Ziinga - What are my rights?

Beaglemum

I joined Ziinga yesterday (an auction site) I was given 7 days free membership and some free bids. Of course I won my first bid and went to pay. Paid for the item and then realised that if I had read the T&C (who does?) the term of membership was for 3 months and I would be charged £50+ at the end of the week. I contacted them within half an hour and asked to change my mind. I was told that I would be charged £28 cancellation fee. I am still not sure what they intend to charge me, as their emails are not very clear. They warn me I am still liable and not to change my payment method.

Anyone know how to sort this one out please?

soolin

assuming you had the VIP contract , and I suspect from the free bids etc that you have, then the terms and conditions you agreed to when you signed up were as follows:

All VIP memberships come with a 3-month binding contract. Customers who breach the 3-month binding contract will be charged a cancellation fee of £ 28.00. Note that cancellation of the contract will void any free promotional gift offer.


As part of our 30-day return policy, refunds must be claimed within 30 days after the date of sign up. However, users may only be entitled to a subscription fee refund if they have not used any of their membership benefits. If the member has already received a free promotional gift from Ziinga, that item must be returned to Ziinga's return address in an unopened condition. Once Ziinga receives the item and all requirements have been fulfilled, Ziinga will process the refund request immediately.


Membership fees will be charged upfront to your credit card every month. Member price and benefits are subject to change without notice. Membership fees cannot be refunded.

I suspect you might struggle to get out of this without paying either the full 3 months at £50 or the £28 leaving fee.

KenH1961

What the site actually says is this

Please be informed that the 7 days free Platinum membership included with this offer gives you exclusive Bid-for-Free auctions, an additional 10% on all bid package purchases, FREE shipping on all products, 7 free bid added to your account daily and another 8 free bid on each calendar day you log on to Ziinga. The subscription cost is £ 59.99 per month. You can choose to cancel your subscription at any time by contacting our Customer Service by email at **** Platinum membership is binding for the first 3 months.

I've changed the hyper-links to prevent them being live.

The terms and conditions also make no note of "if you use the free bids your hooked in and it says the first 7 days are free, free to do what, look at the site?:mad:

This company is based in Malta and under that countries rules there is a 15 day cooling off period for distance selling and in the UK that is 7 days, so why are we not protected?

The contract is ambiguous at best and down right dishonest
at worst.

There services where advertised on facebook and having had a dig around the web I know both facebook & twitter have been informed of the problems with Ziiinga as early as 12th December last year, what responsibility do they have as to the adverts on their site?

wealdroam

KenH1961 wrote: »

This company is based in Malta and under that countries rules there is a 15 day cooling off period for distance selling and in the UK that is 7 days, so why are we not protected?

The right to cancel under UK Distance Selling laws disappears as soon as you start using the service.

I imagine Malta's laws say something similar since both are based on the same EU directive.