At 5:17-p.m. U.S. Mountain time today, I received a short email from Amazon.  It was a form email, explaining what the Kindle Compass is and clarifying the price issue.  This is the text of the email:

“This morning we sent you an e-mail regarding The Kindle Compass, a new free publication built by the Kindle editorial team that we’re piloting to a small number of Kindle customers. This e-mail incorrectly referred to The Kindle Compass as a subscription with a free trial. We built it to always be free for customers, and you will never be charged for it. We apologize for any confusion. If you wish to unsubscribe from the pilot for The Kindle Compass, you can do so from a link in the last section of the magazine, or from the Manage Your Kindle Subscriptions page at www.amazon.com/manageyourkindlesubscriptions Amazon.com Kindle Support”

While this is admirable (and hopefully they sent it to all of the people they sent the original auto-subscription to), it is not quite enough.  First of all, take out the “opt-out” nature of this whole thing (i.e. give me the option to subscribe, don’t subscribe me and then wait for me to unsubscribe if I don’t want it).  Also, I am waiting for a public response from Amazon, which I don’t believe is forthcoming.  As with most larger organizations, silence is golden, and the less they say, the more protected they feel.  Besides, there’s that whole “too big to fail” thing.  The attitude of “I’m big, you’re little, therefore I can do what I want.”  Bullies!

It is unfortunate that Amazon did not take the time to explain the Kindle Compass, its total cost to the subscriber, and how to subscribe.  They went about it in a completely underhanded way.  And while the actual cost was (apparently) never going to be more than $0.00, they didn’t come right out and say that, and when users who had received the self-subscription went to Amazon’s web site to get more information, they could find nothing.  Users who skipped the web interface and went straight to the phone to make a call mostly got a befuddled customer service agent who had never heard of the product and could not explain what the user should do, if they even got through to customer service at all (which was my experience – two ten-minute waits on hold and I gave up).

In the end, this all made Amazon look sneaky.  The threat of the auto-subscription email was that they were going to charge our credit cards for something we didn’t buy. Even if it ended up that that something was going to be zero dollars, it still means they had the intention to charge us for something we didn’t buy. That is the worst part of this.  I have to have a credit or debit card on file with Amazon to use my Kindle, which gives them access to my money whenever they want.  If we weren’t feeling so safe about that before, how safe are we going to feel about it now?

Like I said earlier today, in this day and age, when we have a million choices online to buy products and services, why would Amazon shoot themselves in the foot this way?  You have to wonder who thought up this wonderful idea, and who didn’t see it before it was distributed to thousands of Amazon users in the United States.

If and when Amazon posts a public response/explanation/apology, I will post it here.  Until then, beware, Amazon shoppers.

This morning at 5 a.m. when I was checking my email, I had a strange missive from the Amazon Kindle store.  It told me I was being subscribed to the “Kindle Compass” for a “14-day free trial,” and that after that time, I would automatically be charged the usual subscription fee, to my credit card ending in **** which is on file with Amazon (they used the numbers of the credit card on file in my account).

Really, Amazon?  Now you auto-subscribe people to newsletters for our Kindle, without asking first if we even want it?  The ONLY way to keep from getting it (and paying for it) is to opt out on our account page?  Worse yet, there is no indication anywhere about how much we will pay for the subscription once the “trial period” is up.

Pardon me, Amazon, but have you lost your mind?

I’ve been an Amazon customer for probably fifteen years.  The first thing I ever bought online was from Amazon, and it was a book.  In those days, that’s all Amazon sold.  I have gone on to buy many things from Amazon over the years; not just books, but CD’s, MPs (that I can download), clothing, toys, special coffees, maple syrup, and yes, books for my Kindle.  In all that time, I’ve never seen them operate this way.

Of course I was suspicious, because this didn’t really seem like something Amazon would do.  But the email address was legitimate and when I hit “reply” it was an Amazon address that came up in the “to” box.  The links in the email (to the “manage my subscriptions” and “Kindle Support” areas on Amazon) were legitimate and took me to those destinations.  They were not spoofed, and neither was the email.  And the subscription to this new newsletter, the Kindle Compass, was on my list of subscriptions.  I immediately canceled it, and got the confirmation email that I canceled it.

Then I got on the phone to my mother in Florida (yes, at 5 a.m.) and made sure she checked her email while I was talking to her, and helped her to unsubscribe.  In her case, the email from Amazon ended up in her spam filter, where she may have never seen it in the first place.  I also posted on my Facebook account, catching all of my friends who have gotten Kindles recently, so they could take care of it as well.  But how many others are not going to be notified, or think the notification is spam and ignore it.

And even if the subscription ends up being free, and no one is charged anything, just the fact that Amazon would do this in the first place is more than disturbing.  It is appalling.  In this day and age, when we have a million choices online to buy products and services, Amazon just made one of the biggest faux pas I’ve ever seen!  The Amazon customer service forum is in an uproar this morning, and it’s not even daylight yet.  How many people, like me, are waking up to the same email?  How many hundreds of thousands, or should I say MILLIONS of Amazon users are waking up to the same email?

Shame shame shame on you, Amazon.  I thought you were better than this.  Of all the sneaky, underhanded, low-ball ways to do business…

Do you want to let Amazon know how you feel?  Customer service can be reached at 866-321-8851.  You can also see what people are saying on the Amazon Kindle customer support forum, you can visit http://www.amazon.com/forum/kindle%20customer%20service%20q%20and%20a?_encoding=UTF8&ref_=hp_kindle_ss_csforum