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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 was charged for like 4 months not knowing it. I canceled my subscription last year
Should your firm initiate a class action lawsuit against Amazon prime regarding its fraudulent business practices, I would be happy to join as a litigant. Repeatedly I have ended my membership only to have it renewed automatically. at one point, I took 1/2 hour to finally get a live person on the phone and was told that the “automatic renewal“ function which is like a puzzle to decipher to find out where it is to disengage it, which I still can’t find out where it is, but was assured by the Amazon representative that I would no longer be billed for prime services, which is not the case. I have plenty of documentation in the form of bank statements where I’m charged for unauthorized prime services, then after going through the process of canceling the membership, which is a very time-consuming and difficult procedure, I was issued a refund for the membership but then had it initiated again several days or several weeks later multiple times. I also have emails showing that I’m a prime member canceled and then renewed canceled and then renewed repetitively. As of this email I have once again been signed up for prime membership without my authorization and only given the option to cancel it in mid February, thus incurring a charge for the one month.
Amazon has made so many unauthorized charges on my account. I cancelled Prime on December 12th and yet I was charged for December and January unknowingly. Their interface is extremely predatory and makes it very difficult to cancel. You can subscribe with one accidental click but to unsubscribe you have to go through an entire maze and click confirm cancel over 5 times. Imagine how predatory this is toward older people. Their system is designed so that they entice people in with free trials, and they hope they will forget to cancel before it renews. Even if you do manage to cancel before it renews they charge you anyway.
Amazon offer refund of Unauthrozied charges but use unfair system for customer to get their own money
I had major issues cancelling my Audible subscription. As it turned our I was a member of amazon audible US site but cancelling the order is only possible via website. When I tried to access the audible website (from Finland) I got automatically redirected to Audible UK site. When I logged in there it showed I have no open subscriptions. As a consequence I got charged by audible untill I noticed the charges on my bank account. I had to contact customer support (again via audible uk site as at this point I was still not aware of the issue) and even they could not cancel the order for me as it’s a different company. Finally I got a link from customer service from which I could access US site to cancel my subscription.
I was being charged on 2 credit cards & a debit card for years! Why is it hard to sign up for a case! It’s obvious this is intentional by the company created loop holes to protect themselves!
ABSOLUTELY!! They DO make it almost impossible to cancel a prime membership. I cancelled mine several times (or so I thought) only to have them continue charging my account month after month!!
yes and me in the lawsuit I had one prime account in Pennington,NJ and I close it out I moved to Hamilton,NJ and when I closed that one out too they open up the Pennington account with out me knowing it took for ever to get them to close it
Oh yes add me they take money out of two accounts at once for prime.. would not give our money back.and put us on a music subscription we did not order 16.00 took off my card would not refund my money..they owe my family a lot.
I have had this problem with Prime subscriptions. Please include me