Cancelled Subscription via Paypal - Can I be forced to pay?

anupadu

hi yulter. i am exactly in the same boat, i cancelled on paypal after a few days but didnt think to cancel on the site aswell. now they are asking for 12 months payment which i cant afford and i have pleaded with them to reduce the payment but they are not budging. can i ask how they got you down to 2 months payment? i would be able to manage that but not the full 12 months. thanks

Yulter

I spent a lot of time going back and fourth arguing it saying i would not pay a penny, I was pretty brazen with them and basically told them to stop contacting me and that I would be filing a complaint with whatever body covers them to try and get them to leave me alone, they however kept badgering me everyday, and then I realised it was 12 months worth they were after and not just £19 and I panicked .

I then sent them an email telling them it was a simple mistake and I could not afford to be paying for a full years worth for such a small mistake. I told them the whole situation was putting me through a lot of stress. I explained to them it was not a malicious act on my part and I was not trying to get out of paying it was just a misunderstanding and obviously I would have cancelled as I had cancelled via Paypal within a week, why would I do that and not cancel on the website when I had ample time to, it was obviously just a mistake. I then asked if they would please let me just pay for 1 month and call an end to it. I told them I would pay them £19 via paypal right now.

Basically I decided to just stop fighting and be honest with them and basically pleaded to their good nature.

They emailed back offering 3 months worth and I told them I could not really afford that and did not currently have that money on hand and offered 2 months and they agreed.

I however had signed up with a Masked email that redirects to my main account ( I could have deleted this redirected email at anytime but I held off) and I think I had put a fake address but I cannot remember, so maybe they realised they would not get a penny out of me and decided they better get something.

I would not have given in but I did not know if Paypal gives them your address when your start a trial subscription and I did not know for sure if I had given a fake address so I did not want to take the risk.

I think if you make it obvious that if they do not let you off the hook they will have to fight for it they might give in, as it will cost them about £100+ and a lot of time to chase the money using Debt collectors, court and such.

I may have just got lucky, or it may be that they did not actually have my address and I could have got away with giving them nothing and so they decided to at least get something.

My advice is, drag it out as long as you can without increasing the amount owed, I think if it went to court in their terms and conditions they list the fees they will add and it is not much, they say they will add about £15 admin fees + court costs if it gets that far.

If they realise they are going to have to fight for it they will probably be more willing to lower the price, it was about 1-2 weeks after they first emailed me that they reduced the price for me.

No point giving in and paying full price as the price you will need to pay will not go up unless it gets to court.

anupadu

I have pretty much tried everything you said, i offered them 1 months and made it clear that i intended to cancel and it was just an oversight and i didnt realise that you had to cancel on the site as i was under a lot of stress too, but they didnt seem to care.

i also pleaded and told them that i was going to them for help and that i couldnt afford the 12 months and this ordeal was making it a lot worse but they basically keep coming back saying that their position is they dont accept paypal cancellations and that the terms and conditions i agreed to is 12 months, and that if i refuse to pay within 6 days that they will send a debt collector and increase the fee by £50!

i did put my real email address and i think my home address had to be submitted when signing up.

i dont need the service anymore and what they provided actually wasnt that helpful so i am really not sure what to do.

if they offered 3 months i would still be upset, but it is a lot better than 12 months, but i dont know if they will as they seem to be very firm.

did you manage to speak to anyone on the phone? they keep telling me that they only accept email correspondence.

thanks for the help.

Yulter

I did not speak to anyone by phone, all by email.

Try offering them 2 months, and tell them you are prepared to pay them via a paypal invoice, £38 right now.

Apologise and tell them you really can not afford it and it was just an honest mistake and you will never be using the service again anyway as you do not need legal advice.

They kept telling me I had "so many days" before they passed it on e.t.c, it was actually the day before they passed it on that they said I could pay £59, and it was the day after I got them to lower it to £38.

