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A family member ran into this last week. They needed a product that was distributed exclusively through Amazon. So they logged in, added the product to their

A family member ran into this last week. They needed a product that was distributed exclusively through Amazon. So they logged in, added the product to their cart, and then checked out. At checkout it presented them the "Get free shipping with Prime" prompt, which he says he couldn't find any way past it without signing up. He only realised he'd signed up for a subscription service when it started sending him emails about other things. He cancelled immediately, and swears he won't buy anything through Amazon again.

kgermino 4y ago
The opt out is so sneaky, it’s often a small grey “I don’t want to be happy” text link somewhere on the page
mindslight 4y ago
Amazon is full of dark patterns. Every time I use Amazon I'm amazed that people think of them as a customer-friendly company, or think that it's worth paying for ongoing membership to their sunk cost fallacy. - Checking out, it defaults to paying extra for shipping, with a big option that says "free shipping with prime". The option you want, the standard basic free shipping, is the least conspicuous one. - The Prime 30 day (free) / 1 week ($2) trials are quite pushy at each checkout, and the option to avoid them doesn't even look like a UI button compared to the highlighted "accept" bit. - I've seen "get it $soon if you order within $short_time, where the deadline expires just to get reset a few more hours in the future (and $soon stays the same). So they're not telling you the actual shipping cutoff, but some fake thing to induce stress. - The link to cancel Prime is disguised within a FAQ, including an extra sentence that tries to misdirect you into settings, where the option to cancel Prime does not actually exist. - Actually cancelling Prime is its own minefield of multiple screens where the option you want is deemphasized, repeated like three times. About the only honest policy of theirs I've found is that when you get one of those 30 day free trials, you can cancel it ASAP, enjoy fewer dark patterns for a month, and not have to remember to cancel later. I usually do this and get my fill of stuff from Amazon though, at least until I find something that Amazon actually has the best deal on a year later, and they offer me another free trial as I checkout.

kgermino 4y ago

The opt out is so sneaky, it’s often a small grey “I don’t want to be happy” text link somewhere on the page

mindslight 4y ago

Amazon is full of dark patterns. Every time I use Amazon I'm amazed that people think of them as a customer-friendly company, or think that it's worth paying for ongoing membership to their sunk cost fallacy. - Checking out, it defaults to paying extra for shipping, with a big option that says "free shipping with prime". The option you want, the standard basic free shipping, is the least conspicuous one. - The Prime 30 day (free) / 1 week ($2) trials are quite pushy at each checkout, and the option to avoid them doesn't even look like a UI button compared to the highlighted "accept" bit. - I've seen "get it $soon if you order within $short_time, where the deadline expires just to get reset a few more hours in the future (and $soon stays the same). So they're not telling you the actual shipping cutoff, but some fake thing to induce stress. - The link to cancel Prime is disguised within a FAQ, including an extra sentence that tries to misdirect you into settings, where the option to cancel Prime does not actually exist. - Actually cancelling Prime is its own minefield of multiple screens where the option you want is deemphasized, repeated like three times. About the only honest policy of theirs I've found is that when you get one of those 30 day free trials, you can cancel it ASAP, enjoy fewer dark patterns for a month, and not have to remember to cancel later. I usually do this and get my fill of stuff from Amazon though, at least until I find something that Amazon actually has the best deal on a year later, and they offer me another free trial as I checkout.