He now wants to discourage others from using the site.
The 70-year-old signed up for singles50.co.nz in August last year after a difficult period when he separated from his long-term partner and was diagnosed with bowel cancer.
After undergoing surgery, the cancer was removed.
“I was still on medication and still stitched up. I was waiting at home to recover so I thought I might as well have a look at who I could meet,” said Payne.
After paying what he thought was $57.55 for a one-month membership, Payne said he later checked his bank statement and found he had been charged $345.30 for a six-month membership.
"I probably should have been more careful and read the fine print closer.
"When I saw how much had been charged I thought: ‘I never approved that’.
"I wasn’t in much of a position financially to make that kind of payment," Payne said.
Accepting he was stuck with the membership, the Diamond Harbour resident used the site and went on a handful of dates.
"I met a couple of nice people, but it wasn’t really going anywhere."
He then tried to cancel the paid membership using a chatbot on the website before it renewed but found he missed a clause in the terms of service.
In the fine print on the payment screen it states six-month memberships have to be cancelled “at least 4 weeks before the renewal”.
“They’re making it as difficult as possible for you to pull out of the membership,” said Payne.
At that point in February Payne felt he had been misled by the site’s cancellation policy, which he had not noticed anywhere else on the website.
He stopped the payment from going through by cancelling it with his bank.
Payne then received a letter in June from T&D Rechtsanwälte GbR, a German debt collecting agency, demanding he pay about $1100 which included unpaid membership costs and legal fees.
He received another letter from the firm on August 21 demanding the same payment.
“It’s taken a toll on my mental health. I’ve woken up in the middle of the night wondering how I’m going to get out of this,” he said.
A Consumer NZ spokesperson encouraged Payne and others in his situation to write back to the debt collector and dispute the debt with their reasons for finding the membership terms unfair.
“If Singles50 or the debt recovery agency continues to pursue him, he could file a claim with the Disputes Tribunal,” said the spokesperson.
The spokesperson said people should be “confident they understand the costs and the terms and conditions they are signing up to.”
“Having said that, businesses can’t mislead people and terms and conditions must be fair.”
Payne said he is awaiting legal advice before he takes further action.
He hopes to put the word out for online users to be careful what they sign up for.
“Be extremely careful that they check out all the reviews they can on these sites,” he said.
Singles50 has a 1.2 out of five-star rating on review site Trustpilot.
Many reviews claim similar issues to Payne regarding difficulties in cancelling memberships and stories of letters from overseas debt collectors.
Singles50 and its operator be2 S.à.r.l. did not respond to questions from The Star asking about its membership policies.
