Billed for service we cancelled...

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Billed for service we cancelled...

manaia

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#208512 15-Feb-2017 11:54

In June 2015 my wife called Skinny to cancel a mobile phone service for my daughter as she was switching to VF on a new number. We've just realised that they continued billing us $16 a month ever since (about $300). We called up and got a refund for the last month but they've refused our request for a bigger refund "there is no way we can get this credit back as its already used on your combo renewal for all those months. Theres no option for us to reverse those charges and refund the money back to you." There has been no activity on those combos over tis time. Can anyone suggest what I should do next please?

surfisup1000

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#1720556 15-Feb-2017 11:58

You just need to speak to someone higher up the food chain, perhaps.

Is there some proof you never used the service?

I guess they could say you should have told them sooner, but I get it, my CC statement is huge, and it would be easy enough to miss.

Linux

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#1720558 15-Feb-2017 11:59

Ask them for all notes off the account (You are entitled to this INFO by law) and see if anything is noted for that phone call in

Linux

timmmay

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#1720577 15-Feb-2017 12:29

Things like this is why I record all my calls. You may be able to go to TDR.

manaia

272 posts

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#1720582 15-Feb-2017 12:47

Thank you for the advice. I'll get my wife to escalate and ask for the notes (never knew about that). They do say they have no note of the call tho. The TDR is a good idea, too. I guess they can see that no calls were made on the account but I don't have access online.

I was watching transactions carefully but the outgoing was masked by another Skinny payment (we only noticed this one when that one was stopped) and general overspending masked the over-budget :(.

manaia

272 posts

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#1721335 16-Feb-2017 15:01

Update: thanks again for your advice. My wife spend the day on the phone to them (release the kraken!) and they've now been kind enough to give us a full refund for the 16 months, as they said there was a breakdown in their process.

NonprayingMantis

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#1721411 16-Feb-2017 16:10

good resolutuion.

I'm curious though. Skinny is a prepaid service. Why did you need to phone up to cancel at all? with prepaid, you just stop paying and the service cancels itself, doesn't it?

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manaia

272 posts

Ultimate Geek
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#1721493 16-Feb-2017 18:57

Good question - I don't know. I've been letting my wife set up the kids mobile schemes & between her natural talent for obfuscation & my lack of understanding of how the things work through lack of contact, I just don't know what's she's done & she can't explain it either :(

cadman

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#1721615 16-Feb-2017 23:00

NonprayingMantis:

good resolutuion.

I'm curious though. Skinny is a prepaid service. Why did you need to phone up to cancel at all? with prepaid, you just stop paying and the service cancels itself, doesn't it?

Probably an auto-topup from credit card to cover the renewal automatically.

manaia

272 posts

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#1721685 17-Feb-2017 09:39

Yes (or Visa Debit) - I think you're right. Appreciate Skinny fronting up with the refund.

Rikkitic

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#1721702 17-Feb-2017 10:12

To their credit. Sometimes businesses do the right thing.

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