After several years of loyal membership of a certain networking organisation, I temporarily resigned my membership in order to do some corporate re structuring. The aim was to re join within a couple of months. Sadly this is how they responded to my decision:The month’s notice was served a couple of days into March (Sat March 2nd to be exact) and I indicated that I would be leaving at the end of the month. Here was my email:
“I (am) doing some re structuring of the company so can you terminate my membership at the end of March. I will probably look to join again but not until May / June because I will be away travelling most of April. Will talk soon. Regards, Phil
Here was the reply:
“I can take this as your months notice, this is a shame , but we thank you for all your support throughout your membership with us and wish you all the best in the future, please don’t be a stranger.”
Imagine my surprise, therefore, when another payment was taken from my account early April; I had failed to cancel the direct debit mandate. That said, I hadn’t expected the organisation to take another payment. But it was what followed that left me saddened.
I asked for it back, believing there had been a mistake, but was told that because I had not given a full month’s notice (remember, I served notice on Saturday March 2nd), my membership needed to run until the end of April (I left for the Middle East on April 4th!). All my protestations failed and, probably, the organisation in question had every right to quote me their Terms & Conditions.
BUT, when does quoting T&C’s end and common sense take over? £28+ richer, the organisation now has a disgruntled member who feels short changed. Worse than that they have lost an advocate. How sad and how short sighted for a ‘networking’ organisation. Now that is ironic!
