Subscription taken against instruction

Ian_Vestor

I wanted to get a document and signed up to pay £1 for it and one issue of a magazine, the form also included, inescapably, a direct debit for continuing subscription to the magazine.

I e-mailed, before the date when the DD was to be taken instructing that I did not wish to take up the offer and not to take the DD. There was no response. The DD was taken and I had to mail again, also with no response and continuing DD. I had to send a registered letter to get a response and the organisation said I should have kept the e-mails I had sent as proof of writing. I sent them via the website which did not offer the option of saving the mails. Several months worth at £10 have been taken but the organisation is only willing to refund one month as a gesture because I did not retain the e-mails.

Can anyone suggest what my next step should be (I've tried the credit card company to no avail). The irony is that the outfit concerned is the Consumers' Association who seem to be acting in very bad faith.

magpiecottage

You should go to your bank, tell it that the payments were made after you instructed the business to stop payments and ask for your money back, in accordance with FCA rule BOBS 5.1.11R(2).

Ian_Vestor

Thanks but my bank was my first port of call and they say they can only stop future payments and that I have to take up the matter with Which..

magpiecottage

I suggest you go back to your bank

Tell them your story again including that when you told them the authorisation had been withdrawn they said they could not reverse the earlier payments.

Then say "As you know, or ought to know, FSA Rule BCOBS 5.1.11R says,

(1) Where a banking customer denies having authorised a payment, it is for the firm to prove that the payment was authorised.
(2) Where a payment from a banking customer's account was not authorised by the banking customer, a firm must, within a reasonable period, refund the amount of the unauthorised payment to the banking customer and, where applicable, restore the banking customer's account to the state it would have been in had the unauthorised payment not taken place.'

You will, or should, also be aware that the Financial Conduct Authority defines a complaint as any expression of dissatisfaction, whether written or oral.

I am dissatisfied that you incorrectly told me that you could not reverse the unauthorised transactions and expect you to now deal with this matter in accordance with the Financial Conduct Authority's DISP rules."

That should wind them up a bit!