WARNING- I got trapped in eharmony contract

[OldFan]

I'm sure this is a tale as old as time, but I thought I'd warn people again.

Read somewhere that eharmony was better for religious people as there are more on there.

I was looking at the site and they must've caught me at a vulnerable moment as I like to think I wouldn't usually do this.

It said 'deal ends in 12 hours' or something and so I signed up. The deal was only a reduced price for 3 months or something.

Unless you leave within a fortnight there is no way out of your contract, no cancellation fee etc. I'll be paying them £18 a month for the best part of two years!

Really archaic way to do business.

The site is pretty dead, too so it's not even like I'm getting anything much for the £18. I was loath to rejoin PoF but I did and at least something's happening on there.

Anyway, this really was out of character and I don't need telling off- the paying out will be enough of a telling off.

I just thought I'd warn people.

Maybe I'll try and somehow get out of it.

I remember joining a dating site for vegetarians and vegans, which turned out to be hosted in Germany. It was a strange, misty void. There was one bloke who kept popping up and seemed to be a bot, and some profiles which were mostly inactive. I eventually managed to cancel my membership, but it wasn’t easy.

I am also in a similar position with eharmony. I signed up with them 2 years ago (got some sort of ‘deal’) but now no longer want to be with them. So hard to bloody turn off auto renewal. I genuinely thought I had - my mistake I’m sure. But it should be an easy process to be fair to the consumer. I cancelled my PayPal with them. They sent me a reminder email, Then 5 weeks ago they sent me an email saying they’d tried to take payment and couldn’t, so I needed to pay them. I didn’t see this email, and anyway today got a “final reminder” that I did see. Which states I need to pay them within 14 days or they “may consider taking further action to obtain the outstanding balance”. Now shitting myself - it’s£360!! I’ve emailed them and requested they cancel my whole account and that I don’t not have the funds to pay this (I genuinely don’t - I’m a single mum with an mortgage to pay, kids to feed etc). I haven’t even used the bloody site for over a year! Then they sent 3 emails today saying that their decision is final and i owe them all this money.

usually I would just pay up and accept that I’ve messed up, but their T&Cs and emails are quite confusing, it’s difficult to cancel and I genuinely didn’t realise I hadn’t cancelled them. I have offered to pay for the subscription I have ‘used’, as I accept that I missed their reminder emails, but they are still saying I need to pay the whole amount.

will they be sending debt collectors….???

they are such an unscrupulous company. They actually make me feel sick.

@StaleCrumbs Sorry to hear that. :( My friend said a decision is not final unless both sides consider it final. Keep contesting it. Praying for you. I only received the one email so far telling me I'd missed a payment.

Hi, I have recently met similar problem with eHarmony. I paid 1 year subscrpition last year and it automatically tried to take another 12-month subscription 2 weeks ago with increased price for almost £500, without sending me any notice email beforehand. They argued that they had sent the remindering email, but I had never received it at all.

Luckily that, due to the high amount of transcation, my bank messaged me about this and declined that payment when I replied no. I immediately logged in to the ehmarmony account to cancel my subscription and the account showed cancelled. However, the customer care team keep emailing me regards to the outstanding payment, saying that the cancellation cannot be accepted. And they said even if I delete my account immediately, they still require me to pay the full amount for next year subscription!

I would like to ask what will happen if I am ignoring their future emails regards to the outstanding payment? Will this affect my bank card or normal daily shopping using my bank cards? My eHarmony account had already been deactivated by them (I don't mind).

Hi @Sunny2905 (This is the OP BTW)

I would like to ask what will happen if I am ignoring their future emails regards to the outstanding payment?

A PP seems to have had more hastle but I haven't yet received any further emails.

Will this affect my bank card or normal daily shopping using my bank cards?

No x Tell your bank to completely cancel anything at all set up between you and Eharm just in case.

God willing that'll be the end of it really.

I think you should all write and complain. Refuse any further charges.

The company will not chase you for these debts because it's expensive to do it properly. Having a debt collection department for them probably means writing threatening emails, which you can also complain about.

I'm in a similar situation and very nervous about using the PayPal cancellation method. Has anyone who's used that method subsequently had their credit rating affected or anything else that should concern me? I'm desperate to cancel but so worried too. 😟

This is the OP. I cancelled it with my bank and still haven't heard anything more from Eharm after an initial email months ago @hildot26 . x

Thank you x

I had this exact situation.

I phoned my bank and said I didn’t recognise the transaction. They cancelled it and I never heard a word from them. Block their emails too. This was a year ago.

It’s the only way to rid yourself of that virus known as a so-called dating website.

Thank you @Maninwhite . That's so reassuring to know. It's been so stressful for me. I spoke to someone at my bank yesterday and they were amazing. She advised me how to cancel it so I'm doing that today.

Hello! I’m in a similar situation. I did the PayPal trick and blocked EHarmony emails, however have been receiving demand emails from HCM Collect (debt collector, registered in Spain) for the past month. I haven’t engaged with them and today their email says they will assume I’ll continue trying to evade the debt and advise their customer to take further action. Did anyone else experience this and could you possibly please tell me what happened? Thank you!

Is it definitely about eharmony, not something from a different scammer?

I've not received any further hastle from eHarm. Sorry to hear this - hope they back off for you soon. xx

Thanks so much for coming back to me! Yep, it’s definitely EHarmony. I’ve attached an image to indicate what’s been happening. What a disgusting, gross company!

I have done the same with eHarmony, all the others allow you to sign up monthly, they do not and lock you into a deal, the true amount is hidden and then you can't get out of it. I think I was trapped in for a year. I met one person but mostly it was as dead as a dodo on there. Definitely this is not a good way of spending money, from my experience anyway.

@Maninwhite may I please ask if you experienced any escalation or received similar debt collection emails? Thanks so much to all for your help & reassurance with this too ☺️

Oh fuck, poor you, unfortunate. I've avoidedIt, to expensive. Can be doing with dating apps...

@Zanatdy, OkayCupid was free when I used it (and still should be). And was a great site for long term dating more than hook ups. It might have changed since I last used it in 2015 but worth a look maybe?

@mrsvivian90 - if I were you I'd go to citizens advice in the new year and ask it to intervene on your behalf. I'd also approach my MP to see if they would write. Or go back to this debt collection company saying you have engaged a solicitor and it is not to contact you again.

These auto renewals with companies are a con.

I went on help page. It said go to settings and data, then there wouid be a button to press to cancel subscription. This button does not exist. There is no phone number to call that gets you through to an actual person. They are taking £17 a month off me. I ended up calling the bank and putting a stop on the payment it’s ridiculous