Prime

[ClaudiusTheIdiot]

Minor irritation. Some weeks ago I clicked on something to do with Amazon Prime, and suspected that I had joined without intending to. I cancelled within a few minutes without using any services and there then was and is no membership shown. However there have been two deductions, a month apart, from our credit card, each for 7.99 GBP and marked Amazon Prime. Amazon have variously given me phone and fax numbers in Germany (I'm in the UK), and suggested that the deductions have been arranged by someone known to me (we are confident that no-one we know has had access to our credit card or Amazon details). I think that Amazon may be giving me the runaround.

Their latest email suggests I cancel our credit card and get a new number.

The most convenient course for me would be to ask the credit card company to refund the two deductions, then either cancel the card on the Amazon account or ask the credit card company for a new card and number. Is there any snag with doing one of these? I read of sensitivity about credit ratings - I'm not likely to need to borrow and we always pay off the credit card in full.

Or is there a better way?

[Bminusrob]

Amazon make it very easy to sign up to Prime by accident. My wife and I have each done it at least once. The good news is they are pretty good in our experience about letting you cancel and refunding money paid for the service, articularly if you have obviously not used it. You should be able to cancel it from their website.

Cheers, Rob

[ClaudiusTheIdiot]

Thanks Rob.

are pretty good in our experience about letting you cancel and refunding money paid for the service

How did you get them to refund? I've been onto them twice and just got irrelevances.

[Redmires]

This recently happened to both me and my wife. We cancelled straight away and I'm keeping a close eye on our credit card statements. Having used Amazon for many years I've now vowed to seek an alternative before buying anything from them. They're bordering on dodgy practices. Don't know if this will help

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/recla ... me-refund/

[GoSeigen]

Thanks Rob.

are pretty good in our experience about letting you cancel and refunding money paid for the service

How did you get them to refund? I've been onto them twice and just got irrelevances.

I dealt with this issue about a week ago, got a refund immediately. Here is the text of my email to them:

"I have not knowingly requested Amazon Prime and had no idea Amazon had enrolled me.
Since I do not want Prime and did not ask for it, I instruct Amazon to immediately
cancel the service and refund any amounts charged to my card in respect of Amazon
Prime.

Kindly confirm when this has been done attaching full details of the amounts
refunded. I wish to make a purchase but shall wait until I have your confirmation."

Good luck.

GS

[DiamondEcho]

This happened to me too. I bought something, then later realised they'd subscribed me to something that billed me monthly for something that I couldn't use, even if I wished to, in the country I was living. .... told them I'd not voluntarily agreed to it, asked them to cancel the charges, and they did so.

[ClaudiusTheIdiot]

Thank you for answers all. It seems that unintentionally subscribing to Prime is more common than perhaps it ought to be. In my three contacts with Amazon, they have told me that the charges are connected with Amazon.de (with whom I had a fax and email exchange, no resolution); and that they were made from another Amazon account with a completely different name from mine.

As Amazon suggested, I cancelled the card on Saturday. When I phoned the card company after the weekend to ask for reimbursement, total just under 16 GBP, I was asked for an explanation - given as above. They then passed me to the fraud department, who may or may not contact me again, and may or may not refund the money. I'll post if there is anything more.

I'm now feeling more cautious about giving card details. Thanks again for replies.

[ClaudiusTheIdiot]

The credit card company refunded in full a couple of days after my last post, the refunds marked "FRAUD TRAN ADJ". Can't tell whether my Amazon account was involved as I can't seem to find any kind of statement on their web site. I would really prefer to deal with a company that's a little more transparent. Satisfactory outcome, but I'll be more circumspect about giving them card details in future.

[Urbandreamer]

I've been with Amazon a long time and recently deliberatly gone to Prime.

However, I've been with ebay and PayPall equaly long. Quite some time ago I had a couple a fraudulant PayPall transactions (quickly resolved), that I put down to using the same password everywhere.

Amazon use to be less secure than it is today, when all it sold was books. I found out that a common techneque was for a fraudster to target a insecure trader (Amazon back then) then use that password to access other accounts, changing the deivery address and ordering stuff from themselves that they never posted.

Since this looks like fraud rather than a simple mistake, can I sugest that you review your passwords and check delivery addresses on your accounts.

[Lanark]

Quite some time ago I had a couple a fraudulant PayPall transactions (quickly resolved), that I put down to using the same password everywhere.

You really REALLY should never reuse the same password on different websites.

If and when any of those websites gets hacked the attackers will have the password and they will try it on every major retail/financial website (they have scripts to automate this stuff)

A central list of compromised emails is published here:
https://haveibeenpwned.com/

If you suffer a financial loss as a result of using a password which has been hacked on a different website, you are quite likely to get the response that it's not our responsibility - it's your own fault or you can try to claim against the compromised website.