Refund for subscription service I never subscribed to?

Tirian

Latest update ...

"We have now escalated your query for furtherinvestigation.

A decision on your refund will be made pending theoutcome of the investigation. Please allow 30 working days for us to completeour investigation.

We thank you in advance for your patience."

What a bunch of charlatans! There's nothing conceivable to investigate here, and certainly nothing that would take 30 days. Just one more wheeze to hang on to the money for as long as possible. Anyway, we shall see. Either they will refund me in full after their "investigation", or they will get their day in the Small Claims Court.

As noted above, it seems I won't be able to claim expenses for dealing with their time-wasting prevarications. However I will be able to add the £25 court fee and £95 for time off work to attend the hearing.

Hopefully some moron at B!Games with a calculator and more than two brain cells to rub together will figure out it's not worth their chancing that.

Tirian

Latest update - after several back and forths, they have offered a full refund. Will post the correspondence later.

Tirian

So, here is the train of correspondence, for any who find themselves in similar situation.

Initial message to b!games 23 June 2015


"It appears that I have been billed for several weeks for asubscription to a service of yours of unknown nature that I did not request,via my mobile phone account with 02 (for mobile phone number 07xxx xxxxxx).

I request that you immediately terminate this subscriptionand refund the amounts billed to date.

Yours sincerely,

xxxx"

Tirian

Response 26 June 2015


Dear xxxxx,

Thank you for contacting B! WebApp Support.

Your request has been processed and you have been successfully removed fromB!Games as of 23/06/2015.
B!Games gives you access to new and classic games. Train your brain, test yourlimits or take a break from the world. Play as often and as long as you want,and save your favourite titles.
Our logs show that +447xxxxxxxxx responded to one of our mobile internetpromotions for B!Games using a SAMSUNG SM-G900H handset on 16/04/2015.
A response to one of our mobile internet campaigns re-directs to our joiningpage. This page contains key information about B!Games including; the weeklycosts, our contact details and how to leave the service.

Once a customer agrees to join B!Games they are sent a Welcome text messageconfirming that they have joined. The Welcome text message includes; the webaddress to access the service, weekly costs, our contact details and the optionto cancel the service, e.g. ‘send stop’.

In addition to the Welcome message, Reminder messages are also sent to ourcustomers on a monthly basis, keeping them informed about their subscription.The Reminder message includes; the web address to access the service, weeklycosts, our contact details and the option to cancel the service e.g. ‘sendstop’.

Whilst our logs show that this subscription was activated as above, we are ableto refund the charges made before you received your first reminder message,amounting to £6.00

Please note that your acceptance of this refund will close this query and nofurther refunds will be issued.
To accept this refund, please reply to this email. Once you have replied wewill begin processing your refund.

Refunds are processed through PayPal. You don’t need an existing PayPalaccount, an email will be sent from PayPal to [email address][/email] within 10working days containing instructions on how to claim your refund of £6.00 .

We have also taken the liberty of adding your number to our block list toprevent further charges or interaction with our service. You can reply to thisemail if you would like to be removed from our block list.

Your reference for this query is xxxxxxx.

Kind Regards,
Cordelia
B! WebApp Support

Tirian

My reply 29 June 2015:

Thank you for your response.

I do not accept your offer. I have not at any point“agreed to join B!Games”.

Not immediately responding to an unsolicited text message does not it any wayconstitute “agreement” to join your service – it merely signifies that I havemore pressing priorities in my life than responding to unsolicited textmessages.

As you are no doubt aware, it is a fundamental principle ofcontract law that there has to be intent, from both parties to create anycontract - and indeed, all parties must think that they are agreeing to thesame thing ("consensus ad idem"). Since I have neveragreed to receive any service from you, and indeed do not even know whatservice it is that you purport to provide, neither of these conditions are met.

Please therefore refund all the charges. Unless Ireceive confirmation that you will do so within five working days, I willpursue the matter in the Small Claims Court instead. Please note furtherthat I will add to the refundable amount, any fee paid to lodge or progress theSmall Claims Court action along with charges for any further time I spend on thisincluding but not limited to an amount of £25 per further email that I have tosend to deal with this.

Regards,

xxxxx

Tirian

Response 2 July 2015:


Dear xxxxx,

Thank you for contacting B! WebApp Support.

Our records show that the mobile number provided, +4479xxxxxx, subscribed toour mobile WebApp B!Games by actively responding to one of our mobile internetpromotions using anSAMSUNG SM-G900H handset on 16/04/2015.

Upon subscribing we send a confirmation text message to confirm that you havesubscribed. The text message included the web address to access the service,weekly costs our customer care phone number and how to leave e.g. ‘send stop’.

We also send our customers text messages each month to keep them informed oftheir subscription. The reminder text message also included the web address toaccess the service, weekly costs, our customer care phone number and how toleave.

Notwithstanding the fact that our logs show that a legitimate subscription wasmade we offered to refund you for the amount billed before we sent the firstreminder message, however as a gesture of goodwill on this occasion we willrefund £7.50 for this subscription.

This will be sent via PayPal to [email address] within 10working days.[/email]
Please note that your acceptance of this refund will close this query and nofurther refunds will be issued.
To accept this refund, please reply to this email. Once you have replied wewill begin processing your refund.

