Gourmet Society

CaptainCanary · 3 July 2015 at 2:59PM

I am afraid that I am another person who has been caught by their auto renewal process. The claim that they sent me 2 emails, but they were never received by my mail server (I work with servers so know how to interrogate them). . They also claim they can see they were opened and have quoted a day/time: which I know cannot be true as I had no access to my mail at that time.

They are awful to deal with and are refusing point blank to consider a refund.

I know and understand that in their T&C's they say they are entitled to take the money but it does also state they they will notify you in advance. the first I knew was I when received a new card in the post and checked my account to find the money had been taken.

Amex have raised a dispute on my behalf.

Surely it must be now time for action to be taken against this shoddy practice and in particular this organisation.

I see from other threads that employees from Gourmet Society post on some forums. So if any of you do read this, then I am unsure how you must sleep at night.....

Incidentally during my 3 month trial, I found the card to be so restrictive as to be useless and never got any use from it.

Hopefully someone from MSE Towers can take this up on everyones behalf....

nhoneymonster · 5 July 2015 at 12:03PM

My husband has had the same issue the last two years. It is partly his fault as he had received the emails, but he gets sent so many from them that he just disregarded them without looking. Even so, it hardly seems right that you are only able to cancel two weeks before renewal. Judging by things found on the internet they are totally inflexible on this and have even threatened to take people to court if they have cancelled their payment. They seem to rely on people forgetting to cancel!

david111111 · 3 September 2015 at 9:27PM

i too have been caught out, by their 3 month £1 offer......

did you have any luck from AMEX?

I googled, and someone suggested trading standards, so I have today raised a complaint on this website - Citizens Advice Consumer Service - I hope to get a reply and see whats next

Ed-P · 9 September 2015 at 12:08PM

Thanks a lot for the heads up about his, I nearly signed up the other day!! If I were you I would report them to Trading Standards and then write them a rather stern email expressing my dissatisfaction and informing them that you have reported them.

Good luck.

-Ed

BB1958 · 16 September 2015 at 8:11PM

There's another one - Taste Card, I signed up for a free trial a few weeks ago although it never arrived, but there were a lot of adverts on the website about how you could pay £1 for a longer trial which you could cancel if you didn't want it to continue. I didn't do it as I guessed they'd be wanting my details to continue it if I forgot to cancel!
Good luck getting it all sorted out.

McKneff · 16 September 2015 at 8:43PM

They are not doing anything wrong.
Its up to you to not forget to cancel, trading standards will tell you this.

Same with lots of magazine subscritptions, including WHICH, they tell you in the terms and conditions that you have to cancel if you don't want it after the free trial period. Nothing wrong there.

You have to take responsibility for your own forgetfulness.

bluegruntfuttock · 25 September 2015 at 5:15PM

I get it is your responsibility to cancel in good time. However, when it is clear the person doesn't wish to continue the relationship, isn't it giving the company a bad name when the reaction is as aggressive as I have found.

I never read the emails, they are not in my inbox and they confirm unread. If I had read them I would have most definitely cancelled.

In a way I am lucky and my card details changed so they are chasing me for the money and threatening legal action. But why should I pay when it is a service I haven't used and have no intention of using?

Is there anything I can do to put a stop to this in a non legal way without paying?

Dave

ajs1990 · 4 October 2015 at 9:43PM

My partner has had the same problem, her emails were sent but was received in the junk mail and there system can verify this. A renewal pack with cancellation details was also not received. It seem Gourmet Society purposely allow there notifications to go unnoticed. She's filing a complaint with the company and looking into the chargeback scheme through her bank. Any advice or successes would be greatly appreciated as this money has left us unable to afford food shopping based on our limited income.

lisyloo · 8 October 2015 at 3:33PM

Any advice

Get a diary.

I'm gobsmacked people find it so hard to put things in their phones, ipads, diaries.

suedong · 27 October 2015 at 1:36AM

A warning to you all - they have taken another years £39.95 membership fee.

I cancelled my membership 12 months ago and received email communication from them stating;

I will ensure your membership does not automatically renew next year so please stay assured that your subscription has been cancelled and no further charges will be taken.

I hope this is helpful and please let me know if I can be of any further assistance.

Kind regards,

Alison Rowbottom
Member Services Advisor

help@gourmetsociety.co.uk
0845 257 4477
https://www.gourmetsociety.co.uk

Ian011 · 27 October 2015 at 2:42AM

suedong wrote: »

0845 257 4477
https://www.gourmetsociety.co.uk

The Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 were published by BIS on 13 December 2013 and came into force on 13 June 2014.

Where a telephone number is offered for post-sales contact, Regulation 41 requires that it be a number starting 01, 02, 03 or 080. It must not begin 084, 087 or 09.

Breaches of the regulations can be reported to Trading Standards via the Citizen's Advice national Consumer Helpline on 0345 404 0506.

Where any 084, 087 or 09 number is advertised, new regulations were published by Ofcom on 12 December 2013 and came into force on 1 July 2015. These require the Service Charged to be declared in close proximity to the number wherever the number is advertised or promoted.

Breaches of the regulations can be reported to ASA (for 084 numbers and for 087 and 09 numbers with a Service Charge of 7p per minute or per call or less) or to PhonepayPlus (for 087 and 09 numbers with a Service Charge of more than 7p per minute or per call).

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