ZOE £9.99 monthly subscription renewed into another 12-month lock-in – is this reasonable?

ParsandBirdies

Interested in people's views on this one, particularly whether anyone else has had the same experience with ZOE.

I signed up to ZOE for 12 months at £9.99 per month. I was perfectly happy with the original 12-month commitment because I received a discounted glucose monitor as part of joining.

I stopped using ZOE after a few months but continued paying the £9.99 for the remainder of the year. I'd agreed to 12 months, so absolutely no issue with that.

What I hadn't appreciated was that ZOE would then automatically commit me to ANOTHER full 12 months at £9.99 per month if I missed the cancellation window.

There was no new glucose monitor or other subsidised product in year 2. It's simply continuing access to the digital service.

I cancelled in September, but ZOE says I remain liable for every £9.99 monthly payment until July 2027 and they will not allow me to cancel the renewed contract early.

ZOE says it sent me a renewal reminder 15 days beforehand. I don't recall seeing or opening it.

The £9.99 is pretty irrelevant to me financially. I'm pursuing it because I think the principle is unreasonable.

I'm particularly interested in people's views on automatically renewing somebody into another entire 12-month minimum commitment rather than moving onto a monthly rolling arrangement, especially when the customer is already paying monthly and the original subsidised hardware element no longer exists.

Has anyone challenged a similar annual auto-renewal successfully?

sheramber

Have you checked your spam for an email reminder?

Aylesbury_Duck

Have a look at the subscription terms. If they commit to notifying you, and you can demonstrate they didn't, you have something with which to challenge them. Have you checked spam mailboxes and deleted items to see if you missed it? You say you don't recall seeing an email but that's not very definitive. They may have evidence they sent a reminder email, which would undermine your argument.

born_again

I'm particularly interested in people's views on automatically renewing somebody into another entire 12-month minimum commitment rather than moving onto a monthly rolling arrangement

Just the same as car/home insurance or many other agreements.

Sadly it is down to us as customers to keep track & cancel in time. Google calendar etc is great for reminding you 👍

ParsandBirdies

I accept it’s my fault, but that’s not really the point I’m trying to make.

I’ve probably got loads of ZOE emails sitting unread because I’d stopped using the service, so I obviously missed the one about renewal.

My point is that I thought I was paying monthly with an initial minimum 12-month term because they’d provided a subsidised product in return for that commitment. What I hadn’t appreciated was that you then automatically get signed up to further 12-month minimum terms.

Once the initial period is over and there’s no longer a subsidised product being provided, I just don’t see any good reason why it needs to renew into another 12-month commitment rather than become monthly rolling.

That’s the practice I think is unreasonable, rather than me arguing that I didn’t miss the renewal email.

dumpster_fire2025

The plan you signed up to was a 12 months plan and the site states that the plans will renew automatically until cancelled. In this case it would renew for another 12 months as it is a 12 month plan. Presumably the 3 month plan would renew for 3 months.

I don't see any reason why they need to justify it renewing for another 12 months as the page clearly says the plans will renew automatically, and I think you have mistakenly assumed it would be monthly rolling, even though there's nothing there that actually says that.

sheramber

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82152239#Comment_82152239

That is the contract you signed up to when you took out the subscription.

Aylesbury_Duck

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82152239#Comment_82152239

I believe the subscription covers access to the digital service, so you're still getting something for your money. The physical product may have been "paid off", in the same way a phone contract will pay for the handset and at the end of the initial term, the contract runs on to provide connectivity at the original monthly price.

giraffe69

I think the company should have sent you a reminder (& perhaps they did). However as pointed out the original screen said renewal would happen unless you cancelled. I don't see it as all that hard to put a reminder in your online calendar or whatever you use so, as you say, it is likely your fault and I fear you will have to suck it up but please set your self a reminder so you are not in this position this time next year! I have to say that I've always received reminders if I have set up a payiment which autorenews although I try hard to avoid such things.

dumpster_fire2025

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82156458#Comment_82156458

I think the OPs issue is less the auto renewal and more that it doesn't keep renewing on a monthly rolling basis. However they don't even appear to offer a monthly option anyway and given that they charge £24.99/month on the 3 month plan and £9.99/month on the 12 month plan I'd hate to think what they'd want on a monthly basis.