Stung by Tastecard Autorenewal

Fromply

My Tastecard has auto renewed. I'm really annoyed by it as I had no intention of renewing. I'm annoyed with myself for failing to be better organised and I'm annoyed with them for the way they go about it.

I contacted them the same day as the autorenewal went through. They've made it clear that there's nothing I can do about it and they're intransigent on this point.

I've gone back to the original purchase confirmation 15 months ago and they stated "Full details of your membership renewal and how to cancel your membership will be available in your renewal reminder email which will be sent prior to your billing date". I received no "renewal reminder email" from them. If I had of done, I would have cancelled. I've double checked my spam folder and there's nothing in there. I genuinely don't believe they are sending out "renewal reminder emails" at the moment and are just auto renewing people.
I'd be interested to hear from anyone else who has auto renewed with Tastecard in the last month or so (whether willingly or unwillingly) whether they have received the promised "renewal reminder email" in advance of payment being taken?

Anything I can do? The payment was with PayPal and I've gone through their disputes page and it looks like Paypal are not interested as I authorised the payment 15 months ago.

DoaM

If they're in breach of contract (i.e. haven't provided a renewal email) then send them a Letter Before Claim for the refund of the renewal (and cancellation of the agreement). Give them a minimum of 14 days after receipt of the LBC in which to confirm that they will pay the refund, and a further 14 days in which to do so, otherwise you reserve the right to raise a court claim via MCOL without further recourse to them at which point they may become liable for your claim fees and expenses should you win.

The above assumes that they are a company operating under English law and you have a registered address to which to send the LBC, and also assumes that the renewal amount is significant - if it is for a small amount (£25 or less) then the judge may award you the claim but deny you your expenses due to abuse of the court process - ruling on the basis of de minimis (a negligible claim that is a waste of the court's time).

Spank

I take it you checked your spam folder to see if the email is there?

DoaM

I take it you skim-read the OP?

shaun_from_Africa

Fromply said:

I've gone back to the original purchase confirmation 15 months ago and they stated "Full details of your membership renewal and how to cancel your membership will be available in your renewal reminder email which will be sent prior to your billing date". 

15 months is a strange amount of time for a membership period.
Was this a 3 month free trial followed by a paid for annual subscription?
If so, the comment I've shown above may simply be referring to a reminder sent out prior to the trial expiring and not that an e-mail gets sent out annually.

Spank

DoaM said:

I take it you skim-read the OP?

I might have been watching the F1 free practice when I read/posted, oops

mattyprice4004

I received a renewal reminder, but only on my GMail account - a friend of mine uses Hotmail and they didn't get theirs. 
Hotmail seem to be far more 'spam unfriendly'! 

It's worthy of note that most junk / spam folders are auto-emptied after a week or so. 

All you can do is put it down to your own mistake, and perhaps keep a Word document like I do with all renewal dates listed - it's made my life a lot easier. 

Fromply

@mattyprice4004 Yes, I am on gmail as well. Do you recall how far in advance of renewal you received your reminder? Was it relatively recently (my working theory is that they're getting a lot of cancellations because of the lockdown, so not sending reminders might be a relatively recent thing to slow down the cancelations)

@shaun_from_africa Actually just looking back now - it was a 12 month contract, but in April this year they gave a 2 month extension. The email on 3rd April said that the renewal date would be 2 July. I wonder if they count that as the renewal reminder? (3 months before renewal). Here's the full segment from their email in April 2019 "tastecard is an ongoing subscription service and will automatically renew on the expiry date shown on your tastecard for an annual fee of £34.99. Your membership will continue to renew towards the end of each subsequent term until it is cancelled in accordance with our Terms and Conditions. Full details of your membership renewal and how to cancel your membership will be available in your renewal reminder email which will be sent prior to your billing date. You must therefore let us know if any of your contact details, including your email address change. "

@DoaM It is for £34.99 - probably not quite enough for me to threaten litigation.

Fromply

Ok, fair play to Tastecard. I confess I'd given up and so wasn't expecting this email that just arrived:
"Thank you for your recent email.

Having looked into this further I can see we did not send you reminder for your newly extended renewal date. Because of this I can of course refund the recent payment of £34.99 back to you.

Please do allow up to 3-5 working days for this to go back into your account and please do accept my apologies for any inconvenience that may have been caused.
If I can help you with anything else please do get back in touch."

spectresfound

Trying very hard to reclaim my fee as well.  Any advice, as I've hit a break wall from tastecard.  Trying to make claim through PayPal at the moment, but won't hold my breath.  CC would be my next option.

spectresfound

Anyone else been caught out by Tastecard, auto renew, while in Lockdown?