Hello there, desperately needing some consoling and a way forward re claiming my refund of £195.43p. from Buongiorno Games who stated l subscribed to a games website on my mobile last August 2016. . Will be so happy to share my dilemma with anyone who can advise me and been there.

Have had contact with this company who are putting all the blame on me and blinding me with technicalities.

I am 65 yrs old and never play games on my mobile phone.

Thank you .

how are they getting this money from you?

you gave them a card number?

moved to the mobile phone forum

seems this is an app .that bills your mobile,

read here:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=5482231#topofpage

It appears that my mobile number was chosen at random like many others.

Its a premium rate service which l never willingly signed up to.

I would have ignored these alerts.

By ignoring them was an indication to the Buongiorno company to continue this taptofun game which they billed me for 10 month at 4.50 per wk.

It was not until l checked my new SIM Plan on the 1/6/17 contract that l noticed a more than large bill.

My previous bills from EE had been the usual mobile phone plan costs, though large , seemed plausible.

I immediately alerted EE who blocked the service and denied any responsibility even though they are a third party to this.

A number was offered to me and l have been trying to pursue a refund from Buongiorno over 7 weeks through telephone calls and emails.

Their most recent email is very long winded,

they attached eveidence of copies of the times they had alerted me,

a Welcome message to the game site and dates l was billed from their records.

Alot of jargon and waffle exceeding two pages in the email as well as there t&c and psauthority to contact.

They are of no help.

did you read that thread on martin's site?

Oh yes, thankyou,

did my homework and have even used some of the suggested approaches and templates.

l have not been idle dx100uk.

Furthermore many of the threads on MSE forum go back to 2015, nothing current.

Wondering if Buongiorno have sharpened up their act and are not refunding illegal costs or using jargon to get around taking responsibility.

The above thread from me outlines the number of times l have contacted them,

just wondered if l now issue them with a Small claims court order?

unlawful costs its not a criminal matter..

doesn't matter what jargon they use

they need to prove you signed up to it

and i'm with you.

a 65yrs old pensioner wold not be using such things.

total spoof to rob you of money

if you'd like to post up their jargon

i'm sure we can get the buster out and pull them apart.

dx

Have copied their long winded reply. Do l have any recourse?

Dear .........

We would like to thank you for your patience in this matter and for allowing us the time to thoroughly investigate your complaint.

We understand that this situation may have been frustrating for you.

Below, we have provided a full breakdown of your case which includes:

a summary of your complaint;

the actions taken by Buongiorno;

the findings of our investigation; and

our final conclusions.

In addition, to ensure complete transparency in this matter, we have also attached a copy of the information that we requested as part of our investigation to ensure a thorough assessment could be conducted. We have also included a copy of our complaints procedure for your perusal.

Attached you will find the following:

a snap shot of your usage confirming the date your handset accessed the service;

the complete consumer journey including the banner advertisement and joining page;

a copy of all the messages sent to you handset throughout your subscription;

a copy of the full Terms and Conditions for the TapToFun service; and

a copy of our complaints procedure.

Summary of Complaint

It is our understanding that you dispute signing up to the TapToFun service on the 02nd August 2016 or agreeing to the charges applied to your mobile phone bill. It is also our understanding that you deny having accessed the service on the dates stipulated by our consumer support and escalations team.

Actions Taken

Our consumer support team wrote to you in response to your initial enquiry providing you with key details of your subscription including the period of your free trial, the name of the service and the date your mobile number was subscribed.

With regards to your questions raised, PSA is our regulator.

I meant to say the 13th July 2017 and not the 30th July 2017.

As mentioned before the service was activated on the 02nd August 2016, I’m not sure why they said 4th August 2017.

Due to our consumer support team being unable to honour your request for a full refund,

the matter was later escalated and a more detailed explanation of the subscription process was sent to you on 13th July 2017 by our escalations team.

Their findings were concurrent with those of our consumer support team and therefore, the decision not to provide a full refund was upheld.

