Guest bought a 19.99 movie

My guests in the basement purchased a movie for 19.99 from Amazon. I called Amazon and they said they have a one time refund I could use. The guests have stayed with me for two weeks and are checking out tomorrow. What should I do about this? Just forget it? Mention it to them? Since I got a refund I can’t ask for the money, right? I am annoyed that they did this and I need to figure out how I can make sure this doesn’t happen again.
THANKS for your input.

Refund from Amazon or not, you can certainly demand they pay you $20 cash before they leave! Don’t even mention Amazon refunds to them!!!

What can you do? Specifically mention in your house rules – NO Movie Purchases!

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Honestly, this one is on you as host. Amazon has a pin code system you can set up to prevent purchases.

I’d still ask the guests for money to pay for it. If they don’t, there’s not much you can do, not even in the review, since they probably didn’t even think about it since it was unlocked.

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I’m afraid that this is like a host complaining that guests used up all the guest goodies because the hosts had left the supplies cupboard unlocked. How did the guests access your Amazon account?

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If these are new and naive Airbnb users, they might think that somehow the charge will make it back to the credit card they used for the Airbnb rental, but it’s more likely they realize it was not their prime account being used so the bill was going to somebody else.

You need to either logout of or de-authorize your prime account on the devices that guests can use OR enable a verification system (password or pin) on those devices.

I rent out 2 houses (of multiple occupation) and provide each tenant with Sky or Virgin boxes, and every time a new tenant moves in I neglect to mention ‘don’t order a million films!’ 'cos I get charged :slight_smile:
Pay per view happens occasionally, for big boxing matches, £20 to watch AJ, and a couple of the lads add it to their rent, which is good and fair.
I’ve since realised that as they are in the same house, I only get charged once, even though 2 of them pay me. And I don’t care, I spend it on wines.

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So many questions where to begin.

How did they get onto your amazon account if you didn’t give them access/explain it to them?

Did they even know you were going to be charged and how much?

If you tell them about it what is their reaction?

I tend to agree here, if you gave them access to your account without any other written rules then I guess it’s too bad for you. If you gave them limited access as a courtesy because it’s not in your listing but they were crying for a free movie… well? better put it in your house rules.

Aside: we sometimes leave our netflix account open for the next guest.

So we do sometimes leave our netflix open. Had a guest who took over the account, put everything in Polish, put her photo in the profile photo… we had a heck of a time getting it back because everything was in Polish we couldn’t understand the menus or anything. Who does that?

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I’d send a request for payment after they check out. Simply state you discovered they ordered a movie, provide the receipt, and request payment for the $20. You’ll have the resolution dispute behind you if the guests don’t willinging pay.

Probably have all their streaming accounts logged in on the guest smart TV. I do, but have a password on Amazon. The others don’t allow rental/purchase.

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I mean, if you’re doing this it’s because you don’t want to pay cable each month. So an occasional guest movie I guess you have to live with? Or else make something more official in your rules…

Or just require a password for purchases. Parents do the same with their kids’ tablets/phones. Guests need the kid gloves!

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I’d rather say “request” instead of “demand”, because maybe it was not clear who way paying for this!

Maybe people will be horrified and quickly pay up! Who knows!

It’s a good thing Amazon was able to refund you. I wouldn’t ask the guests for money because 1. If it wasn’t in your rules, how would they know any better 2. You received a refund, issue solved. Unfortunately, guests sometimes have free range of a place if no house rules are put into place.

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You can, in the amazon system, prevent purchasing of ANYTHING via the Amazon Prime video service. easy to find, just google it if you need help finding the right page.

GAH!!! They didn’t just RENT it for $3.99, they BOUGHT IT?!

Oh well if it’s a good movie, now it’s yours …

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Well you’ve got a new movie, so that’s a good thing I guess!
Seriously though you have a couple of options:

Add a stipulation that guests cannot order or movies that need to be paid for OR (and probably the better option) add a passcode to prevent guests logging in and buying what they fancy.

Your guests might not have realised when they ordered - maybe they think you will ask them for the money, or perhaps they will offer it! If you’ve had a refund at least you’re not out of pocket - and you can go for one of the options above to prevent a repeat performance?!

I had this happen once after I changed to a new modem/router… all of my safeguards vanished. My guests charged $50 of movies on Amazon. As angry as I was about it (who the hell does that, right?), it was ultimately my fault for not double checking to make sure guests didn’t have access to purchasing over the internet using my accounts. Since this was a two week stay at full rates, I opted to let it go (code for my boyfriend talked me off the ledge). I learned my lesson and called it the (costly) price of doing business.