Amazon's Prime Challenge

I had no idea that it would cost me 79 dollars to join the shipping club and would not have joined if I did. I don't order that much and don't care if it took longer.

I would like to cancel my membership and get a refund for that amount. The one purchase I made took longer then two day's anyway. It was not even paid for or shipped till 8 o2. I have not even receive any imformation about the club yet.

Than You
Donald TenEyck

The big button on the Amazon order site that said $79 for a year gave me a really good clue that I would have to pay for Amazon Prime. Considering how much I buy there and my lack of patience for delivery, this service has worked very well for me. I also have to say that I have now started to buy things other than books and music off the website. Good idea Amazon!

I returned last night from vacation and my Amex Acct was charged $79.00 for Prime Shipping Club without my authorization

Hello dumb people who sign up not reading small print. You sign up, you pay for service. Is okay dumb dumbs. Amazon forgive you. Other online scammers who no care about you not so nice about forgiveness. They take money and run! Bye bye.

I've been a long-time fan of Amazon Prime, but I've always hated that their search engine returned so many results for items that don't qualify for Prime shipping. Fortunately, Amazon Web Services lets me take the problem into my own hands, and I recently created iSearchBetter.com, which allows anyone to search Amazon for Prime and SuperSaver shipping eligible items only. Now I'm a Prime subscriber for life!

I had no idea that it would cost me 79 dollars to join the shipping club and would not have joined if I did. I don't order that much and don't care if it took longer.

I would like to cancel my membership and get a refund for that amount.
Moshe Walles

I have just received a charge on my Visa bill
for $79.00. I did not authorize this and will not
pay it. Please cancel "MY MEMBERSHIP" and I will expect confirmation from you immediately. I notice that I am not the only one that has unknowingly been charged. What a rip off. Please credit my account now. And then lose my email
address
Bonnie Smuffer

Yes, hello? BusinessWeek?

I am quite angry with you that I selected to sign up to a pay service with a big "$79!!" notice on it that I neglected to notice was for money. I can't believe you made me do this, Businessweek.

Also, because you did this to me, Businessweek, I will imperiously ask that you refund my money now. That's right, not the money I pay for a Businessweek subscription but the money that Amazon has somewhere for Amazon purposes. Fix it, Businessweek. Fix it before I strike at myself again.

I also did not intend for President Bush to ruin the war in Iraq when I voted for him again. I did not understand this vote was a vote for Bush when I voted for Bush. Fix this now too, Businessweek, for your reporting about external events is the root of all evil and is why people complain here.

Gillian Richardson

Is this some kind of a joke? I woke up this morning and found out that I have just received a charge on my Visa bill for $79.00.from Amazon Prime Shipping Club. I did not authorize this and will not pay it. I did not sign up for the Amazon Primeshipping Club membership. Please cancel "MY MEMBERSHIP"(!!!) and I will expect confirmation from you immediately. Please credit my account now. And then lose my email
address
Poulose V Nadamkuzhy

So far Amazon Prime is pretty cool. They had a free month trial of Prime, which I promptly signed up for. I ordered a lot of stuff for Christmas, (including some large heavy items) and all the shipping was free!!

I have just received a charge on my American Express bill for $79.00. I did not authorize this and will not pay it. Please cancel "MY MEMBERSHIP" and I will expect confirmation from you immediately. I notice that I am not the only one that has unknowingly been charged. What a rip off. Please credit my account now. And then lose my email address
David Mednick

I don't understand how people can complain that they have an unauthorized authorized charge for the Prime Shipping Club. Obviously they dont bother to read all the details as they go through clicking "accept" buttons. You wouldn't sign a paper contract with out reading the details, so why would you click "accept" without reading the details. It is a contract!

maybe i didn't read the fine print. i place a lot of internet orders and sometimes there are so many pages to click through just to place the order. i just clicked through them. i didn't realize i was accepting membership for amazon prime. i don't recall seeing $79 in big numbers anywhere. i place about one order a year on amazon so it just isn't worth it for me. i was surprised to see the charge but i called customer service and they gave me a full refund because i didn't use any of the club benefits.

I am very pissed off that i got charges 79$ for an item that cost 17$ I need to get a refund now and It would be nice if they could take my mermbership off of that stupid amazon prime thnga mabobber! Thank You!

I am utterly disgusted. I have been charged 79.00 for this prime shipping club! I did not get the memo on this one.....My item only cost 13.97 and was late..now I'm being charged 79.00 which is an absurd fee and I have disputed this with my credit card company. I order things online all the time and have never experienced a problem like this before.

I Just seen a $79 charge to my account from Amazon Shipping Club and immediately thought fraud. So I contacted my bank and cancelled my debit card and told them I'm going to fill out a claim form in the morning. Now I find this website where lots of people have been cheated out of the same $79. I've ordered a few things off the internet but paid for the shipping at the time I ordered. This can't be legal.
Ernest L. Sproles

I agree that Amazon is intentionally deceitful in tricking people into signing up for a service that very often would be of no use to them. I use Amazon for Christmas orders. That is all I ever intend to use them for. The fact that they tricked me into signing up for something I didn't want has turned me off so badly, I will never purchase anything from this disreputable company again. I don't see where their logic comes from, if I trick people out of $80, maybe they will use my company more. Well for me, it worked in reverse. Maybe I was never one of their best customers, but now I am a customer and judging from the feedback above, I am not the only customer they have lost due to this underhanded gimmick.

I do NOT consider myself a DUMB online shopper and just noticed my card was charged 79.00 that I did not knowingly authorize. I am really disappointed in a great company like AMAZON pulling such a scam!!!!!!!!!

I too made a purchase and was billed $79.00 through very deceptive means. Having used Amazon a lot, I never suspected they would use scam tactics to extract money. It had every appearance of a special free shipping rate to entice more purchases.
I will no longer risk buying from them, and will sell stock Monday before it tanks.

I just received a bill for your service and I did NOT join your prime shipping Club. Please credit my account immediately.

Kathleen Barnosky

I have just seen a $79 charge to my account from Amazon Shipping Club which I did not authorize and will not pay for. Please cancel "MY MEMBERSHIP" and I will expect confirmation from you immediately. I will contact my bank and I'm going to fill out a claim form in the morning too. I'm surprised to see so many people have been cheated out of the same $79. How Amazon can pull this scam is beyond me.

I had the same thing happen to me and I just hurried up and canceled this Prime Membership and it said it would refund my credit card of the 79 dollars.

I was surprised when I saw a $79 charge to my credit card account from Amazon Prime Club which I DID NOT AUTHORIZE.
Please cancel "MY MEMBERSHIP" and refund my credit card of 79 dollars.

How can Amazon do this for your loyal customer ???

THIS AMAZON MEMBERSHIP IS A RIP OFF. I PUT AN ITEM IN MY SHOPPING CART. THE MESSAGE OF THE CLUB CAME UP AND I CLICKED TO GET INFO. ON THE MEMBERSHIP. IT AUTOMATICALLY ADDED THE MEMBERSHIP TO MY ACCOUNT. I DID NOT EVEN COMPLETE THE PURCHASE FOR THE ITEM IN MY SHOPPING CART, I CLEARED MY SHOPPING CART AND COOKIES/TEMP WEBPAGES FROM MY INTERNET EXPLORER AND THE NEXT DAY, I DISCOVERED A MEMBERSHIP FEE ON MY CREDIT CARD FOR $79 FROM AMAZON.COM. SOMEBODY NEEDS TO PLACE A LAWSUIT AGAINST AMAZON.

I just noticed the $79 charge on my VISA bill as well. However, it SHOULD be there. A few weeks ago there was a thing on amazon talking about a free trial of prime membership. I clicked it and started the trial, and it very clearly states that if you don't cancel the membership before the trial period is up, you will be charged for the next year. While it's easy to forget about this, or to not read through membership agreements for agreeing to them, the fact remains that Amazon is not at fault and shouldn't have to reimburse people for not seeing these things when signing up.

have just received a charge on my AMEX bill
for $79.00. I did not authorize this and will not
pay it. Please cancel "MY MEMBERSHIP" and I will expect confirmation from you immediately. I notice that I am not the only one that has unknowingly been charged. What a rip off. Please credit my account now. And then lose my email
address
Edna Engel

I have just seen a $79 charge to my account from Amazon Shipping Club too which I did not authorize and will not pay for. Please cancel "MY MEMBERSHIP" and I will expect confirmation from you immediately

People... please learn to read before you sign up for a free trial. Clicking randomly and not paying attention to what's on the page makes YOU solely responsible for the $79 charge. Don't blame Amazon for your negligence.

