Uncle Sam names three Amazon execs as Prime suspects in subscription ripoff case The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has named three senior Amazon.com staffers accused of approving tactics designed to confuse people into signing up for the online souk's Prime loyalty scheme, then making it hard for them to unsubscribe. Neil Lindsay, former head of the Prime team; current boss Russell Grandinetti; and …
ISTR reading recently that Wizz Air holds the dubious title of being the worst offender for that - as far as UK customers are concerned, at least.
I only ever flew WA once - to Budapest about a decade ago - and can't honestly say they were any better or worse than the other no-frills/no-service airlines such as Ryanair, Easyjet, British Airways...
Re Wizzair....
Not sure what you're on about, when Wizzair cancelled my flights last-minute, they rebooked me for free on the next available one*, and also paid me compensation** quite promptly***.
*2 days later
**EU-mandated one, absolutely not voluntary
***only took 14 months from date of flights, a couple of calls, a dozen emails and the intervention of the local aviation regulator.
Cabin luggage should be normalized for flight prices shown on comparison sites.
That is, all prices should be with "full-fat" cabin luggage. Then you may exclude it to save money. Not vice versa.
Because often seemingly cheap flights end up much more expensive. This harms the competition and distorts buying decision.
"cheap flights end up much more expensive"
The Ryanair model. Your flight is £1*
*£129 including taxes, booking fee, checkin fee, cabin-luggage-bigger-than-a-handbag fee, fee to be in a queue that is moving slightly less slowly than the other queue, choosing a seat with more than 6" legroom. And that'sll be £15 more for an inflight sandwich and coke, thanks!
The thing I most want listed on airline ticket comparison sites is seat width. I'm almost 2m tall with wide shoulders, so a seat the size of an A4 piece of paper just doesn't work. Last flight, I sat with my body turned at a 45 deg angle the entire 2 hour flight because I was next to a similarly large guy and there was just no pretending the airline seats could work as seats for both of us. Airlines keep shrinking them because they can keep those changes secret until after you've paid and are boarding. I'll gladly pay considerable extra for whatever ticket showed I'd have an extra inch or two of seat width... just not the exorbitant prices of 1st class tickets.
Flying was fun as a child. Now it's the most miserable and demeaning process I ever have to go through, maybe just above invasive medical exams... and in both cases I'm paying to be abused. I'd rather hop into a coffin and have my box shipped to the destination. I either drive, take the train, or most often just decide I don't need to travel at all.
Shout out to Fiji Air here, while we're digressing.
When I recently had to cancel a trip due to surgery, they refunded non-refundable tickets, once I provided a medical cert. They would have been fully in their rights to just let me take it up with the travel insurance, but they didn't.
Miracles do happen!
Probably just my unique temperament, but if I were the CC rep, I'd sit on hold my entire shift just to tell the merchant (when they finally pick up) that I will be reversing every single disputed charge I get from them because of how long I had to wait on hold. And if they never pick up, because the phone number goes to a phone in a little used room in a basement somewhere, I'd document the fact that I waited on hold X amount of time and that it's probably a violation of some policy of the CC company for vendors, and just start reversing any disputed charge immediately. Probably won't take too long for the vendor to notice they're losing money and to call you up to find out why.
as far as I remember, many people took that route in desperation, when the airline played the game of 'maybe we'll refund you or maybe we won't - I saw reports / complaints from people that their credit card companies, either under sheer volume of complaints, or more likely, to cut their cost (as it's no gain to them), made it hard to use this path to recover your funds, by quoting some obscure entries in the terms and conditions, or resorting to the usual tactics of doing nothing (it works, because most people treated with this tactic will not push, thus a win for the business)
"...deliberately made it hard for them to cancel a subscription."
You can say that again.
As recounted in previous threads here, it took me ages to try and navigate Amazon's cancellation process. After what seemed to be days beating my head against a brick wall I rang the "help line" and after again waiting an eternity got through to an agent who seemed to struggle with English. Eventually I got through to her that I never wanted anything to do with Prime and would she please put a flag on my account declining their kind offer,in the unlikely event that I ever did business with then again.
