Am I entitled to a full refund?

Friend2020

On the 6/1/23 I received an email offering a 14 day free trial with findmypast.
On the 7/1/23 I started looking at the website, I mistakenly subscribed at 19.03 and immediately cancelled. I have an email confirming my subscription at 19.03 and an email cancelling my subscription at 19.03 from find my past.
However I have been charged on my PayPal account £199.99 (1 year subscription) 
I know it is my mistake, but had no idea I would be charged, and assumed I had a 14 day free trial and could cancel my subscription within that time and not be charged.
I have contacted findmypast and have been offered a reduction to a 3month subscription at £50 with a refund of the difference.
Am I entitled to a full refund?
Kindest regards
Cathy

pinkshoes

Friend2020 said:

On the 6/1/23 I received an email offering a 14 day free trial with findmypast.
On the 7/1/23 I started looking at the website, I mistakenly subscribed at 19.03 and immediately cancelled. I have an email confirming my subscription at 19.03 and an email cancelling my subscription at 19.03 from find my past.
However I have been charged on my PayPal account £199.99 (1 year subscription) 
I know it is my mistake, but had no idea I would be charged, and assumed I had a 14 day free trial and could cancel my subscription within that time and not be charged.
I have contacted findmypast and have been offered a reduction to a 3month subscription at £50 with a refund of the difference.
Am I entitled to a full refund?
Kindest regards
Cathy

The T&Cs that you agreed to say:


At £199 it would appear you have opted for the premium service which it says "You cannot take a free trial of our Premium subscription", although online the only two prices I can see are £129.99 and £179.99 so I'm not sure what you have selected!

What exactly did you select when you signed up?

powerful_Rogue

How did you mistakenly subscribe, as that involves putting in payment details such as Paypal in this case?

https://www.findmypast.co.uk/help/articles/4411074366353-16-cancellations

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Unless this type of subscription is exempt (I don't recall it being so) you still have the standard cancellation period for a distance contract.

You probably gave consent for the service to start during the cancellation period but that doesn't mean you can't cancel the contract, simply that you should pay for the service you used up until the point of cancellation. 

As you cancelled pretty much immediately I'd say a full refund is due, give or take a few pence. 

OP you could sent them an email requesting a refund with a copy of the legislation below and see what they say. The company appears to be a UK company but I assume the amount is not that much to bother with small claims. 

Their cancellation policy does mention no refunds (I question whether that is lawful) but does say if you didn't view any records they may refund. If you didn't look at any records after subscribing I'd add that to the email with a link to their policy:

https://www.findmypast.co.uk/help/articles/4411074366353-16-cancellations

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2013/3134/regulation/36

(3) Paragraphs (4) to (6) apply where a contract is cancelled under regulation 29(1) and a service has been supplied in the cancellation period.

(4) Where the service is supplied in response to a request in accordance with paragraph (1), the consumer must (subject to paragraph (6)) pay to the trader an amount—

(a)for the supply of the service for the period for which it is supplied, ending with the time when the trader is informed of the consumer's decision to cancel the contract, in accordance with regulation 32(2), and

(b)which is in proportion to what has been supplied, in comparison with the full coverage of the contract.

(5) The amount is to be calculated—

(a)on the basis of the total price agreed in the contract, or

(b)if the total price is excessive, on the basis of the market value of the service that has been supplied, calculated by comparing prices for equivalent services supplied by other traders.

DullGreyGuy

powerful_Rogue said:

How did you mistakenly subscribe, as that involves putting in payment details such as Paypal in this case?

https://www.findmypast.co.uk/help/articles/4411074366353-16-cancellations

Most free trials automatically roll into a paid service if you dont cancel and they wont allow you to commence the free trial until you have given them payment details to use if it renews to a paid model. 

There are some exceptions to the above but it wouldnt be unusual to be asked for payment details

Manxman_in_exile

And in relation to the earlier post from @the_lunatic_is_in_my_head, I would also emphasise another part of the regulation he has quoted - 36(4)(b)  "which is in proportion to what has been supplied, in comparison with the full coverage of the contract"

Obviously charging you a full years subscription - or even a three month subscription - is not a proportionate amount if you inadvertantly subscribed at 19:03 hours and immediately cancelled at 19:03 hours.  (You say you can provide evidence of those times?)

If they are based in the UK write to them quoting the regulation 36 as suggested and tell them that even a charge of just three months is obviously not a proportionate charge under the legislation for an immediate cancellation where you didn't even have an opportunity to use the service other than as part of your free trial.

