Hi, no there was no free period, the contract clearly stated that it began at the point of the first payment on the 27th, no just to get this straight I really want the Times group subscription and the tablet was just a happy extra, also my subscription was activated on the 27th, the contract also clearly stated that my first payment was on the 27th and the actual wording on the contact was thereafter a monthly payment of £17.33 would be taken on or around the same day every month. Now I chose the 27th of the month to start my subscription as this was a day after my payday, now I have no problem in paying for the subscription, I just wanted it to be set up for the date which was clearly stated in the contract, my issue however is with the Times inability to be able to change a simple subscription date to what was agreed upon within their own paperwork. I'm not trying to wriggle out of anything I just want what was agreed on when I signed up!

The following is an issue I have with the Times+ group after taking out a digital subscription, any advice will be appreciated.... I have recently taken out a subscription for the Times+ Nexus subscription deal which includes which includes a Google Nexus 7 tablet to read the electronic editions from, I duly paid the initial payment of £67.33 which covers the first month of subscription and the price of the Nexus tablet through the deal. Now less than a month in and we have hit a snag with which the Times group are unable to sort out, but which anyone else who accepts a subscription based service is able to, when I signed up to my subscription on the 27th November 2013, I received the paperwork strait away detailing that my first payment was on the 27/11/2013 and thereafter a monthly payment of £17.33 would be taken on or around the same day every month, nothing wrong so far. I get to the 27th December and realise that the payment for £17.33 had not been taken, being Christmas I gave the benefit of the doubt and I checked again just after new year to find the payment still had not been taken, eventually I got a failed payment notice from my bank advising that the Times had attempted to take a payment on the 9th of January. I immediately contacted the Times to explain the situation to which I was advised they had set the payment on their system to the 9th of every month and that they were unable to change this, I advised that in the paperwork that I received the 9th was mentioned nowhere and quoted their terms back to them “a monthly payment of £17.33 would be taken on or around the same day every month” this being the 27th, they apologised and advised that they were very sorry but nothing could be done. I advised that they were in breach of the contract that I agreed to, and that I only set my payments for subscriptions on a day that I have agreed to not what suits them as I have the documentation to back this up, eventually they relented and asked me to email my documents for them to check, which I did and I then got passed to another department who gave me assurances that they would get this sorted and get the payment dates sorted. This was to be last of it, at least that’s what I assumed, fast forward to today 17th January and I get a email advising that the initial email that I received should have stated the 9th as my payment date but they would also waver my first subscription charge for January, I immediately got back in contact to advise that this was unacceptable as this was not what I agreed to when I signed up as I signed up and got my acceptance email on the 27th November detailing payments would go from the 27th of each month nor was it what they agreed to put right for me, so understandably I was not happy. To add to this I was also performing my online banking at the time when I noticed that a payment for £17.33 had been taken and was pending on my account for today, which blows in the face of their previous email and advice stating that they would waver my first month subscription, in short I am now £17.33 down as well, I have now broached this again with the Times and they have advised that it will take another 10 days for this to be refunded to me which again I find totally unacceptable and they again reminded me that the next payment would be the 9th of February. I have now lost all faith in the Times group and cancelled my direct debit until the Times have rectified this issue to my satisfaction, which is amend my subscription to the 27th which apparently they are unable to do!