Amazon Prime Free Trial?
It seems like Amazon.com is offering a free three month trial of their Prime program, for which I’ll eagerly sign up:
As the 3-month free trial period ends, if you want to join Amazon Prime, do nothing. At that point we will enroll you in a 12-month membership and charge a $79 annual fee to the credit card listed below. If you are not interested in joining Amazon Prime after the free trial, that’s okay, too. We make it easy to cancel online any time before the trial ends, and we’ll even send you a reminder e-mail along the way. We’re hoping you’ll like the membership and will want to continue.
They promise to remind me to cancel it! That’s great of them:
This makes 2-day shipping free, and 1-day shipping cost about $3.99. Great deal:
Now I’ll leave it up to you to decide what I bought that will get here before Friday, eh? You can read more about the Amazon Prime Program (which costs $79 per year), and if you’re signed in, it may offer you a free trial.
Update: Since people seem confused about what Amazon actually offered and delivered, here are the emails I received from them, verbatim:
Subject: [commerce] Amazon Prime Free Trial Membership Confirmation
From: prime@amazon.com
Date: 2/8/2006 9:10 PM
Hello from Amazon.com.
Congratulations, you successfully enrolled in the Amazon Prime Free Trial! You can now take advantage of free Two-Day Shipping and upgraded Overnight Shipping for only $3.99 on millions of eligible items through May 8, 2006. You also will receive free Standard Shipping on items not eligible for expedited shipping.
When your trial membership ends, it will be automatically upgraded to a 12-month membership for $79. You will have the opportunity to opt out of the automatic upgrade before the trial ends. You can opt out of the upgrade, change your payment method for the upgrade, and perform other administrative tasks for your Amazon Prime membership in Your Account: www.amazon.com/your-account
As an Amazon Prime Free Trial member, you’re welcome to invite up to four household members to share your subscription. Please note, members you invite will need to know your birthday and enter their own birthday. You can manage your account settings and invite or remove members in Your Account: www.amazon.com/your-account
You can read more about Amazon Prime on our online Help pages: www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/browse/-/13819211/
Thank you for subscribing to Amazon Prime and shopping at Amazon.com.
Best regards,
Amazon.com Customer Service
www.amazon.com
Subject: [commerce] Your free trial of Amazon Prime will expire on May 08, 2006 and will automatically upgrade
From: primeclub@amazon.com
Date: 5/6/2006 2:00 AM
Dear Elliott C. Back:
*** Your free trial of Amazon Prime will expire on May 08, 2006 and will automatically upgrade to a full membership for $79. ***
If you have enjoyed your Amazon Prime benefits and wish to remain a member, you don’t need to take any extra action. That is why we asked for a credit card when you signed up for the free trial: to make the conversion truly automatic and ensure you have uninterrupted access to your Amazon Prime benefits. We will charge your credit card $79 and your trial membership will upgrade to a full, 12-month membership (that is 12 months in addition to the period of free membership you received).
We are notifying you now, before the upgrade takes place, so that you may update your payment information (if necessary) or cancel the automatic upgrade. To make these changes, start by following these three steps:
– Visit Your Account at www.amazon.com/your-account/
– Click on “Manage Your Amazon Prime Membership”
– Log in using the Amazon.com account that you used to sign up for your trial membership*** How do I cancel the automatic upgrade? ***
If you do not wish to automatically upgrade to a full, 12-month membership at a cost of $79 when your free trial membership expires, then click the “Do not upgrade” button. On the membership status screen, you will see a message that reads “Your trial membership will not upgrade to a full membership automatically.” Note that you will also be able to change your
mind and switch back to an automatic upgrade before the trial period ends.If you choose to cancel your membership during the trial period, you will stop receiving Amazon Prime benefits when the trial period ends and will not be charged $79. Also, you will not be charged for any Prime benefits you enjoyed during the trial period. However, you will not be able to sign up for additional free trials of Amazon Prime.
*** How do I change my payment information? ***
At the end of the line that begins “Payment method for upgrade,” you will see an “Edit” button. Click that button to change the payment method that we will use to upgrade your membership.
We hope that you have seen how easy and convenient shopping on Amazon.com is when you’re a member of Amazon Prime, and that you’ll want to continue when the trial period ends.
Thank you for shopping at Amazon.com.
*** Details of your free trial membership ***
sign-up date: February 08, 2006
expiration date: May 08, 2006
If anyone would like more detail, please contact me.
Update: Techdirt is again mentioning the customer service issue that this is becoming. I have prime and love it, but some others thought they were on a free trial, got billed, and now hate Amazon. And, they’re starting to yell.
This entry was posted on Friday, October 26th, 2007 at 5:09 am and is tagged with free trial membership, free trial period, membership confirmation, prime program, amazon, e mail, expedited shipping, administrative tasks, shipping cost, joining amazon prime, reminder, credit card. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback.
on February 15th, 2006 at 6:24 pm
Amazon is flat out lying when they say they will notify you before the end of the trial. They did not notify me and it is a royal pain to cancel the account. I say go ahead and sign up but start trying to cancel at least a week before the trial period ends. Mark it on your calendar. Amazon WILL NOT contact you.
on March 9th, 2006 at 7:05 am
I had a different experience.