Even so, I trust Amazon about as far as I could spit it so have not been to their tat bazaar since.
Just in case they trap me again.
I can't say about other countries, but in the US there are free trials for Prime for people with .edu email accounts and the like. If you don't cancel the sub by the end of that trial period, it automatically converts into an annual sub. They don't send you any kind of notice that your trial period is about to end and they bury the fact that it rolls over in the fine print knowing full well most people won't read it. And they make finding the link to even start the unsubscribe process highly obtuse.
It's quite possible different accounts get different UXes. A/B testing is very widely used on large commercial websites, for example, and there's nothing to stop Amazon from having different UI controls, layout, and workflow based on region, account details, shopping history, or various other factors.
aerogems mentions the extra Prime nag for people Amazon thinks are students. My account isn't from the .edu TLD – it's a Gmail address – but Amazon has always dumped me into the "special student offer" page regardless. Something in that algorithm decided I'm a student and refuses to give up the idea. (I earned my most recent degree ten years ago.)
I have no intention of ever signing up for Prime; in fact, I try to avoid buying from Amazon as much as is feasible. Doesn't stop them from trying.
Not only has it gone international, it has become standard business practice. There's probably a course unit about it in MBA curricula.
I could only cancel my subscription TV service (whose CEO just retired) by phone, and in the end only succeeded by escalating to a manager, immediately asking the manager to record the call, and saying something like "any and all authority I may have given for you or your affiliates to charge my accounts for any service is hereby revoked and any further such charges will referred to the police as fraudulent. Such authority will not be renewed without my explicit written consent." Asked if they understood then hung up, probably saving a further half hour of being questioned, begged and threatened.
I took up a 2 month broadband internet connection with a small independent ISP while working away from home on contract. Great service but needed 28 days' advance notice to disconnect. Fair enough. 28 days before moving out, go to cancel the service - nothing on the user admin page at all: no FAQ, no phone number, certainly no link. Google "how do I cancel my (ISP) subscription?": Specific instructions come up as first link showing a link from the user admin page which has been obliterated - wouldn't have been surprised to find an empty space where the link used to be. Fixed that one by calling their sign-up hotline, pretended to be interested in taking up a new subscription, then told them why I'd really called. But there was literally no part of their user interface, web or phone, that comprehended the idea that someone might want to cancel.
Uncle Sam names three Amazon execs as Prime suspects
Come for the snark, stay for the news.
That aside, something needs to be done about the unsubscribe process. Amazon's not the only one that makes just finding where to start the process as difficult as possible. I was recently trying to cancel a Walmart+ sub and after a few minutes of not finding anything obvious in the app, I literally had to google it. Meanwhile, signing up for it is like 2-3 steps and they make sure there are links plastered all over the place.
My Dad got led into signing up for Amazon Prime during a purchase, not realizing it's an opt-out subscription after that. (He quite rightly hates that tactic)
I thought I was going to have a Dickens of a time canceling it, but it was easy. This was about a month ago, so probably after they've mended their ways. Also, Amazon Canada... I don't know if that makes any difference. The only reason there was more than one click was because I had a choice to keep the service for the rest of the billing period, or get a refund on the time that was left. I chose the refund and Dad got about $13 refunded on his credit card.
I personally keep my Prime membership. It doesn't always result in better shipping (I was going to get the same anyway... a good courier they contract around these parts) but it does ensure I'm not going to get shit sent by parcel post without my consent, at their whims. Also I got a free game (to be claimed from Good Old Games, my favourite store) that I actually liked, out of my Prime membership. Apparently there are regular giveaways I'm entitled to, but most of it is stuff I'm not interested in.
to put a stop to this is to put said execs in prison, REAL prison, for several years along with fining the company. And, tell their replacements "You can be next." Monetary fines are the cost of doing business, C-suite prison terms makes it far more personal for them. And yes, let the C-suite take the prison sentence for what underlings do. Taking those risks is why they're paid the big bucks.
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