Mobidol - What to do if you have been charged

tomlou

If you let them play on your phone then a sim lock won't help you.lobbying network providers into not using scam companies is the only way to stop this scam.

MKRaja

hi, I only noticed this month that vodafone is taking £18 every month and paying to mobidol

I called vodafone and they say its not related to them and I should send a STOP message to a paid number. Which I dont wanted to as I never subscribed in the first place.

I called mobidol and they are based in Netherlands. They dont have physical address. Just a phone number and an email.

They have taken more than £162 off me.

What should I do?

Any channel for complaints?

UK_FRAUD

It is alleged that this business offers a service but the majority of people do not know they have contracted with this company. There are no transparent terms & conditions with a thorough option to see what people are getting involved in.
Therefore it is my opinion that these people must be fraudsters operating to obtain money by the limited disclosure of information and charging people to cancel a service they did not intend to access.
The service provider should protect the consumer when this occurs in my opinion.
Utter disgrace.

Ian011

After ending the subscription by sending the STOP message to the mobile shortcode, make a complaint to PhonepayPlus. They have the power to fine companies and more.

Lobowski

Hi, were you refunded the entire amount. At the moment they are offering me less than 30%.

Lobowski

steveh14 wrote: »

Hi, Sorry to hear you have had issues but as I posted before I found them to be really useful and their Customer Services are very good and considerate when dealing with refund requests. Firstly you should text STOP - It will end the billing - It wont cost more than a standard text charge whatever that is for your network and tariff. Then I suggest you do call their CS and I am sure they will sort you out really quickly. The number to dial is 03308080141.

These services are billed by the mobile network operators and you cannot be charged unless you complete 3 separate actions - that way they get your number and will have proof of consent to buy whatever it is they are offering - But as I said, if you arent happy, do send STOP ASAP and give their Customer Services a call and I am sure you will be fine.

Hope this helps!

Do you work for the company?


I unwittingly subscribed to the service as I was unaware I failed to notice the payments coming out, as they are an amount which is just small enough not to be noticed for a regular user.


Despite never once having used there service which they confirmed they are willing to only offer less than 30% of what they took from me. Personally I find it deceitful, 99.9% of services I subscribe to require name, address, DOB etc... My parents recently mis-subscribed to Amazon prime it was fully refunded with a problem. Now that's good customer service for you.


I like a challenge in life a cause so to speak as such am quite looking forward to raising cases with phonepayplus, OFCOM and the Minister for Telecoms. These kind of things require deeper regulation if you ask me. I've bought things from Google play before so im no imbecile, however the fact that this can be subscribed to without seeking it out, wanting it and providing any personal details is underhand

rabishux

I had the same problem.

You NEED to:

1) Call your network provider and cancel subscription.
2) Check the number here: psauthority.org.uk ( it is UK regulatory body that is dealing with phone-paid services)
3) Report them. It is a scam !

They charged me 80 pounds. I never gave my number out to anyone. Suddenly they started to charge me. I do not know how it is possible. I realy suggest to report them to psauthority, because I think it is illegal.

GullibleProgrammer

Hello forum,

About four months ago I found out I was being charged £4.50 by mobidol for about 8 weeks. After a long chain of emails I was finally given a full refund.
I was meant to post my steps months ago but I never got round to it (sorry) but now I find the quite time after Christmas that perfect time slot.
I am also aware that someone from that company seems to be monitoring this forum so I don’t know if they will try to counter the process but all we can do is try.
Hopefully if enough of us complain against this company something might actually be done by the regulator (or am I just living in dream land?)

Anyway, enough of that blurb – what did it do:

First step – call them and get them to stop it

0300 30 300 20 during the hours of 09:30-17:00 Monday to Friday.
As always when calling get a name and also ask them questions about when did you subscribe and can you be sent the log files proof of purchase
They will probably cancel it happily but say that anything else needs an email.

Step two – First email; something like:

Good morning,
I (Mobile number xxxxxxxxxxx) have unknowingly and without my consent been subscribed to your service for the last eight weeks and have been charged £4.50 a week for this service.

I would like a full refund and an answer to the following questions:

When did I subscribe?
What did I subscribe via?
When did I agree to the terms and conditions?
How long was I on the page the contained the terms and conditions?
Do you have a minimum time on a page setting to make sure the users have read the terms and conditions and an explicit check box to tick before pressing any agree button?
When was I sent the terms and conditions?
How many of your services have I used since subscribing?

