timmmay: Interesting. I think the lack of notification is the key thing here. They'll probably claim notification was sent by an automated process, which doesn't help if it doesn't arrive.

timmmay: Emailed them last night, no reply so far. If I don't hear tomorrow I'll call them in the afternoon.

timmmay: My email host tech support has tracked the message down. It was rated as spam with a SpamAssassin score of 8, which is well above the threshold which is considered spam. The message is gone, cleared automatically out of my spam folder. I bet this happens a lot.

Bung: If you don't have a door on your letterbox you'd probably lose a lot of paper mail. Did you bother putting Consumer in your Safe Sender or equivalent list?

Bung: 
Did you bother putting Consumer in your Safe Sender or equivalent list?

timmmay: My email host tech support has tracked the message down. It was rated as spam with a SpamAssassin score of 8, which is well above the threshold which is considered spam. The message is gone, cleared automatically out of my spam folder. I bet this happens a lot.

So they did notify me, but badly, and used an expired card. It's left a sour taste in my mouth, and customer service not replying to my emails hasn't helped either. Once I get hold of them (I'm sure I could call up and get someone immediately) I'll ask them to cancel my subscription and refund the payment.

timmmay:

Bung: If you don't have a door on your letterbox you'd probably lose a lot of paper mail. Did you bother putting Consumer in your Safe Sender or equivalent list?

No, not until last night. There are only 15 slots in the UI, if I whitelisted every domain I communicate with it'd be hundreds long. All their monthly updates arrive as expected so I saw no need.

timmmay: You have a point. Since finding the email was sent I'm less annoyed, but they should know their email gets caught by spam filters and should take steps to minimise this. Spam assassin is one of the most common products used, it tells you what parts of the email make it look spammy. Using an expired credit card is also not on.

I've cancelled my membership, which just cancels the auto renewal, it'll run for two years until then.

networkn: I don't agree with your assessment, I look after hundreds of clients with all sorts of spam filters, it's a game of cat and mouse. I'd surmise that most people get their emails from Consumer without issue (I certainly do). There are MANY MANY factors involved in spam filtering. It's arguably more difficult than Antivirus to keep track of. For every person there is, making anti spam rules, there are people trying to get around those rules.

Expired credit card, I suspect this requires more investigation, but I don't think it's likely that it's consumer at fault, they will have a payments company and there will be rules around it, and obviously it's not in breach of rules, I have had a number of things re billed with an expired card, usually a calm email or call sorts it. I suspect if you object to auto renewal, you will want to be more vigilant going forward as more and more it's common.