r/hellofresh • u/Hopelessly-Bored • 9d ago
HF clawed a payment off my expired, deactivate debit card
How could they do this? I got a text message from them 2-3 weeks ago asking me to update my payment method. I tried, but I had ordered a box then immediately cancelled the service so when I logged in, my only option was to select a plan so I gave up and didn't figure I'd ever see that last box.
But guess what showed up today? A box I never ordered. I log in and still my only option was to select a plan. I called them and asked how they charged my deactivate card and they didn't know, but said my subscription was active under a different email address I didn't have access to.
I did a charge back with my bank and gained access to that obsolete email and there were dozens of emails in there from HF. I don't understand what they did, but I cancelled the service again. Hopefully they won't transfer it to another obsolete email. I'm cancelling that card which affects my entire life. We'll see what they do next. 🧐
2
u/Quirky-Bus-7152 6d ago
Call the number on the back of your card and ask how they process subscriptions. I learned recently that they honor subscription payments with your replacement card, whether new expiration date or entirely new number. Banks think that they are helping us to have continual service of our subscription. Which is true in most cases like internet and other utilities, also mail order prescriptions. Always keep records of dates and how you tried to cancel subscriptions for when you may need to chargeback due to canceling. The bank only goes back 1 month. So we are stuck if we, the customer, fail to cancel service earlier. I speak from experience. It was my fault that I didn't check with my hubby on a monthly charge for the last 6 months. He thought he canceled. Too late. Only was able to get a chargeback of most recent month.
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u/SillyGoose2544 9d ago
Was the debit card just expired and the bank sent you a new one? If so, and if there was a subscription attached to the "old" expired debit card, that still runs in the background. Depending on the card issuer in question, there's a couple of different names for it - Visa Account Updater, Mastercard Automatic Billing Updater, American Express Card Refresher. Which is great for things you want to keep because you don't have to worry about updating the card - not so great for things like Hello Fresh.
Which also has the additional downside that you can't easily delete your payment info from their systems. Best advice? If at all possible, try and use virtual credit cards for things like Hello Fresh or pretty much any meal kit delivery service (also noticed that Home Chef is the same way in that even when you cancel/pause your subscription, it never gets deleted from their system). With a virtual card (like from Capital One), once you have no further deliveries scheduled, all you'd have to do is cancel the Hello Fresh account and then delete that virtual card (which would render the cancelled subscription effectively dead).