Unauthorized payment from card

khickey88

Just wondering if i should be contacting my bank about a unauthorized payment my daughter's old dance school are still taking?

So basically my daughter has been going to this dance school for few years and it was brilliant but they was taken over 12 months ago which was a shame and the the owner started a subscription where they have your card details and take £26.50 a month for the term time lesson (39 lessons a year) so this is priced at £8.15 a lesson. I know most parents was not a happy how the payments work at the time but fast for to September this year we all get an email saying the monthly price is going up to £40 a month (£12.30 a lesson)😳 over 50% rise. They also added some sort of rewards annual subscription of £30 so the 1st of Octobers payment was £70. Obviously a lot of the kids parents had cancelled and left and I noticed by early October we only had about 6 left in my daughter's lesson from about 14. So we also decided to leave while my daughter wasn't that upset because all her friends had left and they have all joined another dance group 5 minutes away at only £5 a lesson.
So we decided to leave at the end of October as we payed for that month. But they cancelled lesson for whatever reason (said they will refund it within 10 days)which would of been my daughter's last lesson so we missed the chance to talk to the instructor and say all our good byes and thank yous which isn't a massive deal. 
My wife then wrote a nice email on the 27th October out to them say that my daughter will be sadly leaving and won't be coming back next month as we can't afford to pay £40 a month, the next lesson is on Monday 10th November as they also cancelled the 3rd of November. So anyway we didn't get a reply and we also tried calling, what's app and social media messages but not reply. But we thought that was it until the 1st of November when they taken £40 for Novembers lessons so now we are concerned as we can't get intouch with them and the have our card details and taking money out without our say.

Finally Tuesday this week we had a email from them saying " we need to give one months notice to leave the dance your daughter's is more than welcome to continue until the end of November and they'll cancel the next payment"

So got the email back from when we 1st signed up 12 months ago when is clearly states .

.Cancel Anytime

"You will still be able to leave classes at any point in the year this does not mean you are tied into classes for 12 months. If any any point you want to leave the Hub's classes.. you can simply let us know and we cancel your subscription immediately."

So after speaking to the other parents that left in September none of them was asked to give any notice. So we sent them an email back with this statement from there own email and politely asking for a refund of the £40 that came out of my account on the 1st of November as my daughter left on the 27th October. 

It's been 2 days and still not reply or answer on the phone. 

So I contact the back and report this as an unauthorized payment?

Also still waiting on the refund for Octobers cancelled lesson

Sorry such a long message 

p00hsticks

I'm not sure which bank you are with but I struggled with something similar, as the online option to report an unauthorised transaction first wanted me to say  that I didn't recognise the company asking for the payment and then went on to call the transaction fraudulent - I don't think you can honestly say that in a case such as this. 

It sounds as if this a Continuous Payment Authority (CPA) that you have set up with them, rather than a Direct Deibt - if the latter you could tell the bank that it had been incorrectly taken and get it refunded under the DD guarantee, but with a CPA I think there's no simiar guarantee and so it's more difficult. Your bank should be able to unilaterally cancel it going forward, but I'm not sure about getting any money incorrectly taken refunded. (And for others reading, cancelling the CPA or DD with the bank doesn't cancel any contract you have with the company involved let you off the hook if you do actually owe money to them). 

khickey88

Thank you for the reply our bank is NatWest and when I looked into it it mentions 14 day period 1st before reporting it. Really didn't want it to go this far but I've just seen a Facebook story from the dance group showing them working in front of the laptops which confirms they are ignoring any of my contact. 

Alderbank

khickey88 said:

Thank you for the reply our bank is NatWest and when I looked into it it mentions 14 day period 1st before reporting it. Really didn't want it to go this far but I've just seen a Facebook story from the dance group showing them working in front of the laptops which confirms they are ignoring any of my contact. 

I'm not sure that a story on Facebook proves anything about anything.

born_again

So cancelled 27 Oct.
Billed 1st November £40 & told 30 days notice.

It's not a unauthorised payment, as you had a agreement with them.

So did you agree to new T/C when the classes were taken over? & what did they say about cancelation?

You could go back too bank & say you cancelled 27-10 & have been debited since. So want to do a chargeback for cancelled CPA if payment is taken via card.
Be aware that they can contest this. (45 days) if they do not they could take the legal route. 

If it was taken via DD then it's a different ball game.

khickey88

Alderbank said:

khickey88 said:

Thank you for the reply our bank is NatWest and when I looked into it it mentions 14 day period 1st before reporting it. Really didn't want it to go this far but I've just seen a Facebook story from the dance group showing them working in front of the laptops which confirms they are ignoring any of my contact. 

I'm not sure that a story on Facebook proves anything about anything.

It does when she actually says "still working" and Infront of her laptop. Sure she's read the emails and messages.

khickey88

This the email we got when we had to sign up out card details in the link. Nobody has heard of this 30 day notice not mentioned to the other parents that left in September neither.

born_again

So have you calculated the payments to ensure that you do not owe anything? Given your payments are not per classes, but balanced out over the 12 months.

khickey88

born_again said:

So have you calculated the payments to ensure that you do not owe anything? Given your payments are not per classes, but balanced out over the 12 months.

Yes they actually owe everyone one lesson from last month which they emailed everyone say they will refund in 5-10 working days with the 10th day being today thinking about it. If anything since last October we have paid for August twice with not lessons at all.

p00hsticks

khickey88 said:

This the email we got when we had to sign up out card details in the link. Nobody has heard of this 30 day notice not mentioned to the other parents that left in September neither.

I may be wrong (please someone more knowledgeable correct me if so) , but that seems a bit confusing as although it refers to 'direct debit' payments, I think the fact that it;s asked you for a card number rathe than bank account sort code and account number means that what's actually been set up is a Continuous Payment Authority, not a Direct Debit. 

Aylesbury_Duck

khickey88 said:

Alderbank said:

khickey88 said:

Thank you for the reply our bank is NatWest and when I looked into it it mentions 14 day period 1st before reporting it. Really didn't want it to go this far but I've just seen a Facebook story from the dance group showing them working in front of the laptops which confirms they are ignoring any of my contact. 

I'm not sure that a story on Facebook proves anything about anything.

It does when she actually says "still working" and Infront of her laptop. Sure she's read the emails and messages.

It doesn't, they may be working through to check all their payment collections are correct, much as you have been doing.  Whether you can prove they're ignoring you isn't really important, anyway.  What's important is the contractual terms and conditions and whether they've abided by them to justify taking the payments they have.