I did not order Amazon Prime Club. I looked at my bill this morning and saw the charge. Cancel immdiately and send me an e-mail showing me that it has been cancelled.

Thank you

I have had many a problem with Amazon.com. I cancelled my Amazon Prime Membership in October and now in December they still managed to charge me the $79. Is there a number where I could reach customer service to get my money back?

Amazon says that once you have done a month trial of prime membership, you will have time to opt out of subscription renewal. THIS IS NOT TRUE. There is no warning beforehand, no e-mail to alert you that they are going to withdraw money from your account. NO MATTER WHAT THE SMALL PRINT SAYS, THIS IS STEALING FROM CUSTOMERS!!!! Why?? because this is an ethically wrong way to do business!! If a customer is unable to cancel subscription in time e.g. after hospitalization og maybe just being on holiday and not with in arms length of a computer every day, it´s ok to take his money just because the customer is "silent".

SHAME ON YOU AMAZON PEOPLE. THE COMPANY MAKES ENOUGH MONEY AS IT IS.

THERE IS NOT NEED STEELING FROM YOUR CUSTOMERS TOO.

DO RIGHT AND REFUND THOSE WHO REALLY DIDN'T WANT TO JOIN THIS EXPENSIVE "CLUB" OF YOURS!!!

AT LEAST, IF YOU DON´T, I WILL NEVER DO BUSINESS WITH YOU AGAIN. AND I WILL MAKE SURE ALL MY FRIENDS DO NOT, AND THEY WILL TELL THEIR FRIENDS and etc. Do not belittle the domino effect.

Oh boy.....Add me to the list of people who wish to disclaim any intention to belong to this "Club". What a rip-off! I order 2 or 3 times a year, and couldn't possibly benefit from the high charge of $79.00. A refund is due. It is unlikely that I will ever do business with Amazon again.

Do you people not notice that almost all of the complaints here take the same exact form, in many cases using identical text or slight variations thereon? Either someone's having a laugh here at your expense, or someone's doing a bad job of trying to make Amazon look bad. (Well, maybe not doing such a bad job, considering how many of the rest of you are falling for it.) Open your eyes.

And if someone seriously can't tell the difference between this site and Amazon.com, to the point of demanding refunds here, do you really have a hard time believing they looked right at all the obvious indications of the cost and signed themselves up anyway?

Hi AMAZON.COM

I have just received a charge on my Amex bill for $79.00.

>PRIME SHIPPING CLUB.
>Free Standard Shipping for eligible items shipped to P.O. boxes in the continental United States (excluding Alaska, Hawaii, and U.S. >territories, possessions and protectorates) and APO/FPO addresses with U.S. zip codes.

Note that I do not live in the continental USA.

I did not authorize this and will not pay it. AMEX will be notified.

Please cancel my so-called membership and refund me.
I don't want to spoil my relation with Amazon, but until total refund, YOU ARE NOT AUTHORIZED to bill directly my credit cards.
Take notice please that I currently have no payment methods in your system.

Best regards.
Jacques Laporte.

Thank you all for the good laugh. What idiot did not see the really big fine print and reminders from Amazon that this was a shipping club. Hello each and every order told you that it was Amazon Prime and when the offer expired.

Idiots! The country is full of them. And why would anyone posting on here think that Amazon is reading this blog and going to refund your money? I think Paris Hilton has more brain cells!

AMAZON is charging me 79 $US !!!!!!!!!!
I never asked to be a member of this club !!!!!

Now, how do I get my money back ???

I must confess that the refund was fast (2 days).
All's well that ends well.

I got hit with the $79 fee too, UNAUTHORIZED. I am steaming... I won't ever buy from Amazon again and will suggest all friends and family not purchase either.

Just click on cancel and Amazon will refund your money. Jeez, and next time, read everything twice before giving out your credit card number.

I just received a bill for your service and I did NOT join your prime shipping Club. Please credit my account immediately. maria milano

Is this some kind of a joke? I woke up this morning and found out that I have just received a charge on my Visa bill for $79.00.from Amazon Prime Shipping Club. I did not authorize this and will not pay it. I did not sign up for the Amazon Primeshipping Club membership. Please cancel "MY MEMBERSHIP"(!!!) and I will expect confirmation from you immediately. Please credit my account now. And then lose my email
address maria milano

recently my twelve year old son signed up for amazon prime. how do i go about cancelling this order and getting a refund to my visa account

I just got a bill on my visa card for $79.00 for a year subcription on Prime shipping club. I would like to discontinue this unwanted club, and I would like to know how to cancel and get my money back. Please credit my account.

I accepted the one month (or 3 months or whatever it was) free offer for prime - had no intention of paying the fee for continuing on with it - was shocked to see it on my company credit card bill - this can't be a good thing for a formerly reputable company like Amazon that I always trusted - I intend to make sure they never record my credit card numbers again - remember, if something seems too easy and convenient (like Amazon) there must be a catch.

I was just charged the same $79 that everyone is complaining about here. I can't speak for all cases, but in our case we only bought a couple of things from them, so we declined the 'Free' shipping and paid shipping on our items.

Now, this mystery charge appears on our bill long after our order was placed. I called amazon and they gladly offered to refund our money, but I couldn't get an explanation from them as to why I was charged in the first place since we had obviously paid for shipping on our items.

Amazon needs to rethink what they are doing to their customer base. I'll find somewhere else to do my shopping that doesn't extort money from us without notice.

Guess what everyone... I live in Saudi Arabia and like everybody here i found the big $79 in my visa bill.
Now, shipments takes about a week to reach Saudi Arabia yet Amazon claims that with their new "Prime" service they will give u your packages in 2 days..
C'mon... what a ripoff.
I refuse to bay $79 for something I didn't authorized.

you have your rules , but you were not fair neither honest with your customers.
When I applied for amazon prime club, you did not give any information about any membersip of $79 annually.
I am waiting for my returned money in my master card. Thank you

In order to make a purchase on Amazon, there is a process that ensures you truly want to order the item and accept the charge to your credit card.

With Amazon Prime, none of the policies are clear and they intentionally bury any notice (if there was/is any) that $79.00 will be charged if you do not affirmatively ask then NOT to charge your credit card.

If they wanted to make the policy clear, they could have.

This is intentional on Amazon's part and it is fraud.

Me too!!! Just charged 79USD without my authorisation. Why does Amazon go to such lengths to squeeze money out of me? Whether I get a refund for it or not I am never using Amazon again. Buying off the Internet is all about trust. They have broken that bond.

I have used Amazon.com since 2001, mainly for purchasing text books for college, probably about 5 times a year. In December I made my purchase the same way I always do, but this time I was charged the $79. I have read the small print in the past so I felt no need to read again, considering I checked out as I normally do. Even if it is in small print some where, they made some sort of change when placing an order and I will never use Amazon.com again. I promoted Amazon.com to any one talking about shopping online over Ebay or any similar site, but not any more. They sunk low to do this kind of thing to their customers. They are going to lose many customers over this and I will warn every one I know about this robbery.

Only reading these comments I found out the reason I was charged $79 from Amazon. I have never had problems with them until now. I can't speak for all cases, but in my case I only bought one thing with "free shipping" in the whole year! All the other items I paid for shipping. If they want to charge me for that one shipping it's ok, but $79? I want my money back!

It's true that if you want to do business in the modern world, you are ultimately responsible for reading the small print and need to get used to it. That being said, how "Prime" is currently presented, it can only be concluded that the intent of Amazon.com is to deceive people and scam them for $79.

It is never presented in the ordering process that you will be charged $79 - you need to click the more-info link and read the terms. I am the Corporate Secretary for my company, so it is my job to read small print so I caught this, but it is easy to see how most people would not be on guard for this. This tactic is an old one but previously reserved for underworld fly-by-night sorts of "businesses". You currently have NO choice but to sign up if you place your order. The burden is yours to contact a CSR to cancel.

