I have just had the most awful experience with YouTube.  I thought I was entering a competition for their 6th Birthday, but I was unaware I was signing up for Fun Mobile.  http://nz.funmobile.com/

I have lost all my credit now due to YouTube.  I have sent them a email with my disgust.  But this is absolutely appalling. I never ever willingly would sign up for these types of things.

 And now I don't know what to do.  I just topped up my phone on the 19th January and the credit should last me at least 3 months.  Now I have 0.10cents credit.  I can't even text my husband this afternoon to let him know when I have left the doctors to pick him up.

I can see a lot more people being suckered into this.  Especially children with mobile numbers. And you think a legitimate site like YouTube should be better than this.

Here is a copy of what I emailed to Youtube at press@youtube.com - I could not find any other email address to contact them on.

 

Quote: I am a regular YouTube user and never before have I been appalled in YouTube’s behaviour.

I opened up YouTube today to with a pop up box announcing it was YouTube’s 6th Birthday.

It then loaded a page with the following info.

Dear Visitor,

Today is our 6th Birthday and you’ve been selected to take part in the celebration! All you have to do is choose one of the amazing gifts on the right! Prizes are available today only: February 11, 2011

So I selected a prize and went through what I thought was the process of entering the competition. 

But much to my dismay, I received text after text, which used up all my credit on my Vodafone New Zealand prepay phone.  Unawares, I had signed up for FunMobile  http://nz.funmobile.com/

 This is disgusting YouTube!  I never ever in my life would sign up to a crappy service like FunMobile and waste my precious credit.

I manage my credit on my Vodafone New Zealand prepay phone effectively as I only use it for emergency’s, I now have 0.10 credit.  And I only topped up on 19th January 2011.  This credit should last me 3 months.

I thought YouTube was a trustworthy internet site, but I am beginning to re-think that.

I want reimbursement and an apology.

Kind Regards

 

I don't know what can be done about this as this as never ever happened to me before. I thought it was a simple competition.  I sign up for competitions quite a lot online and have never had this happen to me before.

 

I tried emailing Vodafone, but had an error in the submission form.  Hopefully a Vodafone reperesentive can help me out here.  I don't have time to sit on the phone.  Plus, I'd probably end up crying over this if I acutally spoke to someone.

I also submitted my concerns and story to the New Zealand Herald.

Makes me think twice about using YouTube now.