Woman fails to spot £60 / month charge for 7 years

[miniman]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy952p9pev7o

I mean, I’m st with remembering to cancel stuff but really? What a cretin.

[butchstewie]

The bit I can't work out, and I've read the article a couple of times, is did leggings keep arriving every month or whatever the subscription interval is, because if so at some point surely you'd ask yourself "why am I being sent all this free stuff?" wouldn't you?

Or have I totally misunderstood

Edited to add I misunderstood - your subscription buys "store credit".

[MitchT]

I'd like to be able to not notice £60/month going out for seven years. First world problem! That said, the proliferation of subscription based things these days is infuriating, as is the ease with which you can unwittingly sign up for them... but I'd notice!

[J6542]

Easy done, going by a current thread in the finance section.

[AlexC1981]

Of all the things to buy on subscription, sportswear would be right at the bottom of my list. How many pairs of shorts, leggings, and t-shirts do you get through?

[CoolHands]

It would have been sign up here for 20% off type of st I imagine. Probably only bought 1 actual item at the time.

[alangla]

Is it overly harsh to suggest that if something like that happened for more than a couple of months without you noticing that you (or indeed the person with Power of Attorney over your account, if required) are not paying enough attention to your financial affairs and deserve all you get?

[bigpriest]

butchstewie said:

The bit I can't work out, and I've read the article a couple of times, is did leggings keep arriving every month or whatever the subscription interval is, because if so at some point surely you'd ask yourself "why am I being sent all this free stuff?" wouldn't you?

Or have I totally misunderstood

Edited to add I misunderstood - your subscription buys "store credit".

Fabletics runs a "VIP" subscription service which means that for a monthly fee of £59.99 its customers get store credit which can only be used to buy products from its website.

I'm guessing it's a VIP Club where you get access to buy items unavailable to the general public. I'm also guessing that all the default options lead you down the path of subscribing. Like Amazon Prime and its sneaky tactics.

[ChocolateFrog]

I've done it before but it was £5 a month.

Surely she has built up enormous store credit as that's what it seemed to be for.

[Sheets Tabuer]

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

[ExBoringVolvoDriver]

ChocolateFrog said:

I've done it before but it was £5 a month.

Surely she has built up enormous store credit as that's what it seemed to be for.

Clearly hadnt been checking her credit card statement for 7 years - either too much money to bother or just kept on paying the minimum amount.

I really don’t like having regular payments from my credit card since it can be, in my experience anyway, harder to cancel than a Dd from your bank.

[Dog Star]

bigpriest said:

Fabletics runs a "VIP" subscription service which means that for a monthly fee of £59.99 its customers get store credit which can only be used to buy products from its website.

I'm guessing it's a VIP Club where you get access to buy items unavailable to the general public. I'm also guessing that all the default options lead you down the path of subscribing. Like Amazon Prime and its sneaky tactics.

To be fair I’d be quite pleased if Mrs DS was spending £60 a month for 7 years on Fabletics - preferably little crop tops and those leggings / booty shorts that go up the wearers arse.

[bigpriest]

Dog Star said:

bigpriest said:

Fabletics runs a "VIP" subscription service which means that for a monthly fee of £59.99 its customers get store credit which can only be used to buy products from its website.

I'm guessing it's a VIP Club where you get access to buy items unavailable to the general public. I'm also guessing that all the default options lead you down the path of subscribing. Like Amazon Prime and its sneaky tactics.

To be fair I d be quite pleased if Mrs DS was spending £60 a month for 7 years on Fabletics - preferably little crop tops and those leggings / booty shorts that go up the wearers arse.

You never fail to deliver Adidas latex range next?

[Cloudy147]

The Company says the subscription is easy to cancel.

I’ll bet it is.

[Derek Smith]

I had something similar happen to me, but with an annual charge. I cancelled, but didn't check for acknowledgement. I missed the charge first renewal, at over £90. To be fair, both my wife and I had Covid. My wife checked the credit card the following year and discovered the debit. I notified the company, giving time/day/date of cancellation and a screen shot, and asked for the return on both amounts, given I had not used the facility the previous year. (And 9 months before that.) It was refused. I told my credit card company. I got the full amount refunded. There was a method for cancellation in the 'small print' which I hadn't followed. An American company.

It was easy to miss as I had about four other regular payments come out the same month.

I buy my wife's birthday and xmas presents with cash as she checks the credit card so carefully. One year I bought her some perfume and other stuff, and it was expensive. The woman serving was all over me when I said it was for my wife of 52 years. She asked how I was going to pay, and I said credit card, but as I opened my wallet, I saw the cash and remembered. I said to the woman, 'Oh, no. I'd better pay by cash.' and she was off with me from then on. I realised what she was thinking after a couple of minutes, but what can you say?

[maz8062]

Dodgy company - sell a client a pair of tights and then sign them up for a recurring credit , an intangible purchase designed to deceive. If she d signed up for a physical product to be delivered monthly, she would have quickly realised after the first month that she d got it wrong. The store credit is where this is unethical.

[ScotHill]

I actually stepped through the purchasing process on their website and there are a number of times that the £59 monthly subscription appears on the screen but it is absolutely in small text and positioned to deceive people into not reading it, I.e. below any ‘continue’ or ‘purchase’ buttons.

Doesn’t really excuse not checking statements though, I wasted a few months on Amazon Music in a similar fashion.

[dandarez]

Cloudy147 said:

The Company says the subscription is easy to cancel.

I ll bet it is.

Mark Ralea, Fabletics' general manager for Europe, did insist VIP subscriptions were easy to cancel.

yeah, as easy as ABC Sorry, XYZ!

Ralea went on to say the firm did 'attempt to contact by email' any customers who were... 'building large credit'.

He also added that the firm had refunded MOST of Ms Lane's money 'out of goodwill'.

[the-norseman]

Do CC last 7 years? my recents ones have expiry dates of 3-4 years on them.

[tim0409]

the-norseman said:

Do CC last 7 years? my recents ones have expiry dates of 3-4 years on them.

Recurring payments continue with the new card, even as the card number changes. Even cancelling and getting a new card doesn’t work if you are trying to stop a company taking this type of recurring payment.