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(WSVN) – He enjoyed shopping using his Amazon Prime account … until he discovered he was paying for another Prime account on another credit card he wasn’t aware of. When he tried to get that money back, he couldn’t, so he delivered the problem to Help Me Howard with Patrick Fraser.
Amazon is enormous, and if you want to shop without leaving your home, Amazon is a prime way to go.
Ivan Capeles: “I like the service, and now Amazon, it has become king of the market, if you will. It’s convenient.”
Ivan has another word for Amazon Prime when things don’t go perfectly.
Ivan Capeles: “Frustrating. Frustrating.”
Ivan’s problem did not happen overnight.
A couple of years ago, he signed up for Amazon Prime and paid each month on his Visa card. He liked Amazon so much, he then got the Amazon Prime credit card.
Ivan Capeles: “That credit card was supposed to be for my Amazon account membership fee only.”
Little did he know, he was now a Prime member times two.
Ivan Capeles: “This is the card that I used originally to pay for my membership fee, and this is my new Prime card.”
HMH: “And which one is being charged?”
Ivan Capeles: “They both are.”
When his membership got transferred to the new Prime card, Ivan didn’t notice Amazon had kept billing his old Visa card for a monthly membership as well.
He contacted Amazon.
Ivan Capeles: “They said that this card is not linked to my Amazon Prime account, and I said, ‘What do you mean? You’ve been charged me membership fee for a year and a half.’”
Day after day, Ivan contacted Amazon. Day after day, no results were delivered.
Ivan Capeles: “I’m being danced around. Nobody wants to give me answers. Everybody says they’re starting an investigation. When I call back, nothing’s being investigated on.”
Ivan’s request is simple: return the money for that second Prime membership he didn’t know about and couldn’t access.
Ivan Capeles: “However, I’m out a year and a half of monthly payments for an account that I never even had.”
Well, Howard, legally, does a company have to return money that you paid them for an account you didn’t know about or want?
Howard Finkelstein, 7News legal expert: “Yes. You’re not allowed to charge someone twice for the same service, and if they say, ‘We only return payments from a few months,’ they are wrong. They have to return the money going back up to five years.”
If every company moved as quickly as Amazon did, I wouldn’t have any gray hair.
A couple of days after I contacted Amazon, a spokesman wrote to me, “Thank you for providing the customer’s contact information. Our team has reached out and the issue has been resolved.”
Ivan Capeles: “I’m ecstatic that I called you. I don’t think I could have done it by myself. You guys were a great help.”
Ivan got his $273 back for that extra membership, and he has a suggestion for others to avoid the same headache he had.
Ivan: “You’ve got to slow down, take a look at your bills. Don’t take it for granted that things are being charged properly. Look at your finances and see if you find something like I did.”
Good suggestions, Ivan, and glad we could help you get that money back.
Now, if someone has been wrongly billing you and only wants to return money for a few months as opposed to years, as Howard said they are required to do, show them the statute of limitations law.
You can access it by clicking here. It’s under Section 10.
Got a prime example of an unfair problem? Don’t shop around. Ship it to us and see if we can deliver a solution. Maybe not overnight, but we’ll get it to you.
With this Help Me Howard, I’m Patrick Fraser, 7News.
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Reporter: Patrick Fraser at pfraser@wsvn.com
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