I placed an order at TowerHobbies this week and they have a similar program but a FULL screen comes up with the prices in BIG print and you are given a CHOICE to sign up. That's how it needs to be.

Good grief people! Are you incapable of reading? I've known that the Amazon Prime service charges $79.00 per year for quite a while. I didn't sign up for it until this week because I wasn't sure if it would actually save me money in the long run. I was never under the impression it was a "free" club because I am NOT A MORON who clicks and accepts website buttons without reading the details first.

This isn't Amazon's problem....unless you consider the fact that they apparently have some exceptionally stupid customers their fault.

I'm yet another victim of Amazon's PRIME STING. On Feb. 9th Amazon made a completely UNAUTHORIZED $79 charge on my Visa card. I discovered it only today when I reviewed my Visa account activity.

It's absolutely OUTRAGEOUS that Amazon should perpetuate such a SCAM. Not only am I going to try to get the charge off my account, but I wonder if Amazon's action could be considered FRAUD, with potential for substantial claims damages.

Looks to me like we may have a basis here for a CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT. Any attorneys out there who would like to take a crack at this case, with a LARGE CONTINGENCY in the offing?
Let's pile on Amazon. Sting 'em good and hard.

Are you listening Steve Bozos? Beans in your ears? Time for a woodshed discipline here that will take air out of your golden parachute.

I was charged 79.00 without my authorization and have disputed it with my card company. I have no doubt the money will be returned to my account. I am a college professor and order many books a year. Amazon just lost my business for good.

I LOVED Amazon Prime. I think I've been a member for 2, maybe 3 (?) years now.

It worked - I've bought electronics and pocket knives that I never would have considered purchasing from Amazon without it.

Ever since they've added DHL & USPS to their delivery providers, 3 of my last 4 orders have been late.

One was my husband's birthday gift... very disappointing.

With a 75% failure rate on their most recent deliveries, there's no reason to renew my Prime membership.

I am a blind person and use a screen reader to navigate web pages and was absolutely clear concerning the $79 annual fee following the 30-day trial period, and I didn't have to read the small print to understand the concept. Sometimes you have to be blind in order to clearly see. The prime shipping service is worth the money in my opinion and extremely useful. Regards, Emmanuel.

I never intended to sign up for Prime Shipping and never completed a purchase with it. Nonetheless, it seems to be a "stealth" type of program that signs you up without any warning confirmation. It was easy enough to get out of immediately by making a request to "quit" on an address in the acknowledgement message I got. THE TRICK AMAZON HAS PLAYED ON US IS TO CANCEL THE ABILITY TO GET THE "SUPER SAVER" FREE SHIPPING FOR ORDERS OVER $25 ON QUALIFYING PURCHASES. ONCE YOUR A "MEMBER", THAT OPTION DISAPPEARS. Unless it is replaced, I'll have to shop at Barnes & Nobel for my books.

TO AMAZON.COM
I have received a charge on my Amex for $79.00.

For a PRIME SHIPPING CLUB. I live in Argentina.

I have not accept this payment and will not pay it. AMEX will be notified.

Please cancel my so-called membership and refund me.
I don't want to spoil my relation with Amazon, but until total refund, YOU ARE NOT AUTHORIZED to bill directly my credit cards.
I have removed my Amex of amazon.

Best regards.

Agustin R. Vidal Valls

Although I cancelled Primeshipping immediately, while I was still in the "free Primeshipping trial period," it still blocked Super Saver Shipping on certain orders over $25. To its credit, Amazon immediately got me out of the Primeshipping trial period, too, on my request, and the Super Saver shipping option immediately reappeared on Amazon's website for me.

Super Saver is a better deal for me: only a slight shipping delay, no shipping charges on selected items, and no $79 annual fee.

Is pressing "CANCEL" button going to work? I was charged on Easter Sunday, which is sooooo ANNOYING, and I haven't bought anything from Amazon since January.
Is Amazon returning your money, people? Do they refund your cards when you click "CANCEL"?
Please, let me know asap, as I'm so pissed off. I'm steaming!!!!

Thanks.

I have just received a charge on my American Express bill for $79.00. I did not authorize this and will not pay it. Please cancel "MY MEMBERSHIP" and I will expect confirmation from you immediately. I notice that I am not the only one that has unknowingly been charged. What a rip off. Please credit my account now. And then lose my email address.
Yadvinder.

I have just recieved a charge on a Bank of America credit card that I shredded months ago. I did not authorize it and will not pay for it. Please cancel my membership and I expect a confirmation on my e-mail inmediately. This is a rip off and takes some of my valuable time. How could I have used a card that has been shredded.
Edwin

First, this site cannot refund your money. You must log into your amazon account and cancel the prime service before you place an order and use the service, or speak to someone in a call center and cancel your service. 1 (866) 577 5820.

Second, the practice of using opt-in marketing with terms and charges hidden as well as they possibly can sickens me. There is nothing free about Amazon Prime. $79.00 > Free. Lying on one page, and putting a link to another page where the truth is told is still a lie. I design e-commerce sites for a living and every time a marketing person wants to put something like this on one of the websites I'm working on, I point out the negative impact that it will have on users that are not aware of it. What has happened is a corruption of what is known as opt-in or "permission marketing." Permission marketing is marketing centered around obtaining customer consent to receive information from a company. The problem is that to obtain consent, the person giving consent needs to see and comprehend fully what they are consenting to. When the details that would make that consent less likely to occur are hidden or misrepresented, this is where a problem occurs. Amazon has designed a system in such a way that you don't know that you are buying prime service unless you are very very careful and read multiple pages of material. In addition, they make every attempt to discourage you from cancelling the service and also make it as difficult as they can to cancel the service once it is used for the first time.

Third, I encourage you to remove all of your billing details from sites, like Amazon, that store you credit card information. If you remove your credit cards, they cannot sign you up automatically since you did not give them permission to save your credit card details. That would actually be fraud.

Fourth, I encourage everyone to dispute the charge on their credit card so that Amazon.com's charge back ratio is pushed to a percentage where their merchant account fees become higher. This is the only message that will get through to their executives that this type of marketing scheme is nefarious at best and just plain ethically wrong.

I don't understand how it would be possible to withdraw $79 from my account without even asking my confirmation. I am a guest here for about 3 months and I intend to leave US soon. Do you accept overseas delivery without any payment also?
Please answer me soon and give me back the money.
That's not fair at all.
Yalda

They should take any mention of "Free" off their offers. Charged me a $1 originally, complained, got it back, but the $80 was a big surprise to me too, I seen no mention of it in the fine print on the offer, if so it was sneaky. In process of getting it refunded too as I found the service useless and havn't used it even once to save me any money.

Wow you complainers are hopeless. There's nothing sneaky about it. Just read the damn contract... You can set the PRIME membership to stop after the trial ends and they even email you a week before so you have time to cancel. Some people say they didn't get the alert by email so just call Amazon and they'll refund you the money. Amazon is pretty good on refunds so there's no need to worry.

I discovered the $79.00 Amazon charge on my account this week.

I neither knowingly nor accidently signed up for Amazom Prime. My last order with Amazon was 01/19/07.

So no 30 day free trail turning into a charge would be the case here.

This is a fraudulent charge. I called there Customer service and the rep told me that they get a large number of calls in regards to this.

Wow, I've never seen one single location on the internet with so MANY STUPID ILLITERATE MORONS in one place.

I, too, was charged $70 for AMZ without my authorization. Before the "wow you're an idiot; read the fine print!" people get on my case, I'd like to add that I haven't made a purchase on Amazon for over 6 months, so it's just not possible that I assented to a 3 month free trial and then didn't cancel. The charge was completely unauthorized.

This is very Wrong, 7years use of credit card and I haven't seen anything such this. 79$ without confirmation. I will cancel all my credit cards

Wow! I'm with JDF. In fact, I didn't know there were so many "STUPID ILLITERATE MORONS" in existence - especially out there shopping on the internet with credit cards.

I am honestly so astounded at all of you and am still not sure this is not some kind of bizarre joke. I am so overwhelmed by the out pouring of stupidity that I can't even come up with any kind of coherent response that won't take hours to post.

