Talk:Amazon: Difference between revisions

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-Keith

== Why pay for shipping? scam ==

<nowiki>**</nowiki>"Why pay for shipping?" Prime upsell popup misrepresents item eligibility at checkout**

Wanted to flag a dark pattern in Amazon France's checkout flow that I don't see covered in the article. In late June 2026, while checking out as a new customer in France (with a prior Amazon US account), I encountered a popup with the headline "Why pay for shipping?" framed in a blue dotted border, appearing above the delivery date selector.

The popup implied that signing up for Prime would cover the shipping cost of an item in my cart. It wouldn't have — the item was a heavy/obscure product with a 15€ shipping fee that is simply not eligible for Prime free shipping. What *would* have applied was a new-customer first-order discount of 15€, which I already had (but it was applied to a different item in my cart).

When I signed up for the Prime free trial (prompted by the popup), that new-customer discount was immediately voided and replaced by Prime free shipping — which didn't apply to the item in question. Net result: ~10€ worse off than if I'd ignored the popup (15€ normal shipping fee applied, but saved 5€ on a different item by switching to the fulfilled by Amazon seller from a different previous seller with a higher shipping fee). I cancelled Prime within a few minutes using the "cancel at next billing" button in the cancelation flow.

Worth noting: my cart total already qualified for Prime free shipping on eligible items (because of a high enough cart total ) before I ever saw the popup. The popup was therefore misleading at minimum on two counts: it implied the fee was avoidable via Prime when it wasn't, and it didn't disclose that signing up would void an existing, better discount.

This should be reproducible with a new Amazon.fr account, a VPN, and a virtual bank card — no purchase necessary to reach the checkout screen and observe the popup, and you can get the Amazon free trial by paying nothing. No screenshots saved, but the flow appears consistent.

[[User:AnotherCatgirl|AnotherCatgirl]] ([[User talk:AnotherCatgirl|talk]]) 08:14, 26 June 2026 (UTC)

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     -Keith
+== Why pay for shipping? scam ==
+<nowiki>**</nowiki>"Why pay for shipping?" Prime upsell popup misrepresents item eligibility at checkout**
+Wanted to flag a dark pattern in Amazon France's checkout flow that I don't see covered in the article. In late June 2026, while checking out as a new customer in France (with a prior Amazon US account), I encountered a popup with the headline "Why pay for shipping?" framed in a blue dotted border, appearing above the delivery date selector.
+The popup implied that signing up for Prime would cover the shipping cost of an item in my cart. It wouldn't have — the item was a heavy/obscure product with a 15€ shipping fee that is simply not eligible for Prime free shipping. What *would* have applied was a new-customer first-order discount of 15€, which I already had (but it was applied to a different item in my cart).
+When I signed up for the Prime free trial (prompted by the popup), that new-customer discount was immediately voided and replaced by Prime free shipping — which didn't apply to the item in question. Net result: ~10€ worse off than if I'd ignored the popup (15€ normal shipping fee applied, but saved 5€ on a different item by switching to the fulfilled by Amazon seller from a different previous seller with a higher shipping fee). I cancelled Prime within a few minutes using the "cancel at next billing" button in the cancelation flow.
+Worth noting: my cart total already qualified for Prime free shipping on eligible items (because of a high enough cart total  ) before I ever saw the popup. The popup was therefore misleading at minimum on two counts: it implied the fee was avoidable via Prime when it wasn't, and it didn't disclose that signing up would void an existing, better discount.
+This should be reproducible with a new Amazon.fr account, a VPN, and a virtual bank card — no purchase necessary to reach the checkout screen and observe the popup, and you can get the Amazon free trial by paying nothing. No screenshots saved, but the flow appears consistent.
+[[User:AnotherCatgirl|AnotherCatgirl]] ([[User talk:AnotherCatgirl|talk]]) 08:14, 26 June 2026 (UTC)