Amazon SUED Over Prime Cancellation Tricks | Breaking Points
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- Опубликовано: 21 июн 2023
- Krystal and Saagar are joined by Matt Stoller to break down a lawsuit by the FTC against Amazon.
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need to do this with all companies that make it difficult af to cancel anything
The worst is these legacy news sites who force you to call them on the telephone to cancel an online subscription. This shit should be illegal.
I head that "gyms" are some of the worst to try and cancel
Signing up for prime: fast, easy, pretty painless
Cancelling: you need a notary, fax machine and 3 carrier pigeons
LOL
I've never had a problem with cancelling. Just go to your account's options and click cancel. What am I missing ?
@@rvnhty Yeah same But I live in UK maybe it's more difficult in the US
@@gjp7791 Oh yeah maybe it's different in the US. I'm in Canada.
And that is why i NEVER subscribe to anything.
I cancelled my prime last year.. but for some reason my prime account was still active. I checked all my statements on my CC’s and bank account.. No transaction. I thought I was good to go. Last month an attempted transaction was placed by prime on a credit card I had locked down. It did not process. Two days later, my other CC pinged for a prime renewal transaction. I flagged it as fraudulent. The charge was retracted. Then a few hours after the refund, they fucking billed my debit card. And of course my bank was like “your money, your problem”.
I have the receipts that I cancelled prime in 2022. I did not approve any of these transactions. I hope the FTC nails them for this.
I used to work for a bank and I'm surprised that they had that response. I'm sorry. It was really easy to challenge especially when you had proof. Maybe I'm the three years I left it changed though 😢
Substack needs to get sued for their fraudulent billing practices as well. They put out a "pause sub" feature that automatically restarts after 1 month, and during the pause they prevent you from cancelling outright. So no matter what, you get dinged for an extra month. This deception annoyed me enough to cancel all subs.
Amazon is horrible with this crap.. it automatically selects reoccurring purchases on household items and just try to cancel your audible account… it’s a nightmare.
Well you signed up to them...I have always refused to have anything to do with Amazon. They have always been evil.
Yup, had to call to cancel mine 😂
Right! I cancel audible every few months...I don't even remember signing up for it to begin with!
@@sahn-yuh Exactly! I've been charged hundreds of dollars from Audible no matter how many times I try to cancel!!!
Cancelled Audible successfully after the second try lol
I hope they make this class action. I've been a victim of this.
Anything to be a victim
I've cancelled prime several times. It only takes about 4 brain cells... Which is tough because most people only have 2
Amazon tricked me, too. I went through the official process of writing a letter to Synchrony Bank/Amazon detailing my complaint and saying I had no intention of ever signing up for their credit card. They reimbursed me. Then they kept sending statements and charging me for an unidentified purchase: The word “Amazon” followed by a string of numbers, letters and symbols. And this “purchase” increases every month. I’m guessing they are now billing for Prime membership on a monthly rather than an annual basis-but not identifying the charge because they keep raising the fee. If I’m right about this charge, the annual Prime fee is now $417.00. So I’m going to write another letter of complaint to Amazon via Synchrony Bank, only now I can reference this lawsuit by the FTC. Yeah!
So happy you two invited Matt Stoller to give us the lowdown on the FTC lawsuit against Amazon for deceptive practices. Now when I write for the second time to Synchrony Bank/Amazon to complain about once again being charged a monthly fee for an unidentified purchase (“Amazon” followed by numbers, letters, and symbols) , I can reference this lawsuit. THANK YOU!!
Now when try and get an Amazon Refund from a return.
They have "Apply Refund to Amazon Account" in big bold text just hoping people don't read the page and click on the first link they see with "Refund" on it.
THen if you look there is a small icon you can click that hides the option " Apply refund to payment method".
This is not by accident and even more BS Amazon needs to be hit with.
I've noticed this as well.
Happen to me all the time. My wife always remind me click on original payment method lol
Sounds like deleting an account on Snapchat
An experience of one: I accepted a 30 day trial of Prime this year. It was extended by a subsequent 30 days. The whole time communications was very good, and cancelation was not more than a single click. What i wish would be addressed are the fake reviews, and the knock off brands still selling. For the later, Amazon does little to police these things even after complaints are made.