Just please take it from me, if you're letting your 12 year old shop on your Amazon account and then being mad he shopped, mad because Amazon replaced your slow super-saver shipping with 2 day shipping, think you only were able to comprehend the fine print because you are a genius and non-geniuses should not be expected to read the fine print (I'll bet they are surprised at Target when they get to the check stand and didn't read the fine print i.e. the price tag, and don't get their purchases for free) or are mad at Amazon for your own actions and then demanding restitution from BUSINESS WEEK then YOU SHOULD NOT BE SHOPPING ON THE INTERNET!! You probably should not use credit cards and ought to consider having a responsible adult handle your money for you.
Otherwise, please send me your email address because the is this super cool bridge in Brooklyn that can get you a deal on....

I saw that Prime free shipping option for some time when placing orders and checked out the details. I got lots of emails from Amazon prodding me to join. I was always aware of the $79 an was not charged it till I authorized it. In fact, I did the free trial and during the trial found it very simple to select the "Do Not Renew" button under the "Manage your Amazon Prime membership" section of "Account Settings". I figured I may as well wait till placing another order to renew.

That all said, I LOVE AMAZON PRIME! It has been wonderful for me (and I think good for Amazon because my joy has brought them many new customers). My time is very valuable and when I need something, whether it be a new book, replacement headlights for my car, Tide laundry detergent, a vacuum or argyle socks, to just make a few mouse clicks and have it show up in 2 days is amazing and worth way more than $79 (shhh, don't tell Amazon).

I think there is something wrong of our brain! We are all stupid?

I DID NOT KNOW AMAZON WAS GOING TO TAKE $79 OUT OF MY ACCOUNT, IF I WOULD HAVE KNOWN THIS I NEVER IN A MILLION YEARS WOULD HAVE DONE IT. I DON'T EVEN BUY THAT MUCH FROM AMAZON. I WOULD LIKE TO CANCEL MY MEMBERSHIP AND I WOULD LIKE A FULL REFUND OF $79 BACK INTO MY ACCOUNT IMEDIATELY. LIKE TODAY.

For those who continue to post message of how stupid the individuals complaining must be, let me tell you I DO read the fine print. And I DID read the information about Amazon Prime and decided it would not be beneficial for me to join. Even though I opted out of their offer at the time of my purchase, my credit card was STILL charged for the membership. I would imagine there are people who do not read the asterisks and fine print, but I do. As a savvy consumer pursuing my MA, I take great offense to being called "stupid". Perhaps the ignorance lies within those who are blind to the fact that these types of scams occur regardless of the intelligence of the shopper.

I too join this long list of people that got scammed by amazon, wouldn't it be correct to receive an email that showed the $79 charge applied to my credit card. What a disappointment to online shoppers when a company like amazon tricks you out of your money. They just lost one more customer.

TO AMAZON.COM
I have received a charge on my Amex for $79.00.

For a PRIME SHIPPING CLUB. I live in Argentina.

I have not accept this payment and will not pay it. AMEX will be notified.

Please cancel my so-called membership and refund me.
I don't want to spoil my relation with Amazon, but until total refund, YOU ARE NOT AUTHORIZED to bill directly my credit cards.

>PRIME SHIPPING CLUB.
>Free Standard Shipping for eligible items shipped to P.O. boxes in the continental United States (excluding Alaska, Hawaii, and U.S. >territories, possessions and protectorates) and APO/FPO addresses with U.S. zip codes.

Note that I do not live in the continental USA.

Take notice please that I currently have no payment methods in your system.

Best regards.

Well, this is what I call a lot of stupids that fell in the trick of AMAZON and a lot of genius who know to read the Small prints. Well, it's curious that Amazon, the pioneer of service customer on the NET don't take a little time to warn us that this time will expire in some days.
I would call it a suspicious behavior Jeff!
Honestly I feel like if you Jeff, would have take out money of my pocket smoothly!!

VICTOR ORREGO
Colombia

Prime? More like bait and switch. I have Prime service. I selected and bought 2 LCD monitors which for no apparent reason were not designated as "Prime". Why? Their customer service began with telling me it was an oversized box. I contacted the manufacturer and discovered it was shipped in a 20"x22"x7" box. Not exactly oversized. They then said it required specialty shipping. Uh, they delivered it to me via UPS ground??? Not so special afterall. They now claim it requires special handling. Good grief! What a bunch of BS. There are other 22" LCD monitors they sell which do qualify as prime. Are they less fragile?

I have been a customer since 1998. Shame on Amazon. Their customer service is sweet and professional, but BS is BS.

By the way, BS does not stand for Bait and Switch ;)

What a ripoff. Amazon, I was so surprised when I saw $79 charge to my credit card account from Amazon Prime Club which I DO NOT AUTHORIZE. PLEASE CANCEL MY MEMBERSHIP AND REFUND MY CREDIT CARD OF 79 DOLLARS. SHAME ON YOU.
Galyanee

WEll I am another statistic of Amazon Prime Club. I have not ordered before and when I got my Bank statement I was charged 79 for a fee I did not authorize. What a rip off. BEWARE EVERYONE!!! I am requesting my money back.

CAL

They tried the same thing with me.......i sent them an EXTREMELY nasty e mail and they not only cancelled but i was told i would get a refund within two to three days..........this is total BS.

I was so surprised when I saw $79 charge to my credit card account from Amazon Prime Club which I DO NOT AUTHORIZE.

PLEASE CANCEL MY MEMBERSHIP AND REFUND MY CREDIT CARD OF 79 DOLLARS.

Shame that you are doing this kind of transactions !!!!

I just noticed the charge on my card today I have not ordered anything from amazon in months I am going to contact my bank I'll post what I hear from them

Please cancel the charge on my credit card. I do not want the "service" you supposedly provide.

As most people above the list I'm deeply unsatisfied by the rude act of Amazon. I insist on canceling so-called membership in Amazon Prime Club which I didn't authorize and surely will not. However, money has been taken from my account - $79 - and that looks like a robbery. Please rectify the situation, otherwise I'll have to turn to court. Thanks.

Hi,
I did not register to PRIME SHIPPING CLUB why American express card charge me $79.00 0n 06.25.2007.
Please refund my money.
Thank you
Hung D. Le

I have been a regular shopper on Amazon for years and never noticed "PRIME SHIPPING" until about six weeks ago. A big ad came on the screen and I tried to click cancel but noticed that it congratulated me for joining "Prime Shipping" I did not read any fine print because of the way the ad was presented and made it difficult to get away from the ad. As far as I was concerned this was deceptive at best. I called once and they said that they would reverse the charge then e-mailed me telling me that I could not cancel because I used the benefit....... I called back, mad as hell and insisted to have the charges reversed.

Apparently this is service that has been in place for a while that they have decided to try to boost at customers' expence.

I know that AMAZON.com is better than this and I expect them to ensure that this does not happen to others

I too was charged $79.00 on July 6 2007, I NEVER signed up for this Prime thing. I have been trying to get these charges off my credit card for a while now and FINALLY after two weeks a rep of Amazon tells me she can't help me! What the bleedin' hell?! After losing my cool she finally says she'll "send me the info on terminating my account" but that's all she can do for me, along with sending me a refund. WHAT THE HELL is going on!

My first reaction was about how sheer persistence is what takes this idiotic humor and makes it kind of funny. I mean, who would imagine people would keep plugging away at this for a year? Wow. Add to that an inescapable and unnerving sense of "not quite everyone is in on this stupid little joke" and you've got something which gives pause. I suspect I'll be thinking about all of this long after I've left this page, whether I want to or not... :-D

How dumb can some people be? Amazon is a very reputable company and you have to click thru and agree to terms before they will charge you $79. Maybe you are click happy? Maybe you are just posting negatives comments for fun? I have been a prime member for 2 years and will be renewing when my membership is up for renewal. Prime is great, I order light bulbs, food, kitchen items, tools, bedding, towels, games, toys, sports equipment, lawn & garden equipment, dvd's, books, cd's, electronics, just about everything that I would normally buy in a store, and it arrives at my doorstep in 2 days!!! What could be better? For those of you who do not read the terms & conditions shame on you. It's not even fine print! Plus, if you USE the prime shipping then you can't get a refund. If you have not USED it then they will refund your $79. So, you sign up, use the service, and now complain? What ever happened to reading agreements and taking personal responsibility?

