Unsolicited subscriptions
Discussion
What's the score with this sort of thing? I had an email from Amazon welcoming me to Prime music, three months free, £10.99/mth thereafter. I thought it was spam but checked my account & sure enough I've been enrolled as a subscriber.
I haven't been near Amazon in months, nor has my account been hacked, so I can only assume I've been subscribed to a paying service without asking. This seems slippery on the face of it, no?
Good little earner if you do this a few million times & rely on people not noticing an email or assuming it's spam.
I haven't been near Amazon in months, nor has my account been hacked, so I can only assume I've been subscribed to a paying service without asking. This seems slippery on the face of it, no?
Good little earner if you do this a few million times & rely on people not noticing an email or assuming it's spam.
Amazon have form for stuff like this, if you turn on pin protection on purchases, and amazon force a background update on your device you will notice often pin protection on purchases has magically switched itself back off, but if an inadvertent purchase happens after that its your fault because reasons.
President Merkin said:
Yes but they're obsessed with Spotify & have no access to my Amazon account. It's really not someone accidentally activating something in my account, I promise you. Is it possible Amazon push subs onto people without permission?
I asked you about Alexa and you said no.As Robertb says,, if there are Alexa devices in your household then anyone could sign you up without realising what they're doing.
I suppose anything is possible, but I really can't imagine Amazon signing people up with no external input whatsoever.
A month or two ago I got an email welcoming me to Amazon Prime. I thought it was spam at first, but checked my bank account and had indeed had the monthly cost debited. Like you, I have an Amazon account but pretty much never use it, although I have in the past used the 1 month free Prime.
I checked that nobody else in the house had accidentally signed up or bought something on my account (they hadn't), and then cancelled it. I got the entire refund but was confused by how it happened.
Nothing has happened since, but perhaps this is some aggressive (and surely illegal?) new sales tactic.
I checked that nobody else in the house had accidentally signed up or bought something on my account (they hadn't), and then cancelled it. I got the entire refund but was confused by how it happened.
Nothing has happened since, but perhaps this is some aggressive (and surely illegal?) new sales tactic.
President Merkin said:
What's the score with this sort of thing? I had an email from Amazon welcoming me to Prime music, three months free, £10.99/mth thereafter. I thought it was spam but checked my account & sure enough I've been enrolled as a subscriber.
I haven't been near Amazon in months, nor has my account been hacked, so I can only assume I've been subscribed to a paying service without asking. This seems slippery on the face of it, no?
Good little earner if you do this a few million times & rely on people not noticing an email or assuming it's spam.
I don't have a Prime account but I've fallen into what I feel is a trap several times on clicking the 'confirm order' button. There are two, and the one that looks like the one you want is the trap to get you to trial Prime "FREE".I haven't been near Amazon in months, nor has my account been hacked, so I can only assume I've been subscribed to a paying service without asking. This seems slippery on the face of it, no?
Good little earner if you do this a few million times & rely on people not noticing an email or assuming it's spam.
Amazon make a lot of money and I often wonder how much of it comes or has come from tricking customers.
Sheepshanks said:
President Merkin said:
Yes but they're obsessed with Spotify & have no access to my Amazon account. It's really not someone accidentally activating something in my account, I promise you. Is it possible Amazon push subs onto people without permission?
I asked you about Alexa and you said no.As Robertb says,, if there are Alexa devices in your household then anyone could sign you up without realising what they're doing.
I suppose anything is possible, but I really can't imagine Amazon signing people up with no external input whatsoever.
I immediately checked my account to see that an additional £10.99 was taken out! got straight on amazon and got refunded after explaining the circumstances but still thought it was unbelievable that a 2 year old could upgrade my account! you have to disable "voice upgrades" or something along those lines.
Glassman said:
President Merkin said:
What's the score with this sort of thing? I had an email from Amazon welcoming me to Prime music, three months free, £10.99/mth thereafter. I thought it was spam but checked my account & sure enough I've been enrolled as a subscriber.
I haven't been near Amazon in months, nor has my account been hacked, so I can only assume I've been subscribed to a paying service without asking. This seems slippery on the face of it, no?
Good little earner if you do this a few million times & rely on people not noticing an email or assuming it's spam.
I don't have a Prime account but I've fallen into what I feel is a trap several times on clicking the 'confirm order' button. There are two, and the one that looks like the one you want is the trap to get you to trial Prime "FREE".I haven't been near Amazon in months, nor has my account been hacked, so I can only assume I've been subscribed to a paying service without asking. This seems slippery on the face of it, no?
Good little earner if you do this a few million times & rely on people not noticing an email or assuming it's spam.
Amazon make a lot of money and I often wonder how much of it comes or has come from tricking customers.
STe_rsv4 said:
I remember being in the bathroom and hearing my 2 year old at the time shouting for Alexa to play " hulk smash" or something along those lines. I then overheard Alexa mention something about upgrading to play this song and he immediately replied "yes".
I immediately checked my account to see that an additional £10.99 was taken out! got straight on amazon and got refunded after explaining the circumstances but still thought it was unbelievable that a 2 year old could upgrade my account! you have to disable "voice upgrades" or something along those lines.
Something very similar happened to me where my daughter wanted a particular song on Alexa and inadvertently signed me up for Amazon Music , completely wrong that this can happenI immediately checked my account to see that an additional £10.99 was taken out! got straight on amazon and got refunded after explaining the circumstances but still thought it was unbelievable that a 2 year old could upgrade my account! you have to disable "voice upgrades" or something along those lines.
Edit- Just realised it is possible to turn off purchasing by voice on Alexa, hopefully this stops subscriptions too
Edited by Jamescrs on Monday 23 September 13:05
Sheepshanks said:
I asked you about Alexa and you said no.
As Robertb says,, if there are Alexa devices in your household then anyone could sign you up without realising what they're doing.
I suppose anything is possible, but I really can't imagine Amazon signing people up with no external input whatsoever.
As Robertb says,, if there are Alexa devices in your household then anyone could sign you up without realising what they're doing.
I suppose anything is possible, but I really can't imagine Amazon signing people up with no external input whatsoever.
I don't have any Alex devices in the house. Not sure how you've worked out anything to the contrary.Gassing Station | Speed, Plod & the Law | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff