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Consumer complaints and reviews about Busuu.com | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Saturday, April 18, 2020
Shame on them for their awful business methods
Busuu.com is robbing users
July 2nd, 2015
Hi. I was seriously thinking of signing up for premium Busuu to learn Italian but, after reading these reviews, especially in relation to cancellation issues (I was already sceptical that cancellation did not seem to be an easy option) I have decided not to commit myself. Maybe Amy S (Customer Service Manager) should be looking at these issues very carefully and addressing them asap.
April 8th, 2015
They are lying thieves, as confirmed by several others with similar experiences here. They offer "7 day free of obligation trial" but they have no intention of honouring this claim. I could not cancel even with the first day, They should be shut down for this alone. When you try to cancel, the functionality to do so on their site is missing. Another fraudulent approach to their business style. The site is also riddled with technical bugs and the content is poor - especially what comes with "premium membership". They have no concern for their customers, they are maliciously compliant and once they have your money they refuse to part with it under any circumstances, they have no channel of communication and ignore feedback, they have on-going technical problems that never get fixed, they have poor content containing several errors that never get fixed. Like I said - stay far away.
Tip for consumers: If I could rate them zero or negative I would!
Hello Orlando,
I'm the Customer Service manager here at busuu and would like you to send us a message here confirming your email address you have contacted us via so that I can investigate what has happened in your case.
Thank you and kind regards,
Amy
team@busuu.com
I'm the Customer Service manager here at busuu and would like you to send us a message here confirming your email address you have contacted us via so that I can investigate what has happened in your case.
Thank you and kind regards,
Amy
team@busuu.com
May 2nd, 2015
Please !!!! stay away from These THIEVES ,With licence , Don`t use them . They are lying .your money will be gone in second . they are abuser . PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Stay away from these people
. As soon they get your credit card number you are done . Every year they will renew your member ship specially premium with out asking you . there is no option of cancellation . this part of their website is not function . I send lots of email to them and their advise go to subscription but not workinggggggg .That`s why I say they are THIEVES careful.
PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Stay away from these people
. As soon they get your credit card number you are done . Every year they will renew your member ship specially premium with out asking you . there is no option of cancellation . this part of their website is not function . I send lots of email to them and their advise go to subscription but not workinggggggg .That`s why I say they are THIEVES careful.
Tip for consumers: YOU want to see THIEVES with Licence . Try busuu . Just try . your money will be gone in second.
Hi Behzad,
Thank you for your comments. I'm the Customer Service manager here at busuu and I can see that your have also been dealing with our Customer Service team who has resolved the issue for you.
Thanks and kind regards,
Amy
Thank you for your comments. I'm the Customer Service manager here at busuu and I can see that your have also been dealing with our Customer Service team who has resolved the issue for you.
Thanks and kind regards,
Amy
March 31st, 2017
I suscribed 2 years ago to the Busuu premium suscription. I gave them my credit card number and I didn't know that the premium account has an annual renovation. For my susprise last year they charged me usd 99 without telling me anything, and I even didn't use the web page, I had many troubles with them and they sent me many emails, in the last one they said that I didn't have anything to worry because they weren't going to charge me anything else, and I cancelled the Premium Suscription. Today, one year later, they charged me again the same amount and I had to cancel my Credit Card, with many problems because I'm living in Australia and my Credit Card is from Colombia. Now I don't have any credit card, thank you bussu for everything
November 27th, 2015
Definitely don't pay for a premium subscription. I took the Japanese course through the beginning intermediate level. The grammar gets progressively worse, to the point where the statements are inherently incorrect. Somewhere around the middle of the second beginning level, programming bugs began to appear. The drag and drop didn't, and on more than several occasions, the dialogue wouldn't even load.
Don't bother to try and get it fixed. Busuu didn't fix it, and then sent me a message saying that since I hadn't contacted them in a week (why would I?), they would close the ticket. I mentioned that there is nowhere to report errors and the customer service agent (and I kid you not) said that's because they have so many errors they aren't accepting any more at this time.
Even for free, there are countless better options for learning a foreign language.
Don't bother to try and get it fixed. Busuu didn't fix it, and then sent me a message saying that since I hadn't contacted them in a week (why would I?), they would close the ticket. I mentioned that there is nowhere to report errors and the customer service agent (and I kid you not) said that's because they have so many errors they aren't accepting any more at this time.
Even for free, there are countless better options for learning a foreign language.
Hi M L,
Thanks for your message. Could you send a private message with your contact details and I'll look into this matter further?
Kind regards,
Amy
Thanks for your message. Could you send a private message with your contact details and I'll look into this matter further?