I can see from above posts that thay have been charging $ 79 without any authorization for such a long time. The same thing happened to me a few days ago. They're sheer a--holes stealing money !!! Don't be ridiculous with your reading the terms & conditions and taking personal responsibility?

you're all a bunch of idiots for not reading the fine print. MORONS...! and this is not the forum for amazon customer service... air your grievances with them, NOT businessweek!!

I have been charge also with the $79 in my visa...i only shop twice per year in amazon, so is not a good deal for me...... i must clicked the wrong button and sign up for that unintentionally .... But calm down people! you can go amazon.com, enter your account and cancel the subscription for the Prime Club explaining why are you canceling it... i did this this morning, i hope i will get my refund soon :)

I have just found this site. I live in Ireland and have just rcvd my Visa Bill. There is a charge of dlrs 79.00 for Amazon Prime Club. How dare anyone come to my account and take money from it when I did not sign up for this service. I have only had a couple of goods from Amazon and my choice was to pay the shipping.

This practice cannot be allowed to happen that you purchase items from a company, they retain your details on file, and then they can just come along and debit your account whenever they wish - NO WAY.

So firstly, I wish you to communicate with me in order that I can get my money back and then I wish Amazon to immediately delete my details from their data base. I await your response.
Linda. Co. Mayo, Ireland August 01.2007

I was charged the same, and I know for a FACT I didn't sign up. Don't say anything about small print, I make fortune 500 ecommerce websites and even did some work on amazon's code at one time. THEY ARE CHARGING everyone and they will refund you if you complain, just call 1 866 557 2820, Press whatever number is for returns and refunds(i think three, but the voice will say which ot press) then press 2 for refunds, it will play a 10 minute voice message about how to get refunds from sellers etc then give you avoice menu with options to go back to the main menu. Press 4 here, and it will connect you to a live rep, if you tell them you didn't sign up, they will say they have record of you taking the 'free trial', just insist you didn't and they will give you a refund. They are told to give refunds without causing a hassle (although they will at first say you signed up for the trial). It is a scam, they are signign people up becuase they know alot of people wont know how to or wont care to go through the trouble and take the 78$ charge. Just do what I said and they will refund you within 2-3 days.

I also have been charged for this service. I never signed up to be a member. I would like to get a complete refund on my credit card and the internation fee that I have been charged. How do I get a refund.

Just give amazon a call. 1800-201-7575..You will be refunded the full 79$ unless you used the prime on the next order(in whichcase you receiev around 74, not bad considering you got 2 plus orders for free 2 day shipping.) In the past it was a small fine print, but amazon just revised the set up, THERE IS A "VERY LARGE 79$ TEXT".

Easiest way to cancel and refudn is click "your account"(upper right link), search for "subsciptions" and udner that "amazon prime subscirption), then cancel it there for a ful lrefund. hope this helps.

The transaction for which the prime arrangement was cancelled so it was not proper for Amazon to proceed with the withdrawing of money from my account since I did not benefit from the stipulated purchase. Since the transaction which will have made me a member was cancelled- my membership was equally cancelled. That's it.
Isaac

I had no idea that I would be charged $79 and another charge of $1 for this "Prime Shipping Club". In Texas this is called Consumer Fraud or deceptive Business Practice. I hope that the Texas Attorney Generals Office, Consumer Fraud Division get wind of this. This is criminal.

I got charged by the amozon "Prime shipping club" too. The Amozon keeps all credit card numbers of its customers, and charges without clearly informing customers. I believe it's not a fair and honest conduct. I can't believe Amozon needs to make money in such a dishonest way. Very disappointed.

Total rip-off! I read every agreement I agree to on the internet, and I did not sign up for Amazon Prime Shipping. I called them, and they cancelled it immediately and refunded my money. I, too, expect more from Amazon and will not use them anymore!

I woke this morning only to find a $79 charge to my account from amazon club prime membership. At first I thought a rogue had got a hold of my credit card and was having a wonderful time shopping. I deciced to call the number on my account and to my surprise the guy who picked the phone sounded so unprofessional and wanted to me supply him with all my details. This made me scared the more and as such I demanded to speak with his manager. His manager was not even better he sounded drunk at about 3.30 am in the morning. I decided to call back later and was able to speak with a lady who explained everything to me. They have promised to refund my money back and I hope to get soon.

Yeah to be fair I knew about it and payed for it along with the free trial so for $79 I got 15 months of free shipping. However, many items were excluded from this program and while I liked the program I declined to sign up again.

I do remember some membership for free shipping showing up, but I did not click to sign up for it once I realized that there was a charge. Suddenly, nearly a month later a charge showed up on my credit card. You know, I always read the fine print and this truly is a scam that Amazon is pulling. I am surprised in Amazon. They will be losing a lot of long time customers and I suggest that they don't pull this kind of thing any more if they want to stay in business.

I didn't knowingly sign up for this! I have put the $79 charge in dispute with my credit card company. I would not have suspected Amazon of such deceitful practices. What a scam!

I, too, saw a charge on my credit card for $79 dollars. I called my credit card company and immediately disputed the charge.

I then called Amazon.com regarding this charge and they immediately cancelled my subscription and refunded my credit card. But, the question is how they actually charged my credit card. I NEVER signed up for Amazon Prime, which they said I signed up for a free-trial 30 days prior to the charge and I NEVER received an email they said they sent to opt out of the 30 day trial!

I have an email account that I use only for online purchases and after a search of my email I did not find ONE email from Amazon Prime regarding an offer, a subscription confirmation, or a 30 day opt out email. Short of calling this credit card fraud I don't know what else to call it. I'm grateful they cancelled my subscription and refunded my credit card, but this is bull!@#t!!!

I just checked my credit card statement and find out I had been charged $79.00 for something that I never used. I already canceled my Prime membership and if Amazon will not refund my credit card, I will make sure to never use Amazon again for anything!!

I am very disappointed with Amazon. I didn't sign up for Amazon prime service. I order around 4 books or less per year and 80 bucks for shipping for this amount of book is very unrealistic to me. I would have no ways signed up for this service, small print/fine print or not. I know that I didn't authorize this service and I want a full refund. It's not right to take advantage of people and I truly am very disappointed in Amazon.

I found that my account was charged $79 for Amazon Shipping...I was not aware this would occur. I utilized the free shipping on an order a month ago and I was under the impression you could select the Prime shipping later on. I would like my account credited for the charge as I was not aware this would take place

Hi,

I didn't know they charged $79 a year.

I just went on line to pay my American Express Card and I was charge $79.00 for the Amazon Shipping. You can imagine my surprise, when I pay shipping up front and don't order enough to have the $79 valued. Please credit back my card.

What a surprise !!!!!!!!!
I just went on line to pay my American Express Card and I was charge $79.00 for the Amazon Shipping. You can imagine my surprise, when I pay shipping up front and don't order enough to have the $79 valued. Please credit back my card, And please don´t do it again !!!!!!!!!!!!

I've been charged $79.00 to my visa card for Amazon shipping. So surprise!!! I just cancelled it and I want my money back ASAP!

I am furious. . . I was in Switzerland when I was told that my Capital One credit card was not valid. I called Capital One (which cost me $52 euros); and because I had alerted them that I would be out of the country, they stopped payment on this fraudulent charge. I had no idea what the $79 charge could be, so I had to cancel my card, thinking that someone had gotten my card number. I would never have authorized a $79 charge since I do not make purchases that would be worthwhile for me to enroll in such a plan. Evidently, there are others who were dooped! How can this happen -- I thought Amazon was a reputable organization.

The same thing just happened to me and I didn't know what the hell was going on. I have thought that someone had gotten my credit card number and was about to call my bank, but then I searched online to see what is it AMZ Prime and ran into this website and found out I'm not the only one. Please cancel this ASAP and refund my $$$. You overdrafted my account and I've been charged for overdraft by my bank. You people are unbelievable! I'm going to cancel my account with AMAZON forerver!!!

Trang Nguyen

I noticed that some of the comments on this page are from amazon themselves trying to minimalize these experiences as if they asked for it.

Belive it or not amazon, although I am sure you are counting on those few of us who can let $79 dollars slide unoticed out of their account, the rest of us you just appease by refunding our money.

What a bunch of garbage. There was no Big Button that I saw that said $79 on it. It was a sneaky and underhanded way to get it and will not be dismissed. Now I have to go deposit some money in my account to cover those funds until you refund my money!!!!!!!!

