this post was submitted on 29 May 2024
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557
Amazon execs may be personally liable for tricking users into Prime sign-ups (arstechnica.com)
submitted 5 months ago by jeffw@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] Xanis@lemmy.world 173 points 5 months ago (3 children)

I'll say this: Grabbed a free month of Prime through Google Play. Went to cancel it before it charged me again and I had so much trouble figuring out how I decided that I couldn't be the only one and ended up Googling it.

You couldn't quit in the Google Play Store. It wasn't even listed.

It wasn't any form of subscription or listed as a membership on Amazon.

You couldn't end it by following QR codes or links supplied to you on Amazon itself.

It wasn't in your Amazon profile or Google profile.

The ONLY WAY to cancel it was by scanning the QR code, following the link, clicking on a "Contact Support" button, clicking on another button under "Help Topics" that said, "How to end your Prime Membership", and finally you were taken to a page where you could actually end it. Obfuscated like a motherfucker.

[–] AtariDump@lemmy.world 56 points 5 months ago

But the plans were on display…”
“On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them.”
“That’s the display department.”
“With a flashlight.”
“Ah, well, the lights had probably gone.”
“So had the stairs.”
“But look, you found the notice, didn’t you?”
“Yes,” said Arthur, “yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying ‘Beware of the Leopard.

[–] ThirdWorldOrder@lemm.ee 11 points 5 months ago

That’s fucked. I believe subscriptions are so be as easy to cancel as they are to sign up.

[–] lagomorphlecture@lemm.ee 10 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

My mom recently asked me to cancel her prime reading or whatever for her and it was infuriating. I was in the app and clicked cancel and it went to a browser where I had to click to cancel and that just opened the app where I had to click the same link that opened the browser that opened the app that opened the browser. I was getting fucking pissed when it suddenly finally opened the link in the browser so I could cancel. I'm 99% sure they actually have it coded to open in the browser after 10 tries or something to make it difficult but can't run afoul of legislation since you can technically do it if you are tenacious enough.

[–] SuperSaiyanSwag@lemmy.zip 7 points 5 months ago

Companies that rely a lot on their phone apps, but exclude the “cancel/remove account” feature in the app are the worst. This should be illegal or regulated.

[–] KoboldCoterie@pawb.social 125 points 5 months ago (4 children)

They claimed that the FTC never alerted them to any wrongdoing before filing the lawsuit, so how could they have known they were violating the law?

"The police never informed me I was doing anything illegal before arresting me, so how could I possibly have known?"

Ignorance of the law isn't a defense against breaking it in any other sector...

[–] bionicjoey@lemmy.ca 38 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I'm sure their legions of lawyers never warned them it might be illegal

[–] catloaf@lemm.ee 29 points 5 months ago

I'm sure they did, but they felt that this was more profitable, even if they got caught.

[–] pearsaltchocolatebar@discuss.online 13 points 5 months ago (1 children)

It can be. There's a saying that intent is 9/10 of the law.

But, they definitely intended to fuck people over, so that's a moot point.

[–] Zink@programming.dev 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I think the saying is that possession is 9/10 of the law.

But I agree. Of course they intended to fuck people over. That’s their job, pretty much.

[–] pearsaltchocolatebar@discuss.online 0 points 5 months ago (1 children)

No, it's intent.

[–] Zink@programming.dev 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I did check myself before I posted that. In fact, if you type “intent is 9/10 of the law” into DDG, the entire first page of results gives you “possession is 9/10 of the law” instead.

But to be fair, I did see two examples of the intent version after scrolling through the first few pages.

[–] pearsaltchocolatebar@discuss.online 1 points 5 months ago

I stand corrected

[–] APassenger@lemmy.world 6 points 5 months ago

Ethical behavior is a thing for SO many reasons. One of them is it tends to keep you on the right side of the law.

[–] Pistcow@lemm.ee 74 points 5 months ago (3 children)

You know what's been a great experience? Trying to quit Apple+. Took seconds to set up an account on my TV and weeks to cancel. Filled a complaint with my state AG.

[–] _sideffect@lemmy.world 16 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Cancel the card if you can

[–] Pistcow@lemm.ee 31 points 5 months ago (2 children)

I disputed the charge every month for about three months. Turns out you need an apple device to reset your apple password or wait weeks for an arbitrary email to verify your account. I don't own a single apple device, but my LG TV had Apple+.

[–] criticon@lemmy.ca 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Do you? I don't own any apple device but I was able to reset the password on my very old account to use apple tv+ on my LG TV

[–] Pistcow@lemm.ee 1 points 5 months ago

Yarp. My tv reset and I couldn't remember the password then they required I reset my password on an Apple device.

[–] MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca 2 points 5 months ago

You can borrow my iPhone for it. I don't use it.

