Can you get Amazon to stop advertising Prime?

QI’m a long-standing Amazon customer, but hugely irritated that every time I make a purchase, the company tries to make me sign up for its Prime service. I don’t want it, but even Amazon customer services can’t help. So for the sake of my sanity can you get this remedied by approaching Amazon?

Ray Lowry

AIt would be nice to think we could have that level of influence on a company as colossal as Amazon, but our powers won’t stretch that far. The company would be breaking the law only if it signed up people to Prime without their direct consent, which means customers giving unambiguous instructions that they want the service, or if it failed to provide an easy way for customers to opt out or cancel. These rules were strengthened by the EU’S introduction of the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) on 25 May.

Provided it sticks to these regulations, Amazon can advertise Prime as persistently as it likes. The service, which for £79 a year gives users a range of ‘extras’ including free delivery, has been a huge success for the company, partly due to this type of non-stop marketing.

As Amazon’s customer service explained to Ray, it can only pass his views further up the company. But Ray can do this himself by emailing Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s founder and currently world’s richest man ( jeff@amazon.com), and Doug Gurr, Amazon UK’S chief executive ( dgurr@amazon.com). Prime is such a money spinner for Amazon that it won’t stop heavily promoting it, but if enough people complain it may give customers an option to turn off such messages, even if only temporarily.