tastecard automatic renewal questions

germanjulian

Hi,

another automatic renewal thread

Basically auto-renewal hit me but what annoys me is that I got as per T&C on their website no notification of this:

We will renew your membership automatically at the end of each year. We will endeavour to send you a reminder by email (or by post if you have not supplied us with your email address) approximately 3 weeks before your renewal is due, to advise you of details of the new subscription

I also googled and it looks like under EU and UK law that would be an "unfair" contract if

.Automatic contract renewals where you are not given reasonable opportunity to prevent the renewal.

see http://whatconsumer.co.uk/unfair-contract-terms/

I did move recently so I did not even get a new TasteCard and no there was no email saying that my subscription is running out... only emails about "new restaurants".

I told them all this in an email now but they seem pretty sure from the first email they send that they can keep my money.

What can I do? Can I call my credit card company and get my money back because the contract is unfair and they are unreasonable or I did not "receive my goods". Do I need to go to a solicitor?

wealdroam

It seems from your post that you did not tell them at the time that you had moved.

Could that be why you did not receive a renewal notification?

Did the email renewal notification go straight to your spam folder by mistake?

Did you forget that this renewal was due?

In my opinion, the problem is partly your fault.

Unless you can prove that they did not send the email, not the same as you don't have it now, then I cannot see that you can win any argument.

germanjulian

yes but if you go here I am not the first person that got no renewal notification:

http://www.groubal.com/taste-card-london-auto-renew-scam/

and they never send letters, costs money compared to email and no it does not go to the spam it goes into my "tastecard folder" or inbox.

I know its hard to prove anything but I am wondering if there is anything that can be done, I dont care about the £50 to much I care more about the principle.

fluffnutter

"We will endeavour to send you a reminder by email..." is a meaningless term. So, will they? Or will they just try? They appear to be giving themselves a get-out clause, by merely 'endeavouring' to contact you. However, if they have contacted you, then three weeks is probably ample time to cancel. Have they told you they contacted you? By mail or post? If it's post, then there's not much you can do. The onus would have been on you to update your address. However, if they tell you they've emailed, you could argue you didn't receive this.

Edit: just read your post above. If they say they've mailed and you didn't receive this, why not stick to your guns? Send them a letter in writing advising them they have 14 days to refund your money (perhaps minus a reasonable deduction if you've used their services in the meantime). Use any legislation you've found to back up your case and advise that if you don't hear from them, you'll take them to the small claims court.

I don't like the practice of automatic renewal. They're not doing it because it's easier for the customer; they're doing it because they know people forget to cancel. It's money by stealth and sneaky, IMO.

germanjulian

well they suddenly emailed me thursday evening for my credit card details after sending my "official complaint" letter 1 hour earlier so they can process my refund... (took me an hour to write it)

No money yet and no mention if this is a "partial" refund or a full refund so I will wait 2 more days and if I then still have no money I will ask what is happening to my refund or if they just wanted to full credit card details so they can go shopping sometime in the future...

Quentin

The ts + cs are very unfair.

They tell you that unless you cancel the renewal at the latest 7 days prior to the expiry of the card then you will be contracted into another 12 month period. And they will only take cancellations by phone! (Hard to prove you made a phone call - see all the complaints in the insurance forum about telephoned instructions not being acted on, and when followed up there is mysteriously "no record" of the call).

And should you have not realised you were signing up for automatic renewal when buying a card, they have it covered by making you agree they will send you a reminder but won't be responsible should the reminder not arrive! How fair is that?

we will not be liable for any non receipt of communication from us, this includes the renewal reminder.

Quentin

Groubal have an article on this issue (or is it a scam, not an issue?).

Certainly a poor way to treat customers, and smacks of Arthur Daley.

http://www.groubal.com/taste-card-london-auto-renew-scam/

bananawavinglobster

The same thing has just happened to my other half.

Taste are refusing to refund him despite the fact that he ordered the card on the phone and they didn't read the T&Cs to him.

Anyone got any advice?

Ta

SGE1

This has just happened to me as well. No warning email, obviously. It's obviously a myth.

Is the onus really on the customer to prove they didn't receive an email? Surely the onus should be on Tastecard to prove they sent it? If they had sent it, I would obviously have clocked the auto renewal and cancelled it on the spot.

nbransby

Yep same happened to me, I looked into why only the reminder email found its way into the spam folder yet all other mails including the thank you for your renewal email made it into my inbox.

I found they send their reminder email address with a different 'reply-to address' from all the other emails. Now is this to ensure it gets into your spam folder? When I complained about this they said:

"The renewal email is sent from noreply@tastecard.co.uk due to this being a no reply email address some email accounts will pick this up as being spam."

This statement is not entirely true, all they emails are sent from noreply@tastecard.co.uk but the renewal reminder has a different 'reply-to' address, namely 'enquiries@tastecard.co.uk' which is probably what is causing gmail to file it as spam.

Why do they do this only for the reminder? They ignored the question when I asked them but smells bad to me.

Does someone with some legal experience think theres a case here?!

BTW Don't forget to sign at petition at groubal, MSE won't let me post the link here

wealdroam

nbransby wrote: »

Does someone with some legal experience think theres a case here?!

Sorry, a case for what?

Illegally sending emails with a different 'reply to' address?