Amazon Prime

[Looking for help]

Ooops sorry for using the name of the company but I am enraged this evening.
My poor little boy gets £50 a month into his account (not asking for comments, it's pertinent to the story ) It went in on 14th March and he went the next day to take some money out, and there was nothing there.
Apparently in January he had ordered some goods from Amazon , and signed up for Amazon Prime (one month's free trial). Fine. On the 15th March as soon as some money went into his account, it was swiped by Amazxon charging him £49 for Amazon Prime subscription for the year. He was lucky, he phoned them up and they refunded his cost.
I then checked my account, and apparently I have had Amazon prime since 2008.
I complained and they are refunding me a portion of my this year's cost of £49 as I have used it.

Be warned, you sign up to 1 months free trial and without any further contact you are charged for a year, and then annually after that. I am a mug who fails to check everything in and out of my account, but not any more

Hugely annoyed of Surrey.

[pheasantchick]

I think the moral of the story is to read the small print!

This policy of continuing to charge after a months free trial is quite common. I've also seen it on free magazine offers, L-Film subscriptions etc. Usually there is an opt out clause whereby you have to inform the company if you no longer wish to continue with the subscription. If a company wants my bank details to obtain a free offer, I usually don't bother, or write a reminder in my diary to cancel the subscription a week before the month is up.

[Belinda]

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[Looking for help]

Funnily enough I remembered the Lovefilm thing today as well - Somebody gave us a 2 months free trial, and I did cancel that one, without charges. That's not like me

The thing that made me so mad was my son certainly had no idea he had even signed up for it, that was what he was told when he rang them, and the same for me. I looked back over a lot of orders I have made over the past year and I still paid a lot of P&P, so it's a pointless waste of time and money anyway.

[aliportico]

I've done the Amazon prime free month 3 times now, and just write a note on my calendar to cancel it *smug smile*

[Looking for help]

Well done you , we were completely in the dark about the whole thing.

[pist]

Tip - set your calendar/alarm on your mobile to alert you at a few times over a couple of days, just before you need to cancel (at times when you think you will likely have access to a comp to cancel your subscription)
This has finally opened my world to free offers

[push-pull-mum]

My poor little boy gets £50 a month into his account (not asking for comments, it's pertinent to the story )

As requested - absolutely no comment.

[andyb]

I've done the Amazon prime free month 3 times now, and just write a note on my calendar to cancel it *smug smile*

Me too it's so handy when you forget a birthday.

[Fran17]

It's all too easy these days to sign up for something with the (sometimes accidental) push of a button, particularly with companies like the one you mentioned where you already have an account with them. They store your credit card details and can easily go on to convert your month's free trial into an annual subscription or monthly payments.

I'm not surprised you are annoyed LFH. However, not too much harm done but huge amounts of good in that your son will probably never have this happen to him again. He will be very wary in future. I had a similar thing happen to me many years ago with a book club. I am very careful with regard to these things now.