Thumbplay Inc.: 48000, 71073, 66075, 40443
If you were charged on your cell phone bill by Thumbplay for mobile content services or subscriptions (i.e., ringtones, premium text alerts, downloads, etc.) that you never authorized, tell us your story!
–Report Unauthorized Thumbplay Cell Phone Charges–
Thumbplay Inc. Short Codes:
48000
71073
66075
40443
Who Is Thumbplay?
According to Thumbplay’s website, “Thumbplay, Inc. is a leading online platform of mobile entertainment content” that “promotes and delivers mobile content directly to members via Thumbplay.com.”
Thumbplay Websites:
www.thumbplay.com
Thumbplay Content:
Thumbplay offers ringtones, wallpapers, games and other text-based services. The Text Services include Pop Gossip, Hip Hop Gossip, Horoscope, Joke of the Day, Daily Insults, On this Day, Superstitions, Bible Quotes, Daily Inspiration, Romance Tips, and Booze Tips delivered to phones on a daily basis.
Thumbplay Related Subscriptions and Services:
- Thumbplay Subscription Service: $9.99/mo. for 10 credits
- Thumbplay Transactional Service: from $1.99 per content item
- Text Message Subscription Services : $9.99/mo. for daily text messages
Contact Thumbplay Customer Care
1-877-THUMB-99 (1-877-848-6299)
support@thumbplay.com
Thumbplay Supported Carriers
Supported carriers include Cingular, AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint PCS, Nextel, Boost, and Verizon Wireless (according to their site: coming soon for Dobson and Alltel)
Possible Thumbplay Related Websites:
10bonusringtones.com
hobbyistmedia.com
How To Cancel Thumbplay Services:
According to Thumbplay’s website “You can cancel your Thumbplay Subscription Service by sending a text message from your mobile device containing only the word ‘STOP’ to the shortcode 48000.”
“You may cancel the Daily Pop Gossip Text Service at any time by sending a text message with the word STOP, END, or QUIT to the shortcode 71073.”
“You may cancel the Horoscope Text Service at any time by sending a text message with the word STOP, END, or QUIT to the shortcode 66075.”
“To cancel all other Text Services, send a text message with the word ‘STOP’, ‘END’, or ‘QUIT’ to the shortcode 40443.”
“Text Services can also be cancelled by submitting a request to Thumbplay at http://www.thumbplay.com/go/cancel-textservices.”
Thumbplay Related Search Terms:
cancel thumbplay, stop thumbplay, thumb play, end thumbplay, sms, premium, unauthorized charges, spam, text message, Premium TXT Messaging, thumbplay downloads
–Report Unauthorized Thumbplay Cell Phone Charges–
I didnt get the ringtones on my phone!
September 1st, 2007 at 2:55 pm
Continued to bill after cancellation on 7-30-07.
September 4th, 2007 at 11:42 pm
36726. Continued to bill after “stop” message sent 7-30-07
September 4th, 2007 at 11:47 pm
My 9 year old ordered this thinking he was going to get FREE RINGTONES. He did NOT recieve any ringtones, and they charged me twice on my cell phone! When I tried to call the 800 number for Thumbplay that was on my bill, it was not a valid number. I found the number to call from their website, but they are only willing to reemiberse me for one charge. The lady I talked to told me you had to be 18 or older to subscribe. What a joke, they’re just looking to take your money.
November 26th, 2007 at 7:36 pm
I never signed up for this service and I’m with T-mobile and they charged me for 2 months
December 25th, 2007 at 5:45 pm
My 10 years old ordered it thinking he was going to get a cool ringtone but he got nothing but a bill for 9.99 to his cell phone.
January 3rd, 2008 at 4:17 pm
They haven’t been charging me but they keep sending me messages from the previous owner of my phone number. I really hate spam. Sent numerous stop messages and they never stop. Called them, said they would stop it. Called my provider and they blocked premium messages. Still getting the messages.
January 19th, 2008 at 1:21 am
This Thumbplay company is really starting to piss me off. I have been charged $9.99 at least twice that I’ve caught it. My cell bill is set up to pay automatically, so I don’t often check my bill. While they have refunded my money both times I’ve called, they insist that if I didn’t enter the “code numbers”, then someone else must have done it from my phone. Are you kidding me? This past time I asked the customer service rep, Holly, to give me the corporate office’s phone number. She said it is a posted rule that they are not allowed to give the corporate office number to customers and there were no supervisors that worked on weekends to override the rule. Of course, to Holly, this all made perfect sense…I somehow mistakenly entered a series of numbers and sent it to them requesting stupid ringtones, and if it wasn’t me, well, obviously some sneaky little Blackberry gremlin must have done it. And it also makes perfect sense that a legitimate business would not want customers to have their phone number. Why would a business selling a product want customers to have a way of reaching them? Idiots. I filed a complaint with the BBB.
January 19th, 2008 at 8:36 pm
Thumbplay is still charging me, even after I put a block on the phone. They say my 9 year old must have subscribed again. Maybe this time it is AT&T’s fault. Either way, I DO NOT like thumbplay!!
January 23rd, 2008 at 3:28 pm
I have no idea how Thumbplay to my cell number. My provider is T-Mobile and they walked me through text messaging “Cancel” and I got a text back from “Thumbplay” saying I would no longer be charged. Unfortunately, T-Mobile said they can do nothing about refunding the last two months of $9.99 charges plus a couple ring tones I never subscribed for with this scam outfit “Thumbplay.” What is most bothersome is that our cell phone service providers as well as AT&T and others just automatically accept these charges and place them on our phones. That shouldn’t be legal. Nothing should be charged on such accounts that we did not authorize with that service provider.
