Cell Phone Bill Complaints

110 Responses to “Atrinsic, Inc. f/k/a New Motion Inc. d/b/a Mobile Sidewalk | RingtoneChannel | Bid4Prizes | