Eharmony refund under terms and conditions declined

anon290

I bought an Eharmony subscription last year under a special offer they were doing, where you paid £7 a month.  I thought at the time, it would be the only way to meet people with all of the COVID restrictions at the time.  Reality is, I've hardly used it and so was fully intending to cancel before it automatically renewed.  Then my laptop broke and had to be sent away for repair, making it hard for me to cancel with them.  The payment went through without me realising but they have a 14 day cooling off period in the terms and conditions where they say they will refund the customer and cancel the subscription.  It also cleary states this in the email they sent me to confirm the subscription renewal.  So I emailed their customer services and have even sent them a screenshot of these terms and conditions, saying this and they have refused to refund me on more than one occasion.  What do I do as it autorenewed on a more expensive tariff than I original agreed to and is not money I can afford to lose?

user1977

Are you sure the cooling off period applies to renewals, and not just the initial subscription? 

Aylesbury_Duck

As above, many subscription renewals don't have a cooling-off period.  You've had a year's notice of renewal, so giving 14 days' period afterwards would be generous.

Alderbank

Hello anon290 and welcome to the forum!

You say 'I bought an Eharmony subscription last year under a special offer they were doing, where you paid £7 a month...it autorenewed on a more expensive tariff'

You don't give any details but that sounds consistent - the introductory special offer is less than the standard rate.

'Then my laptop broke and had to be sent away for repair, making it hard for me to cancel with them.'

No. Their terms and conditions say you can cancel in writing by post. They even  help you by suggesting what words to write:

Model cancellation form
To: eharmony UK Ltd., Customer Care, BM Box 5904, London WC1N 3XX, United Kingdom
Email: support@eharmony.co.uk
I hereby give notice that I cancel my subscription for the provision of the following service... 

The T&Cs I can see online say 14 day cooling off period applies to when you first sign up and you must cancel autorenewal before renewal date if you don't want to renew. This is quite usual for subscription services. However they also say T&Cs vary according to how you signed up and are different if you signed up via app on iTunes or Google Play.
How did you sign up and what are the specific T&Cs?

anon290

Thanks for your comments.  Though, no I have checked with Trading Standards consumer rights advice line and they agree with me that the terms and conditions that were sent to me when the auto renewal went through do state that I am allowed 14 days to cancel after the renewal goes through and that they will refund any money taken.  I didn't know that you could cancel by post because I couldn't access my email at the time either

pinkshoes

anon290 said:

Thanks for your comments.  Though, no I have checked with Trading Standards consumer rights advice line and they agree with me that the terms and conditions that were sent to me when the auto renewal went through do state that I am allowed 14 days to cancel after the renewal goes through and that they will refund any money taken.  I didn't know that you could cancel by post because I couldn't access my email at the time either

If they send you these T&Cs when the autorenewal email came through informing you that you can cancel, and they are refusing to do that, then contact your bank and also cancel the Direct Debit. 

If they come chasing after you for the debt, then refer them back to their own T&Cs and make sure you keep evidence of this as well as you cancelling within the correct time frame.

Ergates

anon290 said:

Thanks for your comments.  Though, no I have checked with Trading Standards consumer rights advice line and they agree with me that the terms and conditions that were sent to me when the auto renewal went through do state that I am allowed 14 days to cancel after the renewal goes through and that they will refund any money taken.  I didn't know that you could cancel by post because I couldn't access my email at the time either

Could you post those T&Cs (the relevant bits anyway) here?

Diamandis

anon290 said:
 Though, no I have checked with Trading Standards consumer rights advice line and they agree with me that the terms and conditions that were sent to me when the auto renewal went through do state that I am allowed 14 days to cancel after the renewal goes through

If you're confident they are correct then ask them what you do next. I would take advice from a random person on a helpline with a bit of caution though.