GCN+ Auto renewal

Some what unexpectedly GCN+ auto renewed last night for 40 quid. Does anyone know if I have a legal leg to stand on if I want them to unrenew this? Pertinent facts….

-I thought I’d turned off the auto renewal when I signed up last year, but I’ve obviously no way of proving this
-I’ve found the email from where I signed up and it states “Amount for every subscription period: 19.99 GBP” which is obviously less than 40 quid. I guess they’d define the subscription period as one year, and this is a renewal of the subscription, this strikes me as very shady though!
-There was no warning of the impending renewal, which is against the CMAs ‘principles’ although this doesn’t seem like it’s law

I don’t think the 14 day cooling off rules apply? Anyone?

No idea,but I still reckon it’s worth the £40 for me, but I’ll check when mine is due to auto renew – cancelling and rejoining on the £19.99 deal may be an option.

Contact and appeal. I went to a car show when I was 17/18 and signed up for every magazine/club/mailing list I could find that gave me free stuff. I left the show with bags full of stuff and then cancelled everything after the correct period.

I missed one, Bentley Owners Club I think but might have been another drivers club, which renewed at £200+ which I could not afford at the time. I rang up (pre-internet) explained what had happened and they kindly unsubscribed me and refunded the money.

You might be lucky, especially if you ask for details of the higher authority you need to contact to appeal this if they don’t refund it.

Exactly the same situation. I’ve sucked it up and turned off auto renewal for next year. Was surprised not to receive an email before or after the renewal though.

Another website rather closer to home than GCN also does auto renewals without any notice (without the price rise, but still off IMO)

Google prompts me for autorenewals set up on my phone.

I really need to make more use of Headspace. I mean REALLY need to make more use if Headspace

I’m surprised at those of you saying you got no warning email. I believe you, but I have to say that I mostly delete incoming emails without reading them, and I know for sure that I got a warning email of auto-renewal from GCN+. It came in sometime in early January.

THanks for the reminderm mine expires in two weeks so I’ve just cancelled the auto-renewal, I’ve not had any reminder emails about it – but I did subsscribe via google play “in-app purchase” so had to cancel via google play subscriptions. Maybe the reminder emails are sent from GCN itsef for those who subscribe direct, but not for those who subscribe via Google / Apple?

Will see about renewing if they’re doing an offer though

Mine was google play, and I got an email from Google about a) the renewal and b) that the introductory price would go up to £39.99

Mine has also auto renewed and no reminder email at all. Just the notification it had renewed. Don’t know whether I’ll appeal or use it. £40 isn’t outrageous for the coverage you get etc.

Thanks for the reminder, just cancelled with 12 days to spare

Similarly, got caught out on the wife’s car NOT auto renewing car tax!

So we now have a fine to pay.

According to their website, if on DD it will auto renew. But it didn’t and we didn’t think about as it’s on DD, my car auto renews.

But they also state they don’t send renewal notices for DD, it’s owners reasonability (true of course) so tough shart!

So this is my fault for not checking, but does seem unfair.

Just a heads up for ya’ll

I’m surprised at those of you saying you got no warning email. I believe you, but I have to say that I mostly delete incoming emails without reading them, and I know for sure that I got a warning email of auto-renewal from GCN+. It came in sometime in early January.

Yeah – double checked, last mail before this one was in October and didn’t mention auto renewal. I signed up on the early deal not through google play or anything, so maybe that’s it. Google play reminds me of upcoming subscriptions.

My outrage is subsiding a bit – i did actually watch the grand tours on it, so I do get value from it. Although i do find the app a bit crap on the TV and doesn’t work half the time (brand new samsung). I guess what I actually want to do, is to cancel and then renew nearer the time of the Giro when they’ll doubtless have an offer… I concede that’s taking the piss a bit tho!

last year the only offer I recall seeing was in february, when it was half price. it’s been £39.99 since then

i had a reminder set but ive been snoozing it the last few days.
turns out mine is due today so I’ve just managed to cancel, to be fair ill probably renew but a little closer to when the racing im interested in starts.

where are you checking the subscription status, I can’t see anything in the GCN+ app or Google store under subscriptions. Thanks!

https://racepass.globalcyclingnetwork.com/account

25% offer available via BC

https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/search/article/20210930-25–off-annual-subscription-of-GCN–0

Cheers for this, just checked mine and it was set for auto renewal on the 22nd. No email to warn me and I’m 100% sure I’d already set it not to auto renew. Not a chance £40 is worth it, the app on Kindle is almost unusable and it just crashed on my iPhone as well.

