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Google Play Refund Policy / Scam Apps

Rich_Z
Posts: 6 Forumite


Hi all,
Somehow one of my several kids [all prmary school age] downloaded a App from Google Play [which after three days] then automatically took a £174.99 annual subscription for wallpaper! I didn't realise this until the money had been taken from my account. To say I'm fuming is an understatement as many times they have request app for their devices and I have always managed to avoid apps with charges and instisted they can only use app which are appropriate and free. I do use 'permissions' but i suspect that in a weak moment one of them got onto my computer!
Anyway cutting to the chase upon looking more closely and contacting Google Play they have washed there hands of it and referred me to their refund policy staing its the developers of the app that I need to approach for a refund. They are in China I presume from the name of the email contact. But then looking into it further I appears the app is a scam and many people have been conned out of serious amounts of money and had money taken without permission. There are hundreds of 1 star rating comfirming this. So my gripe is why have Google Play allowed such an app to stay on 'their' site for so long [and it's still up] and allowed many more people unnessarily be scammed downloading the app off 'their' site.
I'm not hopeful of getting my money back from the app developer [I've already seem many comments saying such] and I feel Google Play are allowing people to be scammed.
Any advice on how I can get my money back would be most welcome. Thanks all, moan over. Rich.
Somehow one of my several kids [all prmary school age] downloaded a App from Google Play [which after three days] then automatically took a £174.99 annual subscription for wallpaper! I didn't realise this until the money had been taken from my account. To say I'm fuming is an understatement as many times they have request app for their devices and I have always managed to avoid apps with charges and instisted they can only use app which are appropriate and free. I do use 'permissions' but i suspect that in a weak moment one of them got onto my computer!
Anyway cutting to the chase upon looking more closely and contacting Google Play they have washed there hands of it and referred me to their refund policy staing its the developers of the app that I need to approach for a refund. They are in China I presume from the name of the email contact. But then looking into it further I appears the app is a scam and many people have been conned out of serious amounts of money and had money taken without permission. There are hundreds of 1 star rating comfirming this. So my gripe is why have Google Play allowed such an app to stay on 'their' site for so long [and it's still up] and allowed many more people unnessarily be scammed downloading the app off 'their' site.
I'm not hopeful of getting my money back from the app developer [I've already seem many comments saying such] and I feel Google Play are allowing people to be scammed.
Any advice on how I can get my money back would be most welcome. Thanks all, moan over. Rich.
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Comments
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What does it say in the APP T/C?
Any mention of a "Trial period"?Life in the slow lane0 -
Rich_Z said:Hi all,
Somehow one of my several kids [all prmary school age] downloaded a App from Google Play [which after three days] then automatically took a £174.99 annual subscription for wallpaper! I didn't realise this until the money had been taken from my account. To say I'm fuming is an understatement as many times they have request app for their devices and I have always managed to avoid apps with charges and instisted they can only use app which are appropriate and free. I do use 'permissions' but i suspect that in a weak moment one of them got onto my computer!
Anyway cutting to the chase upon looking more closely and contacting Google Play they have washed there hands of it and referred me to their refund policy staing its the developers of the app that I need to approach for a refund. They are in China I presume from the name of the email contact. But then looking into it further I appears the app is a scam and many people have been conned out of serious amounts of money and had money taken without permission. There are hundreds of 1 star rating comfirming this. So my gripe is why have Google Play allowed such an app to stay on 'their' site for so long [and it's still up] and allowed many more people unnessarily be scammed downloading the app off 'their' site.
I'm not hopeful of getting my money back from the app developer [I've already seem many comments saying such] and I feel Google Play are allowing people to be scammed.
Any advice on how I can get my money back would be most welcome. Thanks all, moan over. Rich.0 -
I never authorised a payment for £174.99 for a wallpaper app for my kids phone. Its a con and a scam and as well as wanting my money back as stated my main gripe is why Google Play is allowing apps like this to carry on conning and ripping people off when there not just one or two complaints but hundreds and this app has been doing it for months. Surely Google Play have a responsibilty to manange these type of apps.0
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Rich_Z said:I never authorised a payment for £174.99 for a wallpaper app for my kids phone.Rich_Z said:Its a con and a scam and as well as wanting my money back as stated my main gripe is why Google Play is allowing apps like this to carry on conning and ripping people off when there not just one or two complaints but hundreds and this app has been doing it for months.Rich_Z said:Surely Google Play have a responsibilty to manange these type of apps.2
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Going forward the OP, or anyone else needs to NOT let their children use the same account. They need to let the kids have their own account, but have no card details listed, this can't happen then...
If they want to use pocket money or birthday money then they can buy a top up card. Then they can only spend what is in the account.
Sadly treating it as a fraudulent, will it see it being rejected as app is as described and transaction was approved, and then odds on google account closed, on the basis of a fraudulent claim with the resulting issues that causes.
Bet the app the op kids have used has a clause like this in the description...Fantasy offers a weekly subscription of 89.9$. You can try it for 3 days before the official subscription. There will be no deduction during the trial period. The trial period will end. The fee will be deducted from your play store account. If you do not cancel, subscribe. It will continue on a weekly cycle. If you want to cancel your subscription, you can go to the play store account settings and unsubscribe.Life in the slow lane1 -
Rich_Z said:I never authorised a payment for £174.99 for a wallpaper app for my kids phone. Its a con and a scam and as well as wanting my money back as stated my main gripe is why Google Play is allowing apps like this to carry on conning and ripping people off when there not just one or two complaints but hundreds and this app has been doing it for months. Surely Google Play have a responsibilty to manange these type of apps.
So why do your kids have a google account on their phones that allows them to purchase apps with a card payment attached?
This is very reckless of you to allow that for primary school aged children especially when google offer a kids account for children's devices.0
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