FLAVOURLY problem - read if you bought beer!

[ChocolateWombat]

I know lots of MNers bought Flavourly craft beer, after people raved about it on the bargain threads.

I ordered a crate for £13 on a 3 monthly package, on the understanding it could be cancelled anytime - website kept mentioning it could be cancelled, no bullshit! No direct mention of charges involved.

So, received the first crate - all good. Then went to cancel.
The website tells me I have not had the minimum number required (no mention still of what the minimum number is) and I MIGHT (doesn't say definitiely - very vague) be charged if I cancel now.

Then it invites me to click on a box saying 'cancel and charge me' but doesn't specify exactly how much I will be charged.

I'm not prepared to click on a box allowing them to charge me any random amount.
There is no phone number for contact and when I emailed to request one or a callback, they said they cannot speak to customers.

If you are considering buying Flavourly Beer - BEWARE first.

Has anyone else had similar experiences or managed to cancel successfully without charge??

I cancelled online with no mention of a charge or minimum number of boxes, I'd be phoning their customer services ASAP. I'm sure their website made it clear how easy it would be to cancel when I ordered my box.
Good luck with it.

If you order the 3 box deal it is cheaper than the single box. I ordered this deal as I wanted 3 boxes. If you only wanted 1 box I think you should have ordered the single box deal at £24

I posted about this after I ordered as I noticed something in the t's and c's which made me cautious about signing up for anything more than a month. However, it wasn't paticularly clear and if it is asking you to tick a box without actually telling you what the charge is then I think they could be breaking some kind of selling regulations.

I would presume if you sign up to a 3 month deal, then 3 months is the minimum number? You need to pick the 1 month deal to be able to cancel after 1 box. Thats why the 3 month & longerdeals are cheaper.

The cancellation fee depends on how many boxes you've had out of the order. So if you bought a 12 month sub and cancelled after 9 you'd pay a smaller fee than someone who cancelled after 5.

I assume that's why there's no exact £ value in the t&c's as its different for each person iykwim.

I cancelled after 1 box (think I signed up for either 6 or 12 months) and was charged £3. I wasn't expecting that but decided I'd rather pay the charge than get more boxes I didn't want. Not such a bargain after all.

Hey Chocolate Wombat,

Ryan here, founder of Flavourly.

Just wanted to reply personally to your query.

We make it affordable and flexible for users to join on our longer month plans (ie 3,6 and 12 month), on which we offer a discount to reward loyalty.

If you commit to a 3 month plan, we give you a discount on each box you receive but if you decide to cancel before your committed time is up we simply charge and ask you to pay back the discount you have received to date on each box received, we feel that is extremely fair.

In your circumstance, it may have been easier to sign up for a rolling monthly account, or simply made a purchase via our gift (one off purchase) range.

I hope that clears things up, and please do let me know your thoughts.

Many thanks!

Ryan O'Rorke
Founder at Flavourly.com

Hello Ryan
Thanks for your reply.

I think I would agree with everything you said IF it had been made clear on the website while I was purchasing beer. My point is that it is NOT made clear that there will be charges for cancelling (whilst it is made clear it is easy to cancel) and the exact level of those charges are certainly not clear.

If those charges had been made clearer, then of course I you'll have chosen the month scheme.....but they were not clear on the website itself.......and it is for this reason I feel you are drawing people into committing to a contract which has financial penalties of which they are unaware. You need to go to greater lengths to ensure other customers don't end up in the position I am in - the information needs to be much clearer on the main pages of the website itself, not just buried in the terms and conditions.

Even now, wanting to cancel, I am faced with ticking a box which says 'cancel and charge me' without a clear figure of exactly how much I will be charged - having ticked that box, I fear you could charge me absolutely any amount you like - and of course there is no telephone number to use to discuss it with someone. When I have emailed, I have still not been given an exact charge.

