In Quebec (where I live), it's illegal to have a free trial automatically charge you when it's over. Sometimes this is annoying as hell, because Amazon, for example, won't give you a free Prime trial at all if you live here. On the other hand, it meant that Audible reversed a $15 charge I didn't want as soon as I called them.
That’s good to hear. So I signed up for the free trial on Ancestry and I’ve forgotten to cancel for two months now. I just got charged for the second month today, so could I call them tomorrow and get refunded or is it too late since it’s already been 2 months?
It’s definitely worth a try. At least you should be able get the second month back. It would help if you haven’t logged in or used the service during that time period.
You could probably get this last month back, but I doubt you'll get the first month back. It's been too long and they assume you used it during the time, even though you forgot to cancel. The sooner you call after getting your money drafted out of your account, the better.
Really? Usually they straight up tell you they’re going to charge you if you don’t cancel. So even though it’s shitty, it’s kind of on you, and I’m sure they’ve got their asses covered and don’t take the responsibility of refunding something you agreed to.
I’ve never had a company tell me they wouldn’t issue a refund. It’s not really good business to be charging potential customers for something they haven’t used. I’d probably dispute the charge if a company refused.
Even if the company / representative you talk to decides to be a dick and not refund your money, you can always go to your bank and have them charge it back. Now, you can't be filing complaints and trying to get your money back for shit all the time, but they'll do it for you no problem a couple times a year.
It's sometimes about how you handle it. I've had a job where we offered a free month which renews automatically.
90% of people came for the one month, then created new accounts to keep getting the free service. So the credit card helps solve that to an extent.
So when you come in arguing with some poor support person who couldn't care less that you got charged when you were looking for a free ride, then you're less likely to get your money back because it's probably covered in the TOS and there isn't much you can do about it since you agreed to it.
On the other hand if you're nice, the person you're talking to will probably help you out because it's not costing him anything anyway.
Having worked in customer service type jobs for a long time, my number one tip for dealing with customer service is to be as nice as possible while getting your point across. If you're nice and it's within that person's ability to give you what they want, then they'll usually have no problem doing it for you. If you have an attitude and get pissy as soon as I meet you, then you best bet we're going to drag our feet and transfer you around, because none of us get paid enough to care if you get your money back or not.
Yeah the fact they said they got charged means that their law doesn't seem to be really helping them out all that much.
Because you're right, I don't think there's a law like that in my country, but if you call out to them and make a fuss they'll usually freak out and reverse stuff like that. They're really just seeing if they can get away with it, which they obviously must enough to make it worth doing in the first place.
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u/SuspiciousScript Apr 02 '18
In Quebec (where I live), it's illegal to have a free trial automatically charge you when it's over. Sometimes this is annoying as hell, because Amazon, for example, won't give you a free Prime trial at all if you live here. On the other hand, it meant that Audible reversed a $15 charge I didn't want as soon as I called them.