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Leaving Amazon Prime is tough to do.
A group of public interest advocates have told U.S. regulators they think Amazon deliberately makes it difficult to cancel an Amazon Prime subscription, its customer loyalty program.
In a letter sent to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on Thursday, a group led by consumer watchdog Public Citizen asked the commission to investigate whether Amazon.com Inc. has violated consumer protection laws with its process for canceling Prime membership subscriptions.
The letter draws on a report made by the Norwegian Consumer Council (NCC), which investigates the “manipulative” design choices in Amazon Prime’s subscription model.
The report, which was researched in the U.S., U.K., and E.U., says that Prime’s subscription model is a “roach motel,” where getting in is easy, but escape is an ordeal.
The steps involved in cancelling Prime are designed to unfairly and deceptively undermine the will of the consumer.
To cancel Prime, the consumer is led through a series of six pages and is ultimately pushed toward maintaining their membership, the NCC claims . The pages include “dark patterns” and deceptive “visual interference” techniques such as yellow warning triangles with an exclamation point inside and text buttons stating “keep my benefits”.
A spokesperson for Amazon told Bloomberg that it is “clear and easy” to cancel Prime online, by phone or by opting out of automatic renewal.
“Customer trust is at the heart of all of our products and services and we strongly disagree with any claim that our cancellation process creates uncertainty,” the spokesperson said. “The information we provide in the online cancellation flow gives a full view of the benefits and services members are canceling.”
TCA reached out to the FTC for comment on the recall and will update the story when we hear back. Amazon Prime, which costs $119 USD per year, is a subscription only service offering free shipping, video streaming and more to its users. According to Statistica, as of Dec. 2019, an estimated 112 million people in the U.S. were subscribed to Prime.
Although complaints often land with the FTC with minimal action taken, Bloomberg reports that at least one of the parties involved in Thursday’s letter, the Center for Digital Democracy, has encouraged commissioners to take actions in the past.
Retail giant Amazon has faced a number of claims of deceptive practices over the years, and has been hit with a range of class action lawsuits alleging the online retail giant falsely advertises its Prime membership to consumers.
Have you experienced difficulty with canceling your Amazon Prime membership? Share your experience in the comments below.
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54 thoughts onAmazon Prime Subscription Too Hard to Cancel, Watchdogs say
I’ve cancelled my membership at least 5 or 6 times in the last year. I hardly use Amazon and when I do it’s to compare a price usually. Everytime I opened up the website I’d have prime again. I’d go through the 6 step process of deleting it. I get the same prompt, “you’ll lose all your prime benefits if you cancel now!” Blah blah blah. Get to the end of it EVERY TIME and it gives me the “you will no longer have access to Prime after *specific date*” and every time I come back – EVERY TIME – I’ll be subscribed to prime again. This time I called and I asked them why I keep getting resubscribed. Their reason was that someone started an HBO max trial on my TV that I NEVER use. I told them that wasn’t possible. On the off chance that I do watch tv it’s on an Apple TV. I’ve never used the smart tv feature or the apps on my tv. Absolute bullshit.
This isn’t just Amazon Prime, although every complaint against Amazon is valid and I have lived it myself. However, I just spent a nightmare several days trying to cancel AT&T / DTV because of faulty equipment, lousy service, overpriced service. Customers can only cancel service by CALLING and cancelling, though my constant re-routing to one more person who would “help” me and then repeated (at least a dozen) disconnects by the AT&T / DTV employees made it nearly impossible. How did I ultimately cancel? By filing a complaint with the TX AG and the FTC and FCC! Then I got a call from the “AT&T Office of the President” (Bull, of couse) and several emails apologizing. Yep. I’ll bet they were sorry after having a fed complaint filed against them for antitrust. These companies have to STOP ripping off customers and people have to STOP electing politicians that do nothing to protect the people. I hope Amazon — and all the other anti-competitive companies like AT&T / DTV — get dragged through courts and pay substantial fines. I doubt they will learn even then, but at least it will hurt a little bit.
I had been given a free trial for prime when I placed an order back in March 2022.. I just noticed about 3 weeks ago when I didn’t have funds in my account that Amazon was trying to deduct $14.99 from my account and was declined.. I have looked everywhere on website to cancel and even emailed the third-party seller Amazon Service LLC and still nothing.. yet they tried deducting money again yesterday!
I was also charged for months on my credit card after cancelling my prime membership. They also did this with prime video, prime music and others on my amazon credit card after they started a trial membership for free without my consent, and continued to charge me for over 2 years! They would only refund 6 months when I called to complain.