ZAVVi ZBOX - Subscription and Refund Issues

Feeder16

Hi,

I'm having mega problems with ZAVVI (THE HUT GROUP).

I signed up for the one month rolling subscription, after the first box I decided to cancel it (beginning of November), I noticed mid November that it was still active so emailed them again. Both times they replied saying it was cancelled.

On 02/12/15 I noticed they had taken the money out of my account. I have emailed them requesting it is cancelled and that they refund me, they replied saying they would cancel it and ignored my refund request. I have sent a further email but they are very slow at responding.

They don't have a customer services phone number to ring and based on the email responses its not going to be easy getting a refund.

Rang the bank and I have to make 'reasonable' efforts to get a refund before they will investigate. According to TESCO Bank I 'Authorised' the amount, when actually I clearly didn't authorise them to take anything.

Any advice appreciated

naedanger

Feeder16 wrote: »

Hi,

I'm having mega problems with ZAVVI (THE HUT GROUP).

I signed up for the one month rolling subscription, after the first box I decided to cancel it (beginning of November), I noticed mid November that it was still active so emailed them again. Both times they replied saying it was cancelled.

On 02/12/15 I noticed they had taken the money out of my account. I have emailed them requesting it is cancelled and that they refund me, they replied saying they would cancel it and ignored my refund request. I have sent a further email but they are very slow at responding.

They don't have a customer services phone number to ring and based on the email responses its not going to be easy getting a refund.

Rang the bank and I have to make 'reasonable' efforts to get a refund before they will investigate. According to TESCO Bank I 'Authorised' the amount, when actually I clearly didn't authorise them to take anything.

Any advice appreciated

Are you paying by direct debit? The rest of this post is based on the assumption you did.

If so be sure and cancel your dd authorisation with your bank and email Zavvi to let them know you have done so.

Then go back to Tesco and tell them you wish to make a claim under the Direct Debit Guarantee for the amount taken out of your account on 2/12/15. If they say the amount was authorised then show them the email exchange showing that you cancelled your subscription prior to that date. If they insist on saying the amount was authorised (without any evidence for saying this), or if they insist you "have to make 'reasonable' efforts to get a refund", then tell them you are complaining formally that they are not honouring their guarantee, and that you will take your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman if necessary. Then be sure to confirm your complaint to your bank in writing e.g. by email.

Feeder16

Its not a direct debit, they are literally using my card details on record to take the money.

naedanger

Feeder16 wrote: »

Its not a direct debit, they are literally using my card details on record to take the money.

I am not so sure in that case.

However I suggest you still go back to your bank and explain that you had withdrawn your authorisation (show them the email exchange if necessary) and that you had tried to resolve the matter yourself but that Zavvi were not responding in a reasonable timescale.

Ask the bank to explain what more you need to do to stop someone taking money from your account without authority. If you are unhappy with their response, e.g. if they will not investigate, then follow up with a formal complaint.

Feeder16

Cheers for the Help Naedanger, going to give them a few more days to see if they come up with a solution but given the amount of people on twitter with similar problems, not looking likely.

At least I can go to Tesco and say "I've given a week and they aren't assisting"

LilElvis

Did you follow the company's procedure to cancel the subscription?

Feeder16

LilElvis wrote: »

Did you follow the company's procedure to cancel the subscription?

Yep! they only allow you to cancel it through contacting them. No easy button / phone option.

One poor bloke on Twitter was telling me he's been charged the last three months and they've sent him the subscription boxes. He's sent them back at his cost and they still haven't refunded him!

KingdomOfHam

I'm in the exact same situation. I had a rolling month subscription, requested a cancellation, seemed straightforward enough, proceeded to buy just a 3 month one, found out my rolling month one wasn't cancelled, returned the items and received no refund. E-mailed them every time, still got nothing. :mad:

Stevemanics

I'm having a similar issue. In September I took advantage of a 2 for £30 offer to get the September Z Box and pre-order the October one on a one-month subscription - paid for on credit card.

In mid-October I checked my account to cancel the subscription but it said I hadn't got any active.

In early November I received another Z Box so I checked my account again and now there was a subscription showing. Checked my credit card and I'd been charged again. Contacted Zavvi and they refused a refund and claimed that the subscription would have been showing, but said they would cancel any future Z Boxes. That same day I got an email thanking me for subscribing!?

I sent them another message pointing out that my account had specifically said I hadn't got any active subscriptions, telling them about the email I'd had that day thanking me for subscribing, and threatening to report them if they didn't give me a refund. They apologised, again said they'd cancelled it, and sent me a return form to send the extra Z Box back for a refund.

On 10/11 I returned the item. On 19/11 they finally confirmed receipt of it and said I would be contacted soon about the refund. Not that I would be refunded soon, that I would be contacted soon about it.