January 23rd, 2008 at 5:07 pm
Unsolicited txt msg to my Sprint phone from Thumbplay today. It’s the first time I’ve been spammed on Sprint. Must be a trend this year. I got my first Verizon spam on my Verizon phone too. Lucky me.
January 27th, 2008 at 3:17 am
I merely went to their website after I saw “Royal Tenenbaums Ringtones” on myspace. I was stupid and entered my phone number, not realizing that I had unwittingly signed up for a $9.99 a month charge. They never even had the ringtone they advertized, and it took my months before I realized that I was paying the charge. My fault for not checking my cell phone bill closer, but what jerks!
January 30th, 2008 at 8:06 pm
I was trieing to down load ring tones.But i could not down load anything.Then i started getting pop gossip.I did not know were this came from until today.I want it stop.I made a copy of this and sent it to Drew Edmondson attourney general OKLAHOMA CITY OKLAHOMA
February 7th, 2008 at 12:14 am
We never ordered this and found that we have been getting charged at least 2 months!!! How can this happen?
February 15th, 2008 at 12:49 am
I closely inspected my bill this month, which I never do, to find a charge for $9.99 from Thumbplay 48000, which I never signed up for. I called T-Mobile, who could do nothing about it, and then I was told to call Thumbplay, which I did, and the woman on the other end described to me how someone must have ordered it off of my phone, which is total B.S. I don’t have kids, and I live alone, so that rules that out.
February 25th, 2008 at 12:23 am
I was checking my bill online and found and charge for $9.99, on a phone I don’t even use. I started inspecting my other months as well and I noticed that Thumbplay 48000 has been charging me for past 7 months. I have text plan chancled on that certain phone for over 5 months so how can that be?
March 4th, 2008 at 8:10 am
I was billed for this on my work phone, but never even visited the site. I had no idea what is was until HR notified me I had inapropriate charges on my phone.
March 12th, 2008 at 3:42 pm
Our business account is with Cingular. I noticed this charge on my number a few months ago and Cingular credited our account for each month that had been billed. I just noticed on this month’s statement that it is now being billed to his number. I know he never visited the site. I hope someone can put a stop to this.
March 12th, 2008 at 8:47 pm
I got a $9.99 charge on my cell phone bill. Unfortunately AT&T said they could do nothing about the charges.So I did some resarch on the internet and found this page! I just called Thumbplay to cancel, they claim they will be sending me a check in the mail. We’ll see what happens???
March 20th, 2008 at 2:54 am
I do not want you people to text me anymore I have pre paid phone.
March 24th, 2008 at 8:54 pm
you people have cost me lot’s of money tried to txt on cell did not work.so discontinue or I will consult my Attorney. thanks
March 24th, 2008 at 8:57 pm
I am also charged $9.99 monthly for this stupid thumbplay and I did not subscribe for this.
April 8th, 2008 at 2:18 am
It has to be a scam. I browsed the website and if you plug your cell # in for a ringtone you apparently “opt in” for monthly, recurring charges. There is no question that their services are deceptive.
May 5th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
I joined Thumbplay last month and the service has been great. some ringtones didn’t work on my phone but their customer service was really friendly and helpful, they credited my account for the downloads that didn’t work.
May 9th, 2008 at 4:46 pm
I tried to order a ringtone from thumbplay and i did not realize that my phone could not surf the internet. you have to have that feature in order to recieve the ringtones. So they automatically put my name in the system for monthly payments. I tried to stop this by texting “stop” to 48000 like they said to do, but they still charged me. My advice would be to stick to using your phone services ringtones.
May 13th, 2008 at 2:47 pm
I have called and asked them to stop charging me.I never gave authorization
May 23rd, 2008 at 2:06 pm
i carry sprint, and i NEVER purchased thumbplay ringer. however, they charged me twice. The first month, I called sprint and they refunded the $9.99 as even they were unsure how it could have happened. I then canceled the thumbplay subsciption (which again, I never purchased) but I was charged the following month again. So I called thumbplay at 877-848-6299 and they sent me a check, as it was not my fault. They have also told me that they’ll block the phone no. and it should solve the problem. If not, I’m gonna keep on calling them, and ask for refunds…until I die. Yes, this is true…that’s what I’ll do!
May 29th, 2008 at 8:09 pm
I recieved my AT&T bill and found a charge for 9.99 My daughert or I did not order this. In fact we have never heard of it. I goggled it and came to this site. I called them and talked to Bill who said they will send out a refund check in 10 to 12 days. I will let you know if I get it!!
June 7th, 2008 at 5:21 pm
Just realized billed for 2 months by VERIZON and NEVER ORDERED ANYTHING from this Thumbplay. EVERYONE needs to send a complaint with their state Attorney General’s office.
June 20th, 2008 at 6:29 pm
I actually got my my refund check in 11 days. Let’s hope it doesn’t show up on my next bill…
June 23rd, 2008 at 5:04 pm
I received a $19.98 refund check today “to be cashed within 60 days.” I hope it doesn’t bounce! If it’s of any help, the address listed on the check is: Thumbplay, Inc., 599 Broadway 8th Floor, New York, NY 10012
June 23rd, 2008 at 9:07 pm
Thumbplay keeps charging even though we’ve told them to stop. This is ridiculous!
