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Write from the Heart

In my blog I will write about whatever has my attention on the day I write, sometimes it will be funny, sometimes packed with information that I hope will prove useful for those living in Spain.

Vodafone.es Users Beware
Friday, May 23, 2014 @ 7:20 PM

Are you a Vodafone user? Have you noticed that your credit is disappearing much faster than Usual? If so I might be able to shed some light on what is happening to your mobile phone account's credit.

 

If you are one of the many unsuspecting Vodafone.es users you might be a victim of what I can only call a scam. Many Vodafone.es users are receiving text messages and are unaware that they are paying for them. For each message that they receive they are paying a premium rate each time one of these messages arrives on your phone.

 

The company Mogevilxion telecom s.l are the company behind the premium rate texts that are eating up your phone credit. I believe that they get hold of your your mobile phone number after you download one of their many apps.

 

This company have buried somewhere in their small print, that they have your agreement. By downloading one of their apps you agree to receive up to 36 of these messages per month.

 

These are the premium rate telephone numbers that this company are using. As far as I know you will receive from only one of these premium rate numbers. The premium rate mobile telephone numbers are

795045 795103 795820 797049 797216 797410

These premium rate text messages are charged to your mobile phone account at the premium rate of € 1.45 including IVA per text. When you downloaded one of their many apps you agreed to receive up to a maximum 25 messages a month. There is a maximum total cost that you will pay as they have capped at €36.25 per month. This capping just shows how caring and considerate this company is, yes this is an attempt at sarcasm.

 

The company that is doing this is based in Madrid and they are doing nothing illegal. because they have your permission. It doesn't matter that they buried it in their fine print. Buried or not, it stipulates that by downloading the app you agree that they can do this.

 

It is important that you understand, that even if later you uninstall the app, you will still receive their text messages. If you have a contract phone the first you might know about this is when you get your bill and it is €36.25 more than you thought it would be.

 

If like me you are a pay as you go user, as soon as you put credit on your phone the text messages start to arrive on your mobile. You will get up to three of these text messages a day until it has eaten up your credit or reaches their self imposed limit of €36.25 for the month.

 

The text messages contain a link to wap.games2u.es and you cannot stop receiving them unless you do the following. Send the word BAJA to which ever of the numbers you receive the text messages from, or send as a reply to one of the text messages.

 

Once you have sent this message you should then immediately receive a reply from the company. I think that you will be pleased to know that at least this message is free. This message will say that you have successfully unsubscribe from their service.

 

Most other mobile phone companies will block thisompany's texts to your phone. These other mobile phone companies will also refund money taken from your mobile phone account by this company. It is only Vodafone.es who refuse to take any responsibility or action for the money taken from your account.

 

Try contacting Vodafone.es and they tell you that this is your problem. As far as Vodafone are concerned, you agreed and subscribed and if you want it to stop you have to sort it out yourself.

 

You will have to find all the above out by yourself. They offer no help at all, this cavalier attitude has angered many of their mobile phone users, but they seem not to care. Vodafone know that most of their affected users are unaware that they have subscribe to receive premium rate texts.

 

Vodafone know that this is sharp practice by this company, but they don't care. Well I care and so I wanted you to know what is happening and also to tell you how to stop it from continuing to happen.  

 

I have a comment below from Colin that I think will help those that have been ensnared by this sharp practice and because not everyone reads the comments I am placing his comment here in the blog so that readers of this blog don't miss out.

 

"Hi, A friend of mine had the exact same problem with Vodfone here in Spain and wrote a very stern letter to the CEO of Vodphone UK and guess what! She did get a reply and all the money refunded as a good gesture that was taken from her account via this horrible means. I think a lot more expats should be writing to the UK version of Vodafone ES and pointing their absolute disgust and how they are being treated. " 



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7 Comments


SandrainAlgorfa said:
Saturday, May 24, 2014 @ 8:13 AM

Hello Maggs, and welcome to EOS. You've made a great start with this piece.

I'm not with Vodafone, but a friend who was had endless trouble with them. He ended up with a huge bill for internet access from his phone, yet he doesn't even know how to access the internet from a phone! In fact at the time he was supposed to have been doing this he was seriously ill in hospital, and didn't even have his phone with him. He proved all that, but they wouldn't budge on it - he had to pay up. And he certainly hadn't downloaded any apps - all he ever used the phone for was calls and texts.


RiojaRosie said:
Saturday, May 24, 2014 @ 8:34 AM

What a helpful piece Maggs, I think mobile phone use in Europe is a minefield for anyone, expats and visitors alike...... and so lovely to see you here blogging too. Looking forward to reading more! xxx


maggs224 said:
Sunday, May 25, 2014 @ 12:38 PM

Thank you SandrainAlgorfa for your warm welcome, you make me feel at home already. Unfortunately Vodafone.es does this bullying and bombastic kind of thing all the time, even in the face of evidence to the contrary, they refuse to take any responsibility or to make any recompense. I hope that your friend either changed his provider or took out a denuncia (not sure of the spelling of that) against Vodafone.

I don't think that they have ever heard the saying don't bite the hand that feeds you.


maggs224 said:
Sunday, May 25, 2014 @ 12:40 PM

Thank you for your kind words RiojaRosie and you are right it is a minefield that many find out to their cost, and it is lovely to see you too Jane :D


Colin said:
Wednesday, May 28, 2014 @ 10:28 AM

Hi, A friend of mine had the exact same problem with Vodfone here in Spain and wrote a very stern letter to the CEO of Vodphone UK and guess what! She did get a reply and all the money refunded as a good gesture that was taken from her account via this horrible means. I think a lot more expats should be writing to the UK version of Vodafone ES and pointing their absolute disgust and how they are being treated.


maggs224 said:
Wednesday, May 28, 2014 @ 2:35 PM

That is very interesting Colin, I will tell my son about your friend and her getting a positive result from writing to Vodafone UK. Hopefully he will get the same result :D

Thank you so much for this information, I think that I will place your reply in the body of the article so others may read it, as not everyone goes on to read the comments left on an article :D


Andy Twain said:
Tuesday, June 17, 2014 @ 8:55 AM

Thank you for the post you shared. For other telecom service you can visit audiotextsolutions.com/


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