Beware of subscribing to Racing UK - Locked into 12 months

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imajik
Posts: 14
Joined: Thu Mar 24, 2011 2:45 am

I first joined Racing UK 2-3 years ago. As I only needed it for a short space of time I cancelled within a couple of weeks and everything was fine. Then on 28th July this year I subscribed again. I assumed (wrongly!) that as I was paying monthly that I had a month to cancel my subscription without being rebilled. I emailed them using the contact us form on their website around 10th August asking to cancel. I'm not sure of the exact date as I didn't get a receipt. I didn't hear back from them. Then on 15th August I sent an email to [email protected] again asking to cancel and heard nothing back. I phoned them last week to get them to cancel and was told that as I hadn’t cancelled within 14 days I was now locked into a twelve month contract with them. I feel completely ripped off by them. I don’t think they make it clear on their website that they only do one day or 12 month contracts. Nor do they make it clear that you have 14 days to cancel before being locked into a full year. What makes it worse is that they told me that the 12 month contract will automatically renew next year unless cancelled. I asked them to cancel it now and they said they couldn’t do that and I would have to remember to contact them in 11 months time (30 days before it renews) and ask for it to be cancelled then. Is there anything I can do to stop them from billing me for the next 11 months? I for one will never subscribe to Racing UK again.

Any advice is very much appreciated.
RSLander
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Sep 01, 2015 3:51 pm

Are you being billed to a credit card? It might be a bit inconvenient if you use it for automatic billing of things you want to keep, nevertheless the most effective countermeasure to these sort of lowlife business practices is to just call credit card company and tell them your card was "stolen."
steven1976
Posts: 1744
Joined: Tue Jan 19, 2010 6:28 am

Call your credit card company.
madgoose1
Posts: 16
Joined: Tue Sep 01, 2015 5:17 pm

call your bank and tell them to stop all future transactions from racing uk until you advise them otherwise,if they pay by mistake they should refund you (santander do)
Grzemp
Posts: 8
Joined: Thu Nov 28, 2013 8:47 am

Yes imajik, it is how RUK operates now.. I had exact same situation as yourself over a year ago. There was no trouble cancelling a subscription with a month's notice about 1,5-2 years ago, now you agree to a 12 month contract (with either one installment or 12 monthly payments) and it is acknowledged by clicking "I agree to T&C".
When RUK changed their service to "Watch on 3 devices" (or something like that) their terms changed and you are bound to 12 month contract. If you don't pay (or choose to cancel your credit/debit card etc) they will lock your access and send your account to a solicitor to deal with a debt. Not to mention it will reflect on your credit score.

Simply put: if you want to cancel your subscription before 12 months run out - you are screwed. Sorry mate, I feel you as I was screwed the same way and had to pay for months of unwanted service.
andyfuller
Posts: 4619
Joined: Wed Mar 25, 2009 12:23 pm

As you tried to contact them via the Contact Us form I would try to speak to someone and explain that you did try to cancel within the 14 day period entitled to you under the consumer rights act but they failed to do so.

I would push them on this and if they still refuse I would take the case to the consumer ombudsman as you should have a good case. The biggest problem you are going to have though is proving you did actually contact them.

I would never advise using a websites contact us form and in such circumstances use email instead.
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Dallas
Posts: 23563
Joined: Sun Aug 09, 2015 10:57 pm

I found this tucked away on there website, they dont make it easy to find this info and obvioustly less easy to actually cancel

.............

How do I cancel my Racing UK Anywhere membership*?

If you’d like to cancel your membership, you’ll need to contact us by phone or email.

You can do this in one of the following ways:

Call us on: 0344 855 2977

*Please note, Racing UK Anywhere memberships are a 12 month minimum term contract. You will not be able to cancel during the minimum term period.

You can also email us to cancel but you must include your customer number, address and contact number. We'll then call you back to verify your details and process your request.

Please note, we won't be able to cancel your services unless we verify your request over the phone.

.............

I have never agreed with companies who sell a subscription services via a quick mouse click but make you to go to extreame lenghts to then get out of it. - notice how they dont call you back to confirm and activate your subscription and take the time to verbally explain the cancellation procedure

I hope you get it resolved as andy said try phoning them and hope you get a understanding human and not a cyborg quoting a script from the screen in front of them.
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