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

Yulter

Paypal as far as I am aware will not allow a company to claim funds for a cancelled subscription.

Only way they can get any money from you is via court. And before they do that they will probably hire debt collectors.

I was very bemused by the entire situation as I really can not see them spending all the money on debt collectors, staff wages, court costs, as by the end of the whole fiasco they will get about £30 if that.

I get the feeling it is all scare tactics, as if they can get even 10% of people to cave and pay then its all profit to them.

Really disgusting way to do business though.

+Deliberately making it unobvious you are signing into a 1 year contract if you stay after the free trial

+Not accepting the paypal cancellation even though they are clearly informed of it

+Not informing you by email that your trial is coming to an end obviously in hope you will forget to cancel

+Waiting till after your trial has rolled over to query your cancellation on Paypal even though they have known for a while

+ And then gouging these people who made a simple mistake for such a large sum of money.

I expect the large majority of their money comes from tricking trial customers and that is why they waste so much time chasing them up as I really can not see why anyone would pay £200 for incredibly mediocre legal advice for a year.

I have recently went back onto my account to find they have given me access again, and I actually remember why I cancelled by Paypal in the first place, I checked the site first and could not find anywhere to cancel, so I stupidly just assumed they must run the subscription purely through Paypal.

I am looking now and can not find anything about cancelling or renewing the account, the account is apparently already cancelled but you would think the section would still exist and simply inform me the account is already cancelled.

I expect the cancellation option is hidden as yet another crappy tactic to swindle more money.

I have a real distaste for companys that make money from small print and hidden terms, and simply doing their utmost to make sure you miss the important information so they can "get you",

I expect I purely got lucky because I gave a fake address, I wish I could remember if I had, since I could not see my account info I had no way to find out and did not want to risk it going further when I could buy myself out for £38 and forget about it. However I am also not sure how much information Paypal gives when you start a subscription of a free trial so even if I had given a fake address it is possible Paypal could have given them my real address since they do for normal payments.

legalcarehelp

What would your suggestion be in my case? I will post tomorrow (later today, actually) about how the situation develops. I'm now going to get some rest. Thank you for your all your info, Yulter and the others that have participated. If other people reading this have advice, please contribute.

Yulter

I really have no idea anymore, the other guy seems to have had no luck at all doing what I done.

The only difference is I was a real !!! to them for about a week basically telling them they would not see a penny, and to stop sending me emails or I would charge them for the pleasure. I argued with everything they said emailing them back on a daily basis telling them I had not used the service and my service was cut off after the free trial so what exactly are they trying to get me to pay for.

During the whole process they were stubbon as hell though, until I realised they wanted a year and not a month and offered them a deal.

I probably would not have been such an !!! if I had realised they wanted £200, I only was because I thought it was hilarious they would threaten court and debt collectors over £19 when it would cost them more to do that.

I was surprised they were decent enough to let me off the hook after all the crap I had given them for a week.

They did however say it was exceptional circumstances, and I assume they are not going to just do it for everybody.

My best advice is probably be humble and play to their human side, explain how it was a mistake, explain if you had known you would have done it the right way, explain why you can not afford it. In my last email to get them down to 2 months I told them I would have to borrow money to pay the full 3 months but I could pay them 2 right now on the spot.

They could have been ruthless and said no, 3 months, go and borrow the money, but they didn't, so I assume they have got some heart, however small.

Make something up if you have to, I would avoid saying the same as me however as they will see through that.

dalesrider

anupadu wrote: »

i spoke to the fsa who said that legalcare are not regulated by them and that they are not covered by the psd regulations. i think your point is not valid and i dont think any of us want to go to court. easier to suggest that when your not the one being chased!

I take it you are refering to my post. (would help if you quoted)

Well the FSA have implemented PSD in the UK. Part of that is YOUR right to cancel a CPA via your money movement company.

So they are saying with one hand to the banks. THey have to cancel the payments on a customers instruction.
Then on the other they are not supporting people when they use these rights they have provided when they need their support because a retailer does not like this decision.

No wonder they are being kicked out soon :rotfl:

This whole side of PSD is a joke and something that has been talked about a lot at work.
That in effect FSA are saying that any T/C mean nothing.
So it needs cases to go to court to get a ruling on PSD and how it effects T/C.

Yes. It easy for me to say as it's not me. But I would be prepared to let a co take me to get a ruling if I was in that situation.

The company are using nothing but bully boy tatics and have introduced UNFAIR T/C on the cancellation process.

Even if they did take the person to court it could be paid before to avoid a CCJ.
NOT that it would ever get that far.

legalcarehelp

dalesrider wrote: »

I take it you are refering to my post. (would help if you quoted)

Well the FSA have implemented PSD in the UK. Part of that is YOUR right to cancel a CPA via your money movement company.

So they are saying with one hand to the banks. THey have to cancel the payments on a customers instruction.
Then on the other they are not supporting people when they use these rights they have provided when they need their support because a retailer does not like this decision.

