Misleading advertising by Amazon

Brendan Burgess

Brendan Burgess

Founder
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I wanted to buy a book and got the following

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Free delivery. I was delighted.

Then when I went to pay, I got...



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I have to sign up for Prime and pay £8 a month.

Brendan
 
No, there's an option there on the left in blue text to decline 1 day delivery. It's almost hidden, but it's there.

It is so easy to sign up to Prime by accident.
Not nearly as easy to unsubscribe!
 
Let them sign you up, take the free delivery and diary it forward to cancel before the trial period is up and it won't cost you anything. Order plenty while you have the free trial!
 
Hi Red

It's misleading advertising.

It says free delivery. It does not attach conditions.

(I ordered during the week from BookDepository and from Easons both of which had free delivery and meant free delivery)

I went through all the hoops of ordering only to find I had to take extra steps including figuring out how to cancel which I am not going to waste my time doing.

It's very similar to that other scam - Complete Savings - which people signed up to by accident.



Brendan
 
I signed up to the Amazon prime trial half by accident, so totally get where Brendan is coming from.

At the end of the period, I didn't renew.
They still pop up 'free Amazon prime trial' to me even though I've availed of the offer.
 
Brendan Burgess said:
It's misleading advertising.

It says free delivery. It does not attach conditions
Click to expand...
But there is free delivery, without any conditions.

They just have an incredibly anti-customer practice of making it look like you have to select next day delivery and sign up to Prime. But you don't. There's another option there for you to select.

I'm surprised they still do it.
The Advertising standards authority in the UK have previously ruled on this specific issue:

Amazon Europe Core Sarl

www.asa.org.uk www.asa.org.uk
 
I still think it's misleading.

Easons and Book Depository have no extra steps or choices or conditions.

Amazon requires me to study the terms and conditions and notice that I can get free delivery.

I have already gone through the hassle and cancelled my order. Not sure I will waste any more time on it.

Brendan
 
I had to find this in very small writing
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Then it added postage and packing anyway

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And then I had to study it again to find

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Then it recalculated it without the delivery.

This is unnecessarily complex

So it's misleading.

I only know all that, because you told me. Most people would just get suckered into joining Prime and being hit with a monthly charge they did not intend to apply for.

Brendan
 
Brendan Burgess said:
I only know all that, because you told me. Most people would just get suckered into joining Prime and being hit with a monthly charge they did not intend to apply for.
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Just to be clear, I only know because I've had to unsubscibe from Prime, on more than 1 occasion after clicking the yellow box in auto-pilot.
 
I note that Amazon are going to stop accepting credit cards from next Month. They say they are stopping because of the high CC commissions, I wonder if it is because of customers doing charge backs all the time. You can'd do a charge back on a debit card.
 
I don't think this would be considered 'advertising' in Ireland. It's just part of how they do business on their website, not advertising as such.

It may well be an unfair practice, probably something for CCPC here, not the toothless ASAI (industry body, not a real regulator).

BookDepository IS Amazon, btw - both awful businesses, both treating their employees very poorly, while Bezos uses space as his little playground.

There are lots of great Irish bookshops that would welcome your business, and avoid any difficulties with customs or duties.
 
RetirementPlan said:
BookDepository IS Amazon, btw
Click to expand...

I find Book Depository very good.
Great prices and no messing with postage.

They didn't have the book I wanted.

I would prefer to order in Ireland, but you would have to do a lot of searching.

I did buy a book from Easons on Wed, and it arrived today. I was very impressed.

Brendan
 
Sunny said:
The prime things is annoying but I just keep signing up and cancelling the free trial. I have had nearly a year of free Prime including Prime video
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Don't find it annoying at all. I avail of it whenever it is offered to me and then, like you, cancel before renewal charge,
I generally only purchase on Amazon when I have the free prime.

We have done this before on AAM and IMHO it is very transparent, with all charges clearly displayed on the screen to see exactly what one is signing up to.
It's not like the renewal/monthly charge is buried within small printed T&C's.
If people can't be bothered to read what they are agreeing to, then who's fault is that?
As for cancelling, before the monthly charge kicks in, it's about 3-4 clicks.

Edited to add:- You can even place the order and immediately cancel the 'Free Prime' and you can still avail of it's benifits for the following 30 days.
 
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Bought 2 books from Easons last week, free delivery and an additional 15% discount because of Black Friday. Delivered in 2 working days. I was very happy.
 
Amazon's Foreign Exchange rate "guarantee" is expensive. I was offered a guaranteed Euro amount of €59.16 when checking out but I opted to pay in sterling, which my CC company translated to €58.39.
 
CuriousCork said:
I note that Amazon are going to stop accepting credit cards from next Month. They say they are stopping because of the high CC commissions, I wonder if it is because of customers doing charge backs all the time. You can'd do a charge back on a debit card.
Click to expand...
No, as above this only affects UK issued Visa cards and users who have used such cards in the past are being offered incentives to use an alternative.

The nexus of the issue was UK Visa increasing their interchange fees. EU law caps those at 0.3%, now that the UK are out, UK Visa decided to increase that fee to 1.5%. Amazon are using their might to fight back (solely in their own interests of course).

Note, you also can request a chargeback on a debit card.
 
CuriousCork said:
Amazon's Foreign Exchange rate "guarantee" is expensive. I was offered a guaranteed Euro amount of €59.16 when checking out but I opted to pay in sterling, which my CC company translated to €58.39.
Click to expand...
Lots of vendors offer to convert the currency for you, none of them are going to that expense for your benefit so always pay in the vendor's local currency.
 
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