I subscribed to Your Party in its chaotic early days and now find it impossible to cancel my membership. No one responds to emails. The local branch of my party told me that can’t help.
The portal requires me to open a new account and commit to another payment in order to cancel anything.
I tried to block my Amex card payments but they managed to make me pay £5 again this month. Mr.My attempt to get the money back from my card issuer was rejected. I’m so frustrated that they are using my account themselves when they have messed up so much for people.
My husband and I are of Asian descent and have both noticed more outright racism this year. Your party seemed to be a beacon of hope for people like us, but it became a toxic joke overnight.
Name and address withheld
“A party of your own,” proclaims the Your Party website, set up by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana, along with four other independent MPs, to challenge what it sees as a rigged political system.
Others reported the same futile battle to cancel their subscriptions after months of infighting among the founders. These are supporters who signed up when Sultana launched a membership portal in September with a different domain name than the party’s website and began collecting subscriptions.
A company, MOU Operations, created to oversee the creation of Your Party, administered the funds. Corbyn declared the portal unauthorized, while Sultana claimed she was forced to act to “safeguard grassroots involvement”. As of this date, more than 20,000 people have registered. Corbyn and the other founding MPs launched a second membership portal a week later.
It appears that the two websites cannot communicate. Disillusioned subscribers cannot cancel through the new official portal, which has no access to their money or data, nor can they get a response from the old one. Additionally, they have been forced to sign up for recurring payments from their bank card, which do not benefit from the consumer protection of the Direct Debit Guarantee and are more difficult to cancel.
In October, subscribers were invited by email to contact MOU for a refund; MOU directors quickly resigned, saying responsibility for members’ donations and data had been “placed” on them without their agreement. Sultana became the sole director responsible for the £500,000 raised through her membership portal. She told me that all subscriptions through this portal have now been cancelled.
“I am naturally sorry that your reader has had difficulty contacting us and I assure them that they will receive a full and immediate refund if they email herewego@yourparty-membership.uk,” she said.
A Your Party spokesperson said: “The unauthorized portal has unfortunately caused serious problems for some members and Your Party. We had no knowledge of the portal and regret its publication. We know this has caused confusion and upset for many Your Party members and supporters, so, although the refunds belong to MOU Operations Ltd, we have offered everyone who registered on the Zarah portal three months of free membership as an apology.”
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