No wonder they are being kicked out soon :rotfl:

This whole side of PSD is a joke and something that has been talked about a lot at work.
That in effect FSA are saying that any T/C mean nothing.
So it needs cases to go to court to get a ruling on PSD and how it effects T/C.

Yes. It easy for me to say as it's not me. But I would be prepared to let a co take me to get a ruling if I was in that situation.

The company are using nothing but bully boy tatics and have introduced UNFAIR T/C on the cancellation process.

Even if they did take the person to court it could be paid before to avoid a CCJ.
NOT that it would ever get that far.

I've been reading here: whatconsumer.co.uk/unfair-contract-terms/ and the fact that I cannot cancel the contract seems to be an unfair term. That website also says that a term cannot be unfair if I've individually negotiated it with the trader (LegalCare). Would I still have a chance in court, since I agreed with that stupid trial's T&C? I am not familiar with the terminology used above, can you please explain in simpler terms what you described above?
In case of going to court (CCJ), would I need to pay court fees ?
Thanks.

wealdroam

dalesrider wrote: »

Well the FSA have implemented PSD in the UK. Part of that is YOUR right to cancel a CPA via your money movement company.

And I do not think anyone, including LegalCare if they've got any sense, are disputing that.

Yes, one has the right to cancel a CPA via the bank, or paypal in this case.

And yes it appears that paypal have advised LegalCare that the payments have stopped.

What LegalCare seem to be saying is that "we do not accept cancellation of our contract via paypal".

Cancellation of the ongoing subscription contract and cancellation of the method of payment for that subscription are two separate things.

So in summary:

• paypal have accepted cancellation of the CPA as they are required to do under PSD
• paypal have notified LegalCare that the CPA has been cancelled
• LegalCare have not received cancellation of the subscription service from the customer
• LegalCare have no interest in the PSD simply because they are not a 'money movement company'

legalcarehelp

wealdroam wrote: »

What LegalCare seem to be saying is that "we do not accept cancellation of our contract via paypal".

That is correct, it is written in some T&C that you can read after you log in the website, not on their main pages.

The T&Cs also mention that because I have full access to their service after the trial, there is no "cooling-off period", therefore I am not allowed to cancel the contract. In fact, I didn't have full access after the trial; I need(ed) to resubmit my payment via Paypal from their dashboard.
Their platform is of a very low quality: after I log in, I only get the "pay via PayPal" buttons, nothing else.

What is your advice on this issue, wealdroam? I do not have the money to pay them...

wealdroam

legalcarehelp wrote: »

What is your advice on this issue, wealdroam? I do not have the money to pay them...

Sorry, but the only suggestion I can make is that you speak to a local solicitor.

Many will offer a free half hour consultation.

It appears, to me, that you have not cancelled the subscription, just the method of funding it.

Eversir

Sadly I'm also in the same situation! I cancelled via PayPal hours after joining after realising the service provided by LegalCare was terrible.

Anyway, now they are chasing me for payment. I'm not backing down - they won't be getting a penny from me. Quite happy for it to go to court, but I doubt very much they'll bother.

Hold your ground people! Don't be bullied!

Danie1le

I am in the same boat, has anybody had any further success with these?

I have been exchanging e-mails over the past couple of days with LegalCares customer services and I have never known the customer services from any company to be so rude and threatening.

Judging by some of the replies in this thread, it seems that there responses are simply copied and pasted and they are not treating each customer individually.

I cancelled my trial on the same day that I registered for it, there was no option to do this on the LegalCare website so I cancelled the PayPal payments and that was that. Then this week - 9 days after my trial was supposed to end, I received an e-mail from them saying I was a full subscriber and threatening legal action. Stupidly I agreed to pay the first £19 to try and diffuse the situation, but I told them to cancel my account as I had not agreed to this.

After a few further e-mails yesterday they threatened me with legal action for my 'continued failure to pay' even though I had already paid the first instalment of £19.

I did read the terms and conditions on their website when I first found it, I wanted to make sure I wasn't going to be tricked into anything and the terms and conditions on their website make no mention whatsoever of any legally binding contractual commitments.

I think the fact that they have two separate sets of Terms & Conditions absolutely stinks. A lot of vulnerable people seek out their services, and the contract terms should have been made clear on the website.

In my last e-mail I sent to them this morning I said "Just to reiterate, I have NOT and would never have agreed to enter into a legally binding contractual relationship with LegalCare. These are NOT the Terms & Conditions I read and understood. I have now cancelled my payments and you will not be receiving a further penny from me. I consider my account with LegalCare to be closed and ask that you do not contact me again regarding this matter. I trust that my position is clear", I haven't had a responce to that yet.

They have refused to give me a contact telephone number and they have refused to give me the name of their manager or supervisor so I have written a letter of complaint addressed to their CEO Paul Careless. I have also e-mailed the CAB to see what they make of it.