Way past its prime: how did Amazon get so rubbish? (Guardian)

[progree]

105. Add ShipT - Target's grocery delivery service - to the BEWARE LIST

I have an annual auto-renewing membership to ShipT, a grocery (and other) shopping and delivery service similar to Instacart..

On 9/4/2024 I got an email alerting me that my membership would auto-renew on 10/4/2024 and my card will be charged then. Great, thanks for the warning, this is how it should be done. I also got an email 10/4/2024 telling me it has been renewed and my card has been charged.

This year: no warning, I got an email 10/4/2025 that my membership is renewed and my card has been charged $99. And yes, it shows up as Pending at my credit card company.

I last used the service December 2023, and given that there was no warning of pending renewal this year like I got last year, I figured they wouldn't be auto-renewing me. I even checked a few days ago if I had missed or mis-remembered a warning email this year, and no, there is no such email.

I have a number of auto-renewing subscriptions like this (e.g. annual magazine subscriptions), and they have ALL sent warnings weeks in advance. Given that, and given that ShipT last year sent me a warning, and given that they have done a very good job in the past resolving issues, I felt I'd be OK. But no.

Yes, a few days ago, when I was wondering about it, I should have logged in and checked to see if there was any information about an upcoming renewal (I'm not sure it would have told me).

Another reason for feeling safe, is that ShipT, while not perfect, has had excellent customer service during the period 9/21/23 - 12/23/23 that I used them. Not only prompt and personal responses to some issues I had, but even giving me a $5 extra credit or somesuch for the inconvenience (this happened at least once).

Maybe they still do have excellent customer service (leaving aside the no warning email) and that they will resolve this issue and the charge will be reversed ... we shall see. I will add any further info here, and also start a new thread if they refuse to refund the $99.

Anyway, the take-away is never assume you will be given advance warning of an auto-renewing membership, even if you have received such warnings from them in the past. Put ALL auto-renewing memberships and subscriptions' anniversary dates (and warnings one month in advance) on your calendar.