A simple tweet is what started this little challenge with Amazon. Someone I mutually follow on Twitter was documenting an issue he was having with Amazon renewing his Amazon Prime subscription – except he wasn’t actually subscribed. This wasn’t my issue, I happily subscribe to the service for the Prime Video and free delivery. What prompted my inquiry was that this Twitter friend lived in Ireland and had been charged €79.
Here in the UK, the annual Amazon Prim renews is £79. At first glance – no difference. Except there is – two different currencies that do not have parity.
On this particular day of my renewal, €79 was about £66. That’s a whole £13 cheaper. I was intrigued and thus headed to the online chat support on Amazon.
I argued my case to the Amazon representative that the good people of Ireland are paying less than me for the same product. The rep was unable to help but did offer to cancel my subscription and refund my £79.
That’s not what I wanted. What I wanted was to know how it was fair to the UK customers that they were paying more for the same service.
The rep was foxed. They went to seek help from a team leader.
Nope. You pay in GBP (£) and it’s £79.
I wasn’t done.
I have a Revolut debit card and behind that is a GBP and a EURO account. If a charge is made to that car in EUROS it comes out of my EURO account. So, I asked if it were possible to pay in EUROS.
This, for a short time, seemed like it would be possible. I was thinking about I’d come up with a real, money-saving, life hack. We even got to the point where the rep would cancel my Prime subscription and refund the £79 , then I would sign back up and pay in EUROS.
Almost…
The help was endless while reading but I found the golden nugget. Yes, you can switch currency, but only FROM your local currency to GBP. My local currency is GBP and thus this was not going to work.
I tried one more time with the rep to plead the unfairness of the situation. I pointed out that never had the GBP-EURO exchange rate fallen below parity and thus €79 had always been less than £79.
The rep went away again and returned with an offer…
They would send a refund to my card of £15 and I keep the subscription.
A small victory. Almost a 20% discount for my next year of Amazon Prime.
I’m not sure this will work in 12 months time but, it’s always worth a complaint to Amazon. Not least because £15 to them is nothing at all and it’s cheaper to give the customer something that means something to them and costs Amazon practically nothing (if anything at all).
So, if you happen to contact Amazon and try this – don’t tell them I sent you!
One day, I might tell the tale of how I spent practically all day on the phone to Amazon and got a free Kindle Fire 😉
