Internal Documents Show Amazon Has For Years Knowingly Tricked People Into Signing Up for Prime Subscriptions (businessinsider.com) 67
Amazon has worried for years that it tricks customers into signing up for Prime subscriptions. A previously undisclosed inquiry from the Federal Trade Commission has put more pressure on the company to fix it. Business Insider: Internal documents obtained by Insider show the company has been concerned since at least 2017 that user interface designs on Amazon.com have led customers to feel manipulated into signing up for Prime. These design decisions, commonly known as "dark patterns," push customers into acting unintentionally often through misleading imagery or intentionally vague offers. For example, a single click on the "Get FREE Two-Day Delivery with Prime" tab at check out -- with no additional confirmation step -- gets shoppers automatically enrolled into a 30-day free trial of Amazon's Prime program, which later converts to a paid membership unless the user cancels it. For cancellations, users have to jump through a number of pages to end the subscription. Amazon was aware of these complaints for years but did not take serious action, according to these previously unreported internal documents and six current and former employees who spoke to Insider. In several cases, fixes for these issues were proposed and considered, but resulted in lower subscription growth when tested, and were shelved by executives, the documents show.
Any fine they pay (Score:1)
Re: Any fine they pay (Score:2)
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Basically, it works like any other trial to subscription service. The goal is people forget to cancel the subscription. Not really news.
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I think that is called slamming (Score:2)
I think that is called slamming
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If, in this day and age, you don't know that a XX free days to a subscription service is going to roll over to a paid subscription after those XX days you really shouldn't be on the Internet. Sure you may forget to cancel the free subscription but that isn't quit the same as not knowing that it would roll over to a subscription.
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Yeah. And the fact that people are choosing to keep the membership afterwards...
I for one love the service that Amazon as provides. They're at the top for a reason.
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Implying that people are cult members for liking Amazon's out-matched service is cute. What retailer offers a better service? Even small shops that have premium prices on the same products have a hard time competing with Amazon's service. You'd think that higher prices would attribute to a better customer experience. Why exactly would you refer to Amazon's customers as cult members?
Or is there some secret society that I am unaware of???
I like how you throw out made-up information, like saying that "MOST" pe
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This is why I always say that fines should be on top of the automatic forfeiture of any ill gotten gains. If they made $1m on tricking people into Prime subs, and the fine is $100K, then the total fine is $1.1m.
I also say fines should be proportional to gross revenue for the company so it's both fair and impactful. Start handing out fines that are say 10% of GR, and I don't care if it's Apple circa 2020s or Apple circa 1970s, it's going to hurt and definitely get the attention of upper management, the bean
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That sounds all fine and good, except...it doesn't really sounds like any tricking going on here.
This sounds pretty much like any other deal out there with a "free" trial period, that as other say...rolls over to a paid account if you don't cancel.
All of these sites that do this, have some small t
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No shit (Score:2)
Water is wet
Fire is hot
Microsoft is evil
Bears shit in the woods.
Re: No shit (Score:2)
Water is wet but I still see signs warning people that water is wet and to be careful when walking on wet floor.
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Water is wet but I still see signs warning people that water is wet and to be careful when walking on wet floor.
I'll do you one better. I see signs at our work cafe warning that peanut butter, peanut sauce, and peanut butter cookies contain peanuts. I'll be more scared if those signs ever go away, because of what that might mean. :-)
The problem is not that it's hard to cancel Prime. The problem is that you have to cancel within 3 days of conversion from a free trial, or else they won't refund the purchase price. So if it takes you until the next credit card bill to notice that you've been charged $139 for a year,
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Thanks pfizer
"Pfizer CEO says fourth dose of COVID vaccine is "necessary," submits data to FDA"
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/c... [cbsnews.com]
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Hmm. I've never had a flu shot.
Come to think about it, I've never been mandated to have a flu shot, nor have to show proof of one....so, slight difference at least here.
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I got mandated to get a smallpox vaccine when I was young, had to show proof for international travel too, Turned out that there were severe complications in 1-2% of cases and it was only 95% (decreasing with time) effective and it was still forced on people in various countries.
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Or when was that smallpox booster recommended annually...as it appears they are trying to do with mRNA "vaccines".
Look, I've had both Pfizer shots and booster....let's not kid ourselves that it is remotely the same as what we thought of vaccines we got in the past.
This does not offer even remotely the same type of immunity classic vaccines have.
We need another word for the mRNA shots, they aren't really vaccines in the classic sense of h
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Yes, smallpox is an exception to the need for booster shots, it is also effective different types of pox, inoculate with cowpox and you're good against smallpox, monkey pox and maybe others.
I should be getting the shingles vaccine as it seems my chicken pox infection is likely to return after 55 years. C$200 a shot and need a shot every 5 years.
My Son has 3 shots for MMR, none of which mutate. Seems when I was in school, it was similar with boosters every few years. Polio vaccine in the form of sugar cubes
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Jim: Question, what kind of bear is best?
Dwight: That's a ridiculous question.
Jim: False. Black bear.
Dwight: That's debatable. There are basically two schools of thought.
Jim: Fact. Bears eat beets. Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica.
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BAST EVAR!
My keychain has a little metal plaque on it that reads: "Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica."
I don't know if I like that little moment better, or the one where Jim was faxing Dwight with his own letterhead "from the future."
I don't think that's what Amazon worried about... (Score:2)
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Nope. That's what Amazon says.
Of course, they're lying out of their ass, but it is what they say they were worried about.
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Indeed. If it was worried it would have done something about it.