As the matter remains unresolved, your enquiry has now been escalated to the investigations team for further assessment.

Findings

Having assessed all of the information we have on file,

including the additional information requested as outlined above, we can now confirm our findings with you.

It is evident, having thoroughly reviewed our records, that a genuine subscription to the TapToFun service was recorded on 02nd August 2016 from the mobile number 07xxxxxxxxxxx

It is clear that the subscription included a free trial period allowing the user to access the service for 1 day completely free of charge.

It is also clear that in-line with current UK regulations, a welcome message was sent to the handset informing the user of the 1 day free trial and the cost of the service after this period had expired.

Monthly reminder messages, similar to that of the Welcome message, were also sent to the handset throughout the subscription period.

The attached consumer journey illustrates that in order for the service to be initiated the user of the handset would have had to complete a two-step signup process.

On the first page the user acknowledges the cost and terms of the service by clicking the SUBSCRIBE NOW button.

The second page confirms the cost and terms of which the user then provides consent to charge by clicking the CONFIRM button.

Furthermore, we note that the make and model of the handset along with the IP address were captured by our systems, indicating that your handset was, at some point, directed to the TapToFun joining page.

For the avoidance of doubt, we have detailed this information below.

Handset: HTC Desire 510

IP Address: Xxxxxxxxx

We also have it recorded that your handset interacted with the service while your subscription was active.

Conclusions

Taking into consideration the points raised in your complaint and all that has been outlined above, we are unable to identify any cause or reason as to how your subscription to the TapToFun service could have been activated by any other method, other than that detailed in our findings and as illustrated in the attached consumer journey.

In addition, the attached message logs indicate that all messages required to be sent were delivered to your handset and that all the information to enable you to make an informed decision as to whether to continue with the service, prior and after the free trial period, was provided in these messages.

While we understand your reasons for deleting or otherwise disregarding the messages, Buongiorno cannot be held responsible, if as a result, you remained unaware of the cost of the service or how to cancel your subscription.

With regards to your usage, we can confirm that you handset interacted with our service on the following date:

02nd August 2016 – Cut the rope

Please refer to the attached screen grab for further clarification.

While we appreciate that you consider the charges applied to your mobile phone bill to be unsolicited, our escalations team informed you that Buongiorno do not have the facility to apply charges to your mobile phone bill unless an active response is received from your handset.

In addition, our findings along with the supporting documents,

demonstrate the steps that you,

or another user of the handset,

would have completed in order to subscribe to the service.

They also highlight that Buongiorno,

in-line with current UK regulations and guidelines,

took every necessary measure to ensure you remained aware that your mobile number was subscribed to the TapToFun service and how you could unsubscribe.

Finally, it is clear from our records that you or another user of the handset accessed the service while the subscription was active.

We therefore conclude that the subscription to TapToFun was initiated as a result of a genuine request.

We also conclude that Buongiorno provided you with ample opportunity to opt out of the service during the free trial period,

prior to any charges being applied,

as well as after it had expired.

We believe we have been open and cooperative in this matter and are confident that we have complied with all UK regulations and guidelines.

The decision not to issue you with a full refund is upheld.

If you are dissatisfied with the outcome of our investigation, I would ask that you take some time to familiarise yourself with our complaints procedure as it provides information on what to do next if you wish to pursue your complaint further.

Kind Regards

Nizhar

B! Investigations Team

Finally, it is clear from our records that you or another user of the handset accessed the service while the subscription was active.

any views on the above?

I have received an email offering 50% refund. Clearly they would not be offering anything if they were not in the wrong. Is there a legal or technical lever l can go back to them with in the hope of getting a full refund? What do you think

Finally, it is clear from our records that you or another user of the handset accessed the service while the subscription was active.

can you comment on the above statement please from your side?

great news on the discount you are learning.

stick by your guns.

you can hint at starting a claim [notice I said claim not Court Claim] in 14 days should they not resolve your complaint full.

I am a 65yrs old pensioner that got spoofed by a pop up on a tiny mobile phone.