June 23rd, 2008 at 9:20 pm
I work for one of the cell phone companies that is hit hard by Thumbplay. Over the years I have seen youths, and elderly persons targeted by the misleading offers, or telemarketing text. Most children know their parents cannot afford extra charges, and would lose their phone. I see parents stuck with multiple charges even after Thumbplay is contacted by the main accountholder only to be sent to a dead end. I have helped more than 32 persons over the years. This issue is getting older, and there is no end in site. The “text” telemarketing is hurting the economic structure of innocent people. Thanks to everyone who submitted a solution. Here is another solution, email the company from a generic email. You will get a response. Do not give up any of your information, it will only mean more charges (a gift from Thumbplay, and websites like them). Request a name, and contact number in your initial email (You will get a response). Tell everyone you know what to look out for (Free ring tone texts, or unexpected text advertising ring tone, horoscopes, etc.) There are thousands, maybe millions of innocent people getting charges from the phony telemarketing companies with their surprise text. Help each other, you would be surprised how people with the knowledge you have are very grateful, Thanks
July 8th, 2008 at 10:31 pm
Unfortunately, I had signed up for autopay with AT&T. Found that Thumbplay had been charging one of my phones for 6 months. Never ordered any service from them. This is a real rip off. They keep sending text messages trying to get the same phone to sign up – even though that was they phone they snagged. How they do it is beyond me. I put a purchase block on all my cell phones so they can’t get to them again. Now I have to fight for the refund. I am turning them in and I hope everyone else does too.
July 12th, 2008 at 10:20 am
I never ordered it, but somehow was signed up anyway. Cancelled 7-12-08
July 13th, 2008 at 11:57 am
I received a $9.99 charge to my Verizon bill and was told it waas through Thumbplay. I now have to pay the charge I guess, and go through a bunch of procedures to get this damn service off my phone. Thumbplay you are completely dishonest. You suck.
July 14th, 2008 at 7:49 pm
I just wanted a ring tone and as soonm as the first text message came I knew something was wrong so I googled it and seeing all these displeased people I have a feeling im in a little trouble with my parents for a long term 9.99 bill is there any way to actually cancel it I haven’t read a response where someone said they actually did stop the subscription.
July 14th, 2008 at 11:10 pm
I work for a wireless company and get complaints about companies like Thumbplay all day long. I try my best to help cancel these services and sometimes issue credit as a goodwill gesture but I just can’t believe how they can charge someone $10/mo without any authorization! AND I can’t believe that carriers just let them tack those fees onto their customers’ bills. I think this just as bad, if not worse than all that long distance slamming back in the 90’s and is gonna take an act of Congress to have carriers come to their senses to stop letting companies like Thumbplay rip honest people off!!! When I started with my employer, home long distance was still a focus and it was a PAIN to sell because of the verification process. I found out that should we be accused of slamming a customer for LD, the company could be fined something like $10k – sounds like a reasonable fine to impose for these bogus texts!
…which brings me to why I’m on this site… my mom’s phone somehow got signed up for Thumbplay. Since I have an employee plan, I definitely notice when the bill jumps $10. I’ve had this # for about 10 years now so it wasn’t something that was inherited from some stupid kid who got his phone shut off and now I’m stuck with his #. So I called Thumbplay and supposedly I will be getting a refund check for my $9.99 in about 2 weeks. I asked how I got signed up and the Thumbplay rep told me first, someone must have accessed Thumbplay via web or phone. Hmmm… ok… highly unlikely but feasible, I guess. Then, a text is sent to the phone and the user must respond with the confirmation code and that completes the subscription process. Wow, so my mom – who barely reads English and doesn’t know how to text – did all this? Hmm… maybe some kid got a hold of mom’s phone… so I check mom’s usage for the month and there were exactly 0 sent/received text messages! Sorry Thumbplay… your story was on shaky ground to begin with, but the evidence shows beyond a reasonable doubt that you are utter douche bags.
It’s sad to know that there are people and companies who make a living (and sometimes fortunes) ripping people off. Thumbplay (and similar companies), I hope one day that you find your moral conscious and it haunts and gnaws at you like the unsuspecting fees you’ve fraudulently charged to so may innocent people!
July 15th, 2008 at 12:17 am
I had 2 monthly charges of $9.99 from Thumbplay and I have not even heard of this company before. From the number of complaints in this website, it is obvious that Thumbplay needs to be investigated for fraud.
July 19th, 2008 at 2:13 pm
My son had a charge on his phone, he didn’t know anything about it, I called ATT and they took it off my bill. You have to watch your bill.
July 25th, 2008 at 8:43 am
I saw an advertisement on the site for Free Ringtone. I usually don’t pay attention to those things but that day I did.I honestly don’t remember seeing a $9.99 charge for this on the site when I entered my number or else I wouldn’t have done it. I just checked my bill online today and realized this charge. I checked the website to read the terms and conditions and see that there is a 9.99 charge in there. I believe they’ve changed the layout of their site and have included the price upfront. Must have gotten to many complaints. What a ripoff?!
July 30th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
Please send me a refund for this month’s charge.
Thank you.
August 2nd, 2008 at 1:39 pm
On our bill from AT&T if you look under the charges there is a website where you can cancel any third party billed items and ask for a refund. I did that and then I called AT&T customer service to double check they got me 2 more months credited and added parental blocks so that nothing can be downloaded again.
August 13th, 2008 at 8:37 pm
I received a spam text during business meeting. It was irritating because it disrupted my meeting. It was the first time I had ever received a solicitation on my cell. This month, my Alltel bill had a charge for $9.99 from Thumbplay. Alltel gave me the phone number to call Thumbplay. Thumbplay refused to credit Alltel and instead asked me for personal information so they could send a refund check. I told the agent “No” – I wasn’t about to give them any personal info that they could end up selling to another solicitor. I called back to Alltel, told them about my conversation with Thumbplay. At first, Alltel did not want to credit my account, said that I must have given Thumbplay permission to solicit me!! I told the Alltel agent: “Let me get this straight. I receive an unauthorized spam text that disrupts a very important business meeting, I don’t respond to it, but Alltel allows the solicitor to pass along a charge to me in the amount of $9.99?” The Alltel rep than agreed to reimburse my account on the next billing cycle. This is unbelievable! Someone can contact your cell phone without your permission and then charge you for answering or for reading the spam text. The cell companies are aware that this is going on but do nothing about it!!!