I actually enjoy this alot, I live in california and well there is tax and I buy stuff from videogames to electronic equipment(cameras, recorders, dvd players, etc) and anything that can be gifts(shoes, watches, etc), I buy a lot of stuff online, but anyway California has taxes and well if I buy on amazon, I don't have to pay for taxes and also they are most of the time 2 to 4 dollars cheaper than what I see at wal-mart or target or any other store like that. free 2 day shipping is nice and when im in a rush for buying a gift for a nephews birthday that I forgot about, the next day shipping comes in handy verymuch since the stuff they like arent sold in stores and if they are they always run out fast, like cheap but durable waterproof Boss speakers.

even though most will say, thats just a few dollars of savings and the $79 bucks is way more, well I shop a lot online, so it does rackup quite a bit, $22 dollars for some marine speakers on amazon as apposed to $29.95 dollars for the same speakers at Circuit City plus tax(adds up when you need 8 of them) and much harder to return too if your dissatisfied. I also save gas which isnt cheap at all even though its from costco, its still not very cheap. I've signed up near the end of January of 2007 and have spent over $2000 dollars on there so far(mainly because of early christmas shopping)but the free 2-day and cheap next day shipping saved me a lot also saved stress and gas because Fry's electronics is 45 miles away and thats about my whole gas tank(90 miles back and fourth), also I have no car, just a motorcycle so it does come in handy too. Believe me, if you enjoy buying people gifts but are too nervous about figuring out where to buy the stuff or ask a store associate where is what at or do they carry it, this is just right for you., I've saved tons of money since regular 2 day is like 12 bucks and next day can sometimes get to $30 bucks. its just like wholesale warehouse stores such as Costco or Sam's Club, its not for everyone.

-Anthony V

Perhaps there is benefit to some customers on a service like this, however, if Amazon believes so strongly that this program will be of benefit to others, they should promote all of its benefits clearly and openly to their customers and give them a choice.

I used Amazon to buy my daughter's school books and we are on a limited budget. If Amazon really cares about it's customers, they will make sure that it is clear what charges are being made to their cuctomers accounts.

I also do not appreciate being lied to by their customer service representative ( Yes my name is spelled with an "I" like in India)
about how there was a button that said $79 dollars on it that I must have accidentally pressed. If I see a button that says $79 dollars I read clearly what it is about before pressing it.

In the past, I have encouraged my mother and grandmother that it is o.k. to purchase online through reputable companies like I thought Amazon to be but I myself am seriously rethinking whether or not I want my credit card on a server of even the companies that I thought to be Trustworthy....Like Amazon.

I didn't authorize this nor ask for it. Please remove me from this club immediately. I don't even use amazing frequently enough to what this.

in my visa of bbva bank of chile you has charged 79 dollars , i did not register to PRIME SHIPPING CLUB AMZ*Prime Club 866-557-2820 . please correct this delictive action.

visa banco bbva sucursal la florida santiago chile

i just bought something from buy.com and my visa was charged $79 for amazon prime. how can they do this? i did not register or authorize for the prime shipping club. this is fraud amazon. please refund my money today.

I was charged $79 of the Amazon Prime Club. Just like the others said, I had no idea it would charge me $79 for the membership. They should refund the money to us. I only bought one book from Amazon, and that order are qualifed for Free Super Shipping already, I did not need the fast shipping of Amazon Prime Club. Amazon should have some business ethics. Please delete my club membership and refund my money back. I am not going to buy anything from Amazon again. This is a terrible online shopping experience.

Why are idiots posting on the BUSINESSWEEK article and not complaining to AMAZON?
Morons.

Precisely what I was just laughing myself silly about. Some of these gene pool wonders think that this is Amazon.com customer service.

Breeding new humans should be earned, not a right. People frighten me.

I was charged $79 of the Amazon Prime Club. Just like the others said, I had no idea it would charge me $79 for the membership. They should refund the money to us. I only bought one book from Amazon, and that order are qualifed for Free Super Shipping already, I did not need the fast shipping of Amazon Prime Club. Amazon should have some business ethics. Please delete my club membership and refund my money back. I am not going to buy anything from Amazon again. This is a terrible online shopping experience.

I WAS CHARGED $79.00OF THE AMAZON PRIME CLUB.
--tHEY SHOULD REFUND THE MONEY BACK TO US.

-- I AM NOT GOING TO BUY ANYTHING FROM AMAZOM.

ARNALDO BOU.
NOV. 15/ 2007

This is very devious advertising on Amazon.com's part. I ordered a book for free two-day delivery assuming that it was part of the 'book sale' (i already paid $150 for the book itself). I had no idea that this "free shipping" entailed being charged $79 (without my permission or knowledge) for unknowingly signing up for the Amazon Prime Club.
Amazon.com should be ashamed of themselves. I'm no longer buying from Amazon.com anymore (Period).
Stephen

I have had the same issue - being charged $79 by AMAZON without authorising this charge. I use the internet for a lot of my shopping needs and have also never had this experience. The sad thing for Amazon is that they will now lose a lot of loyal customers. I, for one, will never shop on their site again.

I haven't authorized a payment of $79 on my debit card.You don't have the right to do this.I can see clearly I am not the only person who has this problem.I expect to give me back my money,because I am out of the country and I guarantee I can't order anything else from amazon for a long time,but I need to pay some bills with this money in my card.

The same thing happened to me. Yesterday, to my amazement, i found 79$ unauthorized charge to my account.

But being a long time loyal amazon customer, I am doubting if actually amazon had initiated that charge.

I ordered a book recently from an used book seller in amazon. The seller contacted me this weekend saying, he might have sent the book to wrong address and would send it again. I am wondering if that seller had initiated that transaction.

As hundred of custumers before, you have charded my debit card. I had no idea I had requested the membership to this club, which I do not need at all. As most people above the list I'm deeply unsatisfied by the rude act of Amazon. I insist on canceling so-called membership in Amazon Prime Club which I didn't authorize and surely will not. However, money has been taken from my account - € 55.95 on -26-09-07 and that looks like a robbery. Please rectify the situation, otherwise all custumers in my same situation will join and appeal to court.
I would like to cancel my membership and get a refund for that amount.
Thanks,
Manuel F. Lara

Please cancel "MY MEMBERSHIP" and I will expect confirmation from you immediately. I notice that I am not the only one that has unknowingly been charged. What a rip off. Please credit my account now. And then lose my email address!!!
szymon

I have the same problem!!!I have just received a charge on my VISA card for $79.00. I did not authorize this and will not pay it. Please cancel "MY MEMBERSHIP" and send confirmation immediately. I notice that I am not the only one that has unknowingly been charged. I hope this is a MISTAKE and not a SCAM. Please credit my account now. And never send me Emails!!!!

I just had the same problem! I never heard of this club and was on with Amazon in the phillipines..SCAM SCAM SCAM!!!

How do I cancel the 79.00 withdraw?!

They charged me $79 for this club without giving me any notice of the transaction. I called them and got a refund over the phone. No harm done. However, they should remind their customers of the clubs they are in without such "surprises".

I got caught by the Amazon Prime charge also. (No. I am not a dumb person. I just though Amazon was one of those rare companies that could be trusted - a bit.) They even had the nerve to go to a second charge card when my "preferred" one had an expiration date. I told them to remove me from their records and refund my money. We'll see what happens.

My god this page is full of retards! This is a blog post- if you want a refund goto amazon.com.

"im not dumb" so when you got free shipping for your order for signing up for the 'trial' you thought the trial would last forever?? Nothings free. You recived free shipping in exchange for the trial. you did it. amazon did not put a gun to your head.

Here is the link to the prime FAQ (that is if your "not too dumb" to know how to copy/paste.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=13819211&#trial

Do the words "FREE TRIAL" mean ANYTHING to you folks? To me, they indicate that, at some point, the "FREE TRIAL" will end and the company will charge me, if I don't cancel BEFORE the "FREE TRIAL" ends.

I am as guilty as the next person of not reading everything I click through, but that's still not the merchant's fault. THAT'S WHY THERE'S A CHECK-BOX NEXT TO "ACCEPT TERMS & CONDITIONS"

Buyer beware: FOOLISHNESS AND LACK OF ATTENTION TO DETAIL WILL COST YOU. Stop blaming the merchant because you were in a hurry for instant gratification.

