Taste Card Auto-renewal

Onita · 31 July 2015 at 12:02PM

Thank god I'm not the only one who this has happened to I am so upset. I did get through finally to be told that the transaction was made at 2mins past midnight this morning therefore it is 4 days before renewal (the young man was quite sarcastic to be honest). I haven't used my membership at all during the trial period and probably wouldnt either. When I asked to speak to someone else I was told that he wouldn't pass me on but I could email and i might get a reply or I could pass my card onto another person if I wish! surely this can't be right.

bugslet · 31 July 2015 at 2:49PM

Just to add the other side of the coin..... when the late Mr Bugs had dementia, he had a tastecard which autorenewed and I didn't realise ( far too many other things going on).

Anyway, picked it up on his bank statement, rang them to cancel it for next year and told them why, the helpful girl on the phone said to hold for a moment, came back and said she'd spoken to her supervisor and they would refund the amount, which I hadn't asked for. That was back in 2013, maybe there has been a change in the way they handle things:(

Maddybee33 · 1 August 2015 at 9:02PM

I did that after thinking it through...
Paypal refunded me! :-D
Tastecard still sent the pack though...

Maddybee33 · 1 August 2015 at 9:06PM

Just to add the other side of the coin..... when the late Mr Bugs had dementia, he had a tastecard which autorenewed and I didn't realise ( far too many other things going on).

Anyway, picked it up on his bank statement, rang them to cancel it for next year and told them why, the helpful girl on the phone said to hold for a moment, came back and said she'd spoken to her supervisor and they would refund the amount, which I hadn't asked for. That was back in 2013, maybe there has been a change in the way they handle things

I'm sorry to hear about your husband :-(
I do think they've gotten less helpful, certainly. Also, I think that their T&Cs have tightened- you can't even use it on a weekend in most restaurants any more- which is when (if I ate out much) I would be going out with the boyfriend.

adampaine · 5 August 2015 at 3:44PM

I am having the same problems with Tastecard. I never received a renewal email they claim to have sent me. I only knew once I received an email from paypal 4 days before saying they had made the payment.

As soon as I received this I was straight on the phone but could not get through so sent them an email. This was never replied to so I eventually got through to them after a 45 minute wait and was told I couldn't have a refund.

However I have since been in contact via email to a very unhelpful customer service team and been told a couple of different things.

Firstly they cut and paste their tob's and said no to a refund.

I then explained I had tried to cancel and they came back and said

"Our reminder email is titled "Important notice about your tastecard membership renewal" to highlight the importance of its contents. This email contains details of your upcoming renewal. This email would have also made you aware that should you not wish to continue with your subscription that you could cancel at any point up to 5pm of the working day proceeding your renewal date."

My membership was restarting on the 3rd August and I emailed them on the 30th July so as far as I am concerned I have adhered to their stupid terms.

However they have sent back:

Apologies for any confusion caused, however our terms and conditions state that in order to cancel your subscription contact needs to be made by no later than 5pm the working day preceding your renewal date.

Therefore as your renewal date was 30/07/2015, we required contact to be made by no later than 5pm on 29/07/2015. As the first contact received by yourself in regards to cancelling your membership was made on 30/07/2015, this was not within the cancellation period agreed to and your membership had already renewed in line with our terms and conditions."

How is my renewal date the 30th July when my new membership starts on the 3rd August!! Its a complete con regardless of any misleading tob's as surely that means any company can make up any renewal date they like. If this was insurance it wouldn't be allowed.

#matt_taste #tastecard

Maddybee33 · 7 August 2015 at 11:24AM

Hello Adam,
I filed a claim with Paypal, and, despite the customer 'service' lady sounding so smug when I told them I'd do so, Paypal sided with me, and refunded the £29.99 :-)

I have only just now, after a week, received a response email from the complaint that I sent them after rude customer services, asking for more details (I sent email from a different address to the one that I previously registered with), but as they've left it so late, and I've got my refund, I'm tempted to just ignore it. x

Former_MSE_Helen · 21 August 2015 at 3:05PM

Many Tastecard customers have complained they were unable to contact the firm to cancel a trial of the service...

Read the full story:

Tastecard users hit with fee after being unable to cancel auto enrolment

Click reply below to discuss. If you haven’t already, join the forum to reply. If you aren’t sure how it all works, read our New to Forum? Intro Guide.

Quentin · 21 August 2015 at 3:25PM

For some reason you don't need to contact them to cancel the £1 trial membership the above article discusses and can do it online.

They do insist on you phoning them to stop an annual card renewing automatically.

You can do that at any time after buying it (eg as soon as you get it)- no need to wait till you get close to renewal time.

gree0115 · 24 August 2015 at 12:29PM

Cancelling your card doesn't necessarily work with continuous card authority's. I had a Tastecard until the end of last year and when it renewed the previous year, I'd had a new Nationwide debit card since the previous renewal. I thought Tastecard were going to have to contact me for the new card details, but the payment went out as normal. I was surprised and contacted Nationwide regarding this and they said CCA's will continue working even if a card has been renewed. Maybe that's not the case with credit cards but it certainly was with my debit card.

gree0115 · 24 August 2015 at 12:37PM

We had a Tastecard until the end of last year. We'd had a "lifetime" deal of £29.95 which was fairly good value. The first year it renewed automatically as they class it as an ongoing dining club. I contacted them as I never got the renewal email.

The following year I'd made a note in my diary to monitor my spam folder regularly for the renewal in case it ended up there, it didn't. I then contacted them to say that the renewal emails weren't going out, as they were always very quick to blame the "it's in the spam folder". They are, I think, a little slapdash with regard to this alert email as obviously it's in their best interests to just allow it to renew.

We gave it up at the end of last year, as I mentioned we were on a "lifetime" £29.95 offer but every year they tried to put it up until I pointed out it was a "lifetime" deal, and thankfully I'd kept the original sign-up email. I couldn't be bothered chasing them again at the end of last year as the usual email came through trying to put up the price on our "lifetime" deal, so we gave notice on it.

Taste Card Auto-renewal

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