How to Effectivey Handle Sittercity Situation.

First, how did you cancel? By phone, email, website? Have you combed through your junk mail and trash folders around that date for a possible cancellation confirmation email? That's where I'd start.
Whenever I call customer service, ESPECIALLY when I want them to go out of their way to help me fix something I should have fixed earlier, I always start of with a polite, sweet "Hi, I'm hoping you can help me." If you come across to customer service that you're enlisting their help with a problem instead of coming across like you're ready for battle, you get much further.
If you are calm, sweet, a little self-deprecating ("I can't believe I didn't notice this x months ago!") and simply explain that you used the service in ______ of 2012, found a babysitter right away and, after paying for that month's use, cancelled your account. You used ______ method to cancel your account and haven't used the site since. You never received any emails from them after you completed the cancellation and thought it was all processed correctly. "I'm totally kicking myself that it's taken me so long to notice, but as I was preparing for my taxes I just realized that the $35 monthly fee has been auto-debiting from my account the whole time. Can you please help me?"
Once you pull out the threats, you loose any chance of actual help. They might not be able to refund your money, because you have nothing to prove you actually cancelled and it has been some time since you did, BUT if you approach them the right way, you might get some or all of your money back. Lesson learned, at least.
Good luck! :-)

I would ask go through anything I could find, and even see if my membership still worked. If it does not, more the proof that you don't use it but you were being charged. I argued with FYE and got a membership canceled, but it was one where I had not signed up and NEVER used it. You may have a harder time because you had no confirmation that it was canceled and you used the service.

If I couldn't get a refund of any sort, does it count for taxes for anything? Child care fees?

It sounds like what may have happened is that the system hiccuped and since you didn't follow up, you didn't know til now. I would start with that tactic. "I canceled the service around x date and am surprised to find that I have been charged for a service I have not used past that date." I would ask if there had been any communication sent to you and what form a cancellation confirmation should have been sent to you. Then you can start to look for it.

If it turns out that they won't refund you anything, then call your bank and see what they're willing to do. If it was with a credit card, again call them and see what they're willing to do. Explain the situation to them and they might be willing to reimburse you a portion of what was lost AND even if they're not, they should be willing to block the company from making any more EFT transactions from your account.

You are not going to get a full refund. Ahh what is the stupid term, mitigation of damage I believe. In other words even if they didn't cancel when you requested it you didn't monitor your account.

I was a single mom for four years, I can't even count on one hand how many times this happened. The best you can hope for is three months. If you go in guns blazing you will get nothing. Legally they don't have to refund you anything because you have no proof you canceled and they have proof they have been debiting without any question from you.

So go for three months, you will probably get it and it is better than nothing.

call your bank if they don't cooperate.

I went and Googled "Sittercity complaints" and what you are describing here is a common complaint with the company actually. Or they sign up for the "free trial", cancel on time but still keep getting charged.
You might not be able to get anywhere with the company if this is their standard business model. You may have better luck contacting your bank instead.
Take a look through your "sent" box and all of your emails to see if you can find any email confirmation. This will go a long way in your case.
I hope you are able to get your money back.

Why are they even charging $35 per MONTH? My SitterCity account is a $35 ANNUAL fee.

I would imagine that a full refund (less the month you did use) is out of the question unless you can find something to indicate that you canceled. Barring that, ask for a compromise - maybe a refund of half the time, or six months, or something like that.

Require proof that your account is actually still active, and that they didn't somehow just deactivate your account but "forget" to stop billing you for it. Make sure you can log in and (hypothetically) hire a sitter through them without paying any additional service fees. If you can't, then your account is inactive and you shouldn't be getting charged for it.

Since you have used the sitter multiple times, it is possible that you are required to keep paying their service fee since you initially hired the sitter through them. I don't know; I've never used sitter city and don't know their policies.

Chances are, the initial customer service rep you speak to won't be authorized to do anything, so ask for a manager or someone above her to help you come up with a solution.

QueenoftheCastle - are you sure? I just looked at the site to see if you were right and I saw options for $35/month or $90/year. I hope you're not mistakenly getting charged!

I'm not familiar with Sittercity -- $35/month for what? Is that just the subscription fee but you still have to pay the sitter each time? That's really expensive, I would think. But what you did sounds like the type of mistake I would make!

My only question is: if you have continued to use the sitter, which you say you did, is that a continuation of their service or not? I think you're probably out of luck, but I hope you can resolve it and get your money back. At a minimum, get it cancelled!

Yea, $35 per month is not the fee regardless. Not sure what's going on. Something might be messed up on their end is all I can think.

Here are my thoughts rushed and random.

I would like they might like an explaination of why you didn't continue services, I don't know if it's better to say, that you weren't pleased with the sitter you found, or if you did love it, but it was out of your budget after the divorce,,... kind of.... or grandma moved back in with you and you had no need for a sitter.

the way i interpreted what you wrote was that they hooked you up iwht a sitter and then you continued to use HER but didn't want to pay them?? I am not super familiar with how it works, so if that is how it is supposed to be Please forgive me, Just saying it sounds like you took advantage of meeting the baby sitter that way. And i wouldnt mention it when you talk to them.

I would be tempted to create another account and cancel it right away to see what the cancellation process is like. but i don't know if that would help you.

probably the best is like someone suggested try to go back to your emails from when this might have happened and see if you can find a cancellation email from them.

What a huge bummer. " sorry this happened when you already had your hands full.

You should have had an email confirmation of the cancellation. Go to your sitter city acct and look at your messages both the sent and received. You might find something.