The Observer
Cash 09.01.22 55In a weak moment after the break
up of my 30-year marriage, I signed
up for a dating site, eHarmony.
After paying the subscription for
the fi rst month, I realised it wasn’t
for me and cancelled that evening.
The next morning my bank
informed me that eHarmony had
attempted to take £65 from my
account. I then found lots of angry
online reviews claiming that the
company charges £65 for the “per-
sonality profi le” based on a ques-
tionnaire that you have to fi ll out
during the registration process.
There’s no mention of this charge
on the website, or in the terms and
conditions. I’ve refused to pay,
but have received several emails
demanding it.
MB, Totnes, DevonAmid the cyber-jungle of dating
agencies, it’s easy to see why eHar-
mony was appealing. The company,
which claims to have created 2 mil-
lion successful relationships in 20
years, was founded in 2000 when
online dating was in its infancy. At
its zenith its revenue was reportedly
$250m a year and actor Ben Stiller
used its services in the 2013 fi lm The
Secret Life of Walter Mitty.
Its UK website claims to be the
“No 1 trusted dating app” accord-
ing to an unspecifi ed survey. Butsomething is badly wrong. Online
reviews tell the same story of cus-
tomers drawn in by starry promises,
then clobbered by a mysterious £65
when they cancel their membership
within the statutory 14-day cooling-
off period.
To see for myself, I signed up to
what is trumpeted as a free service.
Integral to the registration process
is a lengthy questionnaire about
traits and tastes. This instantly gen-
erates a personal profi le. There is
no mention of a £65 fee. The terms
and conditions allude to a deduction
of “reasonable” costs if a contract
is cancelled within the cooling-
off period, but a profi ling charge is
not specifi ed.
The “free” service turns out to
be almost useless. Photographs of
matches are blurred out and cus-
tomers can only communicate with
potential suitors by designated emo-
jis. For fuller interaction, customers
are invited to pay a monthly fee with
a 50 % discount, but these fees are
not what they seem.
The recommended “premium
plus” option promises 12 months of
membership “from £9.95”. You have
to squint at the small print beneath
the payment form on the next
page to discover that a £3-a-month
instalment fee is added to this, and
that the monthly cost nearly doubles
to £22.90 three months in.
A year’s membership, there-fore, costs £244.95. And unless you
remember to cancel at the end of the
12 months, it rolls over to the fol-
lowing year.
What do you get for this? Not
much, apparently. Reviewers com-
plain of unsuitable matches from
random parts of the country. I
asked eHarmony why customers
are not alerted to the £65 fee and it
claimed they were required to tick
a box accepting the charge during
the membership purchase process.
When pressed, it clarifi ed that the
box appeared after the payment had
been completed.
It ignored requests for a screen-
shot. “EHarmony honours all can-
cellation requests made during the
cooling-off period, subject to deduc-
tions for services already provided,”
it says. “Having purchased a pre-
mium membership, customers are
presented with a dedicated web
page that includes key membership
terms and conditions. Here they are
asked to tick a box confi rming that
they would like to access their sub-
scription immediately, and there-
fore consent to the £65 charge for
services received during the fi rst
14 days.”
This would appear to be in breach
of the Consumer Rights Act, which
requires key terms and conditions
to be explained and accepted before
a contract is agreed. Terms added
afterwards are not legally bind-ing. Moreover, if a customer can-
cels within 14 days, costs can only be
deducted for services already ren-
dered and those must be reasonable.
I asked eHarmony how £65 was a
reasonable sum for a computer-gen-
erated profi le, but it did not respond.
As for the sneaky £3 supplement
added to the monthly membership
charge, eHarmony explained it was
a “small” sum for those who choose
to pay in monthly instalments. It
did not reply when asked whether
the free service allows customers to
arrange to meet potential matches
and whether those who paid for
membership were refunded if they
cancelled within 14 days.
You did, eventually, receive your
subscription payment back and
eHarmony agreed to waive the £65
as a “goodwill gesture” when you
said you’d contacted the media.
At the start of a new year there
will be many people looking to
start a new relationship. Don’t be
beguiled by seductive websites until
you’ve checked out the reviews. You
should, of course, study the small
print, but that wouldn’t have been of
much help to MR, who should con-
sider reporting her experience to
trading standards.Email [email protected].
Include an address and phone number.
Submission and publication are
subject to our terms and conditionsI was charged £65 when I
broke up with eHarmony
By Anna Tims
Your
problems
Consumer champion of the year