eHarmony taking money from me when I cancelled years ago!

[Afternoonteavirgin]

I cancelled when I met someone in 2021.

And last week I noticed that they'd taken £161 from me!
They're refusing to refund it.
They've said that It's in the terms and conditions.

The first response I got stated;

"I have received your recent inquiry regarding a refund for the Value Compensation.

I am sorry, but unfortunately the fee in question (£65) cannot be waived or refunded.

As stated on the last page in the purchase process, if you confirm immediate use, value compensation in the amount of £65.00 will be due in the event of cancellation within 14 days. Should Value Compensation be declined, a message is shown reiterating the £65.00 cost if the membership is later used and then cancelled within the 14 day period. We also state in our Terms & Conditions, if the subscription is canceled within the 14-day cancellation period, we will be entitled to retain from the refunded payment a reasonable amount (value compensation) to account for that portion of the Premium Membership that you have already received. The unique personality report is an essential part of the Premium Membership and must therefore be paid upon cancellation within 14 days. As a value compensation, we only charge half of the value of the report, i.e. £65.00. "
When I protested this, saying that I cancelled in 2021 and that it was a lot more £ than £65, I got this.

'I have received your recent inquiry regarding a refund of auto-renewal charge incurred and I regret to hear of your concern regarding your subscription.

^Please note that Renewal charges are not eligible for refunds as stated in our Terms and Conditions. As a result, we are unable to process a refund at this time. You can review our complete cancellation policy in our Terms & Conditions here: https://www.eharmony.co.uk/termsandconditions/#tc11.^

Your subscription will expire at the end of your current term on 12/09/2024 (MM/DD/YYYY). Your account will return back to the status of a Basic Membership after this date.

As we have now carefully reviewed Customer Care’s original denial of your request and found it appropriate, this decision will be final. Unfortunately, we are unable to provide any further consideration of your request.

Thank you for taking the time to try our service and I wish you all the best.'

Prior to this, they'd not taken any £ from me since before I cancelled.

I have forwarded them my confirmation of cancellation email. I have raised a dispute through PayPal (where the payment was taken from) but they've not acknowledged that yet.
I am not 100% sure they've read my emails properly? Are they thinking I only cancelled recently?

Can they do this (refuse to refund me)?
Is there anything I can do?

As an aside, I found them totally useless anyway and most definitely not worth paying for, but that's another story.

God, how awful. How can you tell the emails haven't sent though?

Theyre not in my 'sent' box but my draft one.
I am going to try again. And get onto them through twitter and FB maybe? Could anyone give me any other ideas? I can't believe I've missed the payments going out, how stupid of me but this is still their mistake.

I re-sent the email, informing them of the actual amount owing and the date I cancelled and another forwarding of the original cancellation confirmation email.

Googling tells me that they have form for this.

I have received an email back saying that they're sorry but they can't refund my £65, and wishing me all the best. 🤔😣😐

Sorry if you answered already, but how did you originally cancel?

The bank can charge back 13 months of payments from the date you cancelled if this helps?

Beyond that they will advise you to resolve with the company

Report it to the bank AND keep on at eharmony to resolve the whole issue

If the bank refund you 13 months of unauthorised transactions, then pigs start flying and eharmony refund you all of the money they've taken from you, you won't get to keep 2 refunds the bank will just take their refund back in a few months (after writing to let you know)
The confirmation of cancellation letter you have is enough to prove your side

Hope this helps (I worked in a debit card dispute dept of a big bank until end 2019, don't think rules will have changed much since but sure someone will confirm if I have it wrong)

Through the site, and then they confirmed it via email.

Thank you @Readysteadygoo , that's helpful to know. I rang the bank earlier but they cut me off and then I had to start work 😡

You could try my favourite trick (which companies hate as it involves time and admin). Do a subject access request asking for all the data they hold about you including all login data since the date on which you cancelled and copies of all emails they have sent you about your subscription since that date. Also ask for a copy of the sign up email that presumably they must have sent you (if they are charging you and are claiming you signed up again) after the cancellation date. Only caveat is they may be entitled to charge a fee for responding (can't remember what the rules on this are). It might be worth paying a small fee just to support your legal claim though!

Fabulous idea @TheLette !! I used to deal with SARs at work-they became free under GDPR but I think they may be about £12 now-which as you say would be worth it!

