Tricked into an Amazon Prime subscription

I use Amazon on a regular basis and I've been familiar with their tricky way to sign me up for an Amazon Prime subscription. In the smallest of letters during the checkout process is written, proceed without the 30 day free trial of Amazon Prime.This afternoon I went onto Amazon UK looking to buy some silicon grease and met another one of these Amazon Prime screens but it looked a bit different from before. Becoming suspicious I did a backspace, finally bailing out and buying nothing. I'd seen enough to suspect that I had been scammed by Amazon signing me up to Amazon Prime without my full permission.

I looked further in my account details and there didn't appear to be anything new. I logged out and logged back in about 5 minutes later, this time I looked into "subscriptions", and there it was, my 30 day free trial of Amazon Prime, which after that become a paid for service. Fortunately I did find a screen to cancel my subscription.

Looking later in my emails there are two from Amazon, at 19.37, "Welcome to Amazon Prime ...", at 20.12, "We are confirming that you have turned off your auto-renew setting. Your Prime membership will not continue and you will lose access to your Prime benefits at the end of your membership period".

I repeat I made no purchase today on Amazon yet they signed me up for Amazon Prime. Be warned it might happen again.

It's likely that some members on ASOF who are fully signed up for Prime but I don't like being tricked in this way.

I was caught once and managed to get myself removed. It’s underhand. I don’t say I never use Amazon now but I will always look for alternatives and use Amazon last. However setting up accounts with new suppliers is a faff and of course with Amazon it’s just a matter of pressing a couple of buttons.

Different company similar scam
NEVER EVER USE My Manuals.net.
Needed a manual for MH cooker, indeed got one, £1:49.
Wifey (a Yorkie) checks bank account finds a monthly £24:99 subscription in our account, month 1 already taken and paid for.
I had no recollection of even seeing this when I bought the manual
So phoned them, got suitably snotty female on phone. 
Gave her the sort of conversation you really don't want twice and she said I had ticked terms and conditions and in there was my agreement to a subscription!!!

Now, I know we should read these, but few, esp me do, but also is this the best place to add an unwanted subscription payment............NO!

So she got more by telephone education, and eventually just hung up

So I submitted a review (existing ones were 94% zero and lots of letters like mine!) in terms leaving no-one in any doubt.

To my considerable surprise an email arrived few mins later refunding my subscription amount and cancelling subscription!!

I know, I, perhaps, should have been more careful, but, truthfully, how many of us would have done exactly what I did, just got a manual I needed, more interested in that than the admin trivia!!

I have forgotten the number of times I have left Amazon without buying due to their sign up or so called free postage.

Never ever go for quick delivery, unless really urgent, as I find most items will arrived just as quick with normal free postage.

I also seem to get a phone call from an Indian accent lady within a couple of days saying" this is Amazon security calling, your account has been hacked" Well I tell her not to waste my time and go away, or words to that effect.
---------
Richard

I always try to avoid letting such organisations keep my card details. On Amazon you can go into your account and remove the "payment method" (I think that's what they call it).  Of course, it is there to make it easier for you to pay for things. This unfortunately also includes things you don't want.

Always lots of big buttons for "buy this" or "buy that", but not so clear when you want to opt out.

What a lovely world we live in.

Our daughter set up our Amazon account whilst she was living at home. Thought nothing of it until I checked our online banking and found they had upgraded me to Prime. 
I tried to resolve this on line with no success so I had to go through the phone call farce. They did remove the Prime membership but not before a lot of waffle about what benefits I was missing out on. 
I still use Amazon occasionally but as soon as they mention 24 hr delivery if you have prime I look elsewhere.

Yes. I am really careful with Amazon since they altered their website & ordering process a year or so back.
Got caught out the other day - not just for the £7.99 but also for the £70+ 12 month Prime.  This is despite being super careful.
Using the cancel section of the website (when you can find it) & a phone call have got refunds for all of it.
I also try always to use companies other than Amazon, and I also try never to allow companies to "keep" my card details.
I buy quite a lot on line, and find Amazon the worst of the lot.

For all online or telephone purchases I use a second current account. This normally only has a few pounds in it until I contemplate a purchase. Having worked out the cost of the item I transfer the correct amount to that account so hopefully nothing in terms of card fraud can occur. There is no overdraft facility and I have instructed my bank to refuse any requests that might create a negative balance.
I use this for any company who helpfully offer to auto renew premiums etc to save me time. This on top of me always demanding that auto renew function be turned off.
I suppose a prepay card could be used the same way but transfer of funds might take a few days before a purchase can be made.

Davy

Both of us have been caught by the Amazon subterfuge, we also used the cancel my subscription screen immediately afterwards. I get that many are happy with Prime but my question is, if it's such a great service, why do they resort to tricking people into signing up?

Because they’re profit motivated.

I like Prime and have subscribed for a few years but I quite agree that folk need to have their wits about them to avoid the trap.

I had a delivery today - bank holiday - of goods ordered yesterday evening. Can’t fault that   

I pay annually, GH, as it works out cheaper so my DD doesn’t appear monthly.

I don't order enough on Amazon to justify the costs of Prime. A couple of times I have signed up to the free 30 day offer and at the end of the period have not had the time to use the free video and music service in the previous 30 days.

What I can't work out is why every time I do order something it offers me the free Student Membership scheme. For some reason when it ask what year I qualify it doesn't have 1985 as an option . Yet again the "Sign Up" option is much more clearly marked than the "no thanks, I don't want free delivery"

I usually sign up with prime around Christmas time for buying bits for Christmas then cancel week before the 30 day trial ends no problem get the bits a lot quicker