Yeah I found it extremely easy to cancel too
@@logicthought24 No, I'm not talking about cheap crap. I'm talking about knockoffs masquerading as brand named products. During lockdown, I went to buy some resistance brands from a manufacturer that I've used before. I saw new reviews of premature failure. I contacted the company and they told me "that's not us," and to only buy through their Amazon product page, and that they regularly complain to Amazon about the knock offs using their brand name. They said, "Amazon does little to police this, we complain constantly."
Canceling Amazon was literally the ONLY time I have ever had to use Siri to accomplish a task in my phone
Many, many, many websites trick people into making your order a recurring purchase. It's sometimes very difficult to cancel that.
I cancelled my prime sub this year because I wasn't using it and they tried resubscribing me the month after. When I complained they sent me through four different people who lied and said I didn't cancel my subscription despite me having a confirmation email and deleting my credit card info from their site. I threatened to report their charge as fraud to my bank and they refunded 3 months of prime subs the next day.
If you're buying enough stuff to justify getting Prime, you're probably buying too much stuff
Buying stuff equals money moving. Moving money is good for an economy. Good economy keeps countries in order and strong.
@chriswhite714 "thus you should buy something you dont need."
@@lata1224 "Need" don't be a communist...
People might also use it for the streaming content.
Definitely. See an adiction recovery service.
I'm so glad I deleted my Amazon account. It's been almost 6 years, and I have no regrets whatsoever.
The trouble is that banking has gone digital and so all these businesses have instant access to your money. If you die, they keep instantly taking your money, if they create a hidden fee or service they instantly take your money, and if you want to get out of a contract they make you jump through hoops.
I have cancelled credit cards to get rid of them. Once they find out there is no money they go away.
Amazon lets you sign up for recurring subscriptions on any source but can only cancel them from a desktop
I have been more and more unimpressed with Amazon products lately. Seems almost everything on there now is cheap knockoff brands and getting harder and harder to get good deals on name brand items. I have found many times the last couple years that the manufacturers site is actually cheaper, even when factoring in shipping.
I’m not sure why you’re saying it’s always the lowest price - it’s most certainly not. I canceled my prime subscription because I was able to beat their prices so regularly it no longer made sense.
This is extremely interesting and well explained, thanks for bringing us this info
Haven’t used Amazon in 3 years
For a few months now I have been searching tirelessly for information on how to start investing. I even paid $400 for a course that I now regret. It appears that there is no structured guide for beginners on how to get started in this realm. I’ve come across several investors making well over $250k/annual and I would be grateful if anyone on here could provide insights on how to get started, identify potential stocks when to make an entry, exit etc
Keep it simple in the beginning. Buy something, like an index fund, and hold. Educate yourself in the meantime and elevate your risk tolerance over time.
In order to make profits from trading you need loads of experience and a well-defined strategy, which most traders don't have. If you trade without the proper preparation, you're most likely to lose your money. Identify the buy/sell ratios and identify the market leaders and most importantly. Diversify! this will help you spread the risk
Even with the right technique and assets, some investors would still make more than others, as an investor, you should’ve known that by now, nothing beats experience and that’s final, personally, I had to reach out to a market analyst for guidance which is how I was able to grow my account close to a million, withdraw my profit right before the correction and now I’m buying again
who is your financial coach, do you mind hooking me up?
credits to *MARTHA ALONSO HARA* , one of the best portfolio managers out there. she's well known, you should look her up
I’ve canceled several times with no issue at all.
I just use a free trial once a year to catch up on The Boys or some other prime shows.
I still get free shipping when I’m not a prime member, it’s easy to spend at least $25
I've also canceled several times and had no issues. In fact recently I canceled 5 days after they charged me and they refunded the money, like whaaa? I don't love Amazon, but customer service has been top notch.
