FTC sues amazon over dark patterns

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Also it costs money even if you buy nothing!

That's the nature of subscriptions and why so many businesses want you to have one.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by theducks

You are missing the point.
The complaint is not about Prime.

It is about how they are selling it. A bit like the door-to-door Vacuum sales were done in the 50's (foot in door)
M$ does it this way, EVERY day I look at the MSN page, it nags for me to make it MY HOME PAGE (I have none) l(ike I am too stoopid to click my bookmark when I do want to occasionally see what they have)

I have Prime so I don't get bothered.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Quoth

All irrelevant. It's dishonestly marketed. BIG BUTTONS at each stage to complete order that automatically subscribe you to Prime and small regular print to go to next stage without subscription.

They also seem to deliberately delay shipping on some orders when you don't have Prime.

Also it costs money even if you buy nothing!

I can buy nothing and still get use of Prime when I watch Prime Video.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by Catlady

After several years, I dropped Prime earlier this year; I don't recall Amazon making it difficult to cancel. I have deliberately shopped less at Amazon since canceling Prime, but I have noticed the relentless push to get me to join Prime every time I've checked out.

Not so difficult, but too many clicks (although not so many as required to complete purchase without joining).

Originally Posted by Aleron Ives

The buying process hasn't really become more difficult; it's just more passive aggressive. You used to have to click a "No" button when declining to subscribe to Amazon Prime, and these days your options are "Yes" and "I'm an idiot who doesn't understand how cool Amazon Prime is" instead of "No".

I think the sheer number of times required to say no go well beyond passive agressive.

The attempts at shaming are annoying, but easy enough to ignore.

The tiny print text link is harder to find and click on than the big bright button to join.

amazon used to be the epitome of streamlining the online shopping experience. Now they are all in on enshitification. (All the flashing, motion within screen regions, moving around of regions during the constant page relayout as the page first renders, suboptimal search results, etc. all get in the way of me finding what I want, ordering it, and getting back to how I would rather be spending time.)

[DiapDealer]

I guess I'm wondering why this isn't an "Annoyed Customers Leave Amazon in Droves" story, rather than an "FTC sues Amazon on Behalf of Droves of Annoyed Customers Who Still Want to Shop at a Company They Hate to Shop at" story.

Surely the punishment for bad behavior should first be loss of business, no? This could be handled without litigation if more people were willing to put their money where their ideals were.

[Quoth]

It's not going to make customers leave, or they'd not be doing it. Quite the reverse. It's a mechanism to make more money.

The FTC isn't concerned about Tech Savy or Smart Customers. Their main thing is a level playing field for US Corporations and secondarily consumer protection. Not like the EU, which in theory has consumers 1st and level playing field for all businesses 2nd. But the EU is very slow.

I'm surprised the FTC cares. Maybe some other corporation has complained?

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by j.p.s

suboptimal search results, etc. all get in the way of me finding what I want, ordering it, and getting back to how I would rather be spending time.

What search? It's so bad it's easier to search on Amazon with Duck Duck Go, before going to Amazon.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by Quoth

It's not going to make customers leave, or they'd not be doing it. Quite the reverse. It's a mechanism to make more money.

If it's not going to make non-Prime customers leave, then how egregious can it be?

[Quoth]

The FTC wouldn't care if it was self defeating and making customers leave.

See why the FDA was created.

[Aleron Ives]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Oh man. Even adblock can't beat Google's annoying Chrome pop-up (or at least it couldn't when I tried).

Hmmm... maybe you need a better ad blocker. I don't think I've ever seen a Chrome ad.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I guess I'm wondering why this isn't an "Annoyed Customers Leave Amazon in Droves" story, rather than an "FTC sues Amazon on Behalf of Droves of Annoyed Customers Who Still Want to Shop at a Company They Hate to Shop at" story.

Surely the punishment for bad behavior should first be loss of business, no? This could be handled without litigation if more people were willing to put their money where their ideals were.

I assume they got enough complaints to look into it. And that on looking into it decided that there are grounds for a suit and that the suit is worth pusuing.

I pretty much stopped shopping at amazon months ago, but am willing to return if the experience becomes sufficiently less terrible. (Except for e-books, unless they stop ruining illustrations.)

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by Quoth

The FTC wouldn't care if it was self defeating and making customers leave..

You seem to be dodging my question. If the behavior in question (used to "trick" people into purchasing Prime) is not offensive and/or tricksy enough to cause enough annoyance to leave (because non-Prime customers are tired of constantly having to jump through terrible hoops to avoid it). Then how terrible, and litigious can the behavior actually be?

[Apache]

Originally Posted by DNSB

The one I find most annoying is Google's endless advertising for Chrome whenever I hit a Google associated web page.

This is the one that annoys me too.
Apache

[afv011]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Surely the punishment for bad behavior should first be loss of business, no? This could be handled without litigation if more people were willing to put their money where their ideals were.

Oh come on now, do you expect people to put morals ahead of money? As long as Amazon has a leg up on the competition with prices, people will continue to shop there regardless of their sleazy tactics.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by afv011

Oh come on now, do you expect people to put morals ahead of money?

Of course I do. And why not? People here expect businesses like Amazon to do so all the time.

Originally Posted by afv011

As long as Amazon has a leg up on the competition with prices, people will continue to shop there regardless of their sleazy tactics.

Yep. And that says as much about them as it does Amazon. But when it comes to general products, Amazon hasn't really had a "leg up" on the competition RE prices in quite a while.