zlacker

>>qainsi+(OP)
I had been on the fence about renewing my decade+ long Prime membership in a couple weeks. The only thing that was seriously tempting me to keep it was Prime Video.

I have mixed feelings already about Prime Video, as a watching experience I find it quite annoying because I'll find a movie I'd like to watch only to find I have to pay another $5 to watch it. With the other services, I know if a movie comes up on the display, I can watch it without further cost.

I'm fairly sensitive to adverts, I really don't like seeing them, largely because I've isolated myself from them. The fewer you see, the more unsettling they are, the blatant attractive factor of them, do.not.want. And anther $40/yr is too much.

Apparently, dropping Prime with the shopping really does not impact the speed of delivery or cost. I'm already often selecting delayed delivery. With the increased prices, it's hard to justify the $140/yr.

>>linsom+1o
If you drop Prime and then go to order something on Amazon, more often than not, you'll be offered to have a "1 week trial" of Prime for $1.99. Sign up, get your delivery faster, and set a reminder to cancel it immediately or at least after your order ships.

If you spend enough, you'll sometimes be offered a full full month of Prime for free. Same thing, once your first order ships, cancel.

I did this all 2023. I had Prime for nearly every single shipment over the year, and it looks like I spent a whopping $14 total for all of it.

>>MrFoof+gp
Conveniently, the membership renewal reminder checkbox in the settings is unchecked - aka, you don't get a reminder before the trial automatically renews to a paid one.

>>chii+Yu
They're in a dark patterns class of their own

>>Rankin+8y
The Prime unsubscribe flow is a master class of darkness.

Try it. It takes several clicks, multiple word-heavy pages, hard choices, flat-out lies, and in the end maybe you just accepted to be reminded 60 seconds before the renewal date.

>>lakpan+kz
Weird. When I went to cancel earlier this year not only was it much simpler than I expected, but I was given the choice of pro rata refund or let it keep going till the expiration date.

Thank you, California!

>>throwu+nD
Maybe my comment is out of date, but the patterns around Prime caused the FTC to sue Amazon just last summer:

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/amazon-uses-six-dark-pattern-...

https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/ftc_gov/pdf/amazon-rosca-pu...

>>lakpan+hE
Your comment is not out of date, the screenshots in the article are how it still looks, but it really is not hard to cancel. It is on the less "dark pattern" side of subscription sites. For example, the NY Times is worse at whole other level - can't unsubscribe online without either calling, or chatting with a rep.

https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinfuriating/comments/13sedmx/...

https://www.reddit.com/r/assholedesign/comments/10j2lkv/new_...