August 15th, 2008 at 10:04 pm
I just went off on a VerizonWireless rep (sorry Katie) because I thought that this was a continuation of a VerizonWireless billing problem for Text/Pix that I’ve been fighting since last year. Now I find that the $9.99 (+ tax = $10.41) has been billed to my VerizonWireless account since May, -08. Since VerizonWireless has been acting as a passthru agent for these unauthorized charges (I too have my bill paid via CC), a VzW supervisor has kindly “put the screws” to ThumpPlay to credit me back to the date of request and blocked my phone from this crap in the future. Just for verification, I have a Palm PDA phone that does not support GetItNow from VerizonWireless so I couldn’t use this download service(?) anyway.
September 8th, 2008 at 6:38 pm
i have received 1 random txt from them and i sent stop and they stoped but i was charged on my bill for 10 dollars i do no belive i singed up for anythign
September 13th, 2008 at 3:11 pm
I had went on Thumbplay’s site months ago to check out their ringtones and apparently that automatically subscribed me to their service. Bill is auto paid on CC and my husband didn’t notice the charge on the cell bill. Since I keep getting these stupid text msgs from Thumbplay, I finally got on their website and called them. “Candice” canceled my subscription and after I pointed out that I have NEVER USED the service she agreed to send a check for the 3 months of charges. I just checked my our bills on Verizon site and this has been on 7 bills. I’m only getting a refund for 3 months. I’m still out $40!
September 24th, 2008 at 1:28 pm
4800 Thumbplay.com was added to family plan line. When we added this line it was specific that it could not be altered or have any charges added to it. Verizon allowed it to be added, when Verizon is supposed to get authorization before a feature can be added. Billing on a cell phone seems to welcome scams and rip offs.
October 9th, 2008 at 11:02 pm
I have been billed twice, once about a year ago and another last week. This is an outrage, virgin says they can not help me.
November 8th, 2008 at 11:30 pm
To my surprise, found a “subscription” to Thumbplay on my bill, unauthorized like everyone else here. Called AT&T to address and had them put a “parental block” on my account to prevent these for future. Happy ending is that they found 3mths worth of this activity on my account and refunded me for all of it!
November 13th, 2008 at 10:47 am
Saw the charge on my 10 year olds phone. She doesn’t text or use internet. There was an incomming text 5 days before the 1st charge. ATT took the charges off (was charged for next month also). Now have to put in password to down load. Don’t think this will stop it though. Nothing was downloaded to begin with. The CSR at ATT told me to scroll to bottom of message and there will be something that says stop. I probably deleted the message without even reading it because it was spam.
November 21st, 2008 at 11:45 am
i have know ideal who downloaded this on my phone please let me cancell i cant afford this extra charge!
November 27th, 2008 at 9:42 pm
This 66075 subscription is pissing me off. I never subscribe it and suddenly I see it on my ATT charge details. Is there any way to block these unauthorized charges?
November 29th, 2008 at 3:20 pm
Not sure how they duped me into signing up for this service, but word must be spreading of this scam and potential lawsuit. I just called 877-848-6299 and told the rep I nover ordered or used the service. While the money is not in my hands, the rep was very nice and took down my information to send a refund check for the past 3 months. To stop any third party from ripping you off through your phone bill, call your cell provider and they can block ALL 3rd party content. While I do feel that Thumplay duped me, atleast they offered a refund!!
December 1st, 2008 at 5:46 pm
Like others, I didn’t know I was on Thumbplay until I found an erroneous charge on my phone bill. I have not yet spoken to anyone about a refund.
December 9th, 2008 at 10:37 pm
Yep – just found out I’ve been billed for three months by this BS service company. Will notify the state AG.
December 17th, 2008 at 7:42 am
I just filed a complaint about thumbplay online with the state of Ohio AG office. It’s quick and easy to do. I would urge others to do the same in their state.
December 17th, 2008 at 7:53 am
I never signed up for this service and I’m with T-mobile and they charged me for 1 month and luckily I caught it. I called TM and they credited my account, I then called Thumbplay and cancelled subscription through an automated service. I will monitor my account for next month. What a Scam
December 30th, 2008 at 5:11 pm
This charge started appearing on my bill so I called my provider, Alltel, to have it removed since I didn’t sign up for it, don’t use it & don’t want the extra charge. They told me that I had to pay my bill in full or face penalty charges and that I would have to follow up with thumbplay to cancel the service. This is the worst sort of scam I’ve ever heard of, not only am I being ripped off by this “third party subscriber” but my cell service will do nothing to prevent it or protect me from it!
January 14th, 2009 at 10:57 pm
These jerks got me for 20 bucks on ringtones that I never signed up for. They say someone had to approve it but I am the only one with access to my phone. These guys are pirates plain and simple and something has to be done to stop this type of activity. They did agree to send me a check since records show I didnt actually download any of the ringtones in the 2 months I was signed up. I usually don’t check my statement every month since I’m on auto pay but this time I did after seeing some strange texts from thumplay which said to enter stop to discontinue, or something like that. Well I hit stop and was still getting billed. What can we do….aren’t there laws to protect us. Sure they gave me my $$$ back but that doesnt cover my time and aggravation> And how many people are getting suckered that don’t even know it or just roll over and let them have the $$$ as long as they dont take anymore. I would love to see these scam artist on the news being led out of their offices in handcuffs…ARRRGH
January 21st, 2009 at 3:40 pm
I accidentally signed up for this service a day after getting my new phone. No more than ten minutes after signing up i callled them to cancel my subscription. they said “no problem , ill take care of that rigt now’. this was in AUG 08 . its i just called them today after finding out ive been charged everymonth since AUG of last year. they said they would refund 49.95 of it and it would be mailed to me within 14 days. i will repost in 14 and let you guys know if i recieved my refund. The girl i spoke to said her name was Angie. she seemed to stutter in a wierd manner. i dont know if i will see the refund but i will keep you guys informed.
February 28th, 2009 at 12:36 pm
I just reviewed my statement, that I always check thoroughly and there is a charge from Thumbplay that I have never heard of or subscribed to. Alltel is removing the charges. I advise everyone to check your statement online to catch these charges early so they can be reversed.
March 11th, 2009 at 12:06 pm
I received a $9.99 charge on my cell phone bill. So I call the number that was associated with the charge and they said that I had set up a subscription with my phone on March 9th, which I did not do.
They are supposedly going to send me a refund check but it’ll be here in 12-14 business days.
This activity seems as thought it is illegal and I may talk to someone about it.
March 31st, 2009 at 5:22 pm
The same thing happened to me! I also have cellfish! What the heck is going on! THey are ripping me off with $30 extra charge and i never got a ringtone or anything they say! T-mobile better refund me!
April 5th, 2009 at 11:45 am
What the fuck same thing is happening to me. I mean if there’s even this website of all of us complaining they should take this company down. ASSHOLES!
April 9th, 2009 at 2:10 pm
LOVE THIS SITE
April 11th, 2009 at 2:56 pm
My wife somehow ended up with this service, and we missed it on our cell phone bill for a year. I called the contact number on my bill, told them the situation, and stated I had records going back to Mar 08 with the charge. I had them look up the account activity to see if there was any. They said there wasn’t any activity, so they are refunding my money going back to Mar 08 ($129). The customer service tech was very cooperative, so before getting irate, a simple phone call to Thumbplay might be your best bet!
April 20th, 2009 at 6:10 pm
Got my check for $129 today! Wahoo!
April 28th, 2009 at 6:48 pm
Same thing with several others like OpenMarket.com and so on. I canceled my wireless service because at&t fail to unsubscribe me withing a month. I used wireless phone for the last 10 yeas but recently those people start getting really annoying and I don’t want to pay almost $10 every mounth for spam. I decide to go without any mobile phone unless the phone company stop this practice (to allow this purchase go through them) completely.
May 1st, 2009 at 7:22 pm
Today I found a $9.99 premium charge from Thumbplay (short code 48000) on my T-Mobile bill (on my son’s line). I checked the message history on the line back 2 months and found no SMS to or from that shortcode number, nor any other SMS I didn’t recognize. I called T-Mobile and the rep was very helpful, blacklisted that particular premium content provider, and provided a refund of the $9.99. This is why I stick with T-Mo, the customer service is great.
I suspect Thumbplay is violating it’s bill-on-behalf arrangement with carriers, because how can the charge be valid if there are no SMS messages to or from the short code service?!?
Sounds like a class-action lawsuit waiting to happen!
This is the problem with bill-on-behalf arrangements: there are virtually no authorization or authentication standards to prevent (or at least frustrate attempts at) fraudulent charges.
May 15th, 2009 at 3:14 pm
A $9.99 charge appeared on my bill for a line that had been deactivated. How is this possible?
May 24th, 2009 at 5:58 am
Same story as everyone else’s. Didn’t order any service from “Thumbplay” . Their business model appears to be a scam: hope people don’t notice and collect the $ until they do.
I am doing two things about this, and hope that each of you do the same.
1- A complaint to the state’s Attorney General seems to be in order. With enough conplaints, the office is bound to investigate. Our AG, Dick Blumenthal, has a reputation of being somewhat “aggressive”. Hope that to be true in this case.
2- A letter of complaint to the carrier, in my case AT&T, telling how poorly this reflects on their brand. Again, with enough complaints, perhaps carriers will finally block these scammers.
May 29th, 2009 at 5:41 pm
last year I went to thumbplays website for free ring tones. I have a new phone and stumbled on the old e-mail. I tried to redownload the song I had on my old phone and it wouldn’t work. After calling to ask why I can’t use my 24 free credits he reset my account and told me there is a 10.00 charge for last month. I said how the hell could that be. It is the last day of the month and he wanted to charge me for the month. lmao. I took his name and station number down and told him to cancel that BS. I have never been charged for thumbplay before. (I think) Total scam artist. If I lived in NY I would go and kick some serious ass. I will be waiting for class action paper work soon. Thats the kind of stuff that makes my blood boil!