Today I find that not only have I still not been refunded, they've actually charged me again for another one last week, which I didn't even receive this time! (My account still says I have no active subscriptions.) So now I've paid for two Z Boxes that I didn't order, one of which was returned four weeks ago and the other of which I've never even received, and I'm being charged interest on both.

b33r

I'm in the same position and we're not alone: Fans furious at Zavvi's ZBOX subscription service

This was my exchange (for cancelling) from the 6th November:

Hi,
Please can you cancel my subscription to the future boxes (Subscription number XXXXX).
Regards

One of our customer services advisors has reviewed your query and we are able to confirm the following:

Hello,
Thank you for getting in touch about your query.
I have now requested this to be cancelled for you.
If there is anything else that we can do, then please do not hesitate to get in touch and a member of our team will be happy to help.
Kind regards,
Dan
Zavvi.com Customer Service Team

And then their reply this morning to my query on friday:

Hi, on the 6th November I received confirmation from 'Dan' in customer service that my subscription (XXXXX) had been cancelled.
I can see you have charged my credit card a further £19.99 and are planning to send the next box. Please refund this amount immediately and cancel this subscription and any recurring subscription payments you have set up. This is bordering on theft and if this is not resolved promptly I will issue a chargeback through my credit card company and send an invoice for my time.
Kind Regards

One of our customer services advisors has reviewed your query and we are able to confirm the following:

Hello,
Thank you for getting in touch about your subscription.
I am sorry to say that your subscription has not been cancelled as of yet. There have been some delays in the process but I can assure you it will be cancelled as soon as possible.
I am very sorry for any inconvenience caused and understand this must be very frustrating.
If there is anything else that we can do, then please do not hesitate to get in touch and a member of our team will be happy to help.
Kind regards,
Harry
Zavvi.com Customer Service Team

I actually proper laughed at that reply, the level of incompetence is amazing!

Anyway I've just sent them this:

Hi,
Your reply to my previous query from 'Harry' was simply not acceptable.
I cancelled this subscription at the beginning of November and have confirmation from 'Dan' saying it was done.
It has now been over a month so to claim there was a delay is unacceptable.
The reply from Harry didn't confirm I would be receiving a refund or that the subscription would now be cancelled.
So, this is the final chance, please refund the 19.99 you have charged me for Decembers box, cancel the subscription and send me confirmation you have done both these things. If this is not done by Wednesday of this week (09/12/15) I will ring my credit card company and ask for a chargeback for the amount.
Regards

And they've replied with another totally unhelpful answer, no confirmation of refund, no confirmation they have actually cancelled and a set of instructions that aren't possible as the next box doesn't appear in outstanding orders, only in the subscriptions section where there is no cancel button:

Hello
Thank you for getting in touch about cancelling order.
I am sorry to hear that you want to cancel this. We will request this straight away and then send you an email to let you know if it has been successful.
Did you know you can try to cancel an order yourself online?
- Simply log on to your online account.
- View your outstanding orders.
- Click on the cancel button.
- You will have the choice to cancel the entire order or just part of the order.
Please note that if the order has already entered our warehouse for processing then the cancellation request might not be successful.
If a charge has been taken for the order, then a refund will be requested upon cancellation and the money returned to your account within 3-5 working days.
If there is anything else that we can do, then please do not hesitate to get in touch and a member of our team will be happy to help.
Kind regards,
Dominic

Well they've got until end of today to send me the email confirming cancellation then I'll do a chargeback!

As an earlier poster pointed out, they are using my previous credit card details to do this. They are are bunch of bl**dy incompetent thieves.

Generic13

I have been posting this all over Facebook tonight, I will post it here as an example of my experience in this very topic...

A bit of a public service announcement, which is a cautionary tale for you guys as consumers.

Zavvi need to be avoided at all costs. Initially I was singing their praises after getting a decent Zbox from them... This however pails into comparison with regards to the TERRIBLE customer service experience I received.

First note this. They have no contact number. AT ALL. Everything you do has to be through their online support messaging service, whereby you post them a message and then wait 2 days before you even get acknowledged.

And now to my recent incident. I had cancelled the box because I only intended to get the one, but then the next box was advertised and I liked the sound of the theme. I placed a new order, and two days later without any warning the same box I already had arrived. So I pointed out I subscribed for the advertised box, the next one... To which they brushed me off with a 'read our terms and conditions, if we have any of the current box left we send them out'. They also say in the ts and cs that they send a dispatch email BEFORE the box is sent out, something they conveniently ignored here...

So after several back and forth messages, in which I said they need to cancel my subscription if they won't do anything about this false advertising, they said they would investigate... And then went quiet for several days.
When I chase them up about it they say they will give me a return address but I will have to pay shipping costs back to them, oh and they have taken the next payment for the January box which would be with me shortly...

The !!!!!!!s waited long enough to take more of my money, and smugly then claimed I can get refunds for both if I ship the boxes back to them. When I complained about the ethics of their actions they mocked me with a 'we will await the correspondence from trading standards'.

The company is plain and simply a bunch of thieves and !!!!!!!s. And I will be endeavouring to tell as many places as possible to not use them after one of the worst customer service experiences I have ever had the misfortune of handling (with regards to a supposedly established company).

Thanks for reading.