Tastecard Membership - Renewal

smith8867

So I purchased the £1 trial of the Tastecard service. I didn't hear from them for a whilst and then I got an email saying they took £39.99 from my bank account at 5am. So I called the same day at around 4pm and the guy Jake basically told me tough you're not getting a refund.

Anyway, so I have been back and forward with tastecard and the bank and I'm not getting anywhere on getting my money back.

I have been looking at their terms of service and various consumer rights articles and I am wondering about the "Cooling off Period".

Their Terms and Conditions of Membership state:
"Digital memberships - If you cancel your membership within the cooling off period, you will be entitled to a refund of your membership, less a pro-rata charge for the period of cover. Subject to any other statutory rights you may have, we do not provide refunds for any cancellations after the expiry of the cooling off period."

Since the Trail Membership isn't the actual full membership, does this count as two different "contracts" so to speak. Therefore, wouldn't my call to cancel and get a refund be valid?

I know its a long shot, just curious to know what the situation is with it. The company have been appauling in the way they have dealt with me. Used the service on the trail period once and I will never use it again.

Any other ideas on how I can get the money back?

wealdroam

smith8867 wrote: »

So I purchased the £1 trial of the Tastecard service. I didn't hear from them for a whilst and then I got an email saying they took £39.99 from my bank account at 5am. So I called the same day at around 4pm and the guy Jake basically told me tough you're not getting a refund.

Anyway, so I have been back and forward with tastecard and the bank and I'm not getting anywhere on getting my money back.

I have been looking at their terms of service and various consumer rights articles and I am wondering about the "Cooling off Period".

Their Terms and Conditions of Membership state:
"Digital memberships - If you cancel your membership within the cooling off period, you will be entitled to a refund of your membership, less a pro-rata charge for the period of cover. Subject to any other statutory rights you may have, we do not provide refunds for any cancellations after the expiry of the cooling off period."

Since the Trail Membership isn't the actual full membership, does this count as two different "contracts" so to speak. Therefore, wouldn't my call to cancel and get a refund be valid?

I know its a long shot, just curious to know what the situation is with it. The company have been appauling in the way they have dealt with me. Used the service on the trail period once and I will never use it again.

Any other ideas on how I can get the money back?

You appear to have quoted paragraph 6.3(i) from their T&Cs.

You are being too selective.
Section 6, headed Consumer Rights, includes 6.1 and 6.2 as well as 6.3.

Paragraph 6.1 starts:

You have the right to cancel your initial registration of membership with us within 14 days of your original purchase. This does not apply to subsequent renewals.

I am not sure how you have decided that "the Trail(sic) Membership isn't the actual full membership", but my interpretation is that the one month trial membership is renewed, and therefore is not a separate contract.
From that it follows that you do not have a second fourteen day period in which to cancel.

Edited to add:
You might find this MSE News Item interesting:

Tastecard members stung by £40 fee after auto-renewal – don't be caught out

Although over a year old, and some of Tastecard's T&Cs have changed during that time, clearly MSE did not find anything illegal in Tastecard's operations.

dj1471

Why do you think you have the right to cancel?

It's the same contract, so the cooling off period starts when you pay your £1. I've had one of these myself and it couldn't have been clearer that it would auto-renew and I don't recall cancellation being difficult.

Geoff1963

I think there are a lot of services with a free period, which then becomes chargeable ; but they won't necessarily have the applicant's bank details.
In the case of free or cheap introductory offers, the business should be using that as a loss-leader to convince the customer that they want the service ; rather than as a means to obtain payment for a service they don't want.

As with the ratio of normal / penalty charges for parking ; I'd like to know what proportion of customers do sign up vs. those who inadvertently don't cancel. Any business model which relies on dodgy dealings, can't be right.

powerful_Rogue

It's not as if they hide the fact - and then on the following pages it highlights the annual fee when signing up for the trial.

powerful_Rogue

Geoff1963 wrote: »

I think there are a lot of services with a free period, which then becomes chargeable ; but they won't necessarily have the applicant's bank details.
In the case of free or cheap introductory offers, the business should be using that as a loss-leader to convince the customer that they want the service ; rather than as a means to obtain payment for a service they don't want.

