Another problem is what strikes me as an increasing number of inventory items that appear to be eligible for Prime, but there’s a weasel-way out of it. I just ordered a book which they said was “in stock but might require an extra one or two days of processing,” something like that.

That is NOT what I paid for when I paid them nearly $80 for Prime membership.

On a previous complaint call, the phone monkey told me that all it means is the shipping will take one or two days, whenever they get around to it. In other words, I could order today, they might not ship for six months, but if they got it to me in two days, it would be be “Amazon Prime service.” This is BS in my opinion.

I have had a very favorable opinion of Amazon up til now, but I’m beginning to think this is the first time they’re gonna crash and burn on a new program. They don’t seem to be able to make it work.

I didn’t really mind, just kind of figured that’s life. However, I had decided that when it expired I wouldn’t be renewing it.

SURPRISE! When it expired, they automatically renewed it, without even so much as a howdy do! It turns out (if you read all of the fine print) that Prime membership is automatically renewed without notification. It is incumbent upon you (the member) to cancel before the renewal date.

Canceling Prime is now fairly easy, you just follow the Help link, click on the Prime section and follow the cancel link. However, you only get a refund if you haven’t made a Prime qualified purchase. I was unclear if they meant “ever” (because I had made two or three prime purchases during the first membership period) or if they meant for the current period. I tried to find an actual phone number to call and verify, but there is no such animal on the webpage. Searching the web led me to this site and the INVALUABLE phone number. I called and it was all resolved in minutes.

Amazon has been a good company, but the Prime scheme could endanger that. If they counted on an “insurance” style membership where minimal users subsidize the heavy users I think they made a poor decision. If on the other hand, they were simply trying to buy store loyalty (people always go to Amazon for their stuff) then it was probably a decent decision. However, the automatic renewal thing is pretty evil, and definitely needs to be changed.

Thanks for the golden number!

Amazon is normally very good about refunds / cancellations, which is why I felt OK about signing up for Prime in the first place. However, BUYER BEWARE – if you want a refund on Prime, you have to go through mutiple steps with customer service, and (as noted by a previous post) you never deal with the same person twice. After a month of trying to get a refund, the last customer service person I dealt with denied that Amazon had ever charged my credit card, and told me I had to submit proof that I had been charged.

The customer service rep at my credit card company got a good chuckle out of that one. I’m just glad I can dispute the charge through my credit card company.

My last order shipped in 2 packages with 3 day select one arrived in 4 days
the other arrived in 6 days from the shipping date.

The support guy pointed to the 2 day shipping not corresponding to any
branded service — fine.

It must mean something.

How an item shipped on the 1st and arriving on the 7th can fall under
“2 day shipping” is beyond stretching the language it is redefining it.