Someone at the FTC has had free trials that turned out to be not free at all. The federal agency conducted an official inquiry into the online signup for Amazon Prime because they thought it was shady. The FTC is looking into the use of online interface tricks by the giant to lure users into signing up for Prime memberships. Perhaps too much so, Amazon has been persuasive in promoting Prime. Federal investigators have been looking into the tech giant's design choices for several years in response to reports that consumers have felt tricked into signing up via the company's design choices.
One of those design choices should be familiar to anyone who has used the tech giant's services. In the past, many people didn't realize they were Enrolled until they saw their first bill in the mail. Amazon has been sued before.
Amazon has gone to extreme lengths to keep new members subscribed to its Prime service, which is a really big deal for the company.
Amazon has made the Prime sign-up process easy, but it has also made the membership cancellation process hard, even in the eyes of its own employees, according to Insider. Internal documents viewed by the outlet show that barriers were put in the way of Prime members who wanted to leave. At one point in the year, cancellation dropped by 14 percent, not long after the program was implemented.
It has been known for years that Amazon was tricking people with its subscription sign-up practices. According to internal documents viewed by Insider, customer-focused teams at Amazon have come up with ways to make sign-up practices less deceptive but have largely not implemented them.
Insider reports that it's not clear what the status of the FTC's investigation is. If the FTC responds, we will update this story.
The VP of Amazon Prime called the subscription design choices simple and transparent when he was asked about it by Gizmodo. We make it easy for customers to sign up for or cancel their Prime membership.
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