May 30th, 2009 at 10:34 pm
I work customer care for a major cell phone provider and I get about 5-10 calls about this daily, and as much grief that I get from customers, it frustrates me just as much as it does them. I credit every single 9.99 charge that I see. I think its a bit interesting how its set up on Myspace and Facebook where all you have to do is simply enter your phone number in order to subscribe… as many people that go on Myspace and Facebook on a daily basis, it looks like anyone can put in whatever set of random numbers to that online application and it could very well be someones actual cell phone number…. a possibility
June 7th, 2009 at 3:53 am
My daughter wanted a free ringtone and did what Thumbplay directed her to do to get it. She is on Verizon. It was on her third billing cycle after she had done this, when I noticed that there was this $9.99 charge. I looked back at her past bills and noticed that we had been charge for two months before that I had paid. I was upset, $30 for a free ringtone. Verizon would only credit us the one past month and the current, but kept $9.99 from charge 2 months before. Thumplay and Verizon have made a lot of money with this enter your phone number for a free ringtone scam. I read the fine print and now understand how they cover their butts in this preditor scam with kids and nieve people who are just learning about the use of our new media phones. Verizon should not stoop so low to be in business with companies like Thumbplay. I can’t believe that the phone carriers even allow Thumbplay to practice such a preditor scam on our kids. Shame on Verizon. I moved our families five cell phones to Sprint where we are happy. Verizon is just too big to realize that my family plan left them and went to Sprint because of $9.99 that they did not credit me from this Thumbplay/ Scumplay scam. We are a Christian family and my daughter should not have been able to view and listen to the profanity that Thumbplay displays and sells within their site. Does anyone know if Verizon or any of the phone carriers could be liable for selling explisit and content to our children. I would think that because they are making available and distributing for profit adult content to children, they should be held accountable. Remember that record store that sold that song Band In The USA in the bible bilt that was closed down because the store sold to a minor. I think that it is obvious that Verizon knows that the content on these ringtone sites that they are in business with, such as Thumbplay is not legal to be distributed to minors, but they hide behind, their manipulation of what their lobbyists have put in place for them to pull off these un Godly scams. It is easy to see that mainly Verizon, AT&T and TMobile are spoon feeding our children through the cell phones, porn lyrics and graphics, and selling this and profiting as they do it. How do the parents in America stop this? I can’t believe that they are making billions of dollars from hard working parents, as we are at work they are ate work on our children, and then holding us, the parents at work accountable. I guess we are trapped. If we block everything on our childrens phones, then our kids feel that we have deprived them from services and the fun things that their friends are allowed to do, but a good responsible parent who blocks their childrens phone options, now has a child that feels we have deprived them. I feel it is time to hold the cell phone carriers responsible to control what is being distributed, and sold to our children. Verizon, Alltel, AT&T and TMobile are the worst. I must say that after doing my research, Sprint has blocked most of these scam and smut serving ringtone companies. Praises to the Sprint network for blocking most of these ringtone companies that sell explicit lyrics and trapping kids with these scams. Sprint has blocked Thumbplay (Italian connected) and Jamster (owned by Rupert Murdoch) which are 2 of the worst smut selling companies. These companies suger coat their home page. Sprint must of gone beyond the sugar coated home pages to fined that Thumbplay and Jamster have thousands of pages of iniquity to serve through Verizon, AT&T and TMobile to our children.
If any attorneys out there read this and have good suggestion on putting together a class action to hold these carriers responsible, please comment. Again, while hard working parents are at work, Verizon, AT&T and TMobile have partnered up with Jamster and Thumbplay, as preditors, to profit off of our nieve children, and pervert them through the hand held cell phone.
There must be a way to penitrate/ or hold accountable Verizon and AT&T. At a minimum, let’s stop this business practice.
June 17th, 2009 at 11:12 am
Just noticed a 9.99 charge from thumbplay on my att bill that I never authorized. They’ve been leeching cash from me for months!
June 23rd, 2009 at 8:24 am
Lost ringtones phone was stolen andnever received all my tones back
June 30th, 2009 at 12:02 am
Cancel my subscription please
June 30th, 2009 at 12:05 am
Bruce – You are a dork.
July 14th, 2009 at 10:15 am
I noticed a $9.99 charge on my cell phone bill. Called AT&T they told me about ThumbPlay 48000. We have been being chraged $10.69 ($9.99 plus tax) a month since October. That is 10 Months for a total of $106.90. I called AT&T and they took of the charges and retro-creidted me from April giving me a creidt of $49.95. Then I called Thumbplay at 1-877-THUMB-99 (1-877-848-6299)and complained to them. They are going to send me a check for 3 months charges or $32.07. so for all this HASSLE I still have PAID $24.88 to Thumbplay for NOTHING! Thank You THUMBPLAY…I hope there is a classaction suit!
July 29th, 2009 at 11:11 am
Got a call from my parents (who take care of the cell phone bills) saying I was getting charged for this service. Called the company number, they said I signed up 3 months ago using my work email. I never once went to their site! They say they don’t solicit, but that has got to be false! Since they had my work email I didn’t attempt to get a refund.
August 10th, 2009 at 11:44 pm
I just checked my bill which I don’t do every month, but notice the bill larger than expected. There it was at the bottom of the At&t bill Thumbplay. Never signed up for this and have yet to check past bills. Will be doing this after typing this comment. Outrageous!!!
August 28th, 2009 at 6:49 pm
This has been going on FOREVER!!!! Checked all AT&T, paperless billing (not always a good thing). I could only access from 3-11-08 to present. This Charge was on EVERY SINGLE Bill from that point and who knows how much longer. I will call AT&T and then Thumbplay. My hands are shaking as I type, I am LIVID!! Will report results re: calls to be made.
August 28th, 2009 at 7:36 pm
I’ve been being billed for 26 Months!!!! Okay, called AT&T they refunded 3 mos. Called Thumbplay, they refunded 4 mos. Joined the Class Action Suit: Go to: thirdpartycontentrefund.com
August 29th, 2009 at 1:50 pm
I recently discovered the Thumbplay charges on my bill too and was outraged that I have been charged for something I didn’t subscribe to, as most of you have already discovered. I texted STOP to 48000. We’ll see what happens. I just wonder how many other months I was charged for it that I was not aware of………
September 2nd, 2009 at 5:28 am
I never knowingly signed up for Thumbplay. Thankfully, my dad caught onto this extra charge pretty quickly, but it still took us a couple of months to cancel it. But as this was pretty recent, we’ll see if it actually worked or if we are still billed.
