Now TV Payments Reclaim

SshDonnie

Hi

Today, I spotted that I've been paying Now TV £9.99 per month since at least August 2023. I did have a Now TV membership that I thought I'd cancelled and have found the below message (in italics) from them that seems to confirm that, although, as you can see, the message is about having cancelled an add-on, Boost, that allowed me to skip ads, but in that message, which is vague in my opinion, it also refers to the cancellation of my account. I've not had Now TV since then, nor used the service, and during most or all of that same period I have had Sky, which offers the same content. Do you think that the message is enough to allow me to reclaim the money back through my bank?

Thank you for your responses and I know now that I need to be checking my outgoings/direct debits more often.

A.

Just to let you know, your Boost has now been cancelled. We’re sorry to see you go.

You can carry on enjoying your membership until Mon 21 Aug 2023.

Join in again anytime

You can rejoin us anytime – just head over to My Account to get your membership up and running again.

Need to talk to us?

If you didn’t cancel your membership and you think there’s been a mistake, please get in touch by live chat and we’ll check what’s happened.

jackrack

Do people not check their statements to see what is going out of their account?

flaneurs_lobster

Now TV doesn't seem to have the facility to cancel an account, at least none I can find. You can cancel "Memberships", so Now Sports or Boost but the account continues. The message you quote doesn't mention cancelling an account only a membership.

IMHO your bank would say "tough", the service has been provided.

The fact that you have had a subscription to Sky during this period, together with their records showing no NOW use, might be enough to sway Now to consider a refund more favourably. Have you asked? 

Perhaps you could suggest that any refund be paid as credit against ongoing Sky subscription costs?

born_again

Given that this will have been a CPA. Then you can claim back via your bank card as a chargeback. With the proof that it was cancelled in Aug 23.
Bad news you can only claim back the last 13 months as FCA rule that after that point it is account holders fault for not noticing payments.

In future as per M Lewis advice check your statements more often 👍

Nasqueron

Boost is a top-up to the NOW service giving ad free and full HD - OP has cancelled the add-on, not the actual TV package. They might agree to a refund if it's not been used and OP asks nicely but doing a CPA chargeback could well result in problems as OP did NOT cancel the base service so NOW have every right to dispute this

born_again

Nasqueron said:

Boost is a top-up to the NOW service giving ad free and full HD - OP has cancelled the add-on, not the actual TV package. They might agree to a refund if it's not been used and OP asks nicely but doing a CPA chargeback could well result in problems as OP did NOT cancel the base service so NOW have every right to dispute this

So Now could contest on the basic actual tv service was not cancelled. But would be entitled to the refund for boost.

TBH, last section of email is not very clear..

You can rejoin us anytime – just head over to My Account to get your membership up and running again.

As to me that is saying account subscription is cancelled & not just boost?

DullGreyGuy

born_again said:

Nasqueron said:

Boost is a top-up to the NOW service giving ad free and full HD - OP has cancelled the add-on, not the actual TV package. They might agree to a refund if it's not been used and OP asks nicely but doing a CPA chargeback could well result in problems as OP did NOT cancel the base service so NOW have every right to dispute this

So Now could contest on the basic actual tv service was not cancelled. But would be entitled to the refund for boost.

TBH, last section of email is not very clear..

You can rejoin us anytime – just head over to My Account to get your membership up and running again.

As to me that is saying account subscription is cancelled & not just boost?

You need to read in the full context of the email which certainly to me reads that your membership to boost has been cancelled not the account itself. I've no idea of NowTV's subscription packages but "boost" sounds like an upgrade you'd add to a lower layer and there is nothing to suggest the lower layer has been cancelled in the email. 

The emboldened text in this context seems to be talking about restarting membership of the boost layer. 

flaneurs_lobster

born_again said:

So Now could contest on the basic actual tv service was not cancelled. But would be entitled to the refund for boost.

TBH, last section of email is not very clear..

You can rejoin us anytime – just head over to My Account to get your membership up and running again.

