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, 1 reply)

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)