Sorry for the delay in responding to this.
I thought we had heard the last of Ferdamia Investments! As far as we know, they no longer offer any “services” in the UK.
The Ferdamia website gives some contact details for the company. Have you tried these? https://www.ferdamia.com/contact.php
As this company is based in Cyprus, and the charges span a long period, getting your money back isn’t going to be easy. It will almost certainly involve a lot of work, and make you wish you had checked your bills more regularly.
You need to gather some information:
- When did the charges start
- When did the charges end
- How much money in total was taken
- What was the name of the “service” you were charged for?
- What was the 5 digit shortcode associated with the "service"? 83463?
O2 should be able to provide this. If they are uncooperative, make a Subject Access Request under GDPR.
If you haven’t already, register a complaint with PSA. The complaint should include the fact that you were charged without consent, and that the company has failed to respond to your efforts to contact them. Ask PSA when the “service” stopped operating, and check whether you were charged after that date.
Make sure that your PSA complaint reference is on all correspondence relating to this matter and that PSA receive copies of this correspondence. Although PSA are not helpful to individual consumers, the companies take things more seriously if they know PSA are involved.
Be methodical and keep all evidence of steps you have taken to reolve the matter. Record any phone calls, but try to use email instead.
Essentially there are three parties to these tranactions
- The “Service Provider” or “Level 2” provider – Ferdamia Investments in your case
- The Accredited Financial Intermediary (API) or Level 1 provider – if the shortcode used was 83463, this will be Tap2Bill.
Customer care number
03330030599
Customer care email
customer.service@tap2bill.com
Postal address
Tap2Bill Limited
5 St. John's Lane
Farringdon
London
EC1M 4BH
- Your network – O2 in this case
Legally, the purported contract was with Ferdamia, so you should start there. However, it is possible to hold any of these parties to account if they can be shown to have been negligent (for example by failing to apply the 120 day rule or by allowing charges after the service ended). Remember that these companies usually only provide Customer Service during working hours Mon-Fri.
If you are having trouble contacting Ferdamia, it's probably worth contacting Tap2Bill and masking them to help, while making it clear that you will hold tem responsible if you are unable to secure a refund from Ferdamia.
All three parties can be sent a Letter Before Action (LBA) asking for evidence of the contract under which your money was taken. Template letters are on the Payforitsucks website. This is an essential step before you can take a case through the Small Claims system (or for Ferdamia the European Small Claims system).
As these were “Payforit” charges, they were subject to the “Payforit” rules. It might be worth asking O2 and Tap2Bill:
- Why the charges continued after the Payforit scheme ended in December 2019?
- Why the Payforit 120 Day rule was not applied to these charges? (The 120 Day rule required subscriptions to be stopped in a consumer didn’t “interact” with the service for 120 days)
It costs nothing to send a LBA. Try to make sure you get an acknowledgment of receipt. If sent by email you can ask for delivery receipt and a read receipt. If you go to court it will be essential to have this proof. If you wish, we can check LBAs for you to ensure that they conform to the pre-action protocols.
If your LBAs don’t get you a refund, you will need to consider whether to take legal action, and against which party.
If you reach this point, or if you need further advice, please contact us through the payforitsucks.co.uk website.
There is also a Facebook group where you may be able to get support https://www.facebook.com/groups/psconsumers
I hope you manage to resolve this and recover your money.
Paul
