Being charged for a product or service you already canceled is very frustrating. It’s essential to act fast and consider your options. Some subscription services are pretty cheap. For these, an extra month’s charge may not be that big of a deal to some consumers. If that’s the case, your main goal should be to make sure you cancel this time and stop this from happening again.
However, every penny counts if you’re a college student working part-time. Or if it’s something very expensive, you’ll probably want your money back. In cases like those, you should follow the following steps to fix the situation you’ve found yourself in.
1. Make sure this won’t happen again and make the most of it
This mainly applies to situations where a dispute or refund isn’t possible or isn’t worth the effort. Let’s go through an example.
If you tried canceling a contract with things like internet providers in advance because you’re moving soon, but you ended up being charged for an extra month, it may be a good thing. Experts from Best Movers in Florida recommend waiting until the last moment to start the cancellation process. This means waiting either until the exact day when you’ll fully be moving out or even the day after. The main point of doing this is so that you can have a good connection while you’re packing up and moving out.
So, what is essential for you to do in this case is to call and make sure that this doesn’t happen again. The chance of getting your money back here is very slim, so your best bet is to make the most of your situation and ensure that you don’t get charged for a product or service you already canceled again.
2. Make sure that you really were wrongly charged for a product or service you already canceled
It’s common for people to jump to and assume the worst-case scenario. That’s why in this type of situation, it’s important to keep your cool and ensure you know what is happening.
For example, some services have a three-month contractual subscription. Even if you cancel during the second month, you’ll still be charged for the third one. So what you did when you canceled during the second month is that you stopped it from renewing for another three months. If you realize this is the case, relax and keep using the service until the subscription runs out. All in all, sometimes, a service cancellation is not the equivalent of a payment cancellation.
3. Ask for a refund
If you’ve considered both of the options we have listed above and still decide that you want to get your money back, the first way for you to do this is to ask the seller/service provider for a refund. There are several sides and aspects to this process. Let’s go through the pros and cons of going down this path.
Pros
The most significant advantage of going with this method of getting your money back is that you can do it directly through the merchant. The point is that it is on them to agree to it. Secondly, you can always do this right away, unlike a payment dispute (which we will discuss further in the article). All you have to do is get in touch with the seller/service provider and ask (or even better, demand) a refund.
Cons
The biggest con is that this method is unreliable. And in a couple of ways too. First of all, the merchant might just refuse to give you a refund. Secondly, you might not even be able to get in touch with them in the first place. Additionally, if you’re contacting a bigger company, you should mentally prepare for hours of standby while you wait for a representative to pick up. And in some cases, the company might not even have a call center. If that’s the case, you’ll have to send an e-mail and potentially wait for days to get a reply (which, as we’ve already said, might be a no).
4. Start a payment dispute
This is the second option you can use if you try getting your money back after getting charged for a product or service you already canceled. To do this, you would go directly to the bank and ask them to stop the charge from ever going through. In most cases, a debit or credit card transaction will take a couple of days. In the meantime, the money you “spent” will remain on hold. If you have an application where you can check your bank account information, you’ll probably see that the transaction status says “pending” or “pending approval.” Let’s again go through the pros and cons of this situation.
Pros
The biggest advantage of this method is that it almost always works. Especially if they charged you and you didn’t even get the product/service. The bank generally neither gains nor loses anything in this situation. The only stakes they have here is to keep their customer happy and loyal. Aside from that, it also eliminates the middleman of waiting for a representative to pick up from the call center or sending e-mails since you can just go to your bank and talk to a worker right away.
Cons
There are three main cons to this:
- The bank will sometimes require you to first try and get a refund from the merchant since they can only help you if you have proof that the merchant refused;
- You have to act fast. In the best-case scenario, you’ll be able o start the dispute while the transaction is still pending approval. It’s still possible to do this method once it does go through, but it will take more time and effort;
- Unless you at least try to contact the merchant, they might not be aware that you are having a problem with your cancellation, and the same thing might happen again.
5. Reach an agreement with the merchant
Sometimes you might be able to reach some kind of agreement on a bonus or other things during your complaint with the seller/ service provider. Let’s go back to the example of moving to better explain this. If you have a connection cable and internet connection contract with a provider and try to cancel in advance, but they charge you again the next month wrongly, you have the upper hand on the provider. Customer loyalty is very important to them, and chances are that they’ll offer you some bonuses or discounts if you complain. This can be especially helpful when you’re moving to a new place. You may have the option to only partially continue your subscription with your utilities/service provider and decide what to keep at a much lower rate.
6. The legal route
You can do this in one of two main ways. You should do the first way if you’re dealing with a small business owner who is refusing to reimburse you. The phrase “reviewing my legal options” will likely send shivers down their spine. You don’t have to do anything other than send an e-mail based on that phrase.
However, if they don’t budge, or you’re dealing with a big brand, you might have to utilize the second method. This means following through on your promise and getting in touch with a lawyer. Just make sure to gauge your priorities correctly. If hiring a legal representative will set you back more than you were wrongly charged, it’s better to go for something else on this list.
7. Be patient
This option is the least demanding in terms of time and effort. That is mainly because it just means you shouldn’t do anything. Database and billing mishaps happen, and most more prominent companies have an automatic troubleshooting program in place. Waiting for a few days might show you that you shouldn’t have worried in the first place. They were potentially going to refund you anyway.
8. Use this as a learning opportunity
To conclude with your last option, we would like to advise you to make sure you cancel again correctly and use this as a learning opportunity. You should create a budget for the future. Preparing for situations like these is one of the main reasons you need to have a good budget plan. You can easily handle the surprise of getting charged for a product or service you already cancelled in the future if you already have a part of your planned-out budget separated for emergencies.