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Call me lucky. I’ve gifted easily a dozen WMart gift cards to folks over the past decade (up to $200 in amounts) without issues. And have received / cashed a few as well. I belong to their online no-fee shipping plan for under $100 a year. Super fast. Often items (with prices as low as $5-6) arrive overnight. Runs circles around Amazon’s delivery times. Favorite place for in-store grocery shopping as well (using my bank debit card).
Not disputing @Mark’s story. Like I said … just lucky.
Check Amazon’s record. A long record of sleazy, dishonest charges for Prime memberships people didn’t authorize or know they were being charged for. Happened to me more than once. Lawsuits / criminal probes abound.
PS - We hope stories like @Mark’s may move WMart to tighten oversight!
@Old_Joe - I’ll try. They’re so slick you don’t realize it’s happening. The first case was at the start of the NBA season in October last year. I went to their Prime Video and agreed to a monthly plan to stream NBA games. They were authorized to bill my credit card monthly for the NBA package. Not trusting them very much, I pulled up all my account settings to make sure I understood exactly all the details. Holy s*** - They had enrolled me in Prime along with the NBA subscription. Both monthly charges had been put on my credit card. I immediately phoned their C/S and was told since the subscription to NBA was active and since you needed to belong to Prime to have it, I couldn’t cancel until the first month’s NBA package ended. I “calmly” explained I would fight this with whoever regulates them and at my bank re unauthorized charges. They backed down, cancelled both subscriptions immediately, and refunded both charges. I now enjoy NBA streaming directly form the source (NBA).
The second (more recent) instance is a bit hazy. I received a “pop-up” offer to join Prime “free” for a limited period while shopping on their site and clicked on the offer to read up and - Bingo! - I was automatically enrolled and my card authorized. I was able to resolve this one by going into settings myself without calling their reps, who often have trouble speaking English.
Thanks @hank - we've been Prime customers for many years, and haven't run into this kind of crap, so I was interested to see what they're capable of. We did use their "free" Prime Video for a couple of years, but now that they're inserting commercials we don't go there. Especially since COVID we use Amazon for almost everything other than food, to avoid potential COVID exposure.
This makes the annual "membership" charge reasonable since we use it so much. You have to be very careful on their pricing, though.
I’d been a satisfied “Prime” member for 2 decades. But, following the pandemic, they never seemed to get back to the promised 2-day shipping speeds. Week-long wait sometimes. Then I decided I liked Apple music better (it integrates better with Apple devices). There wasn’t a lot of reason left at that point to keep Prime. Final blow was when they stopped selling magazine & newspaper subscriptions on Kindle - which I’d long relied on and really miss. That’s when I left.
I do value Amazon’s customer reviews and excellent product descriptions. Shopping AV equip presently and so have spent a lot of time on the site. Prices? WMart has matched them dollar-for-dollar on every price I’ve compared. But WMart’s website has nowhere near the comprehensive listings & descriptions. Need to cut & paste from Amazon and then WMart finds the match.
Over the years I’ve purchased a couple dozen movies from Prime Video. Still can buy new ones or watch older ones w/o any issues. So it seemed odd one would need a Prime subscription in order to subscribe to a pro sports feed. Those are readily available elsewhere online w/o any additional fees.
And all of this is why I won't touch Amazon with a 10-foot pole, or even a 12-foot swede. The companies I love to hate. Like Wells Fargo and all of the other banksters.
Comments
Right.
Not disputing @Mark’s story. Like I said … just lucky.
Check Amazon’s record. A long record of sleazy, dishonest charges for Prime memberships people didn’t authorize or know they were being charged for. Happened to me more than once. Lawsuits / criminal probes abound.
PS - We hope stories like @Mark’s may move WMart to tighten oversight!
Thanks - OJ
The second (more recent) instance is a bit hazy. I received a “pop-up” offer to join Prime “free” for a limited period while shopping on their site and clicked on the offer to read up and - Bingo! - I was automatically enrolled and my card authorized. I was able to resolve this one by going into settings myself without calling their reps, who often have trouble speaking English.
Some linked stories
From 2023
From 2023
From 2022
From 2020
From 2017
From 2016
This makes the annual "membership" charge reasonable since we use it so much. You have to be very careful on their pricing, though.
I do value Amazon’s customer reviews and excellent product descriptions. Shopping AV equip presently and so have spent a lot of time on the site. Prices? WMart has matched them dollar-for-dollar on every price I’ve compared. But WMart’s website has nowhere near the comprehensive listings & descriptions. Need to cut & paste from Amazon and then WMart finds the match.
Over the years I’ve purchased a couple dozen movies from Prime Video. Still can buy new ones or watch older ones w/o any issues. So it seemed odd one would need a Prime subscription in order to subscribe to a pro sports feed. Those are readily available elsewhere online w/o any additional fees.