It's hardly newsworthy to find out they knew about the problem either, given how many complaints it must generate. I got caught once, my wife did this Christmas, my dad's been got about 3 times (although internet shopping is pushing his computer skills, so that's less surprising) - and you complain but obviously the answer is you can unsubscribe anytime, it's a free trial - no harm done - but they must know exactly how many people complain and
It works (Score:2)
In several cases, fixes for these issues were proposed and considered, but resulted in lower subscription growth when tested, and were shelved by executives
So what they are saying is their immoral actions worked, so they didn't stop.
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People don't want to subscribe to a service they don't need unless coerced to, news at 11
Prime is Great!! For My Situations!! (Score:1)
When I couldn't walk outside or go to the stores, Amazon delivered the stuffs that we needed. Even bought dog food through Amazon.
It's great for sick, recuperating people, pandemic-ed people!
It worth to me even though I have recuperated fully and can drive, walk, shop. I don't use it as much and have learned the ins-and-outs of their shipping program to get time-insensitive shipping with added digital credi
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I was tricked when Prime came out, I bought something and it told me I am a prime member. I then went in and said "leave prime" in settings, but it ignored me.
I had to spend days calling them to get off of it and get a refund, that left a bad taste in my mouth where I never use amazon now.
But people I know using prime now, they like it a lot. I have tried to let that experience go, but still cannot.
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Lots of luck trying to idiot proof the world. Remember when people were flying to other countries to be first in line for the Covid shot. Now they run and hide.
I live in a rural area, if my local Walmart does not have it I have to make a fifty mile drive to try and find a store with what I need. And no, I do not want to search fifty different web sites trying to find the best price online. Amazon has what I want.
Plus I am disabled and read a lot. Kindle Unlimited keeps me occupied for pennies a day, OK
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Whether you like it or not, they shouldn't be tricking people into signing up for a recurring payment. If it's really as good as you say, people will want to sign up. The fact that testing changes resulted in lower revenue shows that people don't actually want to sign up for Prime but are being misled.
Certainly tricked me (Score:2)
Think it was a slow-appearing button that appeared just as I was miscliccking some space on an Amazon page after ordering something.
Didn't cost me anything except the potential for a month's trial of Prime in future.
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FTFY (Score:2)
It's scummy amateurish Web 0.1 behavior you would DEFINITELY expect from a billion-dollar company.
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Not sure I buy some of those statements (Score:2)
In light of this:
"Amazon was aware of these complaints for years but did not take serious action"
I have a hard time believing either of these:
"Amazon has worried for years that it tricks customers"
"the company has been concerned since at least 2017 that user interface designs on Amazon.com have led customers to feel manipulated"
You are neither "worried" nor "concerned", when you know about it and do nothing serious in nearly 5 years.
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We're arguing over misleading wording that anthropomorphizes what is essentially a legal fiction. What's going on is that *individuals who work for Amazon* are troubled by the ethics of certain company practices.
Not really (Score:2)
I've been dodging prime subscriptions for years. If you are only using prime for the shipping, you should quit. You are not getting your 'money's worth'. I did and it's quite liberating, I spend less overall. Another trick you can do is if you do need something quick for free, you can always sign up for prime and than cancel it which I usually do during the holidays. But it's not trivial to cancel the service, they make you jump through quite a few hoops.
If you actually add up all the money that you spend
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and deal with all the bulk waste that generates
Amazon prime waste packaging is the best thing since junk mail! I can order a few things I need and heat my home at the same time.
imo, Amazon acts in an evil manner ... (Score:2)
How do you CANCEL a Prime membership? (Score:2)
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Didn't work. (Score:2)
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One reason I stopped using them (Score:1)
Stupidity tax (Score:2)
I buy through Amazon and handful of times a year and I'm not a Prime member. Yes it's obvious they want me to be, but I've never accidentally signed up. I have intentionally taken a bunch of 30 day free trials, and never had any trouble canceling them -- you can even cancel them right after you sign up and still enjoy the rest of your trial period. Never been charged.
If people want to blindly click things without reading them, somehow believe that all the notices of having become a Prime member aren't going
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Most of that stuff you can watch the first show or something without commitment or with ads online -- going
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Here is my experience: I bought enough to qualify for free shipping. I get ready to checkout and the first shipping option button reads:
"X Yes, I want free shipping!"
Followed by other express, pay-for options.
So I click it. Next message says "Congratulations! You are now enrolled in a free 1 Month trial of Amazon Prime". Hmmm, nowhere in that shipping option was amazon prime mentioned. I looked around t
Not sure I see a big issue? (Score:2)
I feel like an awful lot of people here are just jumping on the bandwagon of "Woo! Another way we can punish Amazon!"
As much as I have dislike for their company for many reasons, this doesn't seem like a really worthy pursuit, trying to punish them for not making it clear enough that clicking to start using Prime when you don't have a Prime membership will, in fact, start a free trial of one?
That's a disturbing precedent to set, if we're going to start fining people for the subjective idea that their web si
Amazon is hub of convenience (Score:1)
It's a slow news day without Trump buffoonery (Score:2)
Amazon Prime "free" subscriptions are offered to you with the usual disclaimers, in writing, that they will convert to paid subscriptions unless you bother to say something about it.
Amazon offers reasonably clean and simple ways to cancel your subscription online, so much unlike other phone, internet, and ISP services I've had the displeasure to have used. I nearly had to sue godaddy to release my domain name. I had to cancel a credit card to stop Comcast from billing me for the service I had discontinued.
I
Used Amazon for decades now. What's all the whinin (Score:2)
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"Worried" (Score:2)
This must be some new meaning of the word “worried” I was previously unaware of.
(with apologies, as ever, to Douglas Adams for the paraphrase)
Every Few Weeks (Score:2)
Only weak-minded people have this Prime problem (Score:1)
Even the former--much less the current--web page content about the free trial, and about canceling it before 30 days are over, catch only people who are too weak-minded to pay attention to what they are (not) reading.