The exact same thing happened to me, and your analogy is spot on. There is a huge change in how ChinesePod is being managed since the new structure and hosts were set up. All I can say is I miss Fiona and Gwilym.
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If it helps, I came to the website after a Valentine’s promotion email. I was about to purchase the 3-month package until I saw this post. I dislike when companies do this and it’s a problem. This little gotcha trick will ruin a business in the long run, unfortunately. I haven’t explored the new website design much, but I can say the old version wasn’t very user-friendly. So, I can see why some people get confused or make a mistake. Any honest company would refund the full amount if requested within a reasonable amount of time. Having something in the TOS doesn’t make it right. Treat your customers well in these circumstances and you won’t have a problem providing refunds (within reason) because you know people want to buy from you.
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Hi there,
Thank you for your feedback. If there’s a valid reason for doing so, we provide a refund to our users. Each user has different cases for asking a refund, and we provide refunds for valid cases. We value our customer that’s why we are doing everything to satisfy our users’ needs.
Betty
I’m having the same problem. I cannot figure out how to download lessons even though I have hours googling and clicking links that lead nowhere. Now I cannot cancel my subscription even though I have barely used it due to being busy. I would like my subscription refunded (I only got a 40% discount in January) since I’ve barely used it. Chinese Pod does not answer my emails regarding really basic issues like downloading lessons (instead of having to search them on their site). This is a very unwieldly site to use, very user-unfriendly. I don’t have the time, patience, or energy to jump through so many hoops for one 17-minute lesson. I would never advise anyone to use ChinesePod.
Dear Denny,
We are sorry to hear that you are unhappy with your experience here. We would like to solve this problem swiftly, so we kindly ask you to send us a mail. You can send it directly to me, susie@chinesepod.com.
Thank you very much.
Susie
I had the same experience. I cancelled my subscription two days before it was due to renew this week, but two days later my credit card was charged anyway. Even though I got an immediate confirmation via email, customer support told me that I had failed to cancel. The problem was forwarded to the responsible person on the tech side, but there has not yet been an explanation of what went wrong coming from the tech side, and there has not been a refund. I should say that unlike denny1700 I have gotten very cordial responses from customer support and others at CPod, and that I have not had problems with CPod, at least on the legacy website (not the new website). I just decided to hold off on spending more money for the time being due to life circumstances and not knowing if I would have time to dedicate to study with CPod. Over the years I have had a pleasant and very educational experience with Chinese Pod and would not hesitate to recommend it for its content. I hope they get their payments system problems fixed soon.
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Hi there,
I am sorry to hear that. Yes, there are some of our users who have a problem canceling the subscription. And we are still looking for the bugs in the system. We’ll fix it as soon as possible. Although you might leave ChinesePod, I still have something to tell you…First of all, we are really glad to have you learn with us and that our lessons do help you. Secondly, it’s ok that you don’t have enough time with us. We have a channel named ChinesePod on YouTube. And all the videos there are free. If you still want to learn Chinese in your trivial time, you still can find something helpful there. And of course, we are there, too. I mean, if you have any questions about Chinese, you are welcome to leave them down there, too. As usual, we will reply to you as soon as possible.
Regards,
Betty
Betty,
Any updates on this? Was it fixed? Any refunds sent out yet?
Thanks.
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Hi there,
Sorry for the late reply. Our customer service has contacted you and dealt with the issue kindly.
Betty
Thanks. I hope other users whose money was lost to the glitch can enjoy a similar outcome without having to make repeated enquiries.
I was recently charged for an annual renewal but can not find any email reminder. It was a bit of a surprise. I have not used the service for a full year essentially, so I currently do not have any desire to renew. In light of the discussion here I hope customer service can help me refund. The service is good but I am simply not using it right now and nobody should have to pay for something they are not using. Thanks.
Hi Christian, I’m very sorry to hear this. I have forwarded your issue to Mante, our student relation representative. I’m sure you will get a reply on this very soon. You can also email support@chinesepod.com for further inquiry. Again, I apologize for the inconvenience, and I hope this issue will get solved soon.
Rebecca
Thank you for helping me with my posting earlier. Customer service was able to assist me nicely and I am happy with the outcome. Looking forward to continuing my learning.
Hi Christian,
That is so great to hear! I’m glad it all worked out. Let me know if you have any other questions that I can help you with. You can also contact me at rebecca@chinesepod.com for any academic support you might need. Happy learning 
I had the same experience. It is not fair to treat loyal customers this way! I did just not follow up on my emails anymore. I simply have no time. So now they take advantage of me. I also asked for assistance to remove my credit card. No assistance delivered.
Hello,
I’m very sorry to hear that. I have forwarded your message to our student relation team and they will assist you with the issue of your credit card in no time. I apologize for any inconvenience we have caused you, and I’m sure the problem will be fixed soon and you’ll be able to enjoy our service again. Please let us know if you have any more questions!
Rebecca
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Hi,
I’m posting here rather than creating a new thread because have a similar issue related to billing that submitted to Support 10 days ago and still have not received any response despite multiple follow-up messages.
I took advantage of ChinesePod’s holiday sale and bought two vouchers for 6 months of premium membership. The first voucher I redeemed was automatically registered to my account and my Premium expiration date updated to June 25th 2021. I went ahead and redeemed the second voucher under the same account, but nothing happened. My expiration date remained at June 25th 2021. When I tried inputting the code again, the screen told me the voucher code was already redeemed.
Is there anything someone can do to help me with this? There was nothing on the sales page that said you cannot redeem two vouchers under the same account. If this is not allowed, I highly recommend you being clear about this somewhere on your website. If there is no way to add those additional 6 months to my account, I would at least like that second voucher code to be reactivate so I could gift it to someone else. Otherwise, I just wasted $50.
Hello,
I’m very sorry for the confusion on the limitations of the voucher and I apologize for the inconvenience. To my knowledge, multiple voucher codes can not be redeemed at the same time for the same account.
However, I have personally brought this issue to our student relation team. You will be contacted by one of our representatives, Paris. I hope you understand that during the holidays some cases got backlogged and this is also why you haven’t heard back from us for so long. But rest assured we’ve been working hard to resolve all the cases. I’m sure we will find a solution to your problem, and hopefully you can get back to your studies soon.
Rebecca
Appreciate it! Thank you!
Becca,
It’s been about a week, and I’ve yet to hear back from anyone on your team.