Buongiorno - unapproved charges

Lexman

Firstly, it's a different Colin I was replying to. There is one on here who took to Buongiorno to court and won. Which is exactly what I intend to do. I have since ruled out my niece as being the reason this happened, she didn't visit us until two years after the subscription was activated. I'm just saying that there's a huge majority of posts on this thread from people who clearly feel an injustice has occurred and exploring ways to right that injustice. So the two or three posts telling those people that it's their fault for dismissing a text that they thought was a scam or not checking every single line of their phone bill, are of no interest or help to those people...

pmduk

Lexman wrote: »

There is one on here who took to Buongiorno to court and won.

I think you'll find B! Games settled before court which is totally different from a court win

Lexman

Stellypops wrote: »

I have just received confirmation from Buongiorno that I will receive a total refund. The company I work for has a business account with EE with three separate mobile numbers. Two of these numbers were subject to this scam. One getting hit for £5.00 per month and the other £3.30 per month. I meticulously copied the emails in this string and played a 'game of tennis' with what appeared to be an automated system at Buongiorno till I eventually received an email from them stating that:

"I am writing to inform you that due to a recent change in UK regulations service providers are now required to refund customers in full, if they are unable to provide supporting evidence that their service was accessed during the subscription period. As we have no record of your handset interacting with the service while you were subscribed we will be issuing you with a refund for the full amount charged"

Anybody in the same boat please don't hesitate to contact me and I will endeavor to assist you in the process of obtaining your refund.

Shame on EE for allowing this situation to happen in the first place, who incidentally wiped their hands of it and simply gave me contact details for Buongiorno.

Hi Stellypops,


yes please would love some help as I activate my claim for a refund,


Many thanks,
Alex

[Deleted User]

Lexman wrote: »

Firstly, it's a different Colin I was replying to

Learn how to use the quote function then, it saves you looking silly.

pmduk

Lexman wrote: »

telling those people that it's their fault for dismissing a text that they thought was a scam or not checking every single line of their phone bill, are of no interest or help to those people

It's actually very helpful, both to you in the future, and for others reading the thread. After all, you're admitting receiving texts telling you about the charges, but not bothered to read them, you've had years to prevent the situation from getting this far.

Martin50

Slightly different take: if you are organised enough to post here but have somehow allowed these charges to be made for 3 years + without noticing them, you won't necessarily find other posters here very sympathetic.


That doesn't detract from the fact that (1) this is - in many cases at least - a scam and (2) if you persevere, perhaps mentioning the possibility of legal action in correspondence - as mentioned before a very different matter from actually taking them to court - you should be able to get a full refund

pmduk

Even better, make a fuss to your MP and help get these premium rate schemes outlawed.

simplysweet

In December I revived my first itemised bill. I’ve had my phone ten years plus but this was the first time I received an itemised bill. I noticed the weekly payments of 99p going out so questioned it with EE. They gave me the contact details of Buongiorno and when I called them I was totally shocked to learn that they had activated the service on 01/01/2014, yes 5 years earlier. My phone is one of three phones we have as a business package and so the cost was never queries and like I said previously, we didn’t have itemised bills until recently. B! Games (as they are also know) first offered me £3.98 and then “in the intesests of good customer service £11.88”.
I have cut,copied and edited a letter off here to hopefully get some more money back but the “monthly reminder texts” they supposedly sent are a load of made up bills!@t!

simplysweet

Paulmu,

Thank you so much for your helpful reply. I’ve now emailed the company several times after rejecting their offer of £11.88 and have not yet received any replies.
I will try the small claims court.

simplysweet

I have had yet another reply from as below:

Thank you for your reply, your complaint has now been escalated as I understand that you are unhappy with the initial response and resolution offered by our customer care team, please accept our apologies for this delay.

It’s important to note Buongiorno is governed by the PSA who is the UK regulator for phone-paid services. 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.

It’s also important for you as a consumer to understand that you cannot be subscribed to our services without an active response to one of our banner ads, as detailed in the subscription flows previously provided. The subscription process in this instance was a Two stage process and the service in question B!Games was joined on the 01st of January 2014, the first stage of this subscription process would be to click on a banner ad displayed while accessing the internet on your device, this would take you to a joining page with our T&C’s, contract information, along will all further information regarding the subscription, the second stage would be clicking on the button stating “PLAY NOW”, this would then take you to the content in question, in this case B! Games Catalogue, you then would of received a welcome message to the handset, the message sent to (mobile number) is displayed below.

(FreeMsg) Welcome! Play games (their website). 24hrs free then 99p/week until u reply Stop. Help: 02076499636. Don't want push notifications? Reply No

Along with the welcome message a total of 63 reminder messages were sent to the handset clearly indicating that you were a member of the service and were being charged on a weekly basis. These messages gave you ample opportunity to cancel the service or contact the helpline in the messages to query the charges, an example has been displayed below.

FreeMsg: You're a member of B!Games for £0.99/week. Unltd Games & Apps [/url] Don't want to play? Send stop to 60113 to leave. Help? 02076499636

Taking all of this into consideration we feel we have given you ample opportunity to cancel the service or query any charges that have appeared on your bill since 2014, however in the interest of good customer service and as a gesture of goodwill I would like to offer you a refund of £50.

As advised previously, should you accept the proposed amount the funds will be processed via PayPal using (email address) and will be credited to your account within 10 working days.

If you remain unhappy with the resolution I would advise you to contact the regulatory body who will look into this service on your behalf.

Kind regards

B! Team

It's just back and forth back and forth....what next?