Refund for subscription service I never subscribed to?

Tirian

Looking at my most recent O2 bill, I've been billed £1.50 a week for several weeks for a subscription to a games service/website which I most certainly never signed up to.

What's the best way of getting this money back? I understand from a brief Google search that O2 are likely to refuse to refund this. Is that legal? Can I request that they provide me with details of the authorisation that presumably they would have to have received in order to start billing me for this thing?

grumbler

Get the information from O2 on the company charging you and claim money back from this company.

Tirian

Will do.

I'm still astonished that apparently O2 can just start billing me for something that I never asked for - and I have to go and deal with someone else (who I've no idea who they are) to sort it out!!

NFH

Tirian wrote: »

Can I request that they provide me with details of the authorisation that presumably they would have to have received in order to start billing me for this thing?

Yes. In the case of a dispute, the legal onus is on the invoicing party to provide evidence that the invoiced charge is due.

redux

Go to the Phonepayplus website and look up the number that the messages were sent from.

That gives you contact details for the number operating company. Contact them and say that you never subscribed to the service and want to be refunded in full. They will probably forward this to the service itself, usually another company.

If you don't receive a full refund in reasonable time, make a complaint to Phonepayplus. They have teeth on this, and can issue large fines.

Tirian

Thanks! Looked up on Phonepayplus and is apparently "Buongiorno UK Ltd", who set up in March 2015 and have not provided details of the service they provide, or its cost.

Apparently didn't take them long to start billing people who haven't applied for a service that they decline to describe!

I've emailed their customer support from the Phonepayplus details, will be interested to see how (and if!) they respond.

So far have only an autogenerated reply.

Tirian

Quick websearch reveals that they (in other guises) have form on this kind of approach.

http://community.ee.co.uk/t5/My-Bill/Scam-quot-Game-0-82-quot-on-your-phone-bill-Buongiorno-B-Games/td-p/73728/page/3

According to people on this thread who have dealt with it in the past, they are "not PhonepayPlus regulated" but "portal services" regulated by the mobile network providers. Sounds like a surefire recipe for larceny to me.

In short, it seems it's possible for mobile phone co's to operate an arm's length 'independent' service operation that enables them simultaneously to deny that they have any responsibility for initiating, ending or refunding the service but at the same time have it not fall into the sphere of premium rate service regulation.

And seemingly it is possible for large numbers of consumers to find themselves subscribed to such service without having done anything whatsoever.

grumbler

MSE thread: Buongiorno Mu charges (t mobile)

Tirian

Aha, famous here too then. Seems a pretty endemic scam. Have to wonder if their "set up in March 2015" service is a dodge to get around limitations/pending action on their previous incarnation(s).

simax

Tirian wrote: »

Will do.

I'm still astonished that apparently O2 can just start billing me for something that I never asked for - and I have to go and deal with someone else (who I've no idea who they are) to sort it out!!

Your phone subscribed to this service, simple as that so if you didn't do it, someone else did.

Tirian

Everything is simple to simpletons.

For your information, my phone is encrypted and uses a strong password which I have not given to anybody. Nor does anyone else use my phone.

I did not sign up for this or any other 'service' on my phone and to this day I don't even know what the 'service' I am supposedly receiving is.

If O2 are allowed to add this charge to my bill, then they should be able to give some better justification than "well it's on your bill so you must have authorised it". Would a bank be allowed to get away with that as justification for setting up a new direct debit on my account? No - they would have to show that they had received a mandate from me to do it. So should O2.