£1.50 text charge?????

wantmemoney

@Nanny2Nurse

http://www.phonepayplus.org.uk/upload/MIN_372_17June10_final.pdf
MINUTES OF THE PHONEPAYPLUS BOARD MEETING
THURSDAY 17th JUNE 2010

Bradley Brady provided the Board with an introduction on consumer research carried out
on premium rate services.

Top findings show that consumers feel positive about the existence of a regulator and,
where a problem arises within PRS, a refund and apology will generally suffice.

PhonepayPlus(aka Icstis) are and have been part of this fraud.....thieve from a thousand - refund a handful!

Vodafone Premium Rate SMS bar option-question for Vodafone
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3128908

Vodafone_company_representative wrote:

I’m pleased to confirm that we do offer a premium rate SMS bar which can be applied to an account.

Kind regards,

Jenny
Web Relations Team
Vodafone UK

One of our team would need to add the premium rate SMS bar on to your account for you. We would be more than happy to do this for you and you can contact us via – Web Relations Team
https://help.vodafone.co.uk/system/selfservice.controller?CMD=ESCALATION_REQUEST&CONFIGURATION=1000&PARTITION_ID=1
including the code WRT135 in the subject line.

if you believe you didn't authorise Vodafone to debit your account tell them you want them to replace the money they took and insist they place a billing bar to your account.

and remember the Networks pocket 50% on average before passing the rest on to companies like Tanla (who have already been fined £100,000's for this type of fraud.)

ps. the 'fines' paid to PhonepayPlus are paid by Vodafone and the other Networks from part of the revenue taken from the customers accounts.

you are all being conned scammed and also paying the fines.

Nanny2Nurse

Thank you for the above info. I have now received a third text to which I AGAIN replied 'STOP ALL' (not that doing this makes any difference) and I've also received a very confusing reply from Vodafone (below) to my email of complaint, sent yesterday, regarding the first two text messages.

I have now also applied, via the method suggest by the Vodafone representative (above), for a premium rate SMS bar on my account.

Not sure what to do next apart from wait but I certainly don't intend to pay for these messages I did not sign up for. I'm reluctant to cancel my direct debit but I also cannot see how else to stop payment for these messages.

Hello Mrs. ***, Thank you for getting back to us with the required details.
I can see that you are also receiving messages from 88850 and 88820 number which is the MX Telecom number and MIG company number respectively.
MX Telecom provide love match info for which you are been charged £3.83 and MIG company give VISA Marketing/Competition information for which you are been charged 12p
If you wish to stop the service for the messages received from the number 88850 you need to contact them on their customer care number that is 0845 355 3445 or on their email address that is help AT sms-helpdesk.com.
To stop the messages from 88820 you need to contact them on their customer care number that is 0870 248 0277 or on their email address that is customercar AT migcan.com .
I will not be stop the service from our end as you need to contact yourself and the charges cannnot be refunded as it is been charged from third party and not Vodafone.
I trust this helps.

Kind regards,
Prashant Pawar
Vodafone Customer Services

Not only can I not recall having received any text messages from the above two short code numbers but not once does the Vodafone representative mention the number which I emailed to complain about.
Furthermore, but not surprisingly, there is no mention of when I am supposed to have signed up to these services - which I never have.

Getting really frustrated now.

Buzby

Can I add the replying STOP or STOP all can also be problematic for complainants. If you have NEVER entered into an arrangement for texts, then it could befoolish to enter into any formal contacts by way of text to stop these messages, as it implies you originally asked them to START.

Far better to have on contact so when your bills are surveyed, there is no premium short codes shown being made from your handset. Having to justify it was a STOP message can be difficult if only the called text number is available.

Nanny2Nurse

I feel like I may be getting somehwere. I have received a reply from Vodafone who say that, at my request, they have placed a premium rate bar on my account which should stop these messages;

Thanks for getting back to me.

I have placed a premium rate message bar on your account. As well as stopping premium rate messages being sent to you, this will prevent you from sending messages to such services in future.
If you need help with anything else, please let me know.
Should you wish to provide any feedback on how I have addressed your query for you, then we have a short form below to enable you to do that. It just takes a few minutes and any comments are appreciated
Regards
Sukhi
Web Relations Team

Thanks to wantmemoney for making me aware of this post.