There are lots of deals around, giving people discounts at the moment. These emphasise the savings to be made and the ease of cancellation, but do NOT emphasise the financial implications of cancelling or make it clear enough to the same level that different contracts have different financial implications if cancelling. It is this lack of parity given to the display of information to potential customers which I have an issue with - it is too easy for customers to see the discounts and ease of cancellation, but nowhere near so easy to see the financial implications of cancelling - and having looked at the terms and conditions really carefully, I can still see nowhere where the specific implications of cancelling at different points are spelled out.

When purchasing other products the terms and conditions will specify the exact financial implications of cancelling at different points, so the customer is fully aware - I would argue that information is NEVER made available, so the exact amount will always be a surprise to a customer....and it is that which is unacceptable.

Look forward to hearing your thoughts about it some more.

Thanks for the reply.

As a small start up its great to hear feedback like this as we continue to improve our services.

I will get the web team to work on making it much more clear on the site and throughout checkout as you mentioned above, we will also specify the exact charge that is required to pay back for cancelling early.

Again, really appreciate the feedback and I hope you enjoy your delivery.

Ryan O'Rorke
Founder at Flavourly.com

I think it's very clear in the terms and conditions as to what the penalty is if you cancel a subscription before the end of the period. I linked them on the bargain thread. There's no actual penalty as such it's just the repayment of an additional discount and it's in there really clearly under cancellation.

But RJ it isn't clear. There is no mention of any actual figure - so it is unclear to me exactly how much penalty I will be charged.
I accept that there can be a financial penalty if the terms are not met, but it needs to be really clear exactly how much the penalty is......and at the moment that precise figure is never identified. The precise size of any discount also needs to be clearer if the penalty is related to that.

I have looked lots of times now at the website and at no point in the terms and conditions or on the website can I see the figure that cancelling will cost me.

And RJ, if you read the reply from Flavourly, you will see they acknowledge the points I raise and say they will address them, making the exact penalty clearer on the website and through checkout.

The point isn't that penalties shouldn't apply - it is that it is a companies duty to make them explicitly clear to customers.

The penalty is the difference between the package that you chose, and the package that you actually got.

You chose 3 months at £13 each, but only received one barrel, and one barrel alone usually costs £24, so you'll pay the difference between £13 and £24. So £11.

I imagine that, like Ryan said, the system is just not sophisticated enough to be able to work this out for each customer yet. If you'd ordered a 6 month deal, you'd have got it cheaper than £13, so the calculation would be different again. It's substandard, but explainable, as they are a small start-up.

It is all clearly documented in the T&Cs, so you can work it out for yourself if you want too.

I hope that helps though.

I think that is slightly wrong anchor.

A single box would have cost £14 (with the £10 discount), you paid £13 for a multi box deal, so the difference would be £1 (I can't remember the exact prices)

You could try and email them, when I had a query they replied very quickly, they should be able to tell you how much you owe.

I have a 3 box deal - we're giving them to family for Christmas. DH is very impressed with the beer so far He knows beer, I only do fizz

Responded to an offer for 20 craft beers for £19 with free P&P. No sooner had I made the order than I received an email stating that I had also been charged £15 for subscription and would be charged £25 a month later and every month thereafter whether I ordered beer or not. As the Flavourly flier I had responded to specifically stated "This offer is not a subscription. We won't send you any more beer unless you order direct from us." this seems very misleading. I have emailed them twice but received no reply and so had to spend a great deal of time calling my credit card Fraud and Disputes department who arranged refund and put a block on FLAVOURLY taking any more payments . They said that this type of thing increasingly common where you are offered a great offer be it for anything from craft beer to face cream and then you are charged a subscription monthly or at another frequency ad infinitum. Apparently, many people have lost hundreds or thousands from their account before they realise if they ever do. Flavourly eventually emailed back and initially refused to cancel this unwanted subscription only relenting when I sent them a link to the legal info on 14 day right to cancel any subscription taken out on the internet etc. This was followed by another rude email from Flavourly seemingly not too pleased that I had not just let them go on charging me for a subscription that I did not want and was of no benefit to me. BEWARE BEWARE BEWARE of this company.