Surely the village idiot could do better?

[JessicaV]

What can I do? Feb 2023, I asked Paypal to sort out two wrongly-taken subscription payments for MyHeritage , one from early 2022 and one from Feb 2023. I told them the whole sorry story:  although I had been guided   someone on the My Heritage webpage to cancel my subscription before it stopped being a trial, Aus $185 (the 2022 My Heritage Subscription) was wrongly taken from my account and it was switched to a full year's subscription. In April sent My Heritage two emails complaining about this and asking them to cancel my membership and return my money. Then in  Feb 2023 Aus$251 payment wrongly taken from my account by MyHeritage Subscriptions. So I contacted My Heritage and asked for both wrong amounts to be returned, and for my account to be cancelled. They did not offer any solution at all.

So I put this in a dispute request to Paypal that was then escalated to a claim. The wording of the dispute that was written up on my account was ambiguous, so I rang once and emailed twice and explained again that this latest payment of $251 needed to be refunded by My Heritage, and it would be nice if they could also refund the $185. I have just heard from Paypal that instead of either asking for $251 to pay for this year's wrongly taken subscription, or asking for a total of $436 for both, they had settled for $185. I cannot find any way to get a real person to talk to, let alone to do anything about it. What can I do? I thought Paypal were good at this stuff but  it seems like I am only dealing with stupid people. 

[kernowlass]

@JessicaV 

If the subscription was 'active' on paypal then when the merchant applied for the funds of course paypal would pay it.

You should have cancelled the subscription on paypals site so did you do that?

Click on the profile tab (icon next to log out) > Click on payments third option along on the thick blue band top of page > "manage pre-approved payments.''

If you didn't cancel it then paypal would pay the funds you authorised when the subscription was set up and was still ongoing.

If you open a dispute then paypal may work with the merchant for you to see if they can get some money back for you.

Looks as if they were successful in getting some money back for you?

[JessicaV]

Thanks, yes, I did switch the payments to inactive as soon as I discovered the payments had been taken again this Feb. 

[Justyna84]

Hi

I had similar experience. I cancelled free trial on the same day I registered with MyHeritage Ltd and yet two weeks later they charged me 114 GBP. I have read many reviews and it seems that many people fall victims of this scam. PayPal closed the dispute in my case stating the activity was not unauthorised. After this experience, I will never ever use PayPal for any transactions. 

[kernowlass]

@Justyna84 

If you cancelled the free trial on the website of the company but NOT on paypals site then when the company applied for the funds paypal would of course pay them because you had authorised them to do so as the subscription was 'active'.

So when you filed a dispute for unauthorised then of course you would lose as the subscription was active and so you authorised the payment.

[Justyna84]

Yes, I get it, but that means that as PayPal users we have zero protection. Also, since so many people have been affected by this malpractice [it clearly is as people report it], PayPal should take some responsibility in tackling unethical conduct.