Discuss: giffgaff Questions and Discussions

[martinjay]

I followed all the helpful advice I received from giffgaff and the happy bunnies here and contacted PlanetCalling to request a refund for the unsolicited premium rate message I received.

They don't seem to think they sent it.  Here's a copy of an email I've just sent to giffgaff support, which contains the response I received from PlanetCalling.

Do you remember that premium rate text message you billed me for?  The one you have no record of me requesting?

Guess what?  The company you fingered for sending it doesn't have a record of it either and (appear) to refute your allegation that it's possible to sign up to their service via their website.  I've had a look at it myself and can't see how's it's possible.  According to their website customers have to send a text message containing the word PLANET to 82023.  You've already confirmed you have no record of such a text message being sent via my SIM.

PlanetCalling have requested a RBID, whatever that is.  I'd be grateful if you'd send me a response to forward to them.

Here's a copy of the email I received from PlanetCalling.  As always, I'm looking forward to your helpful response.

----- Begin Quote -----

To: "'Martin Jay'" <martin@onenet.org.uk>
Subject: RE: Contact Form Enquiry
From: "Planet Calling" <[DELETED]>
Date: Thu, 18 Mar 2010 16:43:07 -0000

Good afternoon Martin,

May I just advise that I passed this onto our website technician to check as I cannot see any active or cancelled subscription under you mobile phone number provided.  Can I ask if you have an RBID number so we can check this on the system to try and find proof of a charge on your number.  

Can I also just inform you that for you to be charged a premium rate someone must have text our service to subscribe as we do not have the facility to randomly send the text with the service details without subscription first.  If you have any pin numbers which were sent to you, which you should have if you have been charged, can you also forward this through.

Unfortunately without either of these, there is no record of you subscribing on our system, so there is no proof you have been charged for us to refund you.

Regards

Amy

----- End Quote -----

[martinjay]

I followed all the helpful advice I received from giffgaff and the happy bunnies here and contacted PlanetCalling to request a refund for the unsolicited premium rate message I received.

They don't seem to think they sent it.  Here's a copy of an email I've just sent to giffgaff support, which contains the response I received from PlanetCalling.

Do you remember that premium rate text message you billed me for?  The one you have no record of me requesting?

Guess what?  The company you fingered for sending it doesn't have a record of it either and (appear) to refute your allegation that it's possible to sign up to their service via their website.  I've had a look at it myself and can't see how's it's possible.  According to their website customers have to send a text message containing the word PLANET to 82023.  You've already confirmed you have no record of such a text message being sent via my SIM.

PlanetCalling have requested a RBID, whatever that is.  I'd be grateful if you'd send me a response to forward to them.

Here's a copy of the email I received from PlanetCalling.  As always, I'm looking forward to your helpful response.

----- Begin Quote -----

To: "'Martin Jay'" <martin@onenet.org.uk>
Subject: RE: Contact Form Enquiry
From: "Planet Calling" <[DELETED]>
Date: Thu, 18 Mar 2010 16:43:07 -0000

Good afternoon Martin,

May I just advise that I passed this onto our website technician to check as I cannot see any active or cancelled subscription under you mobile phone number provided.  Can I ask if you have an RBID number so we can check this on the system to try and find proof of a charge on your number.  

Can I also just inform you that for you to be charged a premium rate someone must have text our service to subscribe as we do not have the facility to randomly send the text with the service details without subscription first.  If you have any pin numbers which were sent to you, which you should have if you have been charged, can you also forward this through.

Unfortunately without either of these, there is no record of you subscribing on our system, so there is no proof you have been charged for us to refund you.

Regards

Amy

----- End Quote -----

[vincent]

Hi martinjay,

I will see what I can dig out tomorrow morning for you to hand over to Planet Calling. We obviously have records of them charging you for the text they send you, so that should help sort this mess out.

Kind regards,

Vincent

[tomhogg]

Hi Martinjay

I have read the threads relating to your SMS saga.

A while ago I had a couple of unsolicited texts from a gay dating service and then discovered that my account had been charged a lot of money. (This was with vodafone not GiffGaff).

I keep my mobile number very private, never typed it on a website, and have never ever asked for any premium rate services. I only text friends.

Despite what a number of people are saying, Giff Gaff do have a responsibility to provide you with the correct information to sort this out. (They are providing you with a service that you have paid for - it's basic contract law). I had to threaten Vodafone with legal action - they kept saying that I must have asked for the messages.

In the end i established that 2 companies had charged my account 3 times for services I did not ask for. One of them was for ring tone downloads.

I was told by the ring tone company and also by Vodafone that it is acceptable for one number to be charged for a service while the service (the ring tone) was deliveed to a different number!!!!!!

I made a lot of fuss, got a full refund and also got compensation from Vodafone and from the companies that charged my account.

When will they set up a system so you can block any premium charge to your account!

This sort of thing is happening all the time but unless you are very observant you won't notice it as pay n go does not have itemised billing.

Tom

[simon69c]

---

tomhogg wrote:

Despite what a number of people are saying, Giff Gaff do have a responsibility to provide you with the correct information to sort this out. (They are providing you with a service that you have paid for - it's basic contract law). I had to threaten Vodafone with legal action - they kept saying that I must have asked for the messages.

---

Tom, that isn't what people have been saying - and indeed giffgaff *have* provided him with a whole load of information relating to the charge to help him resolve it.  Sounds like you had a bit of a nightmare too, but in reality Vodafone weren't actually obliged to refund you (unless it was somehow a balls up on their part) - this was likely just a goodwill gesture on their part.  The correct procedure is to go through the government watchdog for the industry, which for premium rate phone services is phonepayplus (no idea why they gave it such an unofficial sounding name!).  If you have been wrongly charged then you will get a refund from the company who sent the message in the first place, plus there is the benefit that they will find out which companies are having a laugh and be able to take action against them to prevent them continuing to charge other victims.

Someone has come up with a suggestion to giffgaff which is to offer the option of a premium SMS bar.  I'm not sure if it's actually technically possible or not, but if you think it's a good idea too then add Kudos to it so that giffgaff can get an idea of how important people think it would be.

[trick202]

I made a lot of fuss, got a full refund and also got compensation from Vodafone and from the companies that charged my account.

---

Who refunded you? Vodafone, or the text company?

[julian]

One thing I don't understand about premium rate SMSes on a payg service is what happens if the customer has no/insufficient credit for the reverse charge? If the sms is "bounced" could this not be offered as a default, so those of us who have no desire to *ever* use such a service know that any such charge will always be rejected?