I’m new to the Monzo community and just joined the forum. I’m hoping to get some advice on an issue I’m facing with a chargeback request.
Last year, I signed up for a £1 trial with Gourmet Society as part of a cashback offer related to my discount rail card. I wasn’t aware that after the free period, they would automatically charge me £39.99 for renewal. They did send a renewal reminder, but I saw it too late, and they took the money from my Monzo account.
I’ve contacted Gourmet Society multiple times, explaining that I haven’t used the service at all and don’t want it. They refuse to issue a full refund and are only offering partial compensation or an extension, which I don’t want.
I checked the Monzo app to dispute the transaction, but none of the available options seem to fit my situation. Has anyone successfully gotten a chargeback in a similar case? What’s the best way to proceed?
You don’t have chargeback rights because you failed to end your subscription in time.
This isn’t a problem for monzo to resolve, it’s between you and Gourmet - and whether they goodwill a refund against their terms and conditions you agreed to.
All that would happen if you falsely raised a chargeback:
Monzo might temporarily refund you
Monzo speaks to Gourmet
Gourmet send Monzo the terms and conditions you agreed to along with your name, date of digital acceptance and other details you provided
Monzo take back the temporary refund and tell you to have it out with Gourmet
This is how pretty much all trials work though, it’s an introductory period. Unless it’s a credit card-free trial, assume there will be a payment at the end of it. It will be stated somewhere on the website during the signup flow.
I’ve been done by the same thing before, so just a learning experience. The best idea is to usually go in and cancel the subscription immediately - it usually retains the trial but won’t then renew. Or if it would cancel the trial, set a reminder on your phone.
Chargebacks don’t cover buyer’s remorse or lapsed trial periods unfortunately. If they’re offering you partial compensation, take it. It’s the best you will get.
Everyone has already made great points here, but as someone who has to respond on the other side to disputes as a merchant - despite taking multiple steps to remind users about subscription terms - I really hate customers who can’t be bothered to read what they are signing up to and then feel entitled not to pay in accordance with a contract they’ve agreed to. Take some personal responsibility for your actions, FFS.
It’s a complete waste of the merchant’s time and often diverts them from being able to support other customers.
In fact I wish banks would do some basic checks here before even allowing the customer to raise a dispute. Monzo are particularly bad at this; based on some of the junk I’ve seen, I’m not convinced there is any sort of sanity check that gets applied to a customer’s dispute claim before being sent straight to the acquirer. I’ve seen customers upload photos of the floor as evidence for their chargeback, no verification that the customer is telling the truth and has made any sort of attempt to contact the merchant about a refund first (which is an explicit requirement in the MasterCard chargeback guide for many reason codes) etc etc etc.
The vast majority of these disputes are won once somebody actually looks at them, but is there anything to disincentivise customers from abusing the chargeback system in this way? I’m not convinced.
Are there any card issuers that will seek to recover the handling fees from the end-customer after the acquirer wins on second presentment? IMO they should 100% be trying to claw it back. Customers would think twice about disputing in the first place if they understood this was a risk.
I agree, but the way banks handle these make it too easy, and repeat offenders (allegedly not receiving their ASOS order etc) get away with it.
Costs the banks a pretty penny, on top of the other fraud losses they have to deal with.
Merchants should generally accommodate potential future costs into their budgeting, though it is not practical in some instances especially smaller companies.
