Buongiorno - unapproved charges

colinthfc

Hi

I am a new victim of Bgames. On checking out plan charges on my EE I queried why I had been charged £5.00 per month. I have been informed I was signed up in December. I was referred to Buongiorno who said that I played fruit juicer on 22.12.15 on a day trial. I have never heard of this and demanded a refund which was rejected. Phone Play Plus were brutal in rejecting my claid as soon as I said Buongiorno. The Customer Adviser told me it was my fault for not pressing stop and hung up on me.

If there is a template it would greatly be appreciated

Thanks

Nms19

Looks like this company has been doing it for a while. I got the message over a month ago and immediately sent the stop text. That hasn't stopped then taking £22 from my account and although they know I haven't used their services they have refused a refund.

The more people who contact the regulator phonepayplus the more likely something will be done about this scam/bad practice.

colinthfc

Phonepayplus refused to investigate when I complained. In fact they were very ruse and unhelpful blaming me for not texting stop. I believe there is a lack of independence.

I have sent a letter before action and will be claiming £48 + interst back via money claim on-line out of principle

[Deleted User]

Jon_01 wrote: »

You didn't check your EE bill for 4 years!

I'm sorry, but you have to take some of the blame.

Half the blame / half the cost? Seems fairly reasonable to me

Martin50

colinthfc wrote: »

Phonepayplus refused to investigate when I complained. In fact they were very ruse and unhelpful blaming me for not texting stop. I believe there is a lack of independence.

Phonepayplus is an industry body and as I mentioned above an appalling advertisement for self-regulation. Although they have taken action against large-scale offenders on occasion they seem to have no interest at all in acting on behalf of individuals who complain. And you have picked up on one really nasty aspect of this sort of scam, that it's set up in a way which allows the phone networks and the people who push these extra-cost services to blame phone users and to accuse them of lying.

colinthfc

Still no refund. Now have a deadlock letter from Buongiorno. They gave me details of the Ombudsman Service but a few lines below state they are not members.

About to start county court proceedings. Will update on any changes

pja_1975

Hi all.

Discovered 'DigitalCharges' against my EE phone about two days ago. I contacted EE, and they blocked the service and gave me details for Buongirorno (via the TapToFun service), a company I'd never heard of before.

I phoned them, and they terminated the service, but the 'adviser' stated I would need to e-mail refunds.uk@buongiorno.com to request a refund, as the department I was in contact with did not deal with this. I e-mailed the stated address and customercareuk@buongiorno.com...

This morning I received a reply, stating no refund would be offered as it is a click-to-subscribe service. Additionally, they stated that I would have received confirmation text messages. I can say now, I'm very good at avoiding Pop-Up's, so I would've not clicked on it, and furthermore I have received NO text messages from the company - if I had, I would have knocked this on the head straight away.

I replied to Buongiorno straight away stating all of this. A few hours later I got this reply back:-

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Dear xxx,

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 the 21/10/2016, I wanted to take this opportunity to provide you with a more detailed explanation as to how your mobile number became subscribed to the TapToFun service.

First and foremost, it is important to note that Buongiorno is governed by PhonepayPlus 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. 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 TapToFun service on the 28/06/2016 and that it was subject to a 1 day free 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. You were also informed that we have a record of your handset interacting with the service and were provided with the dates that it was accessed.

After further evaluation, we can confirm the information provided to you by our consumer support team corresponds with our own assessment of your enquiry. In light of the evidence that your handset accessed the service and that an opportunity to cancel your subscription during the free trial was provided to you, we uphold the decision not to honor a full refund for the charges incurred.

We understand that at this stage of your enquiry you may wish to refer your complaint to an independent body. If you haven’t already done so, you can refer your complaint to PhonepayPlus. Their service is independent and free to use and as the UK regulator for phone-paid services they can offer support and advice regarding complaints of this nature. PhonepayPlus also has the authority to look further into these complaints; and in cases where a provider is found to be operating in breach of the PhonepayPlus Code of Practice, they can impose a variety of sanctions.

[/SIZE]
I contacted PhonepayPlus, and they are NOT accepting any cases from this company as it is a click-to-subscribe service.

I have contacted 0207 0499636 again, and they are keep referring me to e-mailing again. Additionally, I contacted 0207 6136000 - this appears to be the buildings main reception, and was of no help; that said she did try to put me through to 'someone', but everyone was at lunch. An attempt to phone 'reception' again results in no one picking up the phone....could this be coincidence?

Basically, it looks like I'm screwed :-( Does anyone have any other suggestions that work and yield a refund?

Thanks in advance.

colinthfc

My County Court proceedings are well underway. Buongiorno filed their defence to the claim yesterday and I will receive it shortly from the court. The next stage is for the directions questionnaire.

I am happy to work with anyone who is fighting the same battle. I have set up a gmail address to communicate privately with anyone in the same boat as me. Please contact me on colin.bgames2016@gmail.com if you would like to work in partnership with me?

colinthfc

There has been 1575 complaints about Buongiorno to PhonPayPlus since 2013 including over 448 this year. Not one complaint has investigated due to their 'limited resources'. Therefore Buongiorno are happy to refer complaints as it makes them look fair, but the know it will not go anywhere

Elaine17

I have just seen that the phone scam known as Buongiorno has been taking £4.50 PER WEEK since October 19th.
Did all the same as everyone, called EE, wrote to Buongiorno who have simply done as they have to others......said I did join, I did play a game on 1 occasion and I did not reply STOP to any message, they also say they will NOT be giving a refund.
......needless to say I never had any messages, or have I ever played a game on my phone.
It was only when I saw EE had been fined 2.3 million that I decided to check my phone bill (online) and discovered £4.50 was taken weekly as far back as October.
Looking further into it I discover this Buongiorno Scammers are responsible for these amounts on my phone bill.
As I travel overseas regular and use my phone just never thought anything about my bills.
Oh how I wish I had checked but....I havnt so what to do?????