Cinema Paradiso - A WARNING !!

[SimonJ]

Just wanted to let everyone know my experience with Cinema Paradiso. A signed up for the free trial on Jan 3rd 2006 - but had mistakenly signed up for the year's subscription. I'd misread the "One Month Free" as the trial - stupid me, I know.

I didn't realise the mistake until the following day when I checked my bank account and saw that they'd debited the £137 year's subscription. I emailed them immediately stating my mistake and requesting them to cancel my account and refund the money.

I emailed them again on the 9th of Jan, and wrote a postal letter a few days later. So far, I've received no response to any of them.

Any ideas what I can do next ? They state that all their business is conducted electronically so there aren't any phone number listed on the site.

Thanks in advance

[Dave]

TBH I think your stuck with it (you probably ticked a box saying you understood what you were doing so legally they haven't done anything wrong) I'd be surprised if they let you out of it.

Before any ask's no I don't work for them, I just have made similar mistakes (signing up to half price month when I thought i was getting 2 weeks free trial).

[Big Jock]

Paradiso have got a cooling off period, se terms ans cond to see if you qualify.

[SimonJ]

Thanks guys

[intalex]

I would like to think that a 1-year contract has to have a cooling off period as stated by Big Jock. Here's a link to it:

http://www.cinemaparadiso.co.uk/FAQ/Terms.aspx?#Cooling-off_period__

As long as you are asking them to change it to a monthly deal (rather than leaving them altogether), it shouldn't be a problem.

If you still haven't hear back from them (more than 2 weeks after first emailing them), then just go ahead and claim a chargeback form your card issuing bank. No point wasting your time and staying out of pocket while waiting this long for a company to get back to you.

In all cases, just make sure you have evidence of sending them an email a day after signing up, where you notified them that you accidentally picked the 1-year option instead of the monthly option.

Let us know how you get on.

[SimonJ]

Thanks for the response intalex - I'll look into the Chargeback form now.

I'll send one more email to them - and if I dont hear back within a few days, I'll proceed with the form.

I'll be in touch.

Thanks again

[SimonJ]

A surprise result ! CP refunded me yesterday !

Still no reply but I dont really mind - I've had the refund, so I'm happy.

Thanks again guys - the magic of posting at a forum eh ???

[intalex]

For refunding you, CP deserve to be commended for acting reasonably.

As for a lack of a response, you might want to check if they have an online response system, whereby, instead of emailing you back with a response, they just place their response online somewhere in your account. Just log-in and look around.

I know Movieconnect do it this way (for all the wrong reasons I suspect), but can't remember ever having to email CP when I tried them out, so I wouldn't know for sure how they respond.

[Marthy]

Hi everyone.

Just to let you know that I know some people working for this company and they told me that they are experiencing a large back log due to the season holidays and shortage of staff so that’s probably reason why they were unable to respond to your e-mails.