Just shut amazon down altogether im so sick of them and all that crap is marked up vs going into a store
BOYCOTT ALL THINGS AMAZON!
my main complaint is how the "auto-renew" subscription goes up every year without you knowing. like it first started as $72 for me and i just checked and it was $142. but i had no email or text all those years to tell me it was more expensive
Matt is always informative and I am so glad you have contributors like him. I am already a member and I hope you all get to more than a million.
Didn't Amazon get caught copying people's IP and reselling their own line of similar products once before?
My family has been living without AP for years and I will never give another penny of my money to that company. One of the top corporate welfare recipients.
Controlling suppliers abilities to set prices is what happened in the 1920s with the A&P as Matt Stoller wrote about in his book. As an 80s kid I only ever saw a few dying A&P stores, in backwater towns. A&P ran into a little problem called senator Wright Patman
Hilarious that there was an Amazon ad before this video played!
Amazon lawn and garden still hosts sellers of seeds for Blue Roses and Rainbow Roses. And Blue Dahlias. None of those flowers actually exists.
What Amazon is doing is a old and common trick in the subscription businesses. Years ago I had the same experience with MCI telephone service, I was trying to cancel their landline and get a wireless service from AT&T, and there was just no way to cancel the MCI subscription, nothing on their website and no customer service. Eventually I had to sign up a new landline service with Quest and somehow Quest knew how to end the MCI service for me. Then I cancelled the Quest service after a couple of month, when I had a wireless phone with AT&T.
Individual users just don’t have the time or resources to fight those evil companies, so I’m glad to see this law suit is happening, and hope we have laws in place to keep them from ripping people off again.
A T & T was a horror show on cancellation. They would simply refuse to your face. Even if you launched into 2 minutes of cursing. The response was simply "No".
I haven't used amazon in 10 years. It's a shame everyone else wouldn't do the same.
Sounds like the same "Game" Monsanto pulls on Farmers and the Agricultural realm.
Break Amazon to pieces!
American retail has gone to the crapper...businesses aren't even concerned with customer service any longer. Businesses are forced to hire "less-than-ideal" employees who want to be anywhere but at work. So why would I chance a crappy encounter at a store when I can push a button on my phone, continue on my day, and get what I need without hassles.
Not really about internet shopping, and Amazon isn't the only online store either
Business don't have to higher, less qualified employees they choose to. Sounds like if they paid more, they would get more qualified employees.
@@kamifuujin doubt it....people with no skillset, no work ethic, and unreliable demanding +$15/hr. is commonplace now. "Sounds like if they paid more" would not bring in "more qualified" workers since those demanding the highest wages have the least amount of EXPERIENCE! Besides, raising wages would raise prices so the "raise" is never realized when a combo goes up to $12-$15....
Let's face it, when a young adult sees dipshit, no talent "influencers" making bank, they feel entitled to the same.
@@kamifuujin I'm not trying to defend Amazon but it's an illusion at best...raise wages = raise prices = no gain. The problem is the SJWs want a company to privatize the losses but publicize the profits.
ty
I find myself thinking about what Teddy Roosevelt and Upton Sinclair would do in a case like this.
Yes, monopolies should NOT be controlling everything. AND the Amazon model is the internet version of Walmart. The trek to Bentonville is a storied one, although, as my daughter points out, subscription not required. Not defending the strategy (it sucks.) But it's not exactly innovative. Monopolies are crushing the consumer.
I know Amazon will lie about shipping dates. Like it will say it will be there next day or X day but it will alert you after the purchase that there is a delay. I feel like there attitude is to promise a certain day to entice you to buy all the while knowing it will take them longer to deliver. They will also not allow you to cancel the items, sometimes even right after purchasing. I have bought something then 30 seconds later realized it was the wrong thing so I go to cancel and it will say sorry item is already on its way. Like really?
"Prime has 150-200 Billion Members..." Are aliens from far away galaxies signing up for it? Surely Matt meant Million.
I wonder what the shipping time is for Prime products in Andromeda.