September 4th, 2009 at 12:14 am
just took over the bills from my wife, found the 9.99 charge for thumbplay on my son’s # and called AT&T who will remove the last two months, called thumbplay and they agreed to reimburse all of it.
September 7th, 2009 at 1:05 pm
[...] I was I had known that Thumbplay.com is known for screwing over their “customers”. In 2008, a major lawsuit was filed against the company. “According to the suit…the rapidity with which the mobile content industry has grown has led to ‘a disastrous flaw:’ Billing and collection systems put in place by companies like Thumbplay have no ‘checks or safeguards’ to protect against unauthorized charges showing up on customers’ bills.” Other angry consumers have shared similar experiences. [...]
September 8th, 2009 at 12:53 pm
My daughter asked if I wanted to pay $3.95 for a ringtone of Beyonce singing ave maria. I agreed, but the resulting ringtone was horrible~! We never used it, much less realized there was a recurring fee. Terrible scam.
September 17th, 2009 at 10:15 am
Got billed twice never bought it. Frauds
October 8th, 2009 at 9:29 pm
Thumbplay is a very ligit company! If you took the time of review and read through the terms and conditions and also in any of the text message you get even before competely signing up you will see that it is a $9.99 monthly subscritpion. You cannot blame Thumbplay if your daughter/son signed up it’s you choice to give them a cell phone and monitor that phone. If you are billed more then 1 month from Thumbplay continuously, and don’t realize this, it is also your choice to not go through your cell phone bill. They are only doing their job in charging an account that gets credits to download. Maybe everyone should take the time to read through things and monitor their children and bills. I found their customer service to be extraordinary, helpful and polite people!
October 12th, 2009 at 1:14 pm
Re: My Post #84 “They refunded 4 mos”…not so. They Promised that over the phone, but refunded a mere 1 month. Will I call them again and waste more time?–probably not. Commenter behind comment 91–use spell check first, then tell it to the judge.
October 12th, 2009 at 5:09 pm
Never ordered and actually cancelled thumbplay and still receiving charges.
October 15th, 2009 at 7:02 pm
Thumbplay is in the wrong for not putting in plain english on their website that your going to get charged for their services when next to their ringtones that they don’t mention anything about it costing anything. All it says is get ringtone and no mention of a cost for it. I’m calling them today and demanding a refund for the membership because it is ridiculous, never again.
October 17th, 2009 at 5:52 pm
I too have been a victim of this scam. I too never subscribed to this service and continued to get billed. I too have responded with “stop”, “end”, and “quit” and even logged onto the webside to cancel and got a response stating I am not even subscribing to the service. How many complaints have to be posted before this company changed their ways of doing business? Why doesnt the FCC get involved in this scam and shut them down?
October 20th, 2009 at 7:40 pm
I called AT&T for the second time; after they had agreed to block further Thumbplay charges but to no avail as the charge showed up again on the following bill. They had previously agreed to refund 3 months of charges, but after my second call to them to alert them that the Thumbplay charge was still appearing on the bill, they stopped the charge and blocked it from occurring again. During that phone call, I requested a paper bill from now on as I had been on a paperless plan, thus, wasn’t paying attention. The paper bill this month showed a credit from AT&T of $199.31 and was described as a Third Party Content Refund, which I applied for earlier, but did not expect would happen. We were considering changing services, but now feel a little better about AT&T. Go here to apply for your refund: thirdpartycontentrefund.com
October 21st, 2009 at 7:08 am
To Thumbscam employee-commenter#91. A legitimate company does not continue to charge many months after several attempts were made to cancel the subscription. Many attempts made to cancel and the only confirmation we received was a text stating “get free access to over 450,000 ringtones”! Advertisements that have FREE, FREE, FREE in bold letters with a disclaimer in a million tiny letters at the bottom of the ad, are very deceiving even for fairly intelligent adults let alone children. The only way to talk to a Rep at Thumbscam was to call as if I was ordering a subscription, otherwise to cancel, you never have the opportunity to speak to someone. Customer service even stated they only should have charged the 1st initial month and not four months. Please submit problems with this organization to the Better Business Bureau as I have.
October 21st, 2009 at 9:34 am
My son called 678-999-8212, some “Soulja Boy” number in Atlanta. They seem to be in on this scam. I see three voice calls to “Boy”, then two 48000 texts back. No texts out. How can a voice call have authorized the subscription? We are trying STOP to 48000 and Purchase Blocker through ATT, plus ATT says they have canceled. We shall see…..
October 22nd, 2009 at 10:09 am
I was checking my email through Yahoo web site and accidentally clicked the free ring tone add via touh screen on a bad scroll. Guess what? I get a text message from 48000 to get free ring tone and a link to thumbplay. Found your site and texted a STOP. Called them up and a subscription was pending. Future Text messages are now canceled(I Hope).
In their TOS (18 pages long with out scrolling option available) They claim your are signed up just by visiting site
“Thanks for using Thumbplay! This agreement (“Agreement”) is a contract between you and Thumbplay, Inc. (“THUMBPLAY” or “Thumbplay”). By visiting or using the THUMBPLAY web site (www.thumbplay.com), using the Thumbplay Widgets or by completing the registration process to use the THUMBPLAY Transactional or Subscription services (collectively, the “Services” or “THUMBPLAY Services”), you agree to be bound by the following terms and conditions (the “Terms of Service” or “Terms”). Notwithstanding the foregoing, your use of the Thumbplay Music Store™ software application is governed by the Thumbplay Music Store Terms and Conditions.”