Edit, also, it’s like they’ve gone out of their way to make it hard to cancel/manage your subscription. Can’t do it through the app and it’s damn near impossible to do it online, the app says it’ll take you to online part but takes you to YouTube. Useless.

Noticed someone has a similar complaint on Twitter this morning. Dan Lloyd replied with what to do

Hi Paul. The auto renew was an option on initial sign up. Some subscribers chose it, others didn't.

No problem to get a refund, just open a ticket at https://t.co/fg7291Dra2.

— Daniel Lloyd (@daniellloyd1) February 16, 2022

Thread hijack..(but related – it’s renewal time!)

Does discovery+ carry the same live coverage of races as gcn – in particular, does it have no ad breaks? Or is it just normal eurosport coverage including adverts?

Not sure about Discovery+ but if you’re watching Eurosport live through the App then it has no adverts. The highlights shows do though iirc.
Edit: that doesn’t answer your question at all, sorry!

Ended up with both Eurosport and GCN last year as forgot to cancel the former. GCN advantage is that it has the short (~10mins) and long (~25 mins) highlights to choose from. These are great when you have a fairly passing interest in the race or if it’s a sprint stage with not much to see, but for a big mountain stage then Eurosport was better as their highlights are 60 mins and they can show something other than the final climb. Also liked the analysis show after Grand-Tours and big classics (the breakaway) which doesn’t seem to be on GCN.

Really wish that they could consolidate all the viewing options into one of the apps had all the formats of highlights. Think I’ll stick to just eurosport this year.

THanks for the reminderm mine expires in two weeks so I’ve just cancelled the auto-renewal, I’ve not had any reminder emails about it – but I did subsscribe via google play “in-app purchase” so had to cancel via google play subscriptions. Maybe the reminder emails are sent from GCN itsef for those who subscribe direct, but not for those who subscribe via Google / Apple?

Will see about renewing if they’re doing an offer though

Almost exactly the same for me, no message about renewals, this thread prompted me to double check and yep the Sub’ renews via google Play on the 28th for £39.99, so I’ve cancelled it. I’ll keep an eye out for special offers, it was worth £20 for the year, but maybe not £40.

STW could copy the GCN app + forum.

On the subscription page it’s basically one click to re-subscribe, I can’t remember how I originally subscribed and I can’t for the life of me find any card details on the profile page or info about how I paid. I’ve just requested to delete my account, another very stupid drawn out process. I’ve got to say, everything about it has put me off every subscribing again.

Just cancelled cheers for the heads up.

Discovery+ entertainment+sport annual package is £30 until 20/2/22 (auto renewal at £60). Quick scan – looks like they have the same cycling content as Eurosport player.

Thanks for the heads up! I just cancelled mine but will (probably) renew when the Grand Tours start, depending on whether ITV have coverage…

Mine was google play, and I got an email from Google about a) the renewal and b) that the introductory price would go up to £39.99

Same here, email went to my gmail account (which I rarely look at) so almost missed it. I’ve definitely got more value from it than Netflix at £12 a month.

That’s why I was asking @t3ap0t. That has replaced the eurosport player.

Quick scan – looks like they have the same cycling content as Eurosport player.

GCN+ is Eurosport but without the ads, which is nice.

Phew, got. Weird error when I did usercode/password so went via Apple button and there is was waiting to renew.

I do like it but it’s been a heavy month and I really need to be doing the rides rather than watching some one else do them.

Interestingly Francis Cade (or not)has been bikepacking down my way and putting out a few YouTube’s.

The subscriptions page on the app redirects to their YouTube channel at the moment. Not very helpful!

Did we all sign up off the same PSA this time last year? Google Play gave me the reminder this morning

Did we all sign up off the same PSA this time last year? Google Play gave me the reminder this morning

Yep.

I liked having all the Grand tours to watch as free, same for CX racing and some of the other stuff documentaries etc are good, but I do have Eurosport so I can set that to record the racing and put up with/spin through the ads and I’m not super worried about the other content, half of it will probably end up on YT in some form or another within 18months…