[–] CosmoNova@lemmy.world 4 points 5 months ago

Apple+ is the worst subscription service I‘ve come across. I was interested in 2 shows but it wouldn‘t let me subscribe, browse their catalog or unsubscribe in the browser. I had to use my old iPad to subscribe and unsubscribe because apparently it‘s only meant to be used by apple hardware users? And what‘s even worse I had to use online search engines to actually get to the pages of shows and movies in my browser so I could watch it on my computer. Whenever I tried to go to the catalog directly, it would give me an error. Needlessly to say the stuff that I watched was mediocre at best and I immediately cancelled my subscription as soon as I found out how.

[–] taiyang@lemmy.world 2 points 5 months ago (3 children)

Oh dang I know the free trial, we got that too. Fuck I hope it's not as much a pain to cancel for us.

[–] sigmaklimgrindset@sopuli.xyz 6 points 5 months ago

If you have it from a new iPhone, you can literally cancel it from your settings >> Apple ID >> subscriptions. I have no idea how to do it on any other Apple device (because I don't own any others) but I know my dad had a hell of a time cancelling something for his Macbook.

Good luck o7

[–] ediculous@feddit.nl 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

How did you make out with cancelling? Despite what people are saying here, I didn't have a problem doing it from a browser and I don't own any Apple devices.

[–] taiyang@lemmy.world 1 points 5 months ago

Luckily I could do it via browser too. I had used the account I had used to also read .notes files (before Google drive could read them) and sure enough I could cancel just fine.

[–] whostosay@lemmy.world 1 points 5 months ago

Spoiler, it will be. Fuck apple and every megacorp like it.

[–] JasonDJ@lemmy.zip 56 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (3 children)

Literally can't stay ahead of it.

My kid re-activated prime on me a long time ago, before I had even started thinking about parental controls, by selecting a movie on the Kindle Fire playing with the remote.

Thought I'd learned my lesson, but no. Couple years later he reactivated Audible by asking the thermostat to read him a story. He was probably like 4 or 5 by then. Not only reactivated Audible, but wasted a credit on The Three Little Pigs

[–] taiyang@lemmy.world 30 points 5 months ago (2 children)

My 2 year old reactivated prime twice now, and a britbox subscription, all playing with the remote. I swear you can sit on the fire stick remote and it'll sign you up.

I actually was a prime member the first time, I cancelled it after that britbox subscription. We literally go out of our way now to avoid Amazon--- which is haaaard. At least you can get a refund if you bug them enough.

[–] JasonDJ@lemmy.zip 19 points 5 months ago

It's so easy, a toddler could do it.

[–] TexasDrunk@lemmy.world 10 points 5 months ago

Ok, you're the third person I've heard of that had an accidental britbox subscription. I'm not even sure you have to sit on the remote for that one.

[–] jeffw@lemmy.world 14 points 5 months ago

The three little pigs lol, that part had me dying

[–] MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I'm so confused how these devices ended up subscribing you to these services without further validation.

I use mainly Google products and I don't think I can even subscribe to audible if I tried, by voice alone.

Were these Amazon devices or something? I'm really confused.

[–] JasonDJ@lemmy.zip 2 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

Yes, Kindle Fire TV and Ecobee thermostat (with Alexa).

And for the record, I hate Alexa, or at least the version in my thermostat. Alexa makes Google nests look like a Nobel laureate.

These were also reactivations, so they already had all our account info, and entirely inside Amazons walled garden.

[–] MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca 1 points 5 months ago

Well, that at least mostly explains it.

But giving the ability for Alexa to activate paid services is kind of crazy to me.

[–] Jimmycakes@lemmy.world 35 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Lmao no they won't

[–] MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz 8 points 5 months ago

Oh dear, had to pay a million dollar fine... What's this, a million dollar bonus? How did that happen?

[–] Magzmak@lemmy.world 30 points 5 months ago (2 children)

I still haven't consented to the 2.99 price hike to no have commercials. I will wait until the lawsuit runs its course because fuck em.

[–] mipadaitu@lemmy.world 33 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I just started pirating Amazon shows, fuck em if they bait and switch me.

[–] Jimmycakes@lemmy.world 8 points 5 months ago

Piracy and iptv is back on the menu

[–] SkyezOpen@lemmy.world 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Pretty sure ublock works. Haven't seen any prime video ads yet.

[–] Magzmak@lemmy.world 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Yeah but can I get that for my firestick?

[–] SkyezOpen@lemmy.world 1 points 5 months ago

I just plug a really long hdmi into my computer if I want to watch things. Smart tech is pretty awful and will only get worse.

You can jailbreak a firestick but it seems like that's for third party streaming which is spicy unless you have a VPN. No idea about adblock for official apps.

[–] Veraxus@lemmy.world 26 points 5 months ago

How about the whole “sure you already paid for a year of Prime Video, but now you need to pay us again or we’re going to ruin the thing you already paid for” situation?

[–] MichaelTen@lemmy.world 6 points 5 months ago

Boycott Amazon.

[–] terminhell@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 5 months ago

~~may~~ should

[–] chris@lemm.ee 4 points 5 months ago

On the other hand, I didn’t sign up for Prime but have had it for 2 months now. Have yet to be charged and I can’t access the page to cancel it.