FTC has named Amazon staffers accused of approving tactics designed to confuse | Hacker News Reader

FTC has named Amazon staffers accused of approving tactics designed to confuse

theregister.com

57 pointsgalaxyLogic23 comments

It is really sad that Amazon does that now. I signed up for Prime as a college student when it first came out in 2005, when it was offered as a "try for a month free" and I figured "why not?" in order to get the free shipping.

Of course, I forgot to cancel and didn't use it again for the rest of the month.

Instead of continuing to charge me, I actually got an email from Amazon saying, "hey, looks like you haven't used prime again since signing up for the free trial, so we are going to go ahead and cancel it for you. You can sign up again if you decide you want to use it"

I was blown away by the amazing customer service (clearly, since I remember it almost 20 years later), and signed up again a few months later when I started ordering more things. It bought SO MUCH loyalty from me.

It really sucks to see they are now using dark patterns like this. I wonder how much it costs in the long term, and if the short term gains make up for it.

Because such pleasant business behavior depends on 99% people acting reasonable which obviously not the case for now.

Ooh I got another one for the FTC (I’ve shared this here before, in case it sounds familiar)!!

I was at the Amazon Bookstore in Seattle maybe 4-5 years ago and I overheard one of the cashiers telling customers “oh nice, your purchase qualifies for a free audiobook/free trial of Audible! I’ll get that set up for you real quick.” And then they immediately moved onto another topic before anyone they were checking out had time to ask questions about Audible.

Was sitting there for maybe 15 min just curiously listening and it was one sign up after another, and from my purview not a single customer had a clue what they were actually signing up for. I’m guessing, given how little I actually check my credit statements, most never discovered it.

Can only imagine what shittily obnoxious goals corporate put on those stores…

I'm not familiar with a physical Amazon bookstore. Do they already have your details, to be able to sign you up like that? Were the people able to say no to the trial?

It's hard for me to imagine giving online details in a physical store. Here when I'm sometimes asked if they can have my email address to send a receipt I simply say no.

I do think most of the physical bookstores got shut down.

But they always would ask if you were a prime member and they’d ask for an email or card on file they could use to identify you in exchange for online pricing of whatever you were buying. With that info I’m sure getting your account signed up for Audible was probably a one button activation.

I didn’t see a single customer in my time watching even really process what was happening let alone reject the offer. I’m sure a simple “no I’m not interested” would have worked but this particular cashier didn’t even give them the chance to say anything about it.

I'd say it's not only those execs, but rather the fact dark patterns do work and there's no strong legal* reason not to.

They have the data on the dark patterns and it keeps people paying. Need some better rules on that to keep them out. Otherwise every God damn subscription is going to be impossible to get out of.

I'm confused by your post... this is an article about Amazon being sued by the FTC because Amazon's use of these dark patterns violates the law

... according to the allegation. "Dark Patterns" are called that because it is not immediately clear they are illegal. The court will decide.

>Neil Lindsay, former head of the Prime team

He now runs their healthcare teams (pharmacy/pillpack and one medicine). His background is marketing and not healthcare.

What does one need to know about healthcare to do that job?

I just tried to put my Audible account on pause, as I typically did every few months. That used to be easy to do; you could pause your membership for a few months and keep your accrued credits. Now the "pause membership" option seems to be gone, even though Audible's own help system still tells you how to do it.

To hell with these assholes. I've fully cancelled my Audible account.

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