Amazon did send an email reminder. In fact, they warned me twice. It was easy to cancel the automatic ‘upgrade’ in the account settings page on Amazon.
on April 5th, 2006 at 9:02 pm
I did the 3 month trial and they did not send me a reminder.
Worse - I cancelled it but they charged my card anyway saying they never got the cancellation.
on April 7th, 2006 at 10:14 am
They sent me two notices as well, and it is very clearly documented on my accout that I have declined to upgrade and will not be upgraded automatically. I suppose I will see in three days if they still charge my account. If they do I will scream at them. If they don’t I will probably actually pay to have it for the year, in the run up to Christmas!
on May 25th, 2006 at 7:45 pm
All you have to do is set your account to not automatically upgraid at the end of the trial period. DUH! then you dont have to worry about it at all….
on June 28th, 2006 at 2:57 am
I did not sign up for Prime but last month my UK credit card was charged $79 for it - no e-mails either confirmations or reminders. I live in the UK and only use amazon.com rarely. I complained to Customer Service and they have promised an immediate refund. Hopefully I will get it - how can they do this?
on July 29th, 2006 at 8:33 pm
I also signed up for the “free offer” feeling safe that I would be contacted before the trial was up. I wasn’t. 7 days later I try to cancel but they won’t let me, having already charged my Amazon Visa card the $79. I really really can’t believe after not contacting me as they said they would they now won’t refund the $79. I smell a lawsuit. PS - Avinash P you suck.
on September 26th, 2006 at 3:38 am
i love this game it is the best in the world
on November 8th, 2006 at 12:17 pm
No, they did not warn me either as they had promised, and they charged me $79… It has been a royal pain in the neck to get the money back. After weeks of wasted time I have not seen a penny of my money yet.
Once again, Amazon is using shady practices and tricking costumers.
on November 20th, 2006 at 1:42 am
I’ve never heard about this trial…
In any case I’ve had Amazon Prime since it came out a year and half ago and its been a great experience. I just now wished they offered me the trial when they FIRST offered the program rather than a year afterwards.
I’d say this is one of best deals I’ve had so far as it’s saved me hundreds if not thousands of dollars in shipping costs as I almost always choose either next-day or 2nd-day shipping if they are offered.
I think the epitome of online shopping should be this: Find out what you like, read reviews, go to Amazon, check stock, click next-day, and get it the next day. Saves gas and time from having to run to the store only to find out what you want isn’t in stock or is more expensive.
Right now even if Amazon didn’t offer incredible discounts, I’d still buy from them.
Call it propaganda? I call it luxury.
on March 31st, 2007 at 7:47 pm
I do not want to be a member of Amazon Prime Free Trial!!!!
You better not charge me a $79 Membership to my charge card
Martha McDurmont
on March 31st, 2007 at 8:04 pm
You know, this website is a blog. It has nothing–yes nothing–to do with Amazon. If you’ve signed up for Amazon Prime and want to cancel it, you should contact Amazon directly.
on September 5th, 2007 at 10:02 am
Haha thats hilarious that someone left a comment here thinking it was Amazon?!? Must be some crazy middle-aged housewife who doesn’t know how to use the interwebz.
on October 26th, 2007 at 7:07 pm
Any number of things could have happened to those notifications, right? Spam filters, etc. Do they even have to come via email? Anyhow, I would recommend cancelling regardless of how the trial goes. Just sign up again the next time you need overnight shipping.
on October 26th, 2007 at 7:10 pm
[…] Elliott Back placed an interesting blog post on Amazon Prime Free Trial?.Here’s a brief overview:At that point we will enroll you in a 12-month membership and charge a $79 annual fee to the credit card listed below. If you are not interested in joining Amazon Prime after the free trial, that’s okay, too. … […]
on October 27th, 2007 at 12:50 pm
I love Amazon Prime. However, I’m often frustrated that it is difficult to find items that are eligible for amazon prime free shipping. I use an Amazon Prime search engine like www.iprimr.com to search ONLY Amazon Prime eligible items.
on May 9th, 2008 at 10:12 am
What I’d like to know is, has anyone used the trial to get free upgraded shipping, then successfully cancelled before the trail ends? There’s on line in the terms that I don’t like: ‘You are eligible for a complete refund as long as you have not made any purchases.’ Now, they’re not charging you during the trial, but they do have your card on file… anyone have experience with this?
on June 1st, 2008 at 2:35 pm
@Karl Quist: Ditto, I hate not being able to search for Prime items - I use www.primesearcher.co.uk, it’s the same sort of thing but for Amazon UK customers. Pretty basic, but it gets the job done.