They're still refusing as said I signed up for automatic renewal, for which there are no refunds. I am wondering if I just need to suck this up as legally I may not have 'a leg to stand on' with it

I thought I may be able to also ask for advice on MSE but my login isn't working and when I click on 'forgot password' (even though I don't think I did!), it doesn't send me a reset link.

If you have a cancellation email from them and no evidence of having signed up again (e.g. a welcome email), I would raise a small claim. It's pretty easy to do and unless they can somehow produce evidence that you did sign up (which they would need to have confirmed in writing somehow e.g. email) it will be them with no leg to stand on. Basic stuff - you can't charge for something that the customer never signed up for.

According to their terms and conditions, you should have been regularly receiving emails with potential matches. I’m guessing you haven’t….

I think a SAR is a good idea. I wouldn’t back down on this. Good luck.

That doesn’t make sense, it you cancel a subscription you’re obviously opting out so automatic renewal doesn’t apply.

I'm not trying to be harsh, but it sounds like you never sent that cancellation request being as you've said it was still in your drafts, and you never cancelled the renewal subscription within your PayPal account.
Surely unless you received a response or confirmation back saying that the renewal was cancelled, you would presume that something is up at the time and chase it up.

It's up to the consumer to successfully notify the business of their intent to cancel services, and being as you never did that, the fault would be with you.

@andymary you're misunderstanding OPs posts. She cancelled via the website and got a confirmation email

However, it looks like eharmony has blocked her as after the initial response to her complaint, her follow up emails with proof of cancellation did not send.

Keep up updated OP as I imagine they depend on customers not noticing the money going down you won't be the only one

I successfully took Vinted to small claims court last year as payments kept going missing into my accounts. Cost £35 and took me 30 mins to fill out a form

I got all my money back, plus interest and the fee. You just need to find the UK address for eharmoney

The bank can charge back a lot more than 13 months. I've had a DD claim that went back six years (long story!) and it was all returned. They usually have a limit to what they'll refund immediately, and the rest needs investigation first, but they can go further back.

When they told you what account the renewal was for, was that your correct email, and the suggestion it was a second account came later?

If you've got your cancellation email, and the exact amount you're owed, I'd go forward with small claims now.

Edited to add - if you'd been blocked, you'd usually get a reply from the server which said your mail couldn't be delivered. It'd be unusual for them to just go into drafts. Are you having trouble with anyone else? Are they now emailing you from a no-reply email?

Set up a new email address and contact them from that one.

Also forgot to add but I’d make sure the bank blocks eharmony.

I’m with monzo and I had to get them to block an online personal trainer I had.

I’d signed up to a 4 month subscription, then didn’t think it was worthwhile continuing so cancelled 30 days before my last payment in October.

She took another payment out in November which I immediately contacted her about and got a refund but then when she done it again “in error” in December with no apology , I got the reimbursement again from her told her once was bad, twice is unacceptable and I’d report her if it happened again, then asked my bank to block that merchant.

It’s never happened since!

No, I did send that and I have a confirmation email (sorry you've left us, your account has been cancelled etc etc) from them from that time. The one that didn't send (which I re-sent) was recent, once I'd found out, not the one from years ago.

That's what they're saying. Yes I cancelled the account with them, but that I opted for automatic renewal and It's non-refundable. As in those two things are separate (at least I think that's what they mean).

I had to close My credit card to stop Match doing this. It's autorenewal bollocks. They will have been billing you for years.

Had the same with Elite Singles.

I think it really needs looking at - Martin Lewis needs to get on it.

No don’t drop it @Afternoonteavirgin you can prove that you cancelled that invalidates the auto renewal.

take it to small claims the act of telling them you are doing it may actually get them to sort it before it gets that far. If not then actually go through with it.

id also look up the legislation about cancelling and auto renewal so you can quote points

I would also look up to see what the ombudsman is or the governing body as it’s time to take the complaint above them.

I have threatened them with CLC but they haven't heeded it. They just keep referring to their 'automated payment' thing. I am irritated that I cannot get onto Martin Lewis' site.

@VotesAndGoats that's horrendous. I didn't join Elite Singles but I almost did and am now very glad I didn't!

On eHarmony I didn't find any difference at all to the service and matches that I got via the free sites!