Trick purchases

[fitzsteve]

Have to be careful in the digital age with companies finding ways to trick you into buying things you didn't intend to like amazon prime subscriptions, etc. I've been fooled twice recently and I thought I was tech savvy.

I bought my usual medication online (inhalers) and somehow ended up with a repeat every 90 days, I swear I didn't see anything when checking out, must be a little tick box somewhere.

Today I was browsing discord on mobile, looked away momentarily and felt the phone buzz, I must've clicked the nitro button, in that one press I was signed up to a 90 quid 1 year subscription! Was sitting at the thanks for your purchase, the buzz was the email from PayPal/Google play confirming the purchase!

Luckily I was able to get that reversed almost immediately but it's scary they can do that. I've gone into the Google play settings and disabled 1 click purchasing, honestly I don't recall ever setting that up so it must be a default setting.

Hopefully no more surprises any time soon, be sure to keep vigilant in this scary modern time of internet trickery!

 

[qz3fwd]

Yes you have to be uber carefull which tick boxes are selected for you by default lest you end up with unwanted subscriptions. Removing your payment information from accounts help also if you can. I know it can be a pain to have to manually enter your card info, but do you really trust all these entities with your financial details?

 

[miggymad]

Amazon UK now expect you to order at least £35 worth of goods before you get free shipping. It used to be £25.

Something else to be wary of are the Amazon Prime 1 month trial's. Check first before you accept to see if your order already meets the free delivery threshold. If so then these kinds of offers are not worth it UNLESS you intend to fleece it for all it's worth, especially when it's near their annual Amazon Prime Day event.

 

[fitzsteve]

Yeah Amazon are proper crooks now, 4.99 to send a small item like an SD card unless you have prime. Plus the prime delivery now have a premium charge for next day in some cases.

Then you have the ads on their streaming service, it's pay more, get less across the board lol.

 

[miggymad]

@fitzsteve

Try 7dayshop.com ... for all your SD card needs

 

[Half-Saint]

Amazon UK now expect you to order at least £35 worth of goods before you get free shipping. It used to be £25.

Something else to be wary of are the Amazon Prime 1 month trial's. Check first before you accept to see if your order already meets the free delivery threshold. If so then these kinds of offers are not worth it UNLESS you intend to fleece it for all it's worth, especially when it's near their annual Amazon Prime Day event.

In Europe it's 59€ for free shipping and you don't get anything with Prime membership unless you live in Germanland.

EDIT: you do get some special deals but no free shipping like the Germans.

 

[matze79]

Prime just sucks, also in Germany.
Even streaming isnt worth it as you get advertisments.
you have to pay additional to get rid of ads.

It also does not faster ship.

 

[Xanxi]

I like Prime myself.
Prime video is a very good streaming service and or for both personal and professional stuff i often use Amazon.
The Prime subscription is useful too me.
There are some items they propose to reship on a regular basis, like diapers or anything like your medication. There is a choice on the right of the screen between one time purchase or repeated purchase with a lower price. Frankly there is no trick.
However, i won't buy medications on Amazon, we can't be sure where they come from and it they are suitable and safe.
I don't know where people usually buy medications in the UK, but in France the only professional source is to go to the local pharmacy (drugstore?). There have been fake medications from China before on the market.

Note that Prime should also give you access to Cloud space or music streaming but i don't use that myself (Spotify prefered here).

 

[scrappysphinx]

I pay for prime just for the deliveries. It sucks they now charge extra for same day delivery (i used to get most things same day) but next day is still free on the majority or purchases regardless of how much you spend.

The video streaming is poor though, i don't find all that much of interest and when i do find something i want to watch theres an ad every 15 minutes or so in tv shows and every 20-30 minutes in a movie. They aren't short 30 second ads either, we've had some that have been multiple ads lasting up to 4/5 minutes.

I did use the prime music app but then they changed the way it worked a while back. They gave access to the full music library of around 10m songs (was originally 2m unless you paid extra for prime music unlimited) but stopped letting you play songs in your own order, playlists had random songs added and skipping songs became difficult. Just not worth the hassle anymore, i'll just go back to storing my own digital music on my phone as we used to before the streaming options.

 

[Xanxi]

The ads during videos came only in May i think. I have accepted to pay 1,99 EUR extra to stay ad free. Still competitive compared to other streaming services. Loads of good stuff in there. These days i am watching Gotham (5 seasons), a tremendous show.

 

[miggymad]

@Xanxi

A good Ad blocker such as Adblock Origin will save you both money and your sanity

 

[Amiga Forever]

Always read small print, check any checkbox if been tick and do not rush through when order things and take your time to check everythings before the order been complete

 

[fitzsteve]

Yeah I'm usually pretty careful, the one that scared me is the discord nitro purchase, I wasn't even looking at my screen the phone was just in my hand so I must've just touched in the right spot unknowingly.

There really needs to be some confirmation or terms you have to agree to before they can just take your money with one misplaced click.

I bet this is a potential issue on a lot of mobile apps. At least it shouldn't happen again now I've disabled 1 click purchasing in Google Play.

 

[Xanxi]

Indeed i have been bugged by this this Nitro thing on Discord, i don't even know what it is and i don't care.
But how can Discord make self payment. Don't you need a fingerprint or something? That's where IPhone reveals itself better at security than any Android.

 

[fitzsteve]

Indeed i have been bugged by this this Nitro thing on Discord, i don't even know what it is and i don't care.
But how can Discord make self payment. Don't you need a fingerprint or something? That's where IPhone reveals itself better at security than any Android.

Apparently with Google play if you have one tap purchases turned on its literally one tap.

I had no idea it was set tbh, I'm sure in the past when I bought stuff on play store it needed my password, it might be one of these updates like on windoze where you have to click though a bunch of screens every so often lol.

 

[scrappysphinx]

On my Pixel 7 which is obviously an android phone it does require me to use my fingerprint for any purchase but it does ask me now and again if i still want to authorise each purchase which is guess is there way of getting people to disable the fingerprint requirement and have the one click transactions like you've been caught out with

 

[fitzsteve]

From now on I'm walking to the shops and only paying cash lol

 

[miggymad]

From now on I'm walking to the shops and only paying cash lol

Cash is king but go buy yourself a bicycle and save your legs ... just not one from Amazon okay?