The restaurant critic Giles Coren has slammed the retail giant Amazon for “screwing him” out of money which for an Amazon Prime account costing him £79 a year.
He tweeted:
you bastards @amazon! I can't believe you've been screwing me for £79 a year for Prime! I had no idea. Only found out from @ST_Money.
— Giles Coren (@gilescoren) February 15, 2015
The criticism of Amazon comes as it is said to entice shoppers with a free trial of it’s Prime service for 30 days.
The service offers next day delivery, unlimited photo storage and access to an instant streaming service.
Gile Coren claims that the service is “tricking” people into paying with “quietly charging” those who signed up to a free trial.
I mean, @amazon, offer a free trial in 2012, then quietly start charging £79 and never tell me. that's what sicko porn sites do! I've heard.
— Giles Coren (@gilescoren) February 15, 2015
His feelings have been reciprocated in a Twitter storm against the company.
@gilescoren @amazon I've just checked and yep £79 lighter and didn't even know. I can't even remember signing up!
— Lauranne Pearce (@laurannepearce) February 15, 2015
@gilescoren @amazon Got no email confirming that I'd signed up so didn't realise in time to cancel. Disgraceful. Not used Amazon since.
— Agent Kay (@AgentKay2) February 15, 2015
@AgentKay2 @gilescoren @amazon I fell for it too. £80 down the drain.
— Carrie Behar (@LoLoStudent) February 15, 2015
Amazon has replied to these negative reactions saying:
“Customers who sign up to a free trial of Prime receive an email informing them of the duration of the free trial and how to avoid continuing to paid Prime Membership.
“Customers who become full Prime members can cancel their membership at any time and we will refund the full membership if the customer has not made any eligible purchases or used any Prime benefits.
“So as long as you haven’t used the free delivery, downloaded or streamed any videos through the service, or borrowed a Kindle book, you can simply cancel the membership and reclaim the subscription.”
As ever we love our viewers getting in touch. Since running this story we recieved an email on our account Hello@londonlive.co.uk a viewer named John, he wrote: "I think Amazon prime are very fair, when I signed up for a trial they sent an email telling me to cancel by a certain date and a reminder email the day before the trial expired. This also included full instructions on how to cancel and not continue with the subscription."
