jonathan18:

 

freitasm: Like any other service if you sign up for a 30 trial and don't cancel it will start charging. Whoever wrote that piece is absolutely out of touch on how these services work. There is no "nasty surprise" anywhere.

 

I think you under-estimate how unaware some people can be in regards to being fooled into signing up for such schemes.

 

My 84 year old father is a case-in-point: he simply saw the ability to get free same-day delivery for a parcel to his grandson in the UK, so signed up on the spot. No additional credit card details were required as, of course, he'd already entered them for the purchase of the item (if the card number wasn't already saved in his account). He just happened to mention to me how he would be getting same-day delivery that made me suspicious (this was the week after the coverage in NZ media), so I checked his account and low and behold he'd signed up for Amazon Prime completely unaware of the on-going cost.

 

Sure, some may argue that it's just stupid or careless people that get fooled by such marketing approaches, but I do think Amazon is deliberately underhand with this, and know full-well they'll be making a mint off people who have no knowledge of what they've done or interest in paying for such a service, and often these are vulnerable people like the elderly. I don't think it's much better than the "opt out" charges of Jetstar or other similarly dodgy practices.

 

I couldn't disagree with you more about this. The fact you will be charged at the end of the trial are made quite clear to anyone who even reads the most basic of the terms when signing up. I have yet to find, in having spent over 50K with Amazon, that they are "underhanded", and in fact I don't recall ever having had a bad experience with them, and I have had some pretty amazing experiences. 

Just because the lowest common denominator isn't smart enough to work out what the terms they sign up for, doesn't mean all companies should cater for them. I believe people need to become more aware and take more responsibility. 

For the record, a few times I have dealt with this, the chat people have always been 100% happy to credit charges when asked with no questions or hassles.

It's always a tricky one when someone uses their family as an example, because arguing that always seems to make the person who presented the situation, defensive and angry, but honestly, if your father at 84 has worked out how to get an account to amazon, load a payment type, order, and send his stuff either direct or through a reshipper, then figuring out the 30 day trial had a charge at the end doesn't seem outside of his ability to understand.

I am not attacking your father here, hopefully you will understand that.