Matchaffinity.com - Rip Off Merchants

Autosuggestion · 18 April 2011 at 8:39PM

Right I took out a one month special offer subscription with these guys on the understanding that it would be automatically renewed if I didnt cancel my subscription within 48 hours of the renewal date. Well I decided well in advance of that, that I wouldnt renew and followed their cancellation instructions online (not once but twice) I actually stopped using their site after that and forgot all about it so you can imagine how annoyed I was when 117 euro was debited from my account on the date my subscription was supposed to expire.

I have got nowhere at all with their customer service (a call centre in Morocco), in fact 3 of their customer service agents told me I couldnt have cancelled online as it wasn't possible to do so!! Eventually I got to speak to a manager who confirmed that it was possible to cancel online but told me they wouldn't refund me as I had no proof I cancelled. This despite the fact that I followed their own cancellation instructions and got a message confirming my subscription was cancelled. I didnt take a screenshot at the time as I presumed they wouldnt try and rip me off so blatantly. I have had so much hassle with this, I had to cancel my bank card to stop them taking any more money out and now it looks like I will have to take them to the European Small Claims Court to try and get my money back. They are not responding to letters. How can supposedly reputable companies get away with this??

To anyone thinking of signing up on a special offer with these guys just to check out their site. Don't! They will automatically renew your subscription whether you cancel or not and then fob you off. Beware!

Sooler · 19 April 2011 at 7:41PM

Autosuggestion wrote: »

I had to cancel my bank card to stop them taking any more money out

It doesn't work like that, ... as it is a continuous payment agreement only the seller can cancel the requests for payment.

"credit card companies are honour-bound to pay continuous payment authorities to businesses who try and collect them."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13013183

Autosuggestion · 20 April 2011 at 6:01PM

Hi Sooler,
I paid with a visa debit card not a credit card, as soon as i reported the fraud to my bank they advised me to cancel the card so that no further payments could be taken from it. the bank have assured me that no further payments will be taken from my account. In fact they have contacted the company with a view to getting the first renewal payment back as it should not have been taken according to matchaffinitys own terms and conditions.
I dont live in the uk by the way. I know that I am not the only person to have been screwed over by this company so I will post how my claim to the european small claims court goes, i amn't too hopeful i have to say but we will see.

Autosuggestion · 6 May 2011 at 11:09PM

Interestingly enough I see that the sister company of these guys match.com is going to feature on an upcoming 'Watchdog' report. Seems as they were up to the same tricks as match affinity.

leandraiscool · 4 July 2011 at 9:14PM

Hi there, I've also had big problems with match affinity. Basically a couple of months ago I signed up on a free account not realising that in order to be able to respond and write to messages I would have to have a subscription. So naively I signed up for a 3 month subscription at 36.90. However I just checked my bank account today and noticed that two lots of £36.90 had been taken out! So I checked my subscription on match affinity and it turns out that I have signed up for a 12 month subscription payable over 3 months at £36.90! On trying to find how to cancel the subscription I noticed that you can only call them to do so and it does say that in order to be able to cancel your subscription you have to give 48 hrs advance notice to cancellation. My next subscription payment is due on 8th July 2011 so I thought well thats more than 48hrs notice so rang them up today. Got through to some call centre in Morroco and was told that they cannot cancel my subscription as I had signed up to a 12 month subscription! I replied that that was not what it said on the website and that I was within my rights to cancel. They still wouldn't have it and I had to ask to be referred to someone higher up. The call was transferred to someone in London who was rude and arrogant. He insisted that I could not cancel as I had signed up for the 12 months. After repeatedly telling him that was not what the website said and going round in circles by which I was getting very frustrated I ended up hanging up on him. My mum offered to try and see if she could get anywhere with them and so she rang and asked to be transfered to someone much higher up than a supervisor. She spoke to some guy called Franklin who claimed he was the manager. My mum explained the same situation and nicely asked him to cancel my subscription. He refused andeven after a much drawn out frustrating conversation with my mum saying she would be contacting bbc watchdog and trading standards he still refused. So my mum said that I would be going to my bank and getting it cancelled and he basically said that if I did that, that they would still get my money and pursue me for the money and also that they would keep on getting my money through the automatic renewal in the future!! My mum let him know how disgusted she was and that we would definately be in touch with trading standards etc then hung up. I don't know what I'm going to do apart from going to the bank tomorrow and seeing if I can get it cancelled. I could get the card cancelled but I really need the card this week and if I get it cancelled it will mean I'll be stuck. Any suggestions? I certainly won't be signing up to any dating websites again!!

Matchaffinity.com - Rip Off Merchants

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