplace sellers (not Amazon itself) was cheaper by around 1%

Not wishing to buy from the Amazon market trader, nor wishing to have a Prime trial, I deleted by items from the Amazon shopping basket and purchased from another supplier who are slightly more expensive but will deliver for free on Sunday, giving me a timed slot via text first thing Sunday morning and with real time tracking while my items are on the van.

[Chris J Dixon]

Indeed! The way they have the Prime button big and bold, and the "No Thanks" option far less obvious.

I managed to click in the wrong place somewhere, and instantly, without any chance to confirm, they had me signed up. When I immediately went through the process to cancel, they kept giving me chances to change my mind, and warned me what delights I was about to lose.

Chris

[Jim GM4DHJ ...??]

spot on.....puts you off using them.....

[Michael Chare]

I also dislike Amazon Prime.

I ordered something at 23:40 on a Friday with the cheapest free delivery. It arrive less than 2 days later on a Sunday when I was not expecting it and therefore not present. Fortunately my neighbour helped.

[GB]

If you do sign up inadvertently their CS will refund you without a lot of argument.

I'm unhappy about them getting into a semi-monopoly position, and I'm unhappy they pay too little tax. I'm much less concerned about them making it too easy to sign up to prime inadvertently.

I use them a lot, by the way.

[Peter Johnson]

+1 (Without any argument at all, in my experience a few years ago.)

[Pamela]

On 11:57 1 Dec 2018, Michael Chare [e-mail]>

wrote in news:pttsuk$8jb$ [e-mail]:

When you place the order Amazon tells you the day it will arrive (if they are shipping the goods) and you can choose another date if you like.

[Theo]

I find them unusable because their searches channel you towards the thing that's most profitable for them, not the thing that you asked for. Try searching for '16gb sd card' and on the first page of 'selected results' it shows me 8 and 32GB ones. In more obscure searches you end up wading through pages of junk results.

Thankfully, unless you're after a specific model of a name-brand thing, everything else is cheaper on ebay - whose searches work. I recently discovered that ebay is usually cheaper for books too.

Theo

(though SD cards are about the only thing I buy from Amazon direct, given the propensity for fakes from 'marketplace' sellers)

[alan_m]

If not with Prime they estimate the day it will turn up and usually for "free" delivery it will be 4 to 5 days however sometimes it will turn up the next day and sometimes upto 5 days. If coming from their warehouse in France be prepared for 2 week delivery despite a 4/5 day estimate.

The "we have shipped your order" email is not an indication of when the item will eventually turn up.

Around my way if you are not in when the first delivery is attempted there seems to be a local agent where the package is delivered and this agent will try again @ 8 or 9 pm and/or at the weekend.

[Michael Chare]

The order confirmation email said the following Thursday or Friday. The goods despatched email said the following Tuesday. The goods arriving email said that they had been delivered on the Sunday! I could not change the location details to leave outside at back of house. Generally Saturday deliveries cost extra and Sunday deliveries are not available.

[alan_m]

Delivered Sunday by ao.com at 7:20am. Text message sent at 6:30 stating a 30 minute delivery slot and a phone call from the driver 10 minutes before delivery.

[Bob Eager]

Same here. Except it was 7:00 on the dot. They waited up the road until the slot 'opened'.

[Dave Liquorice]

Can't say I've ever spotted that but they do shove a big splash screen up where it appears that to proceed you need to sign up for a Prime trial. But if you look (very) closely there is a way forward without signing up. It might the single word "skip" in small type one it's own, tucked away at the bottom of the screen or ina corner or is that google? What ever Amazon do try to "hide" it.

They really ought to a "Prime Lite" ie the free next day delivery but without all the useless, no interest, streaming, video/audio "services".

[alan_m]

That's what you usually get but NOT when the listing is priced with a Prime ONLY delivery option. I looked long and hard to find a non-Prime delivery option.

Amazon usually have a large coloured button to proceed with Prime and some smaller light blue text on a white background to proceed without Prime. And then you get to the payment page where the £5 delivery charge box is automatically ticked. For free delivery you have to tick one of the other options where the most prominent option is Prime again.

There may even be another pop up screen when selecting to have the free

4/5 day delivery making sure that you don't want Prime.

I was going to post the link to the item but the listing has changed to a market place trader supplied item with a price hike from £62 to £74 since Friday evening.

Yes, I'm aware there is no such thing as free delivery from an on-line retailer - the shipping costs are factored into the price of the item.

[Richard]

My last purchase was Sunday last week around 1800. Opted for free delivery which would've been Thursday/Friday. It arrived by 1030 Monday. At the time of ordering, I was given the options of Prime or pay to receive on the Tuesday. Don't think I'll ever bother to pay for alleged speedier delivery.

[alan_m]

I get the impression that at this time of year they process all orders as fast as possible and it goes out on the first available trailer.

At other times of the year they seem to hold back the 4/5 days free delivery items for 3 days, then send the "we have shipped" email and the package will often turn up next day.

[Pamela]

On 00:03 2 Dec 2018, Michael Chare [e-mail]>

wrote in news:ptv7gi$lur$ [e-mail]:

For deliveries which Amazon makes itself (Fulfilled by Aamzon, Amazon Prime), there should be a popup calendar on the order confirmation page where you can choose the delivery date.

Perhaps your problem has been caused by another courier than Amazon Logistics although sometimes Aamzon does entrust its own deliveries to a third party.

[Pamela]

On 13:44 2 Dec 2018, alan_m [e-mail]> wrote in news: [e-mail]:

Amazon do muck about with Prime delivery dates at Christmas when they get overloaded.

Specific items which normally arrive the next day are mysteriously hard to pick and allegedly take an extra day to leave the warehouse.

If a Prime item hasn't arrived by whatever scheduled date is on the order then Amazon will extend Prime membership by a month although you have to ask.

[Pamela]

On 20:17 1 Dec 2018, Theo <theom+ [e-mail]> wrote in news:vVn* [e-mail]:

Ebay tends to be cheaper than Amazon but it's slow at resolving mistakes by the vendor.

I would rather pay more on Amazon and know I will get the goods by a certain date, even if a mistake gets made.

Ebay asks you to wait long period to make sure the delivery isn't lost in the post (14 or 21 days?) and then asks you to wait more time (10 days?? for the vendor to resolve the problem. What a caper if anything goes wrong.

[Bob Eager]

No, I avoid Amazon.