Cineworld being completely unreasonable

Jonny Arson

Story is last year around January I signed up for Cineworld's 12 month unlimited card subscription. All grand made first payments and then after the €17.50 was debited from my bank account..... happy days......

Fast forward January one year later subscription is up, had no interest in renewing, so I stopped using the card on presumption that my subscription had ended.

Then last week to my horror I got a statement from the bank account the money was debited from (an account that I rarely use so why I only found out now) and it showed that Cineworld were continuing to charge the €17.50 every month since January. I went into Parnell Square asking why they continued to charge me and I asked them to cancel the card and refund the money charged since January. As they explained to me part of the terms of the subscription was that the subscription continues after the 12 month period thus they were within their rights to charge me. I find the contract I signed and buried within the small print they are right. They said they can do nothing in the branch but told me to call their helpline which I did and they have cancelled the card but are categorically refusing to refund the charges since January which amounts to at least €70 possibly even €87.50

Ok you can call me an idiot for not knowing every little detail of the contract and you can go into all the legal technicalities but Cineworld are being totally unreasonable here.
I've not used this unlimited card once since the date the 12 month subscription was due to end, they can check the card if they wish to verify that so they are essentially charging me for a product that I have not used.
When I signed up I was told that this was a 12 month subscription with nothing mentioned to me about the post 12 month period
Surely if a company has good and efficient customer services they should inform the customer by means of letter that their subscription is due to end and offer them the opportunity to renew their subscription, obviously this has not been done by Cineworld
Advertising a 12 month subscription when in reality it is a rolling subscription is misleading

Anyone know if there is anything else I can do with this situation or will I just have to suck my €70 up? I really feel I've been duped here. Contracts may be contracts but customer service and reason are missing here.

Anyway I just hope this is warning to some of you to be very careful signing up with Cineworld

Hugh Hefner

Well, you didn't read the small print and you lost because of it. Lesson learned. It's not a cliché for nothing. It would have been good PR if they had refunded you but they didn't do anything wrong. Just be happy that they cancelled it and didn't take the full 12 months of money.

faceman

Thats pretty standard for contracts with minimum terms. Although they were a bit mean to not refund you. Right them a letter to someone high up and you might have more joy.

MissFitz

While they have legally done nothing wrong, (as they stated in the contract that payments continue beyond the initial 12 months), I think that the name "12 month unlimited card subscription" is very misleading (false advertising??). I agree with faceman that you would probably get more joy in putting a letter together and sending it to head office (address is in London and included on their website).

Sangre

If Cineworld aren't budging then you'll just need to chalk it up to experience. Obviously you're no longer a customer so they're not bothered about losing you.

azezil

Well as you said it was written on the paper you signed, meaning you understood and accepted the terms and conditions, if you didn't bother to read the fine print, well thats no-one's fault but your own! *shrug*

krudler

read the fine print in future,alamost any subscription service renews itself after the initial 12 month run thats just common sense

Mitch Connor

krudler wrote:

read the fine print in future,alamost any subscription service renews itself after the initial 12 month run thats just common sense

agreed - it is the same with Gyms. If you want to stop going and stop paying, you need to contact the service provider, and your bank to ensure no more DD are taken.

Mr Alan

agreed, always very importnat to read small print. I work in a company which has a similar situation occuring alot, i reckon if your write a letter to a senior manager they'll probably refund the money. Its just standard procedure for them (i'd imagine) to refuse refund at first request, but if a stink is made they will no doubt pay out....after all the 70-90 euro or whatever means nothing to them and they'll be willing to write that off just to stop you annoying them!
Best of luck,
miller

Tusky

Its pretty much common sense that you will have to cancel any subscription that you take out manually. 12 month sub means (in my experience) you can't cancel it until after the 12 months are up, its the same with everything. (ntl, vodafone, 02, gyms etc) They are hardly going to cancel it manually without you asking.

Miguel_Sanchez

Welcome to the real world.

A 12 month subscription means that 12 months is the minimum amount of time that you have to be signed up for. After that you're free to cancel it whenever you like, but it's up to you to cancel it.

You'll get nothing back from Cineworld and really it's not their fault that you don't understand how subscriptions work.

Chalk it up to experience.

Kintarō Hattori

Jeff_Lebowski wrote:

Welcome to the real world.

A 12 month subscription means that 12 months is the minimum amount of time that you have to be signed up for. After that you're free to cancel it whenever you like, but it's up to you to cancel it.

You'll get nothing back from Cineworld and really it's not their fault that you don't understand how subscriptions work.

Chalk it up to experience.

Agreed.

sweet-rasmus

yeah, "always read the small print".

though, as suggeseted, that was false adverstisement. how unnoticeable was the small print? do complain to head office, and hopefully they will prefer to keep a happy customer. otherwise, if the contract was really misleading, you should talk to consumer affairs (the governmental department), see if they can do anything.

User45701

i can relate to this, i had to pay rent monthly and once month i didnt have rent and got a call from sherry fitzgerald saying that no money was paid.

About 4 months later i loved out after a year long contract and i hgad just left my job and emptied my bank account those TSB ***** still paid sherry fitzgerald my rent for 3 months after i moved out and this dispute is still on going over a year later.

So when it suits them they dont pay my rent for me and when i move out they pay it for me even tho i didnt request a overdraft???

kmick

Always cancel your Direct Debits by letter to your bank and keep a copy of the letter. Also ring them a week after you have sent the letter. You can cancel DD by internet banking now as well. In this case you messed up and you have to take the €70 hit Im afraid.

adonis

Jeff_Lebowski wrote:

Chalk it up to experience.

is it not Chalk it DOWN to experience?

Miguel_Sanchez

adonis wrote:

is it not Chalk it DOWN to experience?

It's either really. Depends where you're from maybe.

I always say 'chalk it up' or 'put it down' to experience. But I think people use both 'up' and 'down' for both.

So there you go.

Mitch Connor

put it up to experience? ARE YOU MAD!?

Surion

Actually, I disagree with most of the comments above!! Surprise! OP, I have had MASSIVE diffs with NTL, so...I used an old trick of ringing my branch and advising them that I have written letters to the company invovled to cancel the DD. As it's not happening (i.e. they continue to debit me), and it is my a/c afterall - they agree to cancel it for me. I've only used this twice but they were in very frustrating circumstances and I was (I consider) well within rights.

Secondly....the Director of Consumer affairs announced about 1 month ago that their office is targeting 4 gyms in dub city (as sample cases of the broader issue) to take to court as they consider it illegal to allow a contract float over into another years term, WITHOUT notification AND consent of the 2nd party to the contract. Interesting eh?? I suggest, you write to the office outlining your issue and then write to the cinema owners (or whomever is running the show!) and advise if they are unwilling to compromise with your reasaonable situation you will take the matter to the DoCA's office!!

You might be surprised what a bit of well written word-craft might do. Hope it helps. PM me if I can help you at all!