Kind regards,
Amy
April 3rd, 2014
I signed up for the free portion to take a look, but the site was garbled with text running over on top of itself, I couldn't get technical support., and the links didn't work.
April 6th, 2014
Signed up for a month and then was automatically charged for months to come! I tried to cancel which I was able to do but I will continue to be charged until September... 5 months from now!! Buyer beware!!!!!
Hi Tara,
Thank you for your feedback - I'm the Customer Service manager at busuu. Could you please email team@busuu.com or send a message on Sitejabber with the email address you are registered with and I will have a look into your account.
Thanks and kind regards,
Amy
Thank you for your feedback - I'm the Customer Service manager at busuu. Could you please email team@busuu.com or send a message on Sitejabber with the email address you are registered with and I will have a look into your account.
Thanks and kind regards,
Amy
October 4th, 2019
I used Busuu for a while and did enjoy the app. I quite like the way you can interact with native speakers and although I needed an additional book, I think the 34,99 were worth it. At first the app for Japanese was broken, making it difficult if not impossible to progress as it started showing only kana texts and romaji wasn't working. That did eventually get fixed, improving the experience.
When I bought the membership, I paid 34,99. Recently they charged my card for 69,99, and are not at all apologetic about it. Their reply was something like "we are sorry YOU were not aware that YOU signed up for a recurring subscription", not to mention the price hike. This is a very wild west way for making money, charging someone without notice or warning a year later, for another year. Not to mention that under Dutch law, the latter is illegal. I am not sure how this is across the EU, but maybe it's the same.
For the Dutchies here then, have a look here: https://www.consumentenbond.nl/juridisch-advies/rechten-bij-aankoop/abonnement-en-lidmaatschap/verlengen-en-opzeggen-van-abonnementen
A quote from their website: "Een abonnement mag niet automatisch worden verlengd, tenzij je het abonnement na verlenging op ieder moment kunt opzeggen met een opzegtermijn van 1 maand".
This would mean you can cancel your extension of 12 months immediately after they charge you and get a refund for 11 months, unless you explicitly agreed to their extension. If they don't, they're breaking consumer law.
It's a shame Busuu operates like this as I really do like their product, but conning people into unwanted yearly subscriptions by preying on their humanity (we all forget and make mistakes) is beyond rude and shouldn't even be allowed. And do note, it is not allowed! (at least in NL).
I could have seen myself returning to Busuu periodically when I wanted to, but they are far too good at ruining customer satisfaction. Far too many companies forget that customer service is 50% of a product's perceived value and satisfaction. I can only assume this business model works really well for them as it must make them a lot of money, even though it frustrates and angers scores of good people out there.
Not okay. Avoid them!
When I bought the membership, I paid 34,99. Recently they charged my card for 69,99, and are not at all apologetic about it. Their reply was something like "we are sorry YOU were not aware that YOU signed up for a recurring subscription", not to mention the price hike. This is a very wild west way for making money, charging someone without notice or warning a year later, for another year. Not to mention that under Dutch law, the latter is illegal. I am not sure how this is across the EU, but maybe it's the same.
For the Dutchies here then, have a look here: https://www.consumentenbond.nl/juridisch-advies/rechten-bij-aankoop/abonnement-en-lidmaatschap/verlengen-en-opzeggen-van-abonnementen
A quote from their website: "Een abonnement mag niet automatisch worden verlengd, tenzij je het abonnement na verlenging op ieder moment kunt opzeggen met een opzegtermijn van 1 maand".
This would mean you can cancel your extension of 12 months immediately after they charge you and get a refund for 11 months, unless you explicitly agreed to their extension. If they don't, they're breaking consumer law.
It's a shame Busuu operates like this as I really do like their product, but conning people into unwanted yearly subscriptions by preying on their humanity (we all forget and make mistakes) is beyond rude and shouldn't even be allowed. And do note, it is not allowed! (at least in NL).
I could have seen myself returning to Busuu periodically when I wanted to, but they are far too good at ruining customer satisfaction. Far too many companies forget that customer service is 50% of a product's perceived value and satisfaction. I can only assume this business model works really well for them as it must make them a lot of money, even though it frustrates and angers scores of good people out there.
Not okay. Avoid them!
March 6th, 2011
Busuu.com claims to be a free language learning site. However, the free aspects of busuu.com are very limited. In order to get more benefit from this site, users are enticed to pay for a 'gold' membership for one, three or six months. Busuu.com will automatically renew the membership just before it runs out FOR THE SAME LENGTH OF TERM THAT THE MEMBERSHIP WAS INITIALLTY TAKEN OUT FOR, i.e. if you have taken out a 6 month membership, then busuu.com will automatically renew it for another six months if you have not cancelled before the end of the initial membership. Should you decide to cancel your membership, say after one month, you will already have paid for six months and busuu.com will NOT REFUND any money already paid, effectively tying you into a contract. Shame on them for their awful business methods.
