Amazon faces US trial over alleged Prime subscription deceptions | Hacker News Reader

Amazon faces US trial over alleged Prime subscription deceptions

theguardian.com

30 pointsvinni27 comments

I don’t have prime, but will occasionally make a purchase on Amazon. Any time I do, I have to both click past a “no, I don’t want to start a prime trial, I just want to purchase something” and down in shipping options, mixed in with the shipping options is a “tomorrow+start a prime trial” option that will sign you up for a subscription. There’s also sometimes a “sign up for an Amazon credit card” promo mixed in, so you have to click past several unwanted things to get to the cart.

Although the default shipping is so bad sometimes I’m tempted to start the trial. I have something in my cart right now that has a shipping window a full month out. But if I start my prime trial they claim it gets here tomorrow? That has to just straight up be a lie right? With shipping that late I assume they don’t have the product locally- Or do non-prime members actually get that screwed on shipping?

In my experience in the post tariff world, it’s likely a flat out lie. You will order and get a delivery update 12 hours later that says your item will arrive on time only to be updated a few hours later with a delivery window of 3-5 weeks in the future. YMMV per item.

> I have something in my cart right now that has a shipping window a full month out. But if I start my prime trial they claim it gets here tomorrow? That has to just straight up be a lie right?

It's a lie, and it doesn't even have to do with tariffs, though that won't help.

For over a year, with Prime, I'll search for something. Common things, nothing esoteric.

And I'll find a bunch of results. And it sure would be nice if I could get that thing soon, for whatever reason.

So I'll click the "Get it Tomorrow" filter. And the results will change.

And no matter what, there's almost never any of those results where I will actually "Get it Tomorrow". Indeed, as you say, so many of those things are not even the old standard "2 day Prime Shipping" (which of course they changed to mean "2 days after we ship it, which may not be for several days").

In between that and the fact that Amazon is undoubtedly the largest peddler of counterfeit merchandise in the country... fuck'em.

It's amazing how much less you spend once Prime is cancelled, but it's also obvious. I skied more when I had a pass and owned skis. I don't eat cookies when they are not on the counter. I don't drink beer when I don't have it at home. A little bit of friction is all it takes to change behavior.

Prime is the online equivalent of the supermarket checkout aisle crap.

Ah I certainly thought that was Temu. Supermarket checkout aisle crap and the oriental trading of millenial adulthoods

Since cancelling Prime, I'm given four "opportunities" I need to opt out of every time I order something to avoid restarting a prime subscription. It's just led to me avoiding ordering anything I can get somewhere else.

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