I didn't go to Amazon. I went to a site for Borders gift cards. I was not given any opt in or opt out anything. I received no notice either when purchasing the card or in an email or mail that I was registered (unknowingly) to this AMZ Prime Club. I'm not going to accept blame for deceptive merchant practices. I opt out of newsletters, emails, everything. So long Borders. So long Amazon. And DUH! I know this is not the Amazon or Borders site. This is a site where others can come read up on the shameful practices of these two companies.

I find it hilarious that many people think that this is an Amazon.com customer service center, instead of a BusinessWeek forum.

Guess what? You obviously are careless and don't know how to read! If you're posting on here asking for a refund, then I'm really not surprised that you DIDN'T READ THE OBVIOUS EXPLANATION on the Amazon.com website.

I'm looking at the site now. The $79 charge is as obvious there as it is obvious that this is a BusinessWeek forum. If you can't figure this forum out, then it makes sense that you were too careless or lazy to figure out the Amazon site.

The same thing happened to me. Yesterday, to my amazement, i found 79$ unauthorized charge to my account.

I Fail to understand how can amazon do it without our authorization.

Ladies n Gentel man how can we make them pay our money back

please refund my money back.I have no notice in advance. I do never shop Amazon

I had a similar experience to those who unwittingly signed up for the service. In my case, an immediate effort to cancel the order for other reasons was frustrated by the Amazon Web site. And I was then charged for using the service and initially told I'd be refunded only a pro rated amount even though the 30-day free trial period was not yet up. It does make me uncomfortable about Amazon...

he hecho recientemente una única compra a los estados unidos a través de paypal y a los pocos días , además de aparecer en mi cuenta el cobro correcto de la compra , también apareció un cargo por parte de amz primeshipping por 55 euros , más menos $ 79 dolares sin yo entender el porquÉ ? nunca acepté nada , ni siquiera recibí ninguna propuesta ni publicidad ni nada por parte de amazon , sólo el famoso cargo.
Puede amazon explicarmelo ? y devolverme mi dinero por favor? , al menos yo pregunto. A.Z España

I never signed up for this membership. I want you to give me my money back as soon as possible.
Please take my email off the list.
When I am Refunded please send me conformation.
This is not right at all you did not have authorization to do this.

January 2, 2008 5:05PM
$79 unauthorized charged to my account. I donot understand how amazon can do this without authorization. Remove my name from any list you may have. No more orders from this person.

I was charged $79. I called "Jeff" and was promised a refund. It never happened. I called and spoke with Jason, same thing, this time I received an email from Mohammad Hussain telling me my request was denied because I used the account which I did not. Jason even checked, and verified that I did not use it. You did see the name...Hussain? Anyway, now I called and spoke with Vikas who told me I have never used the account and he will now issue a refund. That's where I'm at. Now I will re-tell this story to AMEX and they will issue credit to me and debit Amazon. Oh yeah, I ordered something from Amazon and never received it also.

I signed up for the "free" trial, shame on me, as I did not see the fine print. Who would pay $79 for free two day shipping when you can get free shipping in 3-5 days anyway! Now they charged me $79, on a week I have only $102 in my account, so I will surely run out of funds. This will make me leave Amazon permanently and shop directly with the merchants. Bad move, Amazon, bad move...

I found the latest charge this January 2008. Found a related thread on Techdirt and called Amazon. I discovered they did the same charge to me exactly 1 year ago, and I had missed it on my statement.

Clearly there is confusion here with this so called 'service'. It looks more like a cash cow for Amazon and a bad business practice overall. If you are going to re-bill my card for some service I've never used, maybe an email should go out before doing that Amazon! Or would that cut into your profits from this scam? Shame on Amazon.

Like others who have posted comments about Amazon Prime I too was hit below the belt with an unauthorized "opt-out" charge of $79 for this overpriced undependable scam from a company for whom I had gained great respect for it fast/well-priced/find-almost-anything/free shipping products. Jeff "Bozo" must have gotten snookered by that third-party company in Nevada promising high-margin returns for every customer it scammed into failing to opt out of the offer. Sad....very sad.

Same as the rest of the the other suckers that woke up to find a bill of $79.00, you have really made a fool of yourself Amazon as well as trying to make a fool out of us!! Cancel my membership and refund my money ASAP !!!!

I just found the charge on my visa bill and called Amazon to cancel it. He said I'd been using the service since November (2 months ago). I bet there was a "one-month for free" thing, and I didn't make a note to myself to cancel the service before any charge kicked in. Just a guess. Anyhow, they are crediting me the $79, minus shipping charges for two orders since November. Jerks.

1) Add up how much you shopped with Amazon in the past year- how much did you pay in shipping charges? If it approaches $80, then Prime is a good deal. Then, price being comparable on other items, I purchase through Amazon and incur no additional shipping charges.
2) Note that other members of ones household may be invited to be included under your Prime membership. My kids at college are under my Prime membership and utilize it for their purchases. They don't have easy access to get to stores. Music, textbooks (when the college bookstore is out of stock), tea, etc.
As with anything, research to see if you will get your moneys worth./ me

Read before you click people. You have the ability to type, so I'm assuming you have the ability to read. Why can't you take the time to read? Why are you in such a hurry.

The same idiot posting under different names saying he/she was charged $79 by Amazon without authorization. Just so you know: everybody reading your posts think you are STUPID.

I found the $79.00 charge this morning on my BOA account and I never even bought anything lately via Amazon!! This charge on my account has driven up my interest rate to an astronomical amount because I opted out of this account to keep my interest on my balance low. I reported this to BOA as a dispute and I WILL NEVER AGAIN USE AMAZON.COM!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was charged $79 from some membership that i had not requested to be on and would like to have that money back.

I didn't sign up for anything. I simply ordered a book and that was that. I was charged $79 without my notice. I expect a refund of this money. Contact me as soon as possible

I did not sign up for anything. I want a refund on my creditcard and am very angry. I run a tight budget and this has caused me some distress

What I never signed up for this...I am over drawn because of this stupid thing and if I was supposed to receive two day shipping i haven’t. Therefore I will no longer be using amazon.com because this whole thing seems like a huge scam to me... SO please give me my money back

Thanks for taking $79.00 out of my account without notifying me first! Now I am overdrawn and it is going to cost me $33.0 in overdraft fees. I am so glad that you took it upon yourself to include me in this ridicules shipping program, but I think I will rely on my own judgment as to who and when I want to have something shipped in the mail. I had better see my money back in my account in 2 to three days with the added $33.00 service charge that you cost me because of your arrogance. I really liked using AZ too. So sad, I hope who ever came up with this stupid program is out looking for a job because of this blunder.
I am unemployed, and looking for work, and do not have that kind of money that I can just let $79.00 + $33.00 go unnoticed by some scam artist that works for a big company. I had better see my money back in my account soon!

I am surprised at how many people accept the terms of service without reading the contract. Slow down and read people, stop clicking on all the bright buttons.. And STOP PUNCHING THAT MONKEY! You get what you deserve.

How do I join this club? It sounds great.

I have also received a debit on my Credit card for $79.00 which I believe I was signed up for in error. Some of the things to click are not explained fully. I would like to cancel this immediately.

what a bunch of fools.. you blame amazon for your mistake. no wonder the us is going to hell in a hand basket.. the average person is stupid.

I have just written an email of complaint to Amazon. Not only did I not authorise payment for AMZ Prime Club but being a UK resident I am illegible. I hope that now I will promptly receive a refund.
I see that others have been charged without authorisation. Has Amazon reponded to these incidents?

I signed up for the Amazon Prime free trial membership when it first was launched, about a year ago I think. I think it was a 30 day trial or something like that.

IT WAS GREAT! I pre-ordered the last Harry Potter book and took advantage of the 2-day shipping. Over that month I took advantage of a bunch of little different things. A new MP3 player, a couple of books, etc. I loved the fact that I'm not paying any shipping or sales tax (don't tell my governor!).

I browsed through most of these comments here and am awestruck that people are complaining about unauthorized charges. I specifically remember Amazon clearly showing the benefits AND the costs of the membership after the 30-day trial period. I also remember is clearly stating that it will continue unless I cancel on my own.

