eHarmony - want to take £65 off me for cancelling

frugal_sharkey

Hi all, my first post here.

I recently signed up to eHarmony's online dating service. The sign-up process was fairly straightforward - fill in your details, and then it takes you to a "compatibility quiz" you have to take to be able to finish creating your account.

I did this on Sunday 26th March - and upon finally (it took forever) getting my account set up, I noticed that the service/website is actually bloody useless and it was showing me matches from Lincoln, Hull, Nottingham - I am based in Norwich! Not once did it show me anyone local. 

So that very same night I went to cancel my account, which during the sign up process, I am fairly certain said "monthly" - but I noticed I was locked in to a year-long subscription until March 2024. I was fuming. I went on the live chat and made it clear that I wouldn't have signed up at all if I knew I was going to be locked in for a year, as I only wanted to give the service a try and then cancel if it wasn't for me. They maintained that they "don't do month to month subscriptions as it is very hard to build relationships over a short period of time" - good for them, but this is not what I chose! So I said cancel.

THEN they give me some BS about how I have to pay £65 because I "completed the compatibility quiz". Again, fuming - this was NOT a choice but part of the sign-up process. Not only did I not get a choice, but they gave me no warning during sign-up that it would incur a cost if I took the quiz (they actually made out it costs £130 for the compatibility test, but they take a "value compensation fee" of half that from anyone wishing to cancel.

I checked the terms and it says you get a 14 day cooling off period, but cannot cancel without paying this "value compensation fee" if you have taken the compatibility test. Again, I had no choice in the matter - it came up as part of me signing up, with zero warnings about what would happen if I took it!

I've been having back and forth exchanges with eHarmony over e-mail and they say the fee "will not be waived under any circumstances" if I cancel now - they said if I don't cancel now, I will have to pay my monthly fee, but why would I pay for such a terrible service which doesn't even work? 

Any advice on this? I know I am not the only one caught out by this but is there anything I can do? It's not a Direct Debit, so I can't cancel it. 

I feel cheated to have to pay £65 for essentially nothing.

Thanks for any advice

Aylesbury_Duck

frugal_sharkey said:

Hi all, my first post here.

I recently signed up to eHarmony's online dating service. The sign-up process was fairly straightforward - fill in your details, and then it takes you to a "compatibility quiz" you have to take to be able to finish creating your account.

I did this on Sunday 26th March - and upon finally (it took forever) getting my account set up, I noticed that the service/website is actually bloody useless and it was showing me matches from Lincoln, Hull, Nottingham - I am based in Norwich! Not once did it show me anyone local. 

So that very same night I went to cancel my account, which during the sign up process, I am fairly certain said "monthly" - but I noticed I was locked in to a year-long subscription until March 2024. I was fuming. I went on the live chat and made it clear that I wouldn't have signed up at all if I knew I was going to be locked in for a year, as I only wanted to give the service a try and then cancel if it wasn't for me. They maintained that they "don't do month to month subscriptions as it is very hard to build relationships over a short period of time" - good for them, but this is not what I chose! So I said cancel.

THEN they give me some BS about how I have to pay £65 because I "completed the compatibility quiz". Again, fuming - this was NOT a choice but part of the sign-up process. Not only did I not get a choice, but they gave me no warning during sign-up that it would incur a cost if I took the quiz (they actually made out it costs £130 for the compatibility test, but they take a "value compensation fee" of half that from anyone wishing to cancel.

I checked the terms and it says you get a 14 day cooling off period, but cannot cancel without paying this "value compensation fee" if you have taken the compatibility test. Again, I had no choice in the matter - it came up as part of me signing up, with zero warnings about what would happen if I took it!

I've been having back and forth exchanges with eHarmony over e-mail and they say the fee "will not be waived under any circumstances" if I cancel now - they said if I don't cancel now, I will have to pay my monthly fee, but why would I pay for such a terrible service which doesn't even work? 

Any advice on this? I know I am not the only one caught out by this but is there anything I can do? It's not a Direct Debit, so I can't cancel it. 

I feel cheated to have to pay £65 for essentially nothing.

Thanks for any advice

It will come down to the terms and conditions you agreed to at sign-up, and it sounds as if they believe you used the service immediately (the quiz) so your cooling-off rights were waived.

If you agreed to terms and conditions before commencing the service, then it sounds as if you're liable to whatever cancellation fee is stated in those terms in these circumstances.  If the Ts and Cs weren't available and agreed to until after the service commenced, then you are on solid ground when it comes to refusing to pay the fee.

eskbanker

frugal_sharkey said:

It's not a Direct Debit, so I can't cancel it. 

If it's a Continuous Payment Authority then you can cancel it with your bank, even though many banks will try to deny this:

https://www.fca.org.uk/news/news-stories/continuous-payment-authorities-it-your-right-cancel

However, cancelling the payment authorisation is independent from your contractual obligations, so they'll still pursue you for anything you owe them even if they're unable to collect it directly from your account....

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Hello OP

This has come up before, they can charge for any part of the service you've used so they are allowed to charge for their "quiz".

I haven't checked the terms, if they mention the quiz is £130 and they are charging you £65 they are probably on firm legal ground.

