BEWARE - they charge you for services they don't provide
In 2020 I signed up for a photography course with Improve Photography at a cost of under $50 thinking I might make use of it during the Covid lockdown. I never used the course or even accessed it. I was very surprised when in December 2021 Improve Photography took $147 from my credit card with no warning.
When I contacted them they told me it was an annual subscription and that I should have cancelled it if I didn't want to renew. I tried to login to the account that had supposedly been set up to see if they had sent me an invoice which I'd missed but the login failed saying that my email address was not recognised, so I couldn't have cancelled the 'subscription' even if I knew it was going to be taken.
I asked them to refund the money, explaining I had not been told that the original sign up was an annual subscription, that I had received no notice of the 2nd payment being taken and that I had no access to the course. I received a reply saying that they had cancelled my subscription. However, no refund appeared and after chasing several times I was told that they wouldn't refund the money but confirming they had cancelled the subscription so I wouldn't get charged again. I pointed out that they had taken the money for a year's subscription starting on 5 December 2021 and ending in December 2022 but that they weren't giving me access to it and had kept the money. All this to no avail.
Eventually I raised a Section 75 claim on my credit card on the basis that I had been charged for services not received but Improve Photography have now challenged that. Very disappointed that they haven't even contacted me about their challenge - do they really think they can take $147 from someone for providing no services?