Now I did cancel the membership at the end of the trial period. I was never charged anything. I also still received Harry Potter with free 2-day shipping MONTHS after canceling my membership. Now that's awesome!

I am not the type to reply or leave comments on sites, but this pretty much fumed me reading all these negative comments when either the readers have it out for Amazon in the first place or they just don't own up to their own actions. It couldn't have been clearer of the ToS of the membership when I signed up.

The only other possibility that I can think of for all these "unauthorized charges" is that the Tooth Fairy must have snuck on everyones laptops when they were asleep.

Qu3ry.com

This is HILARIOUS!

All of these people posting "CANCEL MY MEMBERSHIP NOW!". Do they really think that they just had to google Amazon Prime, pick the first link that came up, and then reply to it and that was all that it took?

OK, I am one of the idiots that got duped into the amazon.com prime account deal. Yes, I feel stupid. But really I did not expect a scam charge from Amazon.com. One of the reasons that I use Amazon.com (despite the fact that they have been instrumental in helping some of my favorite small local book stores go out of business) is because it's quick and easy. Well oops! I didn't read the fine print because I was at work while buying my sister a birthday gift and hit yes whatever, ship it to me, free, great whatever. and I was done.

Then I get a $79 charge I didn't know that I authorized on my checking account and have to try to live on $10 for 3 days. Looks like top ramen for me until payday. I quickly called the telephone number on my bank account and they said that they would reverse the charge. No big deal.

Sure, that was nice of them to just reverse it like that when it was my own stupid fault for not reading the fine print. But still I feel like a schmuck and I also won't get that money back for a few days and I am a broke student. Also it annoys me that now I have to go around reading all of the fine print on Amazon.com.

Anyway, I think it's a hoot that all of these people are posting here instead of calling Amazon.com. Rock on with your bad selves!

Dear Dan,

You sound like a racist. And a stupid one at that.

Mohammad Hussain

I want to be reinbused ASAP for this $79.00 charge, otherwise I will sue. I didn't athorize this and will not buy anything else on Amazon because of this.

I did not authorize this charge, if I had know i would have to pay $79.00. I would never sign on for that agreement and even dough my order came late more than 8 days. i think by puting this on the fine print you are triying to cheat customers and keep a lot of money of the people that just didn't notice or call for reinbursment.
I whant to be reinbursed ASAP.

Luis Villarreal

I didn't sign up for anything. I simply ordered a play station game and that was that. I was charged $79 without my notice. I expect a refund of this money. Contact me as soon as possible

I bought something two months ago and this $79.00 charge showed up today in my account. The person on the other end at "AMZ prime" promised to reverse the charges- in three days. When I asked for the telephone number of the billing department- I was told that they did not have that number. Something needs to be done about this company! How can customer service not have any connection to the billing department- or even a number to refer customers to?This is bad business and reeks of scam

This has been an enlightening comment thread. First, kudos to BusinessWeek for keeping it open ... after all, the original story was written in 2005!

Second, I have been an AmazonPrime member since the service launched. I order a *lot* of books (and a few other things) from Amazon. The Prime membership has more than paid for itself -- especially when I need something overnight.

Third, it is a bit shocking to see people write comments here that suggest they think they are talking to Amazon. It undermines their case.

Finally, it would be useful, I think, for BusinessWeek to update the story ... I'd like to know what the "Free Trial" promo looks like, etc.

Oh. And I own AMZ stock.

i really trusted this website for being fair enough but to my dismay today i noticed they have charged me with 79 $ as prime membership for which i never applied so now i say they are big cheats .

Wow, you guys are stupid. Amazon doesn't scam anyone out of $79. You sign up for a free trial, you have to cancel it before it charges you. Where have you been living? In a cave? Pay attention to what you agree to, and you wouldn't be getting charged $79.

I　met the same issue-being charged $79 but don't understand why! I even called my bank to argue that my account information was stolen!!! Because on my account statement, it doesn't show Amazon prime-shipping fare clearly!I can't link the fare to the prime shipping of Amazon right away!
I have to say it's really a bad thing to know about Amazon~I would like to pay when I am fully aware!But Now I start feeling upset about Amazon~

Sell your Amazon Stock!

I am reporting them to the Better Business Bureau and am contacting their executive team.

I have been charged without my knowledge like the rest of you. I spend thousands with this company.

One of their Indian CSR's replied to me and said he would refund the amount that I did not use. He said he would do nothing more.

I told him if he didn't refund the other half I would do no more business with Amazon.

They have refused. This company is willing to sacrifice thousands over $40. All you have to do is read the posts here and see that there is no clarity to the program.

SELL SELL SELL! Why?
1. CSR in India is making the final call on a big customer who is pissed off.

2. As damage control they post messages on the board to make smart people portrayed as idiots.

3. They are willing to sacrifice thousands of dollars of future business over a $40 mistake that they have made.

I own a Marketing Services consulting company and have run Marketing for $400 million+ organizations.

This is a major gap in Customer Service Quality Control. I can confidently say that they don't know what they are doing.

i was surprised to see my credit card was charged $79 for something called "prime club". i had no idea what it was, and now that i know, i can honestly say there is no way i would have ever signed up for it because i don't care how long it takes to receive my order. i always take the least expensive route when it comes to delivery. please refund my $79 immediately. i have contacted my credit card company and disputed the charge.

This morning I noted a $79 charge on my bank statement for something called AZShippingClub - I had no idea what this was so I called the referenced phone number and was surprised that the phone was answered by Amazon Customer Service. A man named Nick informed me that if I could not provide him with an account number there was nothing he could do. I explained (over and over) that I do not HAVE an account number because I did not open any account! Apparently I now have to have my bank file a "dispute claim" and haggle with Amazon over the refund of my $79.

I was surprised to see my credit card charges $79 for this shipping club that I do not recall ever signing up for. I demand you, Businessweek, prove that I knew what I was doing. Please reimburse my credit card the full $79.00, I don't care how you and Amazon.com split the refund. Also, I was attacked by a giant annaconda while in the Amazon and I feel you should have warned me and my film crew. I would like to be reimbursed for my trip.

Joe,
Are you being serious? You want Amazon to refund even the portion you have used?

I have Prime and when I signed up it was clearly stated what I would be paying and what the benefits were. Why should you get something for nothing? I applaud Amazon for even compensating you that much! I think once you accept the TOS and especially after you actually utilize the service you should receive NOTHING! What is the name of your company so that I may avoid it at all costs?

I barely recall clicking on the "free trial". I do remember seeing the email and thinking "what did I do?" -I bought lots of items and thought "cool, Amazon.com has 2-day shipping for free". Then the $79.00 charge I couldn't figure out. I called Amazon.com Customer Service -they were fantastic. They were nice, they were clear, they gently reminded me about that email -and when I told them I'd like to opt out -they refunded the entire amount since I hadn't use the service after being charged. No hassles! Amazon.com Customer Service is the best!

haha, what a bunch of morons and losers.

I was shocked to know that Ihave been charged$79 for shipping club membership
which I never intended for .The $79 have been charged arbitraroly.Kindly get the entry revert or else I will consider that your site is a cheat.Pl inform me on my mail for rewversal of entry

I am a little confused here -- no actually I am A LOT CONFUSED. This is the Business Week article, yet there are skillions of people wanting the Amazon Prime cancelled and they are writing to Amazon the Business Week site to have AMAZON Prime cancelled. Duhh? WHY???

Since when did Business Week become AMAZON'S secretary?? (They aren't)

If we have any questions as to how poor the US Education System has become, just look at this page -- several people wrote several comments just changing the name. There are spelling mistakes and e-mails which prove the poor reading skills of the shoppers of today. People assuming that Business Week will credit them money, I THINK NOT!!!

If you have a problem with Amazon, take it to Amazon. Leave Business Week out of it.

One of the tenets of business (for those who don't know what tenets mean look it up in a DICTIONARY) is that BEFORE SIGNING ANYTHING READ THE SMALL PRINT AND DO NOT LEAVE ANY PAGE UNREAD. A tenet of the legal system is “Ignorance of the law is no excuse” by signing your name; you have signed a legally binding contract. Playing stupid is just that stupid.

My compliments to Amazon for their courtesy in refunding the money of those who don't know how to read, or are too lazy to read. I don't think I would have been as generous.

Before anyone suggests where my loyalties lie,