August 21st, 2014
Please never use the busuu.com! They are just kidding you all the time. If you use this, use only the the free version! Never buy the premium membership! If you want to contact the customer support, this will bring nothin and they will not solve your problem because they are just kidding you all the time!!!!
AUFPASSEN!!!!! Nutzen Sie NIE Premium Mitgliedschaft bei busuu.com! Es lohnt sich gar nicht und außerdem wenn Sie sich rechtzeitig nicht abmelden werden die automatisch ohne was Bescheid zu sagen Geld von Ihrem Konto per Lastschrift abbuchen! Ich hatte 1 Jahr Mitgliedschaft seit August 2013 und heute haben Sie automatisch ohne was zu sagen Geld von dem Konto meiner Tochter abgebucht!!!! Frech!!!!
AUFPASSEN!!!!! Nutzen Sie NIE Premium Mitgliedschaft bei busuu.com! Es lohnt sich gar nicht und außerdem wenn Sie sich rechtzeitig nicht abmelden werden die automatisch ohne was Bescheid zu sagen Geld von Ihrem Konto per Lastschrift abbuchen! Ich hatte 1 Jahr Mitgliedschaft seit August 2013 und heute haben Sie automatisch ohne was zu sagen Geld von dem Konto meiner Tochter abgebucht!!!! Frech!!!!
Tip for consumers: Use only free membership!!!!
Hello Karalina,
I'm the Customer Service manager at busuu and we have recently joined Sitejabber - I wanted to find out more about your issue so we can investigate and resolve your concerns... Could you send a private message here with the email address you had registered on busuu so I can look into your account?
Thanks and kind regards,
Amy
I'm the Customer Service manager at busuu and we have recently joined Sitejabber - I wanted to find out more about your issue so we can investigate and resolve your concerns... Could you send a private message here with the email address you had registered on busuu so I can look into your account?
Thanks and kind regards,
Amy
April 18th, 2020
They are a huge scam.
I subscribed for a trial and they charged ~$80 without mu consent. They make it nearly impossible to cancel and even when you think you are canceled, you are not. I found out the hard way that I was not canceled! I emailed to get a refund and they refused. Stay away from this company - they will steal your money!
I have contacted their support through helpdesk, social channels and emailed them at team AT busuu.com, but they refused a refund.
They don't display a contact number or address, which is a bad sign. No reputable company hides that information. Not only are they shady and dishonest, but they are also unreasonable once they are confronted.
Please help me get my refund. My support ticket They are a huge scam.
I subscribed for a trial and they charged ~$80 without mu consent. They make it nearly impossible to cancel and even when you think you are canceled, you are not. I found out the hard way that I was not canceled! I emailed to get a refund and they refused. Stay away from this company - they will steal your money!
I have contacted their support through helpdesk, social channels and emailed them at team AT busuu.com, but they refused a refund.
They don't display a contact number or address, which is a bad sign. No reputable company hides that information. Not only are they shady and dishonest, but they are also unreasonable once they are confronted.
Please help me get my refund. My support ticket is #9501425.
I subscribed for a trial and they charged ~$80 without mu consent. They make it nearly impossible to cancel and even when you think you are canceled, you are not. I found out the hard way that I was not canceled! I emailed to get a refund and they refused. Stay away from this company - they will steal your money!
I have contacted their support through helpdesk, social channels and emailed them at team AT busuu.com, but they refused a refund.
They don't display a contact number or address, which is a bad sign. No reputable company hides that information. Not only are they shady and dishonest, but they are also unreasonable once they are confronted.
Please help me get my refund. My support ticket They are a huge scam.
I subscribed for a trial and they charged ~$80 without mu consent. They make it nearly impossible to cancel and even when you think you are canceled, you are not. I found out the hard way that I was not canceled! I emailed to get a refund and they refused. Stay away from this company - they will steal your money!
I have contacted their support through helpdesk, social channels and emailed them at team AT busuu.com, but they refused a refund.
They don't display a contact number or address, which is a bad sign. No reputable company hides that information. Not only are they shady and dishonest, but they are also unreasonable once they are confronted.
Please help me get my refund. My support ticket is #9501425.
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Thank you for your message. We advise about our cancellation procedure in our terms and conditions - subscriptions automatically renew at the end of the period signed up for. If you would like more information, feel free to contact us directly on team@busuu.com for my attention and we can discuss this further.
Kind regards,
Amy