THanks for this site.
October 27th, 2009 at 8:18 am
Just put end to stop the ringtones i just did and they stopped messaging me. Gosh! i hate sites like this!
November 2nd, 2009 at 2:33 am
We got fast, courteous results with AT&T after the first Thumbplay charge. They now have a FREE “purchase blocker” service, which we added to our account. They immediately credited our account for $9.99.
November 17th, 2009 at 9:51 am
Magical charge showed up on my bill. Looking into Purchase Blocker described above. UNbelievable scams from both Thumbplay and playphone (which is $14.99).
November 17th, 2009 at 12:10 pm
I just spoke to Sprint about the same situation and it seems that Thumbplay had charged me for four months of membership fees. Sprint blocked any further charges from Thumbplay AND credited my account for all the charges. Way to go Sprint!!
December 8th, 2009 at 5:18 pm
Thumplay charges of $9.99 started appearing on my cell phone bill and I have no idea how they got there. I am a busy mom who barely even knows what a ringplay is. Sprint did take care of the charges but the fact that they allowed it in the first place makes them complicit in the fraud if you ask me. I asked for an additional $25 for my troubles which Sprint was kind enough to give me. I think Sprint should lose money or be penalized in some way for allowing Thumplay to defraud Sprint customers.
December 16th, 2009 at 7:03 am
Have been billed for 6 months for this service which i didn’t know I had. My Sprint service provider has not bothered to provide its subscribers with information about this spam of a text service. This is the most ridiculous spam I have heard of on a government controlled airway, and the government hasn’t even bothered to tell the public about this.
December 29th, 2009 at 6:03 pm
I signed up for this because it clearly stated that I would get 20 free ringtones and I would not get charged until the next month. I got two ringtones, and when I went to see how much money was left on my phone (it ’s prepaid) I saw I had a very small amount left. I went to check why, and see that I had been immediately charged $9.99. I was able to cancel the charge but now until I get enough money to put more on my phone, I can’t text or call anyone. Thanks Jerks.
January 30th, 2010 at 5:09 pm
I was charged $9.99 for the past 8 months by Thumbplay unknowingly. AT&T refused to provide a refund for these services. Thumbplay offered past 4 months refund and then I have to speak w/ supervisors to get the last 4 months.
January 30th, 2010 at 6:10 pm
Just like everybody else who posted here, I just realized that this company called “Thumbplay” has been charging my cell for text messaging service! What the-??? This is something that I definitely didn’t request!! This lowly practice of getting “customers” should be illegal!
February 1st, 2010 at 3:26 pm
I know most people have nothing but bad things to say about this company, however, I initially had the same issue you ALL had. I simply called 877-848-6299 and spoke with a very nice rep named Trudy who not only agreed to issue a check for the charges (9.99×4=39.96) but she also allowed me to give her my other two cell numbers to put on the blocked list, as I requested so I would not have this problem again. Now, I am waiting up to 15 days to receive my check and as long as I do, you won’t hear from me. Otherwise, I will be sure to update you all on the status. Give the number a try. It may help. Good Luck!
BTW: I agree that this should be illegal and the ICC needs to step in to prevent these scam artists from getting over. Imagine how many people just pay their bill without paying attention, just like I did for 4 months. It is a sad shame.
February 16th, 2010 at 7:44 pm
I didn’t order this
February 19th, 2010 at 1:01 pm
Never ordered this service but still ended up paying 9.99 for ringtones I don’t know anything about. I think thumbplay should be shut down!!!!
February 25th, 2010 at 12:44 pm
Just realized Thumbplay charged me on my mobile broadband card for 2 years (each card comes with a phone number).
I called them and they claim that my number was not properly recycled and was transferred from someone else who had the service. But they couldn’t confirm that they actually had records of having service on that phone number prior to when I got that number. So sounds pretty shady.
They immediately agreed to reimburse the entire amount – $249! Maybe that’s their way of avoiding law suits.
My impression is that it’s very sketchy and I don’t buy their explanation.
February 26th, 2010 at 5:13 pm
I attempted to download a free ring tone from songlyrics.com which I never received. I never agreed to a monthly service to Thumplay yet was charged for 2 months. I sent an unsubscribe txt 2/2, rec’d a confirmation and still was charged for February.
March 1st, 2010 at 12:30 pm
In January 2010, I clicked on Thumbplays free ringtone and was billed $9.99 on my phone bill. What kind of scummy company is this. I then had to go through there process of opting out. Then they billed me again $9.99. They stole $20 from me. All I did was click on get a free ringtone. How can this be legal? This was faulse advertising and intrapment. Whom ever is behind this company belongs in jail.
I can’t imagine the phone carriers allowing this. I did notice that Sprint doesn’t allow Thumplay. They say that they took in $100 million. They stole it, and probably mainly from children and kids that didn’t now that as soon as you click on get free ringtone, there is a good chance that these poor parent and kids get billed $9.99 for two, three, four and five months before catching that Thumbplay keeps billing your phone. Thumbplay is like Satin or a blood sucking vampire working covert on peoples bank accounts through the phone bill. THIS MUST STOP, before they cause real big problems for some poor person. I did some research and found that Thumbplay is owned by some really gready venture capital people. This is as bad as Countrywide and Ennron. When will corporate greed stop and taking advantage of our children and innecent people. Verizon and AT&T should be ashamed for even allowing this type of business to even exist.
March 11th, 2010 at 2:27 am