Does this have to be paid?

pennyp1ncher

Good evening,

I've no idea if I'm in the right place for this, but I am looking for some advice.

My friend recently has had a really bad time with her mental health. She was signed off work before Christmas and has started some anti anxiety meds and antidepressants. Just after getting signed off she had been interacting with a blog of someone who works as a sober pen pal. After this she was selected to receive a free week, which then resulted in her ending up signing up to the full programme, costing $575, which is for 50 podcasts (priced at $5 each), 1 phonecall (valued at $75) and a year of daily emailing (1 reply per day max).

My friend signed up for this when she was in a really really bad place. Getting used to medication and severely depressed, with lots of periods of memory lapses.

As she's starting to feel better she's really regretted signing up for this service. The reply emails are a paragraph long and don't really fully "reply" to the messages sent. She wrote to her and said she would like to cancel. She's so far paid $200 and received half of the podcasts and had a few emails. Hasn't had the phonecall yet, but was told she can cancel but will still have to send the rest of the money.

The quality of the replies suggest she has hundreds of pen pals and there is no personal touch. Is anyone able to advise if there could be any adverse credit repercussions from simply canceling this through PayPal? She has obviously "signed up" to this, but the service is really not as expected, as well as my friend being in a vulnerable state when she agreed.

Many thanks if you read this far!!

[Deleted User]

Are you in the USA?

pennyp1ncher

Thanks for taking the time to read and reply! No, my friend is in the UK, the site is USA.

System

If she doesn't pay the chances of anything happening are remote to none.

pennyp1ncher

Thanks for that, and that was my gut feeling, but I was hesitant to push this if there could be any backlash and cause her further anxiety.

All the terms and conditions that were sent to her were when she was accessing the free week, and the "cooling off period" she gives amounts to one day (she says you can't cancel after you receive the second lesson, and she sends one per day for the first 7 days.) however my friend received those as part of a free week, so it sort of cancels those terms.

System

If it were a company in the EU then there is a stronger possibility of something happening due to the agreements between various EU nations but not between the UK/EU and USA where there are none.

pennyp1ncher

Apparently the woman does live in France, but the company details/address on the website etc is American.