A paid service has suddenly activated on your mobile phone and you don’t know how to get rid of it? Don’t worry, if you want, I’m here to give you a hand. What you have come across is a VAS , a Value Added Service , that is a value added service that provides for the payment of a sum of money every week or every month in exchange for access to its contents, which can be news, videos or other.
VAS are often activated in a fraudulent way: the user visits a web page and, without doing anything, finds himself subscribed to a paid service. Activation is instantaneous, it is reported immediately via SMS, while deactivation … well, that, as easily imaginable, is not as immediate and involves various wastes of time between SMS, call center and customer care of telephone operators.
The good news is that, albeit with some boredom, it is possible to permanently deactivate paid services , prevent their reactivation and even request a refund of the amount spent. If you want more details about it, keep reading: below you will find explained in detail everything you need to do to get rid of unwanted subscriptions once and for all.
Index
- What are paid services
- How to deactivate TIM paid services
- How to deactivate Vodafone paid services
- How to disable WINDTRE paid services
- How to disable Iliad paid services
- How to deactivate PosteMobile paid services
- How to disable Fastweb paid services
- How to ask for a refund for paid services
What are paid services
Before proceeding and seeing how to disable paid services , I think it is right to clarify what they are a little better . As I anticipated in the introductory jokes of the guide, the VAS or Value Added Services are paid services that are activated to take advantage of certain contents. Whether their activation is involuntary or not, it is possible to deactivate them and, generally, the SMS received at the time of their activation contains the instructions to do so.
Usually, to deactivate the automatic renewal of the VAS (and therefore their payment), you must send an SMS with the text NO or STOP to the number indicated in the confirmation message received after the activation of the service or, alternatively, you must contact the number of telephone indicated in the same message and follow the instructions of the voice guide.
Subsequently, it is a good idea to contact your telephone operator and ask for the cancellation of all VAS active on your line. Find the directions with all the steps to be taken in the lines below.
It must be said, however, that due to the implementation and implementation of AGCOM resolution 10/21 / CONS by May 2021, all telephony operators will preventively block the VAS , communicating this to their customers through their own channels ( e.g. via SMS). This means that VAS activation will be blocked by default. However, this does not mean that in case of voluntary activation of these services, it will still be necessary to deactivate them.
To verify the actual activation of a paid service on your user, call 800442299 : the voice guide will indicate if any VAS are active on your number. In most cases, it is also possible to deactivate the services via the number in question; if this is not possible, however, you can act in the manner indicated below, based on the operator of which you are a customer.
How to deactivate TIM paid services
If you are a TIM customer , know that you can contact customer care to disable paid services either by phone or by sending an SMS.
Contact TIM support at 119 and follow the instructions in the voice guide to ask to speak to an operator. After getting in touch with a live operator, ask to deactivate all active VASs on your line and that’s it. If you are unable to speak to a TIM operator , follow the instructions contained in my tutorial dedicated to the subject.
Alternatively, send an SMS to 119 with the text “VAS services block” or “VAS services deactivation” . Within a few seconds, you will receive confirmation that the value-added services have been deactivated on your line and that they will no longer be activated in the future (as they are inhibited).
In case of problems or doubts, I invite you to consult my guide on how to deactivate TIM paid services and to take a look at the operator’s website , where there is detailed information on VAS.
How to deactivate Vodafone paid services
If you are a Vodafone customer , you can request the deactivation of the subscription services active on your line by contacting 190 and choosing to speak to an operator. If the indications of the voice guide are unclear, you can find out how to contact Vodafone operator thanks to the indications in my tutorial on the subject.
Alternatively, if you prefer to resort to more technological means, you can connect to the Vodafone website and access the Do it yourself section by clicking on the appropriate button located at the top right. If you do not yet have a Vodafone account, you can create one by clicking on the Register button in the box at the top right, typing your mobile number in the appropriate text field and following the instructions on the screen (you will simply be asked to enter a code verification that you will receive via SMS). If any of the steps are not clear to you, read my tutorial on how to register on Vodafone .
Once logged into the Vodafone website, you must go to the section dedicated to cost control , check the active digital services and check the active services and promotions , by clicking on the appropriate wording. If you find a service activated unintentionally, you can request its deactivation by clicking on the appropriate wording.
More details on VAS and the management of paid subscriptions on Vodafone lines are available on the operator’s website .
How to disable WINDTRE paid services
To deactivate the paid services with WINDTRE , you can contact 159 , follow the instructions of the voice guide to speak with a customer care consultant of the operator and ask to deactivate the active services (if you do not know how to contact WINDTRE , you can consult the article in which I explain in detail how to do it).
Alternatively, you can also connect to the WINDTRE website , access your account (if you are not yet registered, you can click on the Login item at the top right and fill out the form that is proposed to you with your phone number and other details. required, as I indicated here ) and go to the section dedicated to your offer , where the content services that may be active are also listed (which you can deactivate by means of the appropriate wording).
How to disable Iliad paid services
We come now to Iliad . The well-known French provider also allows you to disable paid services through customer care, as well as from its website.
If you opt for the first solution, call number 177 , follow the instructions of the voice guide to speak to a human consultant (if you do not know how to do this, follow the guide in which I explained how to speak to an Iliad operator ) and ask that the paid services active on your number are deactivated.
If, on the other hand, you want to proceed from the Iliad site , go to your personal area and, after logging in, select the My options item located on the left; then click on the Details button located next to the item Blocking paid numbers and click on the check mark icon in the Yes column .
How to deactivate PosteMobile paid services
Are you a PosteMobile customer ? Then know that you can request the deactivation of the VAS through the telephone assistance provided by the provider or by sending a written request to customer care, using a specific form to be filled in and sent.
To contact PosteMobile by phone, call 160 and follow the instructions in the voice guide to speak with a Customer Service consultant. Then ask him to deactivate one or more premium services active on your account.
Otherwise, go to this page of the PosteMobile site , click on the link Request blocking / unblocking of premium services and download the form that is proposed to you, by clicking on the floppy disk icon or on the arrow pointing downwards .
Therefore, print the form, fill it in all its parts and send it by fax to the free number 800160909 or by letter to PosteMobile SpA, P.O. Box 3000, 37.138 Verona (VR) , together with a copy of the identity document indicated in the form same. Alternatively, you can also try sending via PEC to the address [email protected] .
How to disable Fastweb paid services
If you want to deactivate the Fastweb paid services , you can contact the provider by telephone and ask the customer care consultant who will assist you to deactivate those that are active and that you no longer need.
To proceed, therefore, enter the number 192.193 on the numeric keypad of your phone, press the button to make the call and follow the instructions of the voice guide to speak to a human operator. As soon as you have a chance to talk to him, ask him to deactivate the active VAS.
How to ask for a refund for paid services
As mentioned at the beginning of this post, it is possible to request a refund of the money spent on the activation of the VAS .
The refund request must be forwarded to your telephone operator within the time provided by the latter: some providers (such as WINDTRE) ask you to make this request within 6 hours from the activation of the paid service , while other providers (such as TIM) allow you to do this within 7-12 days of activating an unsolicited subscription. To avoid any problems, however, the sooner you ask for a refund, the better. I also suggest that you do this before deactivating VAS, in order to allow your provider to verify the actual duration of a subscription.
How should the refund request be submitted? Simply by contacting the operator by phone or via the Internet as indicated earlier in this tutorial.
