Buongiorno - unapproved charges

paulmu

For anyone who has been the victim of one of these 'charge to bill' scams, there is now ample evidence that these companies will refund when confronted with the possibility of having to justify themselves in court. The Small Claims procedure is the way to go, not the regulator!


The regulator is currently reviewing these 'subscription services', and there is an opportunity to make the system fairer to consumers. If you've been affected please respond to the consultation.

nikkigees1

Has anyone got any templates that have got them a refund please. Im in a long fight with these to get refunds from 2015 by all accounts.

paulmu

There is a sample letter before action here:
https://payforitsucks.co.uk/im-not-getting-anywhere-with-my-case/#letter2

A number of consumers have successfully obtained refunds using letters based on this model. You will need to adapt it to you own circumstances.

nikkigees1

Im getting £223 full refund
Thanks to help feom threada on bg games
Dont give up they give in

paulmu

Well done for getting your money back. Legally, these scams don't have a leg to stand on. They have to pay up when faced with legal action.

Lexman

Hi,


sorry one more person who is suffering with this! Initially I suspected my niece as the only person who could have initiated this but have since ruled this out as a possibility. I'm a 49 year old male so if any subsequent texts came through from B!Games, I quite possibly would have deleted them as a suspected phishing scam and yes, I missed the £1.50 per week (EE tell me it was bi-weekly) since 2014!!


Here is the response from Buongiorno as I try and pursue this:




Dear Alex Culpin,

Further to your enquiry regarding the charges applied to your mobile phone bill and the information provided to you by our consumer support team on 06/12/2018,I wanted to take this opportunity to provide you with a more detailed explanation as to how your mobile number became subscribed to the B!Games service.

First and foremost, it is important to note that Buongiorno is governed by PSA who is the UK regulator for phone paid services authoritys. Current UK regulations dictate that as a provider of online and digital content, Buongiorno must have certain measures in place in order to operate and provide its services within the UK. These can be referenced in the below paragraphs in terms of the information presented on the joining page through to the frequency and content of the text messages sent to consumers.

It is also important to understand that Buongiorno do not have the facility to apply charges to a consumer’s mobile phone bill unless an active response is received from their handset.

To define an active response, this is where a consumer clicks on a promotional banner or advertisement and is redirected to a joining page specific to that service. This page details key information about the service including the cost of the service, how to unsubscribe and the contact details of our consumer support team should the consumer wish to contact us. If a free trial is being advertised, information on the trial period and when charging will commence is made prominent to the consumer.

The joining page also contains links to our Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy as well as an opt-in button to subscribe to the service.

As an added measure, Buongiorno sends a Welcome text message to the consumer advising them that they are now subscribed to the service. This message, similar to the joining page, also details the cost of the service, how to cancel the subscription and our contact details. A link is also provided to the home page where further details about the service, including the Terms and Conditions, can be found. If a consumer is subscribed to a free trial, information on when it expires and the costs thereafter is also provided in this message.

Monthly text reminders are also sent to remind consumers that they are subscribed to one or more of our services and to provide them with an opportunity to cancel their subscription should they wish.

In our initial assessment you were informed that your mobile number was subscribed to the B!Games service on the 25/07/2014 and that it was subject to a 1 dayfree trial period. You were informed that a Welcome text message was sent to your handset upon your mobile number being subscribed and information regarding the free trial, the cost of the service and the billing frequency subsequent to the free trial ending was detailed in this message. You were also informed that information on how to unsubscribe and our consumer contact details were included.

In addition, our consumer support team advised that subsequent monthly reminder messages were sent to your handset throughout your subscription and that charging only commenced upon the free trial ending.

After further evaluation, we can confirm that the information provided to you by our consumer support team corresponds with our own assessment of your enquiry. In light of the above, we believe that throughout your subscription, both before and after your free trial had ended, ample opportunity to cancel your subscription or query the charges was provided to you. However, in the interests of good customer service and best practice we would be happy to increase our refund offer to £18.00 .

As advised previously, should you accept the proposed amount the funds will be processed via PayPal using "alex@tygwyncider.co.uk" and will be credited to your account within 10 working days. If you do not already have an existing PayPal account an email will be sent to the above address which will contain a link to enable you to claim the funds.
Please confirm that the above email address is correct and that you accept the proposed amount in full and final settlement of your complaint.

Your reference for this query is 1630841, please ensure you quote this when contacting us.

Kind Regards,
Pamella
B! Escalations


I would be very grateful to receive any suggestions about how I move this forward and obtain a full refund. I'm going to print off all my statements and post letters to their head office which I think someone has kindly listed on this thread.


Finally, can't Martyn Lewis himself address this problem, there certainly seem to be enough people on here who have suffered with this issue...


Many thanks,
Alex, Hereford

[Deleted User]

Lexman wrote: »

Hi,


sorry one more person who is suffering with this! I've questioned my niece, who came to stay with us in 2014 when she was six. She played a game on my handset and at the time I questioned her about it. I really don't think she was capable of signing up but I could be wrong. I'm a 49 year old male so if any subsequent texts came through from B!Games, I quite possibly would have deleted them as a suspected phishing scam and yes, I missed the £1.50 per week (EE tell me it was bi-weekly) since 2014!!

Sorry but I can't see where you think you have any kind of comeback, to sign up only takes a click or three and if you've ignored the texts and payments for 4 years then I'd just grab the £18 offered and run.

Lexman

Are you a spokesman for B!Games? In case you hadn't noticed this forum is all about people who've suffered the same fate as me getting refunds so an 'I told you so' reply is not really very helpful!

Lexman

Hi Colin,


not sure if you are still on here, I messaged you on your gmail account, would be grateful of your advice and help if still around


Thanks Alex

[Deleted User]

Lexman wrote: »

Are you a spokesman for B!Games? In case you hadn't noticed this forum is all about people who've suffered the same fate as me getting refunds so an 'I told you so' reply is not really very helpful!

This 'thread' (not forum) is about people who have been overcharged for whatever reason, you allowed your niece to use your phone (not Buongiorno or anyone else) and then ignored charges for 4 years. Just because you don't like the answer doesn't make it wrong or 'unhelpful'.

Lexman wrote: »

Hi Colin,

not sure if you are still on here, I messaged you on your gmail account, would be grateful of your advice and help if still around

Given your 1st post above I don't understand the 2nd one, what Gmail account would this be by the way?