Free £15 Boots voucher and Lovefilm DVD rental trial

TeaKandy

Just want to let you know the progress from my last post. (canceled on 13/11/06 but been charged £9.99 on that same day and they said because I owed them "last titles")

They admit that I did not owed them any disc but they cannot refund because I canceled after they schedule to charge me so I should reactivate my account in order to "enjoy" their service.

I also asked about £15 Boots voucher (They called it *cheque* ?) and this is their reply.

With regards to the promo of the cheque,one of the requirements was for you to add 10-titles to your selection list on the day you sign up for the service.Unfortunately you only added 5-titles and therefor we can not offer you this promotion.

Should I email back to point out that ...
(1) I did not see any thing in term and condition about adding 10 titles (did anyone know anything about this, or is it only me that did not notice this policy in T&C?)

(2) If there is really the T&C about 10 titles, actually I did add 10 titles otherwise they would not send me any DVD and I already received and return 4 discs. So why are they said I added only 5 titles.

anyway, I think this company is wasting my time.

mtb_2

This is the email I got sent after asking if the promotion code works:

Dear Talat,

Thank you for your interest in our service. According to our records the promotion code "BTSSOL15" you entered is not valid and it dosent have any free DVDs or £15.00 voucher. Please check the promotion code you received and try to register again.

If i can be of any help please let me know.

Kind regards,

Imran


Can someone please confirm if this was the correct code?
Thank You
T

deanos

BTSSOL15 is the code in the original Email sent from Boots

deanos

TeaKandy wrote:

Should I email back to point out that ...
(1) I did not see any thing in term and condition about adding 10 titles (did anyone know anything about this, or is it only me that did not notice this policy in T&C?)

(2) If there is really the T&C about 10 titles, actually I did add 10 titles otherwise they would not send me any DVD and I already received and return 4 discs. So why are they said I added only 5 titles.

anyway, I think this company is wasting my time.

Terms & Conditions
This FREE trial offer expires on 31/12/2006. Offer only valid for first-time subscribers to LOVEFiLM.com or any other LOVEFiLM International operated service. Offer may not be redeemed in conjunction with any other offer and is limited to one per household. The free trial expires 21 days after registration or when we send you your 7th DVD rental, whichever is the sooner. A valid credit/debit card is required to redeem the offer. The registration process includes providing a current e-mail address, password, home address (so LOVEFiLM.com can send out the DVDs), credit or debit card details (to verify identity) and creating a selection of at least 10 titles. Only users who have fully completed the registration process to sign up for the free trial and have received their first disc will receive their £15 Boots voucher. Your Boots vouchers will be dispatched within 30 days of registration. At expiry of the free trial period, credit/debit cards will be automatically billed for the monthly subscription fee based on the package selected, unless subscription has already been cancelled. Subscriptions may be cancelled at any time, however, no refunds or credits will be given for partial monthly subscription periods. Visit http://www.lovefilm.com for full terms and conditions.

codger

Teakandy: I really hope this doesn't turn into a New Year nightmare for poor Martin (see his posts of yesterday's date). Anyway; see if this helps (or just adds to your confusion):

1) My account was activated on the basis of a minimum listing of 10 DVD titles. I actually listed 20, and so received my first rental DVD.

2) If I hadn't conformed to the minimum listing requirement, then Lovefilm would not have registered me as a subscriber, and if I wasn't a subscriber it wouldn't have sent me anything at all.

3) The fact that Lovefilm sent you not one, but four, rental DVDs suggests that your recollection of the number of titles you listed is more reliable than theirs.

4) However. . . wasn't there something in your original post about Lovefilm claiming you'd lost, or that someone, somewhere, had lost, a DVD?

5) If there was such a loss, then verifying that could have delayed the processing of your cancellation -- to the point that Lovefilm was quite entitled to charge you (because your free trial period had expired before the business of the missing DVD had been sorted out).

6) But. . . if no such loss occurred, then no delay could have arisen. So if at the time you cancelled, there were no DVDs either in your possession, or expected back from you by Lovefilm, then yes, your cancellation could be confirmed.

7) You are liable to be charged if you breach the offer's time limit. Proof of breach is when you cancelled. If you have a Lovefilm email received within the offer's time limit and which confirms your cancellation, then the charge Lovefilm has levied against you is unauthorised and unjustifiable.

8) You should notify Lovefilm that you require your credit card to be refunded within 7 working days. Otherwise you will institute a charge-back.

MTB: Here's Martin's original post:

This was originally e-mailed out by Boots, but it has confirmed it will honour people clicking this link for the promotion:- Free £15 Boots voucher*. Do ensure you use this correct link, as it automatically has the promotion code in there for you. As this was an email promotion you wont see the note of the Free £15 voucher, but Boots has confirmed it, and you should see the promo code when you click.

Martin's info was 100% correct where I was concerned, I clicked the link he gave, a promo code appeared, and after that was into the Lovefilm site which was nesting in the Boots.com website.

As that process automatically registered the Boots code with Lovefilm, it's difficult to understand how come Lovefilm is now saying that not every code was valid.

Anyone who says it might not be that difficult to understand after all is lacking in Yuletide spirit. . .

Merry Christmas to everyone here, away the Codgers disappear for a week uncluttered by any consideration of Lovefilm! Yaaay!!

:xmastree: :xmassign: :xmastree:

AaronAA

Edit: after a lot of perseverence and a bit of google detective work, I have managed to get my case listened to by a LOVEFiLM Customer Services Team Leader, and have had my original free trial restarted, with the money I have paid credited to my account for use once my trial ends. :j

=====================
Original Post:

Apologies before I begin, this is a long one, but I think I should share my (ongoing) experience to save anyone else experiencing the LOVEFiLM HATE I'm going through!

