Termination of subscription to Match.com

Confusedandangry

Hi,

I was wondering if any of you could help me, or if anyone else out there has had the same problem.

I signed up to Match.com and Datingdirectaffinity in February with a 3 month subscription to each. After a while I decided to cancel the Affinity one, as it wasn't really doing anything for me. More recently, I cancelled my subscription to Match. I was fully aware that both subscriptions auto-renew, and so took care to cancel them both.

Imagine my surprise then, when I found out that they have both charged me for another 3 months! This is quite a lot of money, which I can't afford at the moment. If I had simply forgotten then maybe I would be content to write it off as my own bad judgment. But as I am sure that I cancelled them both I am incensed.

I have written to both sites, which told me that they have no record of me cancelling. The things is, I know that I cancelled! I am feeling a bit suspicious about their methods - for instance, when I (re)cancelled my Match subscription yesterday, I clicked on the "cancel my membership" button, and then was asked to review the service, which I did. During that process I was asked at least once more whether I was sure that I wanted to cancel (I was!). This has made me wonder whether my first attempt at cancellation failed because I didn't got through the whole review the service bit afterwards. It would seem a little unfair if, after clearly communicating my wish to cancel, I was still charged.

I have been wondering whether it would do any good to submit a freedom of information request to both companies, to challenge their assertion that I did not cancel my subscription. Would this do any good? Does anyone else have any other ideas?

Thank you in advance for your help.

Yate918

I was hit with subscription charges of £120 in May after I cancelled my subscription in Jan 13. Usual thing from their customer "help" line & wouldn't put me through to a Supervisor.

Contacted Citizens Advice who were brilliant... Told me that MA broke the terms of the contract & I could send MA a letter of complaint OR contact my bank & complain about the transaction under something called "Chargeback".

Called bank & discussed my complaint with MA & they agreed to get my money back within 24hrs as they agreed that MA had breached the terms of the contract. They also said they would monitor my account for the next few weeks to see if MA tried to take the money again & would block it if they do.

Just have to wait 24hrs now...but I'm a happy Chap.

battleborn

A/S/L ??

:p:p:p:p:p

bod1467

battleborn wrote: »

A/S/L ??

:p:p:p:p:p

What? How is that post in any way helpful to anyone?

antrobus

Confusedandangry wrote: »

....I have been wondering whether it would do any good to submit a freedom of information request to both companies, to challenge their assertion that I did not cancel my subscription. Would this do any good? Does anyone else have any other ideas?....

None whatsoever. The Freedom of Information Act only applies to public bodies. The Data Protection Act would be of more use, as in a Subject Access Request (cost £10).

bod1467 wrote: »

What? How is that post in any way helpful to anyone?

I suspect it was meant to be a joke.

prowla

antrobus wrote: »

I suspect it was meant to be a joke.

Don't even know what it meant...

bod1467

prowla wrote: »

Don't even know what it meant...

Me neither - hence my post.

Blackbeard_of_Perranporth

prowla wrote: »

Don't even know what it meant...

bod1467 wrote: »

Me neither - hence my post.

Chat room talk. Asking for age sex and location

zzzLazyDaisy

Apologies if I am stating the obvious, but there is a difference between cancelling your membership and cancelling the subscription (I think they deliberately make the two sound the same to confuse).

To cancel the subscription you have to cancel the auto-renew. Just cancelling your membership simply deletes your account - then you really are in difficulties because you can't get back onto your profile to cancel the auto-renew.

nutbolt

Yate918 wrote: »

I was hit with subscription charges of £120 in May after I cancelled my subscription in Jan 13. Usual thing from their customer "help" line & wouldn't put me through to a Supervisor.

Contacted Citizens Advice who were brilliant... Told me that MA broke the terms of the contract & I could send MA a letter of complaint OR contact my bank & complain about the transaction under something called "Chargeback".

Called bank & discussed my complaint with MA & they agreed to get my money back within 24hrs as they agreed that MA had breached the terms of the contract. They also said they would monitor my account for the next few weeks to see if MA tried to take the money again & would block it if they do.

Just have to wait 24hrs now...but I'm a happy Chap.

I read your post and skipped the CA and rang my bank. 2 days later received a credit in my bank for a years subscription. (don't know why I originally paid up for a year!!)

Thanks for sharing the info. I thought I was going to have a major headache with it.