Gourmet Society cancellation help

linzowillo

Hi all, a friend of mine signed up for a Gourmet card back in October for £1 and has since forgotten to cancel it and has today had £39.99 taken out of their PayPal account. PayPal cannot help unless she files a dispute and they advised to contact Gourmet herself in the first instance.

Can anyone help her with what to say when she calls them?

She is currently in a dire financial situation and is subject to a DRO (debt relief order) and cannot afford to lose this money.

Apologies if this thread is in the wrong place.

MEM62

There is no dispute as she admits that she forgot to cancel the card. Therefore PayPal are unlikely to entertain a complaint or claim. I believe that the only recourse she has is to explain her circumstances to the card issuer and see if they will do anything for her as a gesture of goodwill.

MrsTinks

I think in all honesty she is unlikely to get anywhere with this. Gourmet Card are very explicit in their terms and conditions unless she can prove they didn't honour her cancellation then I doubt they will refund anything. They would have set her reminders to tell her she would be auto renewing on x date.

11.b Renewed membership: If you do not wish to renew your membership you should telephone us on 0800 043 1978 or email us on info@gourmetsociety.co.uk, to obtain a cancellation reference, no later than 5pm on the working day preceding your current membership term ends. You must retain the cancellation reference as proof of cancellation. No refunds can be issued for any remaining membership term after payment has been taken for renewed memberships.

ReadingTim

It's probably worth also noting that a lot of these organisations make their money from people forgetting to cancel auto-renewed memberships, so don't expect they'll give way easily - she's going to have to try the "goodwill gesture" bit by tugging on their heartstrings about being on a DRO and this putting her in severe hardship.

At the end of the day however, they're only doing exactly what they said they'd do, and what she agreed they could do.