At the very least I would say hold out until the last day and keep making it obvious you do not have the money to pay for a year and the service is useless to you and you will not even be using it again.

They actually had never threatened debt collectors or a fee rise however, simply that they would be taking it further to claim the full year off me.

How long have you been in touch with them?

anupadu

It has been about 2 days, but mostly yesterday since I found out it was 12 months minimum. My free trial ended on Monday 18th but i cancelled my paypal payment on 9th March.

I was emailing from my work address yesterday, which may have been a stupid mistake as they might think that unlike in your case as i am in employment that i can afford this, but it is not the case at all, it will be very hard for me to make this.

i will try emailing them again and offering 2 months and see what they say, but they seemed very firm and i am wondering if after your case they are now being very strict? i dont want to have the fee increased by another £50 or risk having debt collectors at my flat, but i dont want to give up as i feel i will not be getting anything from this and i made a mistake and am not trying to con them. This whole ordeal is very upsetting and i am kicking myself for not checking whether i needed to cancel on the site too!

Yulter

They were very very firm and strict with their responses, and with them being a legal website once I realised how much they wanted I realised I might not be able to fight it.

I got so sick of them constantly emailing me I went as far as threatening to charge them for wasting my time, they said they had not agreed to that so it did not count so I said emailing me again would constitute their agreement to pay me for my time. Pretty sure I would not have a leg to stand on with that, but I just wanted to be left alone. Not sure if that would have worked in my favour or not, probably not.

dalesrider

anupadu wrote: »

hi yulter. i am exactly in the same boat, i cancelled on paypal after a few days but didnt think to cancel on the site aswell. now they are asking for 12 months payment which i cant afford and i have pleaded with them to reduce the payment but they are not budging. can i ask how they got you down to 2 months payment? i would be able to manage that but not the full 12 months. thanks

Go back to them and say you cancelled with paypal (which is now you right under the Payment Services Directive) before the end of the trial.
As such if they want any further funds they are welcome to take you to court and you will have the backing of the FSA to fight your corner.

Tell them to do one. Any debt collector cannot force you to pay unless they take you to court and get a CCJ.
Never going ot happen.
Stand you ground and tell them. You cancelled deal with it.

anupadu

Thanks for all the advice, i'll give it a try and see what happens. hopefully they will reduce the fee to something i can manage. I feel so stupid!

anupadu

No luck so far with getting them to come down. I have tried everything, explained it was a mistake and told them i cannot pay and all they say is

Unfortunately we would not be willing to accept your offer to pay for only 2 months subscription.

Just to reiterate, you signed up for our 14 Day free trial, during which you were free to cancel at any point, by simply selecting ‘Cancel’ on the account section of your dashboard. As your account was not cancelled during the trial period, it was then rolled into a 12 month subscription, and the associated fee charged in accordance with Terms and Conditions accepted by you. We are sorry that you did not read these fully, however you did tick the box to confirm that you had read and understood them.

If you had submitted a cancellation request in accordance with the terms and conditions, through your LegalCare dashboard, your recurring payment with PayPal would have automatically been cancelled. You did not have to submit cancellation requests with both us and PayPal, only us.

We acknowledge that you are not in the best financial situation, therefore we would advise that you make payment within the next 48hours to avoid further costs being added. If you fail to make payment within this time, you will lose the right to pay in monthly instalments, and we shall be requesting the full year’s subscription immediately.

If you fail to make payment, your debt will be passed to a debt collection agency and additional administration charges of £50 will be added to the total amount outstanding.

They dont care and are not accepting anything. Yulter you may be right in saying that as you had a fake address that they offered you this deal.

Looks like i am stuffed. I even tried this PSD thing but the FSA say legalcare are not regulated by this so it wouldnt apply.

anupadu

I didnt mention that someone else had been offered a reduced payment deal, or specifically say that they would have to take me to court (although i think that is clear from emails). dont know if you think this is worth trying?