I had a hard time trying to cancel audible not sure why u cant cancel or pause the service on the app
Yo, your new set is really kick ass. Your team did a great job
They screwed me several years ago but I simply refused to pay. Took a year to get it resolved in my favor.
Is there a list of producer/sellers who aren’t on Amazon?
Amazon screwed over me big time. Beware!
This happens to me all the time. I cancle my prime a couple times a year. Then when I check its back.
Does anybody know why K & S switched sides at the desk? If they explained it, I missed that part.
Good!
Thank GOD. I’m so tired of this BS!!!!!
Costco does the exact same thing.
I vehemently oppose Amazon and cancelled my account. I just saw yesterday when I HAD to order from them that they didn't ask me to subscribe. I then realized I've been subscribed for a while monthly. I should have caught it sooner and paid more attention
Here is another one.
Try to find where to sign out off the app.
Almost impossible.
Amazon wants you signed in 24/7.
I ended up deleting the app, and just use a browser to sign in/out.
I labeled it scamazon 20 years ago and used it maybe 3 times and still feel bad about it. You can get anything somewhere else. Boycott it.
Go after Ticketmaster next! I got a subscription to Rolling Stone from not unchecking a box when I bought concert tickets once.
I hate Amazon
I like to shop with small businesses online. But be cautious, smaller companies have had trouble with keeping password & credit card info secure and I don’t want to get on file with a lot of small companies. When I buy from smaller sellers I don’t even leave my card on file. I buy as a guest.
I ordered online this month 2023. My last order was 2020. I like going to stores & shopping.
I just canceled my Prime membership two weeks ago and had no issues.
One time I watched a "free" movie on prime, fine print it was a free trial to a 3rd party service, so a month later I get a $15 charge from Amazon not the other service, luckily I have phone alerts on and canceled through the Amazon website, and to their credit they prorated the refund to like $14.50 because I had the service for a day. But also, because apple and Google take a cut of any in app transaction, you can only do this on the desktop site, so that's another layer of making it more complicated
So Bezos will have to sell his $500M yacht & get a $400M yacht… 🤡🙄
Much better framing on the set in this video
Remember two day shipping? Pepperidge Farms remembers.
Looks like Amazon forgot to pay someone off
Prime use to be a decent deal when they forced companies to be cheaper than brick and morter stores But as predicted as soon as the ran those stores out of business they are now higher than a real store in prices. Higher than Best buy for example. They have no over head and front end like a store has. They ran them out then boosted prices higher than retail. I quit them and yes they try ever trick in the book to get you to sign up. I quit because they gave me FREE audio books for a year and I called them twice on it and they assured me it was FREE. Well they later snuck in charges to the tune of 140.00 for those audio books and blamed it on audacity no refund either. So I quit prime as they are a bunch of crooks and liars.
"as soon as they ran those stores out of business they are now higher than a real store in prices", well YES, that has ALWAYS been the agenda of the Amazon business model. People that support emerging monopolies, because they get a few good deals, are just painting themselves into a monopolized corner. Boycott Amazon!
It's been long time since Matt came on show, i was begin to wonder what happened to him.👍
TO SHOP IN THEIR GROCERY STORE YOU HAVE TO SIGN UP AND PAY A MONTHLY FEE, AND WITHOUT A MEMBERSHIP THEIR FOOD PRICES ARE VERY HIGH
I gave up trying to cancel and just got a new debit card.
“Rank, order, deference and hierarchy” - great way to frame it. That is how they want it.
amazon pushes overall retail prices up? seriously?
Amazon is absolutely terrible. They do exactly what this guy is saying with their "fair pricing policy" which forces sellers to sell items at or below the price of competing sites. The net outcome is sellers raise the prices of the items they sell on those competing sites so they can sell for more on Amazon and make their margin. If the seller only sells that particular item on Amazon, but the item is sold on a competing site by a different seller for less, then Amazon forces the seller to lower the price of the item to the same or less than the competing site. Many Amazon sellers end up losing money because of this.
And don't even get me started on Amazon's review manipulation. Their algorithm is an atrocious black box without consistent or fair rules and policies. This is all just the tip of the iceberg with Amazon. They are a terrible company that needs to be reigned in and repaired.