Can I please also have logs files for the above questions along with screen shots of the screens that I have clicked on a.k.a the user journey that I went on to subscribe to one of your services.


The key thing you want to do here is build a picture of the ‘journey’ you went on to sign up. And what is really important is to get the logs.

Step three – Chase them up
They might actually get back to you within 48 hours – if not call them.
What they will probably say is that you went through a four step process that could have not been by accident (we all know this is not true)
They will also say that you are paying vis some mobile pay operation that all four big providers help build (which is grim and the my phone company Three also refused to contemplate that I did not got thought the four step process )
What to do at this point is to continue to send emails asking for the log files of this four step process (aka proof of purchase) and for all of your other questions to be answered –remember phone and email chasers until they sent

Step 4 – Get sent the log file
If they can’t send you a log file or any proof of purchase then demand a refund with the regulator stating that you are being billed without a proof a purchase.
I actually got a log file stating prof or purchase set to me it was as follows (I have xxx’ed out my personal details and had to remove to links to post ):

CUSTOMER'S INFORMATION

---

IP: xxxxxxxxxx
MSISDN:
IDENTITY: #xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
User Agent: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

SUBSCRIPTION PROCESS

---

Landing timestamp: 2016-06-08 14:43:46
Landing page: LINKmobidol .talking-tom LINK
CTA click timestamp: Unavailable
Pre billing page:
Post billing page: LINK mobidolLINK

Visit Token: xxxxxxx

Subscription Technical Information

---

Service Name: LPM MOBIDOL UK
Offer Name: IPX_UK | WAP | THREE | LPM MOBIDOL UK | SUBSCRIPTION 4.5 £ | 1 week | 5+1 credits | CDG 2014 | 204839
Subscription Id: xxxxxx
Operator Subscription Id: Unavailable
Operator Transaction Id: Unavailable
Subscription Start Date: 2016-06-08 14:43:56
Subscription Stop Date: 2016-08-22 10:11:06
Renewals:
date: 2016-08-18 04:12:28 | tariff: 4.5
 This goes on for 8 weeks
SMS HISTORY

---

Welcome SMS:
MSISDN: xxxxxx | Date: 2016-06-08 14:43:56 | Message ID: 1-xxxxxx
Message Content:


The key parts of this are:
Landing timestamp: 2016-06-08 14:43:46
Landing page: mobidol link
CTA click timestamp: Unavailable
Pre billing page:
Post billing page: mobidol link


Note CTA timestamp is unavailable and I never went on the pre billing page; its blank! I never completed the four step process (proof they are scum).


Step 5:
Demand a full refund based on the lack of proof of purchase.
They will probably make you and offer of 50% or something. Refuse this; get your 100% !
I think I had about 10 back on forth email where I was asking for 100% refund or full proof of purchase.
Keep demanding - cc the regulator and you will get there

Once they do this you will get sent a check from an odd company – but cash it and relax.

Let me know if the about helps.
I really want to build a body of evidence against this company – they really are scum.
Try to get all your questions answered and keep fighting for your money back.

All the best and apologies for the typos,
GP

ELOUISE

Hi thank you for your informative post, glad you finally got a refund! I received a text a few weeks ago saying I am now subscribed to Mobidol, I just ignored as thought was a scam and I was sitting at my desk at work so knew hadn't signed up yo anything. A month later I was checking my bill as was wondering why my direct debit amount had increased, only to discover these Mobidol charges. So I have just fired off an email based on your template, I'm very annoyed, will let you know how I get on!

metrobus

These companies are indeed scum,but what I found also is that phonepayplus the so called regulator do not care a toss and try to
Palm you off.
They eventually took a statement after telling me i MUST have agreed to download a game which I did not,no payment screen or confirmation screen.nothing.
The girl was totally uninterested in my complaint and I know was only going through the motions.
PhonePayPlus are a bunch of parasites also and a complete waste of time.

Three mobile are also useless and do not do anything since the own along with
the other mobile companies payforit the collection company who take a large
proportion of the money the scam makes.I was lucky and only about a month of my
contract and left immediately but ended up being scammed for £27 by them.