Auto Renewal 14 Day Cooling Off

ELG4N

Does the consumer right to a minimum 14 days cooling off apply to an Auto Renewal subscription. 

Subscription for premium website membership. 

Should a 14 day cancellation period start upon auto renewal of a website membership (12 month subscription)

They keep referring me to T&Cs which states no refund, but it’s to my understanding that T&Cs should not take my consumer rights away from me?

user1977

Don't think you need to cool off if you've already been a subscriber for 12 months. Is it even a UK website?

neilmcl

ELG4N said:

Does the consumer right to a minimum 14 days cooling off apply to an Auto Renewal subscription. 

Subscription for premium website membership. 

Should a 14 day cancellation period start upon auto renewal of a website membership (12 month subscription)

They keep referring me to T&Cs which states no refund, but it’s to my understanding that T&Cs should not take my consumer rights away from me?

What "minimum 14 days cooling off" period rights are your referring to?

If this is to do with your distance selling rights then no, you don't get another 14 days right to cancel for an auto-renewal. Products, such as insurance have their own 14 cooling off periods and those instances they do apply to auto-renewals.

ELG4N

All the correspondence is U.K. addressed. 

It was a dating website, I hadn’t logged in since about May. 12 month subscription which I paid from Nov 20-21. They’ve automatically renewed till Nov 22 at a cost of £280 odd quid. It’s something I no longer want or need. 

They’ve offered a 50% refund and retain the membership till next year, despite me trying to cancel it all together. 

I only became aware of the auto renewal when PayPal emailed me today. This has all been within 24 hours of renewal. I had hoped the rights to 14 days cooling off or cancellation would have started again upon renewal. 

neilmcl

ELG4N said:

All the correspondence is U.K. addressed. 

It was a dating website, I hadn’t logged in since about May. 12 month subscription which I paid from Nov 20-21. They’ve automatically renewed till Nov 22 at a cost of £280 odd quid. It’s something I no longer want or need. 

They’ve offered a 50% refund and retain the membership till next year, despite me trying to cancel it all together. 

I only became aware of the auto renewal when PayPal emailed me today. This has all been within 24 hours of renewal. I had hoped the rights to 14 days cooling off or cancellation would have started again upon renewal. 

They don't, you haven't started a new contract but merely renewed your membership for a further 12 months. Your cancellation rights were for the inception of the original contract last November.

ELG4N

Fair comment. Bit naughty it was set to automatically renew as default.... So take the 50% and write it off as a bad experience?

Ive reported to PayPal to see if they can help.  

Alderbank

If consumers are not given suitable notice about auto-renew contracts, courts are now likely to class them as unfair contract terms which means the contract cannot be enforced.
The Competition and Markets Authority gives companies advice about when roll-overs are unfair
 https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/820547/UCT_09_Subscriptions.pdf

• It must be made clear to customers at the outset how their subscription or contract will be renewed and the contract requires that they are sent a reminder a reasonable time before it is due to be renewed.

• The reminder should include clear information about the terms of the proposed renewal of the contract and the steps customers need to take to stop the renewal, if they wish to. 

OP, did you receive these reminders?

ELG4N

Have just searched through my emails. There is zero correspondence previous, nothing at all in reference to the above. I have sent my reply hoping for a better outcome. Thank you for taking your time to link the information.