I have 4 separate Amazon accounts and alternate between them depending on which one has a 30 day Prime trial offer.
Amazon are sueing me!
cancelling is a disaster. I normally call them and ask for a refund
And credit card companies will not prevent reoccurring charges, even if you tell them they are unauthorized. They will only cancel your whole card, which of course is very inconvenient. I have fired credit card companies over this, but they all do it.
Good about time but there's still no recourse for all the theft of small business stuff. But, I've cancelled prime a few times though it's annoying.
I don't get this. I've canceled and re- subscribed to Amazon Prime several times. It was literally a couple of buttons to push and it was canceled.
lol when I cancelled my prime I remember thinking wow this is so scammy.
They got me too 😠
I like this camera angle
To Be Fair: I've tried Amazon Prime a few times over the years, whether it was for a year or so as well as "30 Day Trial Period". The latter a few times. Why? There were problems in the past where I received items later than "2 Day Shipping". Every time I canceled the subscription there was NO problem. It was quick, simple, no phantom charges to my credit card. Also, in terms of using Amazon in general, the times there have been problems with items in terms of not being "As Advertised" in a condition worse than stated ( not due to damage during shipment ), including from Marketplace Sellers, Amazon has been very, very good in processing refunds that were reasonable or beyond the call of duty. Yes, Amazon has made some mistakes, and some customer service representatives were stubborn in dealing with them, yet they overall have solved problems both due to their mistakes and others'. One last thing: there are customers who abuse the system, wrongfully blame Amazon for damage during shipping, or post false reviews, i.e. The Customer is NOT always right. Humans, on the Amazon side of things as well as the Consumer side of things, are fallible and need to be taken with a grain of salt while getting to the bottom of what the truth is.
Can he cover Amazon Pharmacy's push to have you buy a prime subscription to get overnight shipping on temperature sensitive drugs too? Mandatory mail order drugs for prescription plans should be illegal. Why are they separating you from your Pharmacist and pushing you to buy prime for safe drug handling?
Canceling and subscripting should have to be the difficulty
How is this any different than what Costco does? (It’s not)
Plus the patent/product theft allegations
You forgot the biggest trick that was called Rings of Power
I wish our government was run like Amazon Prime...
I think the solution is pretty easy here. If you disallow the price parity as anticompetitive and Amazon starts to lose sales to 3rs party websites, it could force them to lower the price of their logistics for prime retailers and lower prices across the board which is good for everyone except Amazon shareholders
Iliad flow is what they called it😮
Hi Matt
I see a lot of negative comments but my experience with Amazon Prime has been mostly positive. Fast shipping + if anything's wrong with the item, go on their live chat and they'll refund immediately. The 2-3 poor experiences are when items go missing. But they always get refunded. I don't know if other places will even refund you if your items go missing.
I’ve never had an issue canceling prime. I’ve taken advantage of the 30 day free sub probably five different times. Never took more than 3 minutes to cancel.
But the free market
I've been tricked into joining Prime twice, but luckily I was able to delete it.
Almost to 1 million
A few billion dollar fines should help. Fines much deserved.
Matt's social media handle is comically small when his name pops up on that red bar. 0:35
FTC, yeah you know me.....
Guys seriously the desk is just not working. You’re so close to each other it looks like you’re on a date, not giving an interview.
I made the mistake of signing up for an Amazon credit card in order to get a free, "no-strings attached" $50 gift card. I don't use Amazon much so the next time I made a purchase, I realized too late that Amazon had set the credit card as my default payment -- I didn't do it, they did.
I returned the item, thinking it would just credit the purchase price back on the card so I wouldn't have to pay. Nope. They refunded it to an Amazon gift balance, which can't be used to pay for the credit card balance. So I got stung twice.
It should be illegal.
Whooooaaa... what are you guys doing!! You can't switch seats!! You'll disrupt the space time continuum!! Aaaahhh
I don’t know about Prime itself BUT they definitely Sneaked in play music subscription service on top of it