The legislation governing cancellation of and payment for a service is contained in Part 3, regulations 27 - 38 here:  The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 (legislation.gov.uk)

powerful_Rogue

DullGreyGuy said:

powerful_Rogue said:

How did you mistakenly subscribe, as that involves putting in payment details such as Paypal in this case?

https://www.findmypast.co.uk/help/articles/4411074366353-16-cancellations

Most free trials automatically roll into a paid service if you dont cancel and they wont allow you to commence the free trial until you have given them payment details to use if it renews to a paid model. 

There are some exceptions to the above but it wouldnt be unusual to be asked for payment details

But it appears the OP didn't use the free trial, otherwise they wouldn't have been charged straight away.

JGreenwood

I did something similar with skill share. It claimed to come with a free trial, but something happened at checkout and I was given a different version that charged me immediately for a year with no free trial.

I got in touch to explain the situation and fortunately was refunded. I would get in touch, FAQs are all well and good, but your best shot of getting it sorted is to get on a live chat or on the phone. Hope you get it sorted

Manxman_in_exile

powerful_Rogue said:

DullGreyGuy said:

powerful_Rogue said:

How did you mistakenly subscribe, as that involves putting in payment details such as Paypal in this case?

https://www.findmypast.co.uk/help/articles/4411074366353-16-cancellations

Most free trials automatically roll into a paid service if you dont cancel and they wont allow you to commence the free trial until you have given them payment details to use if it renews to a paid model. 

There are some exceptions to the above but it wouldnt be unusual to be asked for payment details

But it appears the OP didn't use the free trial, otherwise they wouldn't have been charged straight away.

What makes you think he wasn't using the free trial?

You asked how they'd got the OP's payment details and @DullGreyGuy pointed out that it was usual practice to take payment details before giving online users access to most types of free trial.

It seems obvious to me that the OP inadvertantly and unintentionally signed up to the subscription service while walking his way through the free trial.  Do you think that couldn't happen?

I can't really see any other reasonable explanation for signing up at 19:03 and immediately cancelling at 19:03.

If that's the case (and I see no reason to disbelieve the OP) he shouldn't be getting charged anything anyway, should he?

(I'd argue an amount of £0.00 is a proportionate amount to charge for a subscription apparently used for less than 60 seconds)

powerful_Rogue

Manxman_in_exile said:

powerful_Rogue said:

DullGreyGuy said:

powerful_Rogue said:

How did you mistakenly subscribe, as that involves putting in payment details such as Paypal in this case?

https://www.findmypast.co.uk/help/articles/4411074366353-16-cancellations

Most free trials automatically roll into a paid service if you dont cancel and they wont allow you to commence the free trial until you have given them payment details to use if it renews to a paid model. 

There are some exceptions to the above but it wouldnt be unusual to be asked for payment details

But it appears the OP didn't use the free trial, otherwise they wouldn't have been charged straight away.

What makes you think he wasn't using the free trial?

You asked how they'd got the OP's payment details and @DullGreyGuy pointed out that it was usual practice to take payment details before giving online users access to most types of free trial.

It seems obvious to me that the OP inadvertantly and unintentionally signed up to the subscription service while walking his way through the free trial.  Do you think that couldn't happen?

I can't really see any other reasonable explanation for signing up at 19:03 and immediately cancelling at 19:03.

If that's the case (and I see no reason to disbelieve the OP) he shouldn't be getting charged anything anyway, should he?

(I'd argue an amount of £0.00 is a proportionate amount to charge for a subscription apparently used for less than 60 seconds)

For the reason that if you sign up for a free trial, you don't get charged until the free trial ends or you cancel the free trial. As such, it appears the OP has signed up to a full subscription. However as mentioned by pinkshoes, there is no annual subscription on the site for £199.

DullGreyGuy

Manxman_in_exile said:
If that's the case (and I see no reason to disbelieve the OP) he shouldn't be getting charged anything anyway, should he?

(I'd argue an amount of £0.00 is a proportionate amount to charge for a subscription apparently used for less than 60 seconds)

Regulation 36 requires the cost to be proportionate to the service received prior to cancellation. 

I've no idea what this website offers or how well they track their customer's use of the site. A service of a minute or two in principle feels like a nil or near nil fee if a year is £199 but the devil is in the detail... if, for example, the website offered a monthly download and the OP had received that download in the seconds/minutes they'd subscribed then a 1/12th or higher fee could possibly be justified. With some such services monthly updates are de minimis and most the value comes from the initial download.