As with the ratio of normal / penalty charges for parking ; I'd like to know what proportion of customers do sign up vs. those who inadvertently don't cancel. Any business model which relies on dodgy dealings, can't be right.

Or the customer could just read what they are signing upto.

I also think it harsh to call it dodgy when the company such as tastecard make it perfectly clear.

smith8867

I understand what you guys are saying. The thing that annoyed me most was that I signed up used it once, then I forgot all about it until they sent me the email saying it had been renewed. Nothing to remind me of the payment or updates from them etc. I understand its mainly my fault for not realising, however it just annoyed me how the payment was took without reminding me.

Thing is, I don't know much about consumer rights etc hence why I'm here. From what I understood I figured you were entitled to cancel/ request a refund 14 days from payment being took.

Geoff1963

Any business model which relies on dodgy dealings, can't be right.

If a business stays in business, by people inadvertently paying for a service they don't want, that would be dodgy.
If only a very small percentage of people cancel, the company could either refund those who forgot, or send a courtesy reminder to all applicants, saying, "Hope you are so pleased with our service, that although your free trial ends tomorrow, you are happy to stay with us". To refuse a refund, suggests that they make significant income from it ; like the car parking which is free for N minutes, then becomes £100, which we all criticise.

I wonder if a company would accept a letter on the day after starting the free trial, saying something like, "I wish to cancel my membership with effect from the last day of my free trial. However, if in the next month your service proves to be good enough, then I will contact you to revoke my pre-arranged cancellation ; and you can take the first payment".
I'm guessing this company wouldn't accept that ; although a company which is confident of their service, would.

hpuse

Smith,
Welcome to MSE.
In these forums, you will hear a lot of 'T&C preachings' and 'blames' for not reading it with glasses on. So relax, and take it easy.

Firstly, it is not your 'fault' forgetting to cancel.
Secondly, as consumer you have the rights to cancel a service if you think payment taken from your bank/credit card is not deriving its intented value.

Fosterdog

hpuse wrote: »

Smith,
Welcome to MSE.
In these forums, you will hear a lot of 'T&C preachings' and 'blames' for not reading it with glasses on. So relax, and take it easy.

Firstly, it is not your 'fault' forgetting to cancel.
Secondly, as consumer you have the rights to cancel a service if you think payment taken from your bank/credit card is not deriving its intented value.

I disagree it is OPs Fault, who else's would it be? Forgetting is not a valid excuse.
Or if you think it is, is it also a valid excuse to forget an appointment? Or to not get your cars MOT done in time (unless you have a regular garage that does text reminders)? How about forgetting to turn up for a shift in work and subsequently not getting paid?
Everyone is responsible for their own lives and their own time management, if you don't have a good enough memory to remember things like these then use a calendar or diary. It's really very simple, part of being an adult is managing your own life and taking responsibility. It's not as though they have been sneaky and taking details without explaining how it works, nor did they have it hidden in small print in pages of t&cs, it is made plain and clear on their sign up page.

As for the card not "deriving" it's intended value, it's not the value that you want to get from it that matters but the value they advertise. The only reason OP won't get the advertised value is if they choose to not use it. That is not tastecards fault.

That's like buying a vacuum cleaner to mow your lawn then claiming it's not fit for purpose.

OP just take it on the chin and be glad that it is only £40, read things you sign up for more carefully in the future because it could cost you a lot more in the long run. You never know you may end up using it again, if there are not many places you can use it where you live maybe if you go away at all there will be somewhere it can be used.

The-Truth

hpuse wrote: »

Secondly, as consumer you have the rights to cancel a service if you think payment taken from your bank/credit card is not deriving its intented value.

Why have you not listed exact details for the op to pursue? Because anyone could write this but the op has no idea then what to actually do.