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It doesn't help that dark patterns used by well known websites normalizing the problems. That other day I got a credit card charge notification of $154 from my

by ww520 4y ago

It doesn't help that dark patterns used by well known websites normalizing the problems. That other day I got a credit card charge notification of $154 from my bank about a charge from Amazon. I didn't buy anything from Amazon recently. I also didn't get any email from Amazon about a bill or a purchase. Logged on to Amazon, looked through the order history, looked through AWS billing, and didn't see any recent charges. I thought my card was stolen and got a fraudulent charge. By chance I looked into the Prime membership page. An obscure page listed the recent Prime charges. Yep, it's the Prime membership charge. The amount looked odd because tax was added to it, where the old charges were like $119 or $139. Amazon employs a dark pattern of not sending to the users any notification on the Prime renewal, no billing statement, no invoice, no email, just a silent charge on the credit card. I promptly canceled my Prime membership, not for the money but for not rewarding dark pattern behaviors.

rexf 4y ago
I've had similar experiences where I got charged by amazon for Prime & wasn't sure what it was. They certainly make it hard to find your payment history for Prime renewal.
fennecfoxy 4y ago
In the UK (and plenty of other countries, I'm sure) I get a notification for every payment from my banking app and/or Google Wallet (usually both, since I use GPay a lot).
makeitdouble 4y ago
That Prime silent charge problem is also problematic after credit card changes and other adjustments. Saw the other day a charge get refused on a credit card I cancelled. 3DSecure is mandatory on it, so I kinda panicked thinking I got phished somewhere, but no, it was just Amazon reusing their authorization to charge a year later. I would have actually updated my info if I had a heads up, but now that my membership has been canceled following the charge refusal, it's kind of an occasion to let it go.
toomanydoubts 4y ago
>I promptly canceled my Prime membership, not for the money but for not rewarding dark pattern behaviors. Lucky you who was able to get through the dark patterns in the unsubscribe page. I got one extra charge because the first time I tried, I fell for one of their dark patterns and believed it was canceled while it wasn't.
- ww520 4y ago
  Oh yeah. The unsubscribe page is a minefield of dark patterns, with innocent links leading to continuing the membership. I was pissed enough by then to pay extra attention to get rid of it.
DiggyJohnson 4y ago
This just happened to me for a pre-ordered book! I feel so validated. Had to click into the orders.
paul7986 4y ago
I wont ever subscribe to Prime again because of their awful UX in trying to cancel. I gave up and blocked it through my bank and the customer service rep said she had to do the same thing. She also said Amazon will blacklist my credit card ... ummm i dont care I dont and will never subscribe again. Just use a friend or family's account and pick it up from them. Amazon is stupid for pulling these anti-consumer tricks .. all about bottom line now vs. the future. Stupid!!
Abishek_Muthian 4y ago
Due to a recent regulations regarding subscription payment in India, Amazon cannot charge our payment instrument on file directly for subscriptions; It has to go through an intermediate (payment gateway) and the Bank with explicit permission during initial subscription. Before each subscription payment there after, The Bank reminds us with SMS about the payment and we can cancel it through that. For amount > INR 5000 (~ 60$) each subscription payment has to be approved by the consumer. Amazon still does employ dark patterns, Like having 'Prime membership cancellation' behind several pages and the final confirmation located in a non-prominent location; But Indians can cancel Prime membership without even visiting Amazon's website.
bob1029 4y ago
I cancelled my Prime for exactly the same reasons. I don’t think Amazon would be viable today if they dropped their dark patterns and held vendors accountable. I am at a point where I’d rather go shop at a physical Walmart or Target than buy something from Amazon.com. Driving to a physical store causes me less frustration in 2022.

by ww520 4y ago

rexf 4y ago

I've had similar experiences where I got charged by amazon for Prime & wasn't sure what it was. They certainly make it hard to find your payment history for Prime renewal.

fennecfoxy 4y ago

In the UK (and plenty of other countries, I'm sure) I get a notification for every payment from my banking app and/or Google Wallet (usually both, since I use GPay a lot).

makeitdouble 4y ago

That Prime silent charge problem is also problematic after credit card changes and other adjustments. Saw the other day a charge get refused on a credit card I cancelled. 3DSecure is mandatory on it, so I kinda panicked thinking I got phished somewhere, but no, it was just Amazon reusing their authorization to charge a year later. I would have actually updated my info if I had a heads up, but now that my membership has been canceled following the charge refusal, it's kind of an occasion to let it go.

toomanydoubts 4y ago

>I promptly canceled my Prime membership, not for the money but for not rewarding dark pattern behaviors. Lucky you who was able to get through the dark patterns in the unsubscribe page. I got one extra charge because the first time I tried, I fell for one of their dark patterns and believed it was canceled while it wasn't.

ww520 4y ago
Oh yeah. The unsubscribe page is a minefield of dark patterns, with innocent links leading to continuing the membership. I was pissed enough by then to pay extra attention to get rid of it.

DiggyJohnson 4y ago

This just happened to me for a pre-ordered book! I feel so validated. Had to click into the orders.

paul7986 4y ago

I wont ever subscribe to Prime again because of their awful UX in trying to cancel. I gave up and blocked it through my bank and the customer service rep said she had to do the same thing. She also said Amazon will blacklist my credit card ... ummm i dont care I dont and will never subscribe again. Just use a friend or family's account and pick it up from them. Amazon is stupid for pulling these anti-consumer tricks .. all about bottom line now vs. the future. Stupid!!

Abishek_Muthian 4y ago

Due to a recent regulations regarding subscription payment in India, Amazon cannot charge our payment instrument on file directly for subscriptions; It has to go through an intermediate (payment gateway) and the Bank with explicit permission during initial subscription. Before each subscription payment there after, The Bank reminds us with SMS about the payment and we can cancel it through that. For amount > INR 5000 (~ 60$) each subscription payment has to be approved by the consumer. Amazon still does employ dark patterns, Like having 'Prime membership cancellation' behind several pages and the final confirmation located in a non-prominent location; But Indians can cancel Prime membership without even visiting Amazon's website.

bob1029 4y ago

I cancelled my Prime for exactly the same reasons. I don’t think Amazon would be viable today if they dropped their dark patterns and held vendors accountable. I am at a point where I’d rather go shop at a physical Walmart or Target than buy something from Amazon.com. Driving to a physical store causes me less frustration in 2022.