Experian
I signed up for the 30 day free trial for Experian after finding out that British Gas had fucked up their billing three years previously and neglected to tell me, just in case there was any other stuff on there. I ended up keeping it for three weeks until I was back on 999 (fuck knows how, I never pay anything on time), then decided to cancel. Unfortunately, although you can sign up with no hassle online, cancelling involves a premium rate phone number and a menu maze, not the kind of thing you want to be calling internationally.

I had a stroke of luck two days later when I lost the debit card it was being billed to, so I got the old one cancelled and got an email from Experian saying:

In order to keep your membership, you must register a new payment card.

No thanks! A month later I get:

We have made a number of unsuccessful attempts to take payment for your CreditExpert membership, but you must update your payment details before your membership is cancelled.

followed by:

We'll have to cancel your membership which means that you will not be alerted to changes to your credit status.

Jackpot! Except, two days later, I got billed for two months of Experian membership. I called up Experian, they said they got my new VISA/CVSS numbers from my bank. I call my bank and they say something along the lines of "Bullshit, that's illegal". Turns out that Experian had called up VISA and they'd sent along updated billing details. Apparently they don't see how their emails constitute them cancelling the membership, and insisted that as I didn't call up their customer service number to confirm I was still a member. So, I gave them a choice, 1) refund the money, 2) I notify my bank that this is fraud and Experian get two fraud chargebacks, taking the money they owe me up from £30 to £130.

They get pretty upset at this being called fraud, and refuse to refund the money, so I offer choice 3) I use Moneyclaimonline and claim for the money they owe me, interest and court fees. They then have to send some of their expensive lawyers down to Bristol to explain to small claims court that I did owe them thirty quid, costing them many hundreds as claiming back costs are capped in small claims court. They went for option 2 in the end. It makes me giggle to know that I got Experian done for banking fraud.
( Ungersven would support SpankyHanky's patreon, Thu 1 Mar 2012, 9:03, 8 replies)

Fair enough, but
something is telling me you were being a bit of a douchebag here.

They were a bit naughty, but at the same time, you didn't do it right either.

I can't see any corporate stupidity there, anyway.
(username failed moderation, Thu 1 Mar 2012, 9:10, closed)

The stupidity
is in the fact that their automated system was telling me different things to their humans, and when they were confronted with the problem they decided to pay a huge bank fee on top of the amount in dispute rather than make a full refund or make me an offer (I'd have taken 1 month's refund).

The thing is, I did do it right. When they wrote to me saying that they were cancelling my membership unless I gave updated payment details they were creating a new agreement to cancel the membership, completely in line with their terms of service, one I chose to take up.
( Ungersven would support SpankyHanky's patreon, Thu 1 Mar 2012, 9:15, closed)

No, not really.
You're just a nuisance. You said yourself, you didn't cancel it.

They took the cheapest option.

Well done anyway. A noble fight, valiantly won.
(username failed moderation, Thu 1 Mar 2012, 9:19, closed)

I didn't cancel it because I got an easier offer, if you have the choice of "Call this phone number at £1.80/minute" (again, I wasn't in the country at the time) or "Do nothing" to cancel, both perfectly within the rules, what would you do? If they'd sent me an email saying "You owe us £15 and your card details have changed so we can't take it" they'd have got paid and I'd have cancelled it over the phone, fact is they offered me a way out.

As for it being the cheapest option, no, they could have just done the refund and saved themselves a hundred or so quid.

I see where you're coming from about it being a dick thing to do, and if I had done it deliberately to get out of the contract or if I'd done it just to piss them off and waste their time, sure. What actually happened is they made it deliberately inconvenient to cancel, then worded their reminder email in such a way that I was technically in the right. The best kind of in the right.
( Ungersven would support SpankyHanky's patreon, Thu 1 Mar 2012, 9:27, closed)

Couldn't you have saved quite a lot of trouble,
by just cancelling your membership in the proper way?

Regardless, sounds like Visa have been acting in a dodgy fashion, too, so I can see why you're unhappy.
( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Thu 1 Mar 2012, 9:22, closed)

Nah
Honestly, it would have cost me about £10 in phone charges and I'd have had to do it first thing in the morning (again, was abroad at the time). This way took me about 10-15 minutes on the phone when I was back in the UK, cost me about zero.

I have no sympathy for the companies that let you sign up with no hassle, get you on a repeating billing cycle, then make you jump through hoops to cancel. If you let me sign up online let me cancel online. Or at the very least, give a freephone and a geographic number so I can call for a sensible rate and keep it staffed constantly.
( Ungersven would support SpankyHanky's patreon, Thu 1 Mar 2012, 9:30, closed)

This,
I quite agree with. Premium rate (or non-geographic) phone numbers should be done away with. Postal address should be mandatory, too, as I much prefer to cancel things in writing (no chance to sell me another service, either).
( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Thu 1 Mar 2012, 9:41, closed)

Isn't there a website
where you can enter a premium-rate number and it'll give you the local-rate equivalent for the same line?

EDIT: yes - www.saynoto0870.com/
( .Yeti., Thu 1 Mar 2012, 11:08, closed)