I have also received a reply from Tanla.

Please ignore the message as no billing can take place. Sending stop will be in effective as the message you received is unbilled.

What we will do though is get Adbuyer to remove your number from their broadcast list for future promotional messages.

Adbuyer is one of our customers but only if a user freely opts in to their service. They do send promotional broadcasts, like the one that contained your number, but through a different provider hence why we couldn't find any message in our system.

I have an email address for Adbuyer, if you wish to get more information on how they have your number in their promotional broadcast list - [EMAIL="contact@adbuyer.info"]contact@adbuyer.info[/EMAIL]

Warm Regards,

Chris Braver
Operations Manager
Email : chris@tanlamobile.com
Mobile : +44 (0)7843 596251
Board : +44 (0)20 7268 3813
Fax : +44 (0)20 7268 3100

I don't have too much confidence in the above reply though for the following reasons:

Please ignore the message as no billing can take place. Sending stop will be in effective as the message you received is unbilled.

Incorrect. Vodafone have already informed me that I have been charged.

What we will do though is get Adbuyer to remove your number from their broadcast list for future promotional messages.

If Vodafone have placed the bar on my account as they say, I will not know if this action was carried out and/or effective.

Adbuyer is one of our customers but only if a user freely opts in to their service. They do send promotional broadcasts, like the one that contained your number, but through a different provider hence why we couldn't find any message in our system.

Oh, so it's morally OK with you for your customers to send unsolicited adult XXX text messages to what may be, for all you know, a child's mobile phone contract.

--

I'm not going to let this drop. I've also reported this to ICSTIS (PhonepayPlus) [for what it's worth after reading the above message] and will be persuing a full refund for any costs incurred. I will also be replying to Mr.Braver of Tanla as soon as I know exactly what I have been charged.


EDIT:
While writing this I just received a reply to my email to Vodafone in which I expressed my disgust at being charged for a service I never signed up to:

Hi *****
I understand that this frustrating, but what you ask for wouldn't cover all of the possibilities that this has not been signed up for.
What I have done as a gesture of good will is credit the cost of these back, total £4.50. This will come of the next bill that is due on the 4th April.
To stop these coming through please reply STOP and this should cancel the subscription. Also the company that sent you the texts can be called on 08719180999.
Martin
eForum Team

Result !!! Thank you Martin and Sukhi.

wantmemoney

81404 Tanla mobile/Adbuyer

http://www.waspa.org.za/code/detail.php?id=12034&sortby=
Complaint Number: 12034
Date Last Updated: 2011-03-17
Date Lodged: 2011-02-18
WASPA Member: Tanla Mobile
Information Provider: Adbuyer
Service Description: Unsolicited adult sms
Source of Complaint: public
Adjudication Result: Pending

http://whocallsme.com/Phone-Number.aspx/81404

Tanla wrote:

Adbuyer is one of our customers but only if a user freely opts in to their service.

yeah right

88820 MIG company/VISA Marketing/Competition

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=26715641&postcount=10

http://www.visa.co.uk/en/golden_space/competitions/competitions_home.aspx

is this competition even being promoted any longer?
how many 'invisible' 12p's are being still being billed?

88850 MX Telecom/Mobile Messenger EU Limited

http://blogs.mirror.co.uk/investigations/2009/02/maximum-fine-for-facebook-text.html

PhonepayPlus give Mobile Messenger as the content provider using that short code.

Network Operator/Premium Rate Industry
a very unscrupulous dishonest 'revenue sharing' 'business' partnership

Nanny2Nurse

Thanks for the info wantmemoney. I hope you saw my last reply

gorryd

Wayne3765 wrote: »

Following my complaint asking how they got my number I've had a reply




I was just going to let it drop for the sake of £2 but decided to test the offer and sent them an address , surprised me but a £2 postal order turned up in the post the next day.

Great you got your £2 but would'nt you like to know who this other person is that was supposed to of given your number.