If they don't mention the cost of the quiz then a service price must be reasonable if no price is given. What is reasonable is a matter of fact (whatever that means in the real world) but they are likely charging it at a point where most people accept it and move on as the headache of chasing isn't worth a relatively small sum. 

0SP0

This EXACT thing has just happened to me, word for word as the OP above. I used Paypal to pay and at no time did I even realise how much I would be charged, I had to go to my email to see the receipt from Paypal to see what had been taken.
Within 15 minutes I was so insulted and disappointed by the matches and wildly inaccurate personality profile I knew I didn't want to continue and emailed them to cancel. Then came the email demanding £65 fee, luckily I had seen that I was also signed up for a year ( I also had no idea I'd signed up for that) and quickly removed the payment authorisation from my Paypal account, so they have been unable to collect the fee. I have a feeling this is going to get nasty and I also need to know how to proceed.
What happens if I refuse to pay?
I don't feel their terms were made clear before signing up, how can I take this to an authority?

Aylesbury_Duck

0SP0 said:

This EXACT thing has just happened to me, word for word as the OP above. I used Paypal to pay and at no time did I even realise how much I would be charged, I had to go to my email to see the receipt from Paypal to see what had been taken.
Within 15 minutes I was so insulted and disappointed by the matches and wildly inaccurate personality profile I knew I didn't want to continue and emailed them to cancel. Then came the email demanding £65 fee, luckily I had seen that I was also signed up for a year ( I also had no idea I'd signed up for that) and quickly removed the payment authorisation from my Paypal account, so they have been unable to collect the fee. I have a feeling this is going to get nasty and I also need to know how to proceed.
What happens if I refuse to pay?
I don't feel their terms were made clear before signing up, how can I take this to an authority?

I would go through the process again, taking a note at each stage about any terms and conditions provided and given the option to agree to.  Obviously you need to stop short of payment details, but you need to test if you missed something or whether their process unfairly commits you to something.

If you refuse to pay, they may take it further, they may not.  My guess is that they won't because as someone said earlier, the fee is probably set at a level where some people will pay just to close the matter, but that makes it low enough that eharmony probably won't spend money pursuing it.

0SP0

My latest email from eHarmony customer service :-

Dear X,

Thank you for your response.

I am sorry to hear that you still wish to delete your account and I can certainly provide you with some assistance.

As requested, I have taken the necessary steps to delete your profile and completely remove it from our platform. You will no longer be able to log in and will no longer be suggested to other members as a match. You will also no longer receive notification or email offers about your account. Please understand that complete deletion from the system can take up to ten days.

 

Further, please be advised that deleting your profile will not have any effect on the outstanding balance that you owe to the company. You will need to pay the outstanding balance through a bank transfer or directly by Credit Card via the link below.

Thank you for your payment and we wish you all the best.

Sincerely,
Fabriana J.
eharmony Customer Care

macman

0SP0 said:

This EXACT thing has just happened to me, word for word as the OP above. I used Paypal to pay and at no time did I even realise how much I would be charged, I had to go to my email to see the receipt from Paypal to see what had been taken.
Within 15 minutes I was so insulted and disappointed by the matches and wildly inaccurate personality profile I knew I didn't want to continue and emailed them to cancel. Then came the email demanding £65 fee, luckily I had seen that I was also signed up for a year ( I also had no idea I'd signed up for that) and quickly removed the payment authorisation from my Paypal account, so they have been unable to collect the fee. I have a feeling this is going to get nasty and I also need to know how to proceed.
What happens if I refuse to pay?
I don't feel their terms were made clear before signing up, how can I take this to an authority?

There isn't as yet an Ombudsman for online dating...
There a difference between terms 'not being made clear'. and not reading the terms supplied or displayed. Which was it?
If you don't pay they can sue you and get a CCJ, though unlikely they'll bother for £65.

jon81uk

No pricing is shown without registering, but everything on their website suggests you need to actively click buy or upgrade to premium, if you don't select premium and use the basic service it should be free.

Did you choose a premium membership?

eharmony cost: how much is it and what do I get for my subscription?

0SP0

jon81uk said:

No pricing is shown without registering, but everything on their website suggests you need to actively click buy or upgrade to premium, if you don't select premium and use the basic service it should be free.

Did you choose a premium membership?

I was very confused at the end of paying I had to choose between 2 options, about premium, I didn't understand and thought I could change later if I clicked the wrong option, but I opted for premium not knowing about this extra £65 if I cancelled. As there seems to be a good few complaints about this online, is there no body governing this kind of thing online?

Aylesbury_Duck

0SP0 said:

jon81uk said:

No pricing is shown without registering, but everything on their website suggests you need to actively click buy or upgrade to premium, if you don't select premium and use the basic service it should be free.

Did you choose a premium membership?

I was very confused at the end of paying I had to choose between 2 options, about premium, I didn't understand and thought I could change later if I clicked the wrong option, but I opted for premium not knowing about this extra £65 if I cancelled. As there seems to be a good few complaints about this online, is there no body governing this kind of thing online?

Not really, not in the sense of an ombudsman.  However, consumer rights are there to protect you, so if you believe that there has been a breach of terms and conditions, or if those terms were unfair, you have the small claims court route at your disposal as a means of addressing it.