As of 23/06/2015 your mobile number was removed from B!Games and added to ourblock list to prevent further charges or interaction with our services.

Your reference for this query is xxxx

Kind regards,
Irshaad Vaggie
B! WebApp Support

redux

Tirian wrote: »

Latest update - after several back and forths, they have offered a full refund. Will post the correspondence later.

I don't think we need full copies of every single message, thank you.

3 or 4 so far, and it starts to look like you might produce a dozen or so.

Tirian

My reply 3 July 2015:

Thank you for your email.

I do not accept your offer.

As advised previously, I have at no time agreed to receive asubscription from you for anything.

I have been charged a total of £15.00 since April 2015 and Iexpect this to be refunded in full otherwise, as previously advised,I will pursue the amount through the Small Claims Court.

In this eventuality I will also seek to recover my additionalcosts – including but not limited to the £25 fee for initiating a Small ClaimCourt action for amounts under £300, interest since April 2015 on the amount,and administrative fees for the time that I have had to spend pursuingthis. This will include a nominal amount of £25 per email sent (three sofar) and an amount relevant to the time it takes to complete the Small ClaimsCourt administration. As you can see, the amount I will be seeking to recoverin these circumstances will be not less than £115.

I will not engage in any further correspondence regarding thismatter before initiating the action – to save myself time, and to save youadditional costs. In view of the time you have already had to considerthis matter, please be advised that unless I receive a full refund of the£15.00 by the end of the day on Monday 6 July then I will initiate Small ClaimsCourt action without further notice.

Regards,

xxxxxx

Tirian

B!games response 7 July:


Thank you for contacting B! WebApp Support. We have nowescalated your query for further investigation.

A decision on your refund will be made pending theoutcome of the investigation. Please allow 30 working days for us to completeour investigation.

We thank you in advance for your patience.

Your reference for this query is xxxxxxx.

Kind Regards,

Irshaad Vaggie

B! WebApp Support

Tirian

Further response from b!Games on 22 July 2015

Dear xxxxxxx,
The findings of our investigations confirm an active response to one of ourmobile internet promotions for our games WebApp service, B!Games from07xxxxxxx using an Android handset, model number SAMSUNG SM-G900H on16/04/2015.

An active response requires you to click on a promotional banner/ad, whichcauses your browser to redirect to a joining page that contains specific andclear information about B!Games.It explains that it is a subscription basedservice, the weekly costs, the promoter/service provider contact informationand how to cancel the subscription. This information is provided in full on thejoining page, along with a link to our full terms and conditions, so that aconsumer can make an informed decision whether or not he/she wishes to purchasethe service in question.

Once a decision to subscribe to the service is made, a live opt-in link e.g. ‘abutton’ allows the user of the handset to make his/her intention known andinitiate the subscription.

It is when the consumer clicks on the live opt-in link that their mobile numberis subscribed, and this is how your mobile number is obtained. Thedynamic I.P address recorded in our logs for this step is xx.xxx.xxx.xxx.

In order to ensure that the decision to accept the offer is genuine and thatthe opt-in link had not been inadvertently clicked, our system sends a Welcometext message to you. The Welcome text messages includes; the web address toaccess the service, the price after the free trial, frequency of billing, our contactdetails and the means by which the subscription can be cancelled. With afree trial, billing does not take place until 24 hours after joining, so youwere given the option to (reply STOP to the 60113) for up to 24 hours withoutincurring charges.You were given the option to cancel the service from the dateof joining.

Our logs confirm that the above Welcome text message was sent to 07xxxxxxxxand returned a delivered status on the 16/04/2015 around 17:25.

Reminder messages were sent by our system to 07xxxxxxxxx on a monthly basissince the date of joining, notifying you that the subscription was active.These were sent to 07xxxxxxxxxon the following dates;
16/05/2015
15/06/2015

The monthly Reminder text messages include the web address to access theservice, the price and billing frequency together with the means to unsubscribeat any time e.g. ‘Reply Stop to 60113’. There is also a local ratecustomer care number provided on each occasion of a message being sent to youthat you could use to contact us, if you had had any queries or concerns.

Our records confirm that the Welcome and Reminder messages were sent to07xxxxxxxxx, yet we’ve no record of instructions from you to cancel or querythe subscription until you sent a request via email on 22/06/2015, accordinglythe subscription was not cancelled and remained active until your request wasprocessed.
Nevertheless, in the interest of maintaining good customer relations we offeredto refund £7.50 and after reviewing this subscription we deem this to be anacceptable offer.

Please note that your acceptance of this refund will close this query and nofurther refunds will be issued. To accept this refund, please reply to thisemail. Once you have replied we will begin processing your refund.

Refunds are processed through PayPal. You don’t need an existing PayPalaccount, an email will be sent from PayPal to [email address] [/email] within 10 workingdays of you accepting the refund. The email will contain a link for you toclaim your refund of £7.50.
As of 23/06/2015 your number was removed from all services and added to a‘block list’ to prevent further charges or interaction with our services.

We hope that this correspondence further clarifies the B!Games service, yoursubscription to it and our efforts to address your query in a thorough andexpeditious manner.

Kind Regards
Dean Stander
B! WebApp Support