Competition Text Help!

johnnysexton

Hi, 6 months ago I apparently entered an online competition which I have no recollection of entering. Anyway somehow my details were given to a company who has been sending me texts every month for the past 6 months and charging me £1.50 per text. At first I was curious so read the texts and they just seemed like spam containing links for online competitions, so for 6 months I've been deleting them.

They have been sending me between 60 and 70 texts per month and charging £1.50 per text, which if you do the math amounts to quite a substantial amount of money for a mobile phone bill and to be honest I'm quite !!!!ed off my network (Everything Everywhere) hasn't called me to question it.

Anyway I contacted my network provider and they said all they can do is give me the phone number of the company, which they did and I called them for a refund. The woman I spoke to was rather rude and refused point blank to give me one. She said they're not breaking any laws.

I then told her I was going to contact PhonepayPlus to report them. It seemed to startle her and she offered me a 'good will gesture' of £36, which I refused. Her company had taken almost £600 from my account without me knowing and all she offered was £36. When I refused the offer she basically called me stupid, laughed at me and told me I was wasting my time.

I called PhonepayPlus who said they were going to look into the matter, but told me the company in question are usually good at providing evidence of basically shafting people! They also told me that my network provider makes a profit on every text the company sends me. Thanks again EE.

Can anybody please give me any advice on how I can get something from this. Does it give me grounds to terminate my contract with EE because of their poor service? Can I get a full refund? Even just some money back?

Thanks guys!

matttye

How come it took you 6 months to realise you were being charged £60+ extra on your phone bill each month?

It would have been a lot easier to argue you didn't want the 'service' they were providing, (unbeknown to you, at a price), if you questioned it the first time they charged you.

You may be out of luck because when you look at a lot of these competitions they say in the small print 'by providing your mobile number you agree to receive text messages at £1.50 per text" or words to that effect.

EE has nothing to do with any of this; I'm not sure what grounds you think you have or why you think they've provided you with a poor service? It's not their job to warn you that you're spending a lot of money! They're a mobile phone network not a babysitter

johnnysexton

Thanks for the response.

In answer to your first question, because I'm a f**cking idiot, haha. I don't really check my bank statements and have only ever checked my phone bill when I've been abroad, and I just assumed the extra charges then were due to me texting and calling in foreign countries.

Guess it ain't looking good for me You learn from mistakes.

I do think EE are at some fault though. They're quick enough to call you and ask you for a more expensive plan when you go over your monthly allowance. And I pay them enough money monthly as it is. I was a friendly as ever with EE, but when I was told they make a profit from each text the company was sending me I wasn't happy.

I just sort of thought if some dodgy money was coming from your bank or credit card each month your bank would get intouch, so why can't EE do the same?

johnnysexton

PS is the fact that I didn't respond to any of their texts not proof that I didn't want the service?

matttye

johnnysexton wrote: »

Thanks for the response.

In answer to your first question, because I'm a f**cking idiot, haha. I don't really check my bank statements and have only ever checked my phone bill when I've been abroad, and I just assumed the extra charges then were due to me texting and calling in foreign countries.

Guess it ain't looking good for me You learn from mistakes.

I do think EE are at some fault though. They're quick enough to call you and ask you for a more expensive plan when you go over your monthly allowance. And I pay them enough money monthly as it is. I was a friendly as ever with EE, but when I was told they make a profit from each text the company was sending me I wasn't happy.

I just sort of thought if some dodgy money was coming from your bank or credit card each month your bank would get intouch, so why can't EE do the same?

I have numerous direct debits and recurring transactions on my bank accounts and debit/credit cards each month but my bank doesn't ring me to ask if they're okay or not. It's generally the account holders' responsibility to make sure that everything is okay with their account.

Usually you would report a fraudulent transaction to your bank or phone company, rather than the other way around, and only then will they do anything about it.

There's a slight exception with banks in that they may bring a very unusual transaction to your attention, such as if a card transaction is made abroad when you've recently used your card in the UK (this happened to me once).

In this case though, there's no reason for EE to contact you. There are many legitimate premium text message services. How annoying would it be if they rang you every time you subscribed to something?

You really should check your bank every day so that you can deal with any fraudulent/unknown transactions immediately.

matttye

johnnysexton wrote: »

PS is the fact that I didn't respond to any of their texts not proof that I didn't want the service?

The fact that you signed up (inadvertently) and then didn't cancel will override you not replying to their texts

Was there a reason to reply? The only time that would play a part is if they said "Please reply if you wish this service to continue" or something.

The most you're going to get is some or all of your money back from the text message service company if you complain hard enough.

You really do not have any grounds for a complaint to EE though. Sorry!

johnnysexton

Sounds like they well and truly have ripped me off. Oh well, up until yesterday I didn't know about it so I guess I'm just gonna' have to see the positive of this and that is that from now on I'll be checking my statements on a regular basis. Thanks for the information

And yeah... Come to think of it my bank has only ever contacted me when my card has been used abroad.

Well all I can do is hope they burn in hell, haha.

Cheers mate!

johnnysexton

johnnysexton wrote: »

Well all I can do is hope they burn in hell, haha.

The company that is... Not EE

matttye

johnnysexton wrote: »

Sounds like they well and truly have ripped me off. Oh well, up until yesterday I didn't know about it so I guess I'm just gonna' have to see the positive of this and that is that from now on I'll be checking my statements on a regular basis. Thanks for the information

And yeah... Come to think of it my bank has only ever contacted me when my card has been used abroad.

Well all I can do is hope they burn in hell, haha.

Cheers mate!

I wouldn't give up just yet - complain to the company some more and see if you can get some more money back. If all else fails, just accept their goodwill gesture of £36 and at least you've got something.

It would be helpful if you could find exactly where you accidentally signed up for the service though. Do you know the site? If so, we can look at the terms and see what it says.

No probs