Disney+ cancelling subscriptions then charging more to renew

[StinkyWizzleteets]

I signed up to Disney+ early last year to make use of their £49.99 deal. I ensured it would auto Renew via PayPal because it’s kept us sane during lockdown and was basically survival.

I get an email today saying my subscription was cancelled, no notification about payment not being taken yesterday when it was due or any issues with taking payment and now Disney+ expect me to pay £79.99 as a new subscriber rather than the £59.99 I budgeted for. It may only be £20 extra but I don’t have it and I do grudge them doing this.

It seems loads of other people are in the same position and Disney are refusing to honour the renewal price they offered to people trying to renew their subscription today after auto renew failed yesterday.

I’m seeing on fb people unable to contact customer services or being hung up on if they ask to escalate the matter.

I think Disney should be honouring the £59.99 renewal price for those who are trying to do so today after auto renew yesterday failed. Aibu?

@StinkyWizzleteets I see what you mean now, definitely sneaky.
I do think the Star content is worth it though, very much enjoying Bones from the beginning!

@herewegoagainst aside from the principle of it, I don’t have the £20 spare to upgrade. My kids will be so upset. I’m really angry as I keep being cut off from live chat before getting to a human and the phone line quality is so bad I can’t hear what’s being said.

@TwoLeftSocksWithHoles

That's not right, they sound like a bit of a Mickey Mouse organisation to be honest.

@StinkyWizzleteets When you first start your subscription? Has it been a year already?

Sorry, when DID you start @StinkyWizzleteets

I was an early bird subscriber so got the £49.99 deal and it started a year ago today. I expected renewal to be £59.99 but they cancelled instead

My payment wasn't taken because my card expired, but once corrected it was the £59.99 amount. Definitely complain, something has gone wrong.

I don't know why anyone is paying for it. Lots of broadband and phone companies giving 6 months away for free. I just change my phone sim only contract everytime it's about to run out and get it for free again.

@folloyourarro who did you speak to to correct the problem? I can’t get through to anyone

I paid annually and my renewal is to go through tomorrow. I checked my account and they had an old card on there, I updated my card details and am expecting them to take £59.99 tomorrow.

@StinkyWizzleteets sorry I haven't spoken to anyone, I changed the payment myself but it's not due until tomorrow so could still happen to me. It's happening to loads of others I've seen on another forum. When you finally get through to someone they will sort it to the original price it's just very busy atm. Some are going through via live chat billing option.

the live chat keeps telling me I've left the conversation after waiting an hour or so. Its now up at 200 minutes before I get to an adviser.

I actually feel for the poor buggers having to work on the helpline today.

Yes I've heard that happening, someone I know got through to someone in the US so maybe wait until later tonight and if US likely to still be available?

Mine has automatically renewed today at £59.99.
I'm annoyed as DH was going to cancel it as we don't use it anymore and he's insisting they haven't emailed about it, so I'm not sure who's at fault!

@Bettina500 most likely husband, I got an automatic email reminding me a month ago

This has also happened to me, been waiting on live chat and my ETA of speaking to someone is when I need to do the school run!

@Bettina500 i got at least two emails detailing the price change.
Mine renewed at £59.99 via paypal today.

I was going to switch to monthly payment when the first year expired, but won't now due to the increase, as my payment will go out in April, so should be at £59.99 again.

I have just updated my credit card details though as the other one had expired, don't want to give them any excuse to charge more..

@folloyourarro I thought as much...

@ToastandJamandTea ours was PayPal too. I think he was banking on it declining from our old debit card!

I say that mine's renewed - but I'm not actually sure! It was due to renew today and I've not had an email to say it's been cancelled

I had en email letting my know my card had expired, I changed the card details and it’s renewed automatically at the £59 price.

Just an update. My partner finally got through to their phone service. The Disney rep said they couldn’t do anything to fix the issue and could not honour the renewal price on the phone. She didn’t know why it was happening but that lots of people were affected and that she has been told to report the account to their technical department who “hopefully” will be in touch in coming days.

They were meant to have a safeguard procedure whereby failure to pay (for whatever reason) triggered an email, the service was to continue for a few days to allow customers to amend it or cancel and only then would their subscription be cancelled by the company.

I have no idea if Disney plan on fixing this or are relying on customers giving up and paying the extra costs of a new subscription.

To those who manage to sort it out on phone or live chat, we’re you told any of this or did they just accept your payment?

I was told I'd get a call back today but that hasn't happened.

What's annoying me is that they could have easily put up a message on the website explaining the situation to answer people's questions but there's been nothing.

I certainly won't be paying the higher amount. I'll do without rather than pay for their incompetence.

@StinkyWizzleteets I just got through on webchat after a 5 min wait and got sorted. I paid the full subscription and he processed a refund for the difference between that and the deal we were promised. It sounded like they'd been briefed to offer it finally. Still really disappointed with the way they handled the situation but at least we can watch the Falcoln and the Winter Soldier tomorrow.

@herewegoagainst

Have you signed up to the Star content as well? I think that might be extra? Although signed-up is a bit of an overstatement as ours just bundled us through it so we could get on. I'm in the middle of my 12 month subscription so haven't been charged anything ... yet.

Are they really looking to charge extra for Star content going forward?

I don’t care what's on Star. I watched it all first time round what, 10 years ago.

Disney not coming out looking good in all this pay per view