As to me that is saying account subscription is cancelled & not just boost?

Here's where the terms used by NOW and members here become important in the context of how NOW operate their funding.

An ACCOUNT is needed to use the NOW TV service. Needs an email address and password. In addition you need to add details of a payment card to fund services. What you log into to watch TV, change details, amend Memberships. No obvious way of cancelling or deleting this.

MEMBERSHIPS are recurring PAYG subscriptions to the various TV services that NOW offer (Cinema, Entertainment, Sports) and Boost (an enhancement to standard TV services). Any and all can be cancelled at any time, service will continue until the subscription period ends, otherwise the subscription renews.

So it seems OP had (has?) an account with NOW and had taken monthly recurring memberships on a TV service (probably Entertainment) and the Boost add-on. Membership of Boost was ended, but not the other membership, which continued to deduct a monthly charge.

If the terms used in NOW's email are understood in the way that NOW use them, I don't think that the email is unclear or open to misinterpretation.

Nasqueron

born_again said:

Nasqueron said:

Boost is a top-up to the NOW service giving ad free and full HD - OP has cancelled the add-on, not the actual TV package. They might agree to a refund if it's not been used and OP asks nicely but doing a CPA chargeback could well result in problems as OP did NOT cancel the base service so NOW have every right to dispute this

So Now could contest on the basic actual tv service was not cancelled. But would be entitled to the refund for boost.

TBH, last section of email is not very clear..

You can rejoin us anytime – just head over to My Account to get your membership up and running again.

As to me that is saying account subscription is cancelled & not just boost?

They aren't being charged for Boost as it has been cancelled

£9.99 is the basic monthly charge for the service (with ads), you pay £6 a month more for Boost (i.e. £15.99) and £9 a month more if you want Ultra Boost (i.e. £18.99)

They have cancelled the Boost which just drops it back to the standard package, there are 2 different steps - you either cancel NOW membership entirely (cancels all payments) or cancel the Boost package (just stops the upgrade)

Want to cancel a membership, Boost or Ultra Boost?

• Head to Membership, select the one you don’t want any more, then click Cancel membership and follow the onscreen steps.
• For Boost or Ultra Boost, select Change viewing experience and you'll see options to change or cancel.
• We recommend using a desktop, laptop or tablet to cancel rather than a mobile.

When they say you can rejoin, it means you can upgrade again, but you must cancel NOW membership to stop the £9.99 charge which is separate to downgrading from Boost to Standard

mjm3346

When I cancel NOW each "membership" has to be cancelled separately - I could remove Boost, but Cinema, Entertainment and Sport would all need to be cancelled individually.

born_again

flaneurs_lobster said:

born_again said:

So Now could contest on the basic actual tv service was not cancelled. But would be entitled to the refund for boost.

TBH, last section of email is not very clear..

You can rejoin us anytime – just head over to My Account to get your membership up and running again.

As to me that is saying account subscription is cancelled & not just boost?

Here's where the terms used by NOW and members here become important in the context of how NOW operate their funding.

An ACCOUNT is needed to use the NOW TV service. Needs an email address and password. In addition you need to add details of a payment card to fund services. What you log into to watch TV, change details, amend Memberships. No obvious way of cancelling or deleting this.

MEMBERSHIPS are recurring PAYG subscriptions to the various TV services that NOW offer (Cinema, Entertainment, Sports) and Boost (an enhancement to standard TV services). Any and all can be cancelled at any time, service will continue until the subscription period ends, otherwise the subscription renews.

So it seems OP had (has?) an account with NOW and had taken monthly recurring memberships on a TV service (probably Entertainment) and the Boost add-on. Membership of Boost was ended, but not the other membership, which continued to deduct a monthly charge.

If the terms used in NOW's email are understood in the way that NOW use them, I don't think that the email is unclear or open to misinterpretation.

I know. But that's me & you.

Remember no offence to anyone, but many people will not realise or ever been any where near pages like quoted.