Amazon Prime Time Membership

[surprise]

Yesterday I had charged to my bank account an amount of £47.97 which I was not expecting or could I recall what this was for. There was a telephone number and Debit Card payment prime time delivery. I telephoned the number and discovered it was Amazon Prime Time Delivery. This amount has caused me to go overdrawn and have been charged £35.00 for this.

 

I emailed Amazon who have stated that they will refund the £47.97 but will not compensate me for the £35.00. They say I signed up for a month's free trial with an automatic upgrade. I had used the service once during the free trial period and nothing since. I can't honestly remember anything about being upgraded automatically.

 

I have complained that they should not have taken this payment without first contacting me.

 

Who is right here?

[Elenathion]

I signed up for the Amazon Prime trial as well and it is very clear that you will be upgraded at the end of the trial.

[surprise]

Do you not think they should contact you first though before putting a debit card payment through, this is my aguement.

[surprise]

Can you tell me when your trial period was over did they email you and say "if you want to continue after your free trail, do nothing. Your membership will automatically continue and we'll charge your caredit card for the next year and upgrade" and your credit card won't be charged for the next year". Amazon reckon they sent me an email containing this info on 15th June 09, but I certainly never received it.

 

I would be grateful if you could respond.

 

Many thanks.

[Conniff]

Unfortunately their terms and conditions make it clear that if you use the service then you cannot cancel.

 

You can cancel your membership in Your Account at any time before you or your registered guests have made any eligible purchases and we will refund your full membership fee.

[surprise]

Once the amount hit my bank account I did cancel and they refunded. My arguement is I believe they should have contacted me first to tell me they were going to put this amount through and this is what I am trying to establish whether anyone else was contacted prior to them taking the payment of £47.97.

[spitfire650]

I did the Prime trial a few months ago and seem to remember it being pretty clear that a charge would be coming at the end unless I cancelled first.

 

I also received a confirmation email which mentioned the charge.

 

Sorry to say, but you don't have a complaint IMO.

[Conniff]

Once the amount hit my bank account I did cancel and they refunded. My arguement is I believe they should have contacted me first to tell me they were going to put this amount through and this is what I am trying to establish whether anyone else was contacted prior to them taking the payment of £47.97.

 

I have to agree with Spitfire. All the details are in their terms, and the warning that payment will be taken, so there was no need to tell you again.

 

Make sure you cancel before the 'automatic' renewal takes place 12 months after your date of signing.

[Elenathion]

I didn't get a reminder email before the trial ended but I didn't expect to. When I signed up, I added the end date to my calendar so I would know to cancel before that date.

[spitfire650]

I did that as well Elenathion but remember the email because the date of the charge was quite a few days after I had calculated After trying the service for a few weeks I also found it quite useful and decided not to cancel - which I am sure is what Amazon wanted

[surprise]

They have sent me a copy of the email they sent which was A Welcome to the Prime Time. Teach me to read all of the emails in future. I will have to relunctantly accept the charges from Halifax but will be making a claim to reclaim them once the OFT have completed their investigation.