My fury at paying £370 for a service I didn’t want – with no refund

ACCOUNTANT Paula Kelly is ‘annoyed and frustrated’ she cannot secure a refund from either her mobile provider or the company that sent costly and unwanted texts to her phone.

The 53-year-old only discovered a long history of charges for premium rate texts when her mobile phone contract was suspended in July last year.

When she complained to her mobile provider Virgin Media, she was told to contact WinTrivia, the company behind the texts.

At this point, it emerged she had been paying for a competition service since Christmas Day 2015 at a weekly cost of £4.50. In total, she was charged around £370. Paula, a mum to 15-year-old Maria, says: ‘This service is not something I would knowingly subscribe to.

‘Upon receipt of the texts, which I considered a nuisance, I immediately deleted them.’

WinTrivia told her: ‘Due to the service terms and conditions presented to all our consumers on our sites, we do not issue any refunds.’

It added that the service she joined is ‘compliant with necessary regulations’.

Virgin Media told The Mail on Sunday: ‘We are sorry to hear that Paula Kelly has been charged for services from a third-party she did not want.

‘To prevent her from incurring further premium rate charges for other message subscriptions, we have blocked such services from her account.’

It added: ‘We urge all customers to check their bills carefully. We also provide customers with advice about premium rate services on our website. We are happy to add a call-barring facility which prevents access to premium rate numbers to any customer who requests one.’