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Simply canceling mid contract isn’t a perfect remedy. Consider, should they get to keep the interest on the money they are handing back to you? Obviously not.

by Retric 3y ago

Simply canceling mid contract isn’t a perfect remedy. Consider, should they get to keep the interest on the money they are handing back to you? Obviously not. Contracts are enforceable because society is much worse off if they aren’t. Imagine if your bank could arbitrarily cancel a car loan and ask for the outstanding balance back at any time simple because they felt like it.

throwawaymaths 3y ago
Enjoy the pennies on your interest.
- Retric 3y ago
  6 months on 139$ /2 @ 6% is $2.09 not just a few cents. Multiply that by everyone with an annual prime membership and your talking 1/2 billion dollars or so.
  - crazygringo 3y ago
    It's only being multiplied by the number of people who are canceling because of this. If that's 0.1% of 200 million subscribers who cancel, that's about $400K in supposed interest. Not half a billion. A rounding error for Amazon. But interest just doesn't generally factor into small consumer "returns". If you buy shoes online and then return them 25 days later because they don't match the photos exactly, you don't get interest on that either. At these amounts, it's not worth worrying about.
    - Retric 3y ago
      Amazon canceled the existing deal for 100% of their customers and thus accepted money without delivering the advertised service. What happens in the future is a different question, especially when they aren’t willing to give a full refund. Also when you return something you got the utility of the item and deprive the seller of the item for that time period. Larger up front payment for services not rendered is simply a net loss.
      - crazygringo 3y ago
        > The number who accept the new deal or don’t even notice the difference is irrelevant to this calculation. Of course it's relevant. If someone doesn't cancel, there's nothing being refunded, so there's no theoretical interest to be paid back. They accept that, going forwards, the deal is still worth it for them. The refund-with-interest you brought up isn't about compensation for no longer having video without ads, it's about the remainder of your payment having been tied up during your previous usage. If you continue the subscription, that means you want to continue to keep the upfront payment in exchange for the lower annual rate. There's no interest on anything to be paid back. It wouldn't make any conceptual sense.
        Retric 3y ago
        > They accept that, going forwards, the deal is still worth it for them. People doing nothing isn’t consent. ~0.1% of their customers die each month, you can’t argue the dead are accepting a new deal. Further, if you’re unwilling to preform a full refund, they are asking if the service is worth $69.50 not the $71.59 or whatever they actually owe you. A slightly worse service for slightly less money isn’t a true test here. > If you continue the subscription, that means you want to continue to keep the upfront payment in exchange for the lower annual rate. Order and pay for a burger and fries from McDonalds and accepting a burger from them isn’t saying they don’t still owe you the fries. There is no continuing a contract that’s already been broken. You can accept a new contract going forward but that’s a different question.
        crazygringo 3y ago
        I literally don't know what you are talking about anymore. You were originally talking about getting a small amount of interest refunded on top of them already refunding your unused portion. And I simply pointed out that it's a negligible amount of money that doesn't really matter. Amazon is not stealing half a billion dollars from people like you claimed. Now you seem to be talking about refunds or something, but I can't tell what. Obviously you don't get a refund for your past months of annual, because you used them already on free shipping and video-watching. And Amazon already will refund your future months if you don't like the change. That's fair. It's like when you try to order something online and then two days later they tell you it's out of stock and they aren't carrying it anymore in the future either and they refund you. A refund is acceptable compensation.

by Retric 3y ago

throwawaymaths 3y ago

Enjoy the pennies on your interest.

Retric 3y ago
6 months on 139$ /2 @ 6% is $2.09 not just a few cents. Multiply that by everyone with an annual prime membership and your talking 1/2 billion dollars or so.
- crazygringo 3y ago
  It's only being multiplied by the number of people who are canceling because of this. If that's 0.1% of 200 million subscribers who cancel, that's about $400K in supposed interest. Not half a billion. A rounding error for Amazon. But interest just doesn't generally factor into small consumer "returns". If you buy shoes online and then return them 25 days later because they don't match the photos exactly, you don't get interest on that either. At these amounts, it's not worth worrying about.
  - Retric 3y ago
    Amazon canceled the existing deal for 100% of their customers and thus accepted money without delivering the advertised service. What happens in the future is a different question, especially when they aren’t willing to give a full refund. Also when you return something you got the utility of the item and deprive the seller of the item for that time period. Larger up front payment for services not rendered is simply a net loss.
    - crazygringo 3y ago
      > The number who accept the new deal or don’t even notice the difference is irrelevant to this calculation. Of course it's relevant. If someone doesn't cancel, there's nothing being refunded, so there's no theoretical interest to be paid back. They accept that, going forwards, the deal is still worth it for them. The refund-with-interest you brought up isn't about compensation for no longer having video without ads, it's about the remainder of your payment having been tied up during your previous usage. If you continue the subscription, that means you want to continue to keep the upfront payment in exchange for the lower annual rate. There's no interest on anything to be paid back. It wouldn't make any conceptual sense.
      - Retric 3y ago
        > They accept that, going forwards, the deal is still worth it for them. People doing nothing isn’t consent. ~0.1% of their customers die each month, you can’t argue the dead are accepting a new deal. Further, if you’re unwilling to preform a full refund, they are asking if the service is worth $69.50 not the $71.59 or whatever they actually owe you. A slightly worse service for slightly less money isn’t a true test here. > If you continue the subscription, that means you want to continue to keep the upfront payment in exchange for the lower annual rate. Order and pay for a burger and fries from McDonalds and accepting a burger from them isn’t saying they don’t still owe you the fries. There is no continuing a contract that’s already been broken. You can accept a new contract going forward but that’s a different question.
        crazygringo 3y ago
        I literally don't know what you are talking about anymore. You were originally talking about getting a small amount of interest refunded on top of them already refunding your unused portion. And I simply pointed out that it's a negligible amount of money that doesn't really matter. Amazon is not stealing half a billion dollars from people like you claimed. Now you seem to be talking about refunds or something, but I can't tell what. Obviously you don't get a refund for your past months of annual, because you used them already on free shipping and video-watching. And Amazon already will refund your future months if you don't like the change. That's fair. It's like when you try to order something online and then two days later they tell you it's out of stock and they aren't carrying it anymore in the future either and they refund you. A refund is acceptable compensation.