Just a word of warning if you sign up to LOVEFiLM.

I signed up for a 3 month free trial after receiving a flyer in the form of a gift voucher "worth over £40".

Within about 15 minutes of signing up, I found myself having been charged £22.09, leaving me on a package worth £15.99 per month, with the next payment of £15.99 due in a month's time.

This is, I now realise, *essentially* my fault ... however their level of Customer Service is highly questionable.

When my account was activated, I had a look around the online control panel, and saw that I was on the "unlimited 2 dvds at a time" package, and there were a couple of packages better than that (incl. 3 dvds, and PS2 games). So I thought, seen as I'm on a free trial, why not go the whole hog and try the all singing all dancing one.

During the course of this, I recall it did show a page saying:

"please confirm that you wish to change your subscription package"
"cost to upgrade: £xx.xx" (I forget the amount that was displayed)
"change to: new-package-name"

There was nothing to say I was changing FROM a "free trial" package, or anything to say that I would be forefeiting my free trial, so I thought this would be the package I would begin, and CONTINUE to be one after my free trial had expired, and consequently any higher charges would apply after the 3 months FREE trial ceased. Made sense to me at the time anyway.

Anyway, after clicking the "change package" button, I noticed that my "next payment" date had changed from 15th March 07 (3 months) to 15th Jan 07 (1 month). So I panicked a little and changed my package back to what it was on originally.

My "next payment" date remained the same, at 15th Jan (1 month).

So, disheartened, I immediately sent LOVEFiLM an email using their contact form explaining what I had done in error, and asked that they please reset my free trial - basically undo the (4 or so) clicks!

This all happened in about 15 minutes late on a Friday evening, so it wasn't until Monday that I received a completely heartless email reply from them saying it states in the terms & conditions that changing the package cancels any free trial you're on, and that it is also stated on the page you change your package on. Your money will not be refunded. Sorry.

And that's that! We've got your money, thanks. Now $%^& off!!

On a second visit to the site, looking specifically for this text, I scrolled down to the bottom of the page (OFF the screen, BELOW the button you click to continue & make the change), and read text about the trial cancellation! Argh!

Why this text is BELOW the button is beyond me (well, actually the cynic in me knows exactly why...), or why there isn't a warning on the "payment" page (again, my cynical side is triggered!) but I now realise that on my initial visit I only scrolled down as far as the button (as far down as was necessary to progress), and didn't see the text they are now shoving in my face.

Now here's the good bit... :mad:
In the meantime, I checked my bank account, and I saw an £18.99 charge for selecting the top package, and to add insult to injury, they have also charged me £3.10 for when I changed the package back to what it originally was in an attempt to 'undo' my first change!!!

Anyway, I am still trying to argue the point with them to try and get my money back - especially given the fact that I was tempted in by a free trial, and now I'm on a package for which I'm paying more than it is worth after making a simple error and trying to rectify it, and they are just refusing point blank to undo my changes, despite me having reported my error within MINUTES of doing so!

Hopefully most people won't do what I did, and I would still recommend that everyone screw them for the free trial and make sure you cancel. Just don't ever get into a situation where you need some customer service because based on my experience so far, it is quite frankly APPAWLING!!!

Ok, rant over now. But I think this smiley sums my feelings up perfectly at the moment...

TeaKandy

AaronAA, I am totally understand your frustration. I, too, feel that the design of LoveFilm website make it so easy for customer to be charged (change the package can be done instantly and the charge generate instantly) but difficult to cancel (i.e. wait til 11pm or have to phone them).

Codger, thanks for your advice, just to clarify, I have got successful cancellation email as soon as I canceled because on their website state that I have no disc at home. However they charged me on the same day and when I queries what is the charged for and one of the CS said it is for the outstanding title, so I told them that there was no outstanding title and another CS replies said that I did not owed them any disc and yes it is still within free trial period but they cannot refund the charge but what they can do is reactivate my account so I can enjoy the service (with the reply about Boots Voucher that I am not entitle because of the 10 titles).

Anyway, to update this, I emailed back said that I do not want to reactivate, I want my money back. They are now apologise for all the confusion and refund but still don't know about Boots Voucher. I did click the link from Martin's post and I did have more than 10 titles (though they said I have not).

To credit them, their CS replies email quite quickly, but I think it depends on who you got, I think first 2-3 CS who read my email don't even understand what is happening and just gave general parrot-like reply, til I got one that do the job properly.

Anyway I am quite ok now, plus, somehow I got 200+39 points added to my boots adventage card marked as ScreenSelect :rolleyes:

scoggy

I feel your pain guys!

Any word yet on whether this was a 14 day trial or a 21 day trial? I cancelled around day 10, and sent my third disc back. They didn't receive iut (apparently) until day 15, probably due to Christmas post. So I was charged (not sure how much yet).

Several emails later (the first few always seem to come from an Indian CS outsource centre that just send stock replies) and they say they've sent my email on to the Boots promotion people. My compliant is that this was a 21 day trial but they charged me after 15 days.

It'd be good to get this cleared up as it's really irritating.

insomniannie

I've just tried to cancel my trial and was told that I should have cancelled 5 days before the end/the date they are going to take a payment (dec 24th). Did anyone else see this 'cancel 5 days before...' in the promotion? Also, because of the Christmas post it will delay the discs getting back to them and they won't arrive before the 24th.

Any thoughts?

mishkanorman

I know the policy is you have to have the discs back with them before the payment due date or they can charge you, perhaps the 5 days was allowing for time to return the disc ??


mishka