Dating subscription farce

Tony_Lees

hi there. I decided to join a dating app - it was 0.99 for one day. It was evident it was a load of rubbish so didn’t pursue it. Anyway I noticed on my online banking a charge of 34.99 came out for a company called ‘Interdate SA’ so I contacted my bank said it wasn’t valid so they charged it back. This happened a couple of times until the bank somehow stopped this happening again. Kept checking my online banking at it seemed to stop. Yesterday through the post I received a letter from a German Debt Recovery saying o owed them 85EUR. I was totally bewildered - anyway I wrote them a strongly worded email explaining this was a farce from the start. Admittedly I may not have read any small print but to go from debiting my account - not receiving an invoice or reminder by email, post or text - to go straight to a debt recovery company surely has to be illegal - doesn’t it?

[Deleted User]

Tony_Lees said:

Admittedly I may not have read any small print but to go from debiting my account - not receiving an invoice or reminder by email, post or text - to go straight to a debt recovery company surely has to be illegal - doesn’t it?

No. A debt can be collected by anyone the creditor authorises to do so.

Focus instead on what you signed up to and go from there. And make sure that you have cancelled the subscription, rather than just ignoring it. The higher the sum, the more likely they'll seek to enforce the debt.

pbartlett

As above really - you are still subscribed at 34.99 a month so your first job is to logon to the site and cancel. 

Unless, of course, the t&c you agreed to was for a minimum term of a year or something like that.

Sandtree

Tony_Lees said:

hi there. I decided to join a dating app - it was 0.99 for one day. It was evident it was a load of rubbish so didn’t pursue it. Anyway I noticed on my online banking a charge of 34.99 came out for a company called ‘Interdate SA’ so I contacted my bank said it wasn’t valid so they charged it back. This happened a couple of times until the bank somehow stopped this happening again. Kept checking my online banking at it seemed to stop. Yesterday through the post I received a letter from a German Debt Recovery saying o owed them 85EUR. I was totally bewildered - anyway I wrote them a strongly worded email explaining this was a farce from the start. Admittedly I may not have read any small print but to go from debiting my account - not receiving an invoice or reminder by email, post or text - to go straight to a debt recovery company surely has to be illegal - doesn’t it?

I cannot think of a single company where a discounted trial membership doesnt automatically become a full membership at the end of the trial. The very reason they do a trial for 0.99 rather than free is to ensure they have your card number to be able to charge the full fee to.

Personally, I dont get it, why do people think that by stopping payment they are automatically stopping a service? I am sure if month end/pay day came along and your payslip didnt turn up and no money went in your bank you wouldnt just shrug and think that they must have fired you at some point and just didnt tell you.

"Illegal", "scam" etc are thrown around far to liberally but as an outsider.... you've agreed to have a service, admitted to not reading anything, and then failed to pay for the service... in most definitions "no intent to pay" is fraud. If anyone is acting illegally, its not them. 

user1977

Tony_Lees said:

to go straight to a debt recovery company surely has to be illegal - doesn’t it?

Why would it? It doesn't make any difference who's asking you to pay up, either you owe the money or you don't.

Also, you've entered into a contract with a Luxembourgish company under Luxembourgish law, so any consumer rights are those of Luxembourg. We mainly know about UK consumer rights here.

Pollycat

Tony_Lees said:

hi there. I decided to join a dating app - it was 0.99 for one day. It was evident it was a load of rubbish so didn’t pursue it. Anyway I noticed on my online banking a charge of 34.99 came out for a company called ‘Interdate SA’ so I contacted my bank said it wasn’t valid so they charged it back. This happened a couple of times until the bank somehow stopped this happening again. Kept checking my online banking at it seemed to stop. Yesterday through the post I received a letter from a German Debt Recovery saying o owed them 85EUR. I was totally bewildered - anyway I wrote them a strongly worded email explaining this was a farce from the start. Admittedly I may not have read any small print but to go from debiting my account - not receiving an invoice or reminder by email, post or text - to go straight to a debt recovery company surely has to be illegal - doesn’t it?

The bit in bold is where it went wrong.