Hello
Has anyone had those Lovefilm promotional people calling in their area?

They called tonight but I was a bit dubious, as they had an iPad and wanted people to sign up at the door with debit card details etc. Surely, handing leaflets out would have been better, so as people can sign up on line of their own accord.

They were offering a 3 month trail where they charge you at the end of the trial.

I must get one of those 'No Cold Caller' signs.

I recently gave away a '3 month free trial' code, as i am excempt-having enjoyed several 'free trials' from them before, also Blockbuster, Wilkinsons, Amazon etc
now that Lovefilm have 'bought them out' this door to door knocking thing gets on my nerves!! They already have 2m subscribers. Its just greed!! Sky and Tesco are the same. Grrr

i know somebody who gave their details and since then they have had money being taken from their account on a regular basis and cannot get it stopped because they stupidly gave their details!!!

If you told lovefilm to stop and if its direct debit, then it comes under the direct debit guarantee as the money is been taken incorrectly. You phone your bank and tell them so, you are entitled to an immediate refund from YOUR bank and it is up to them to sort lovefilm out.

On the other hand, if you signed a "continuous authority" (and no, I'm not sure about the difference), the bank can't stop it, only the originator.

Not true Chris, the FSA has made it very clear that you can cancel continuous (or recurring) payment authority just by instructing your bank.

That's good to know, DD. I had a case a while ago where they couldn't. It involved fraudulent activity on my PayPal account. PayPal were really on the ball and refunded me, but the transaction still went through my bank as they said they couldn't stop it.

Is that the case for credit cards as well? I know for Direct Debits/Standing Orders, you can cancel via the bank, but I thought for credit cards it had to be done via the company making the charge.. Indeed I thought I'd heard of people getting bills from credit card companies when the account had been 'closed'..

Yes, it's also true for credit and debit cards. I'll dig up a link to the FSA ruling later. Don't take any notice if the banks or OFT say otherwise, the FSA are the ombudsman that covers this field.

Yep, it was confirmed on ROB the other week that the banks "can" cancel/refuse to honour CPA's, but they just try to avoid having to do any work etc...

But they can stop it, as dd says, the FSA require them to be able to.

Be careful setting these up also, because even if you close your account/credit card, and the money is requested afterwards, the banks/card issuer, will still honour it!! Even if it is 2 years after you closed the account. They can then not only demand the money to be paid back, but also issue fee's and charge interest (presumably why they still honour them after such a long time/on a closed account).

So always make sure any CPA's are cancelled with the provider and and the bank before you close accounts.