Unauthorised 3rd party charges

[rokoto123]

Hello, so today I looked at my bill and saw 3 charges for £4.50 for "funnyvidztv". I hadn't even heard of this name. So rang Vodafone up and the person connected me through to them and they said they would investigate and get back to me, which I highly doubt. Sounds like a very scammy company.

I once again contacted Vodafone and they said they can't do anything and the company had to send me a cheque in the post.... The person offered to ring them again and get back to me on Monday.

Unfortunately I feel like I won't ever see my money again. I told the person I'm cancelling my direct debit till I actually see the money in my account. 

Why are Vodafone enabling these companies to operate and charge their customers without knowing? I imagine this happening to 100s on a daily basis and I highly doubt every single one is going to go through the effort of getting their money back as I am right now.

Has anyone had any experience with these before and if they ever were given the money back that was taken from them?

[BandOfBrothers]

The regulator will be able to give some insight. 

Edit it to amend broken link. 

http://psauthority.org.uk/

 
Http://www.phonepayplus.org.uk/for-the-public

 The Premium Rate Merchant is responsible for resolving the issue. ie The company responsible for charging. 

Vodafone has Premium-rate-Bar SMS-FAQ.

Please Do Not cancel your Direct Debit. 

That can lead to severe ramifications if you withhold payment such as restriction on services, late payment fees, re connection fees and in the extreme debt collection agencies and defaults that will last 6 years on your credit file. 

[rokoto123]

How else will I stop the money being taken out of my account should this company not provide me a refund?

That link is broken.

Is there a phone number to a UK call centre as I don't think I will get anywhere on 191.

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@BandOfBrothers wrote:

The regulator will be able to give some insight. 

Http://www.phonepayplus.org.uk/for-the-public 

 The Premium Rate Merchant is responsible for resolving the issue. ie The company responsible for charging. 

Vodafone has Premium-rate-Bar SMS-FAQ.

Please Do Not cancel your Direct Debit. 

That can lead to severe ramifications if you withhold payment such as restriction on services, late payment fees, re connection fees and in the extreme debt collection agencies and defaults that will last 6 years on your credit file. 

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[BandOfBrothers]

Apologies for the broken link. 

Try http://psauthority.org.uk/

The company charging you is responsible to return payment if taken in error. 

Stopping your Direct Debit could only lead to the ramifications I've pointed out. 

[AnnS]

Hi @rokoto123

The regulator of the premium rate service is PhonePayPlus.  You should be able to make a complaint on the website.

The first thing to do is to call these scammers and tell them to organise a refund for the unasked for service sent to your phone.  You can call the company on 0118 324 4333.

You then need to enable the premium rate SMS incoming restriction bar from your online account. If you have any problems enabling the restriction, live chat are there to help.

Please see the link below for further help and support.

Support - Premium Rate Services

If you continue to have problems with short code SMS reverse charged messages, please post back on the forum.

[rokoto123]

Doesn't look like I am going to get anywhere this weekend.

It's really ridicolous how Vodafone are doing nothing and profiting from companies like these.

[donnyguy]

Vodafone should be able to tell you a little about the company taking the money such as the short code you need to send the word STOP too in order to prevent any further charges. 

It is the company concerned you need to complain too and they are obligated to resolve for you.

As previous posters have stated, it's not worth cancelling direct debits to Vodafone as it could impact your credit file and it's not Vodafone charging for these services.

You can however log into your My Vodafone account and apply the premium sms bar as well as the charge to bill bar. This should stop this happening again in the future. 

Good luck resolving this...

[BoysDontCry]

Your bank should offer a direct debit guarantee and should refund at your request. I've done it before for some aimiliar circumstances involving another company.

[rokoto123]

It's funny how everyone is saying how it has nothing to do with Vodafone but it clearly does since they're the ones that are taking money on the companies behalf!!

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@BoysDontCry wrote:
Your bank should offer a direct debit guarantee and should refund at your request. I've done it before for some aimiliar circumstances involving another company.

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But wouldn't I just be taking money from Vodafone's pocket and it would just be flagged as money owed to them?

[Will]

Hi @rokoto123

The reason Vodafone doesn't step in and stop them immediately is because some customer's willingly subscribe to services.

Also, depending on the Terms and Conditions of the service a customer is subscribed to, Vodafone is unable discuss a customer's details with a third party company.