Pointshop.co.uk has debited me for £45 x 2!

makara

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Anyone heard of this company?

www.pointshop.co.uk

They started with a tempting offer of £1 to join their "VIP" membership for 5 days - and offered £20 of IKEA vouchers (which they DID promptly send) - stating I could cancel my VIP membership after the 5 day "trial" (which I did to avoid getting charged any further subscription amounts).

They then 3 months later (i.e. July 2011) sent me an E-mail offering VIP membership AGAIN for £1 - which I took up, then again tried to unsubscribe.

However, no where does it state *clearly* on the site how much this VIP membership *normally* costs

- I have just had a shock - my Credit Card was debited for the new £1 subscription fee - but has also later in the month (i.e. just now) got a £45 VIP subscription transaction from this company!!!

And my Pointshop account is already showing ANOTHER £45 will be debited! Leaving me £90 down!

The site itself doesn't have the best English - it's a Danish company - for my £45 x 2, I haven't actually "got" anything, apart from a hefty Credit Card bill!

There have been a couple of complaints about this company's crafty fleecing of £45 from other disgruntled customers when I Googled on the issue - but can anyone shed any light on what's the next step to take?

Should I get on to my Credit Card company, and tell them to do a chargeback on the first £45 - and to block the company from taking the other £45?

(Unfortunately, my Credit Card statement has JUST been printed - and that £45 is the final transaction on it! And I assume the second £45 will soon appear on my NEXT statement).

Many thanks for any help!

arcon5

Does it state anywhere the offer cannot be used more than once?

You say you tried to unsubscribe again... did you actually unsubscribe in time the second time around?

Have you contacted the company yet and what did they say? If the latter is a duplicate they will likely return it. I believe most CCs make you wait 30 days for a chargeback, but if you subscribed and didn't unsubscribe correctly or in the required timeframe then they are providing the service and you will unlikely be able to file a chargeback on the non-duplicate one.

makara

Thanks for the quick reply. I thought I had unsubscribed, but not sure if that was processed.

I have spoken to my CC company, and they will be sending me a Dispute form - and have asked me to send that back along with a cover letter.

They also advised it would be an idea to print off the company's terms and conditions, and send that to them along with the Dispute form - as IF the "VIP renewal" is not mentioned on there (which from what I can see it is not mentioned in the Ts and Cs), it will be a plus to my case.

As for the exorbitant fee of £45 - the CC company said it all depends on the company's Ts and Cs whether they have to "advertise" the actual fee of £45 or not

- i.e. if their Ts and Cs are worded in such a way that they are not obliged to disclose the VIP membership fee, then the CC company told me they cannot help me.

makara

Something very fishy - I finally found an E-mail form on their website - used it to demand a refund (or that my CC company would get involved)

- and I then received in my own E-mail inbox an E-mail from them, containing a link to my submitted query.

When I clicked on said link, the page on Pointshop it opened at said "This query does not exist"

Avoid this company!!

arcon5

Just because there's a bug doesn't make them a scam. Most websites have a bug somewhere.

Because the CC company are allowing the dispute doesn't mean you will keep the money.

You said you though you subscribed.. what did you do to get unsubscribed? As if you didn't following their cancellation policy then the payment may well be authorised and legitimate and the money returned to the company.

Also, was you aware it would cost you £45 if you didn't cancel? I'm assuming you did as you only wanted to take advantage as part of the £1 offer so naturally you would assume this would be for a limited time.

Your CC won't cover you if you haven't cancelled in time and now changed your mind ie.

You need to post the full circumstances as to how you come about signing up, what the promotion states and how you cancelled. It may well be they intentionally haven't informed you of the price or provided you with the terms in which case fair enough -- but I fear this may be another case of buyers remorse and the business is being punished financially for it... but I could be wrong!

makara

arcon5 wrote: »

was you aware it would cost you £45 if you didn't cancel?

It may well be they intentionally haven't informed you of the price or provided you with the terms in which case fair enough

No mention was made of any renewal price - i.e. £45 (or any other amount).


Let's see what the CC company come back with.

makara

arcon5 wrote: »

Also, was you aware it would cost you £45 if you didn't cancel?

No mention was made of ANY renewal price - in other words, they could just as easily have charged my CC for £4.50 - or even £450.

arcon5

You knew the £1 was for 5 days only so you must have known if you didn't cancel within that 5 days you would be charged....

It looks like it was to VIP100 package you signed up to which states £1.50/day (£45/month). When signing up there is a link to 'terms' near payment page -- was that shown when you joined the offer?

It says in there:

Terms and prices
When you subscirbe, you accept that PointShop can withdraw £45 for 30 days VIP100-membership at PointShop.

Your VIP membership enables you to earn 100% extra points on all campaigns and in addition you get a number of other advantages. Click here to see what you get out of your VIP membership. This is a trial period for a special price.
After the trial period, your VIP membership will be automatically renewed unless you have terminated it. We will then withdraw 45 pounds each 30 day (equivalent to 1,5 £/day) until you cancel your subscription. If you do not want to renew your membership, you must remember to unsubscribe within the first 30 days from order date.

Unsubcribing of membership and pinding period
You can at any time unsubscribe or delete your VIP subscription. There are no binding period. If you unsubscribe your subscription, will no further money be withdrawn for the subscription before it is reactivate or a new one is made. The unscubsribing does not effect the VIP membership which already has been activate on your member.

Please notice, that because of technical reasons your subscription cannot be unsubscribed online the first 24 hours. You can always unsubscribe by calling our customer sercice on telephone number 0045 88 820 628.

makara

>>> there is a link to 'terms' ***near payment page*** -- was that shown when you joined the offer? <<<


Don't remember seeing at that the time from what I can recall (that said, it was almost 4 months ago that I first signed up)

- how did you navigate to it?

Or does it only appear in the sign-up process - and not appear otherwise?

arcon5

They have their main terms of service in the footer of the website.

Then for each product they have seperate terms. When you are on the page that asks you to input your card details there is the word 'terms' which you can click on.

Do you still have the promotional email with the link on it? Maybe click it again (don't complete signup process!!) to see.. or post a link and i'll take a look...

But that doesn't explain two payments if the first one was cancelled. If you cancelled via their website, did you receive any kind of confirmation email ?

makara

Thanks - I now see their general terms at the footer of their website page, but will take your word for it about the more detailed terms (about each package) as I don't want to go near those!


I've checked my mails, and it doesn't look as if I got a cancellation confirmation mail (for the cancellation I thought I had done in early July)

- I did however receive an immediate cancellation confirmation on the 28th July, i.e. when I saw the 2 x £45 transactions in my account.


What's odd is that the first £45 "VIP subscription" is stated as being for only the 7th July to 21st July (15 days!)

- whereas the second one is from 26th July to 25th August (or thereabouts), i.e. a FULL 30 days.


Speaking to my CC company, they are only aware of ONE lot of £45 having been debited.


Will await to see if another £45 debit happens within the next month.