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Amazon India Prime Offer - A scam or a bug?

TLDR; Amazon.in shows and sends me a Prime offer that I can't avail (it leads to an error message)

I have escalated this issue to Amazon India through various means, but the team wants screenshots (even after sharing them through Twitter) and so here's the post explaining that...

1. Amazon India sends me an email: Your Prime membership ends soon - Renew early to lock in old price of ₹999 1499 for another year of Prime.

The newsletter comes like this:

Prime promo email from Amazon India

Rajesh, Renew Prime early and save ₹500

Your Prime membership ends soon Renew today

Expiring soon

DON'T GO A DAY WITHOUT PRIME!

Your Prime membership ends soon - Renew early to lock in old price of ₹999 1499 for another year of Prime. Continue enjoying uninterrupted Prime benefits.

Renew today

Kindly ignore if you have already availed this offer.

Please note that product prices and availability are subject to change. Prices and availability were accurate at the time this newsletter was sent; however, they may differ from those you see when you visit Amazon.in.
Reference: 645589581

2. Amazon Prime Video shows a banner asking me to renew with an offer

3. Clicking the Amazon.in Prime offer, leads to an error page

You are no longer eligible for this offer.

This purchase is non-refundable. Offer limited to one per customer and account. Your Prime membership will not be auto renewed after next membership. Terms & conditions apply.

Contacting Amazon India Support

Here comes the weirdest support loop...

  1. I contacted the chat support and explained the issue
  2. Chat support connected me with a Prime team through the call
  3. A Prime team member says it is a Youth-only offer (which is wrong)
  4. I contact Amazon Twitter support with the necessary screenshots. Even after seeing those screenshots, they either reply with canned messages and then say it is a Youth-only offer (they also shared a link to the Youth-only offer page, which was not opening for me)
  5. Another canned reply came from the Amazon social media team.

What could be the reasons (Amazon India Scam or bug?)

  • It is definitely a programming issue in terms of UI/UX. The error page should have provided more details.
  • Probably auto-renewal might be already enabled and the price increase may not be affecting me. In that case, again the error message should have been clear.
  • Since, I didn't avail this offer already, there might be some programming errors.
  • The sales team, email marketing team, and development team may not be in sync. Or, the QA team might not have enough details to test the UX part.
  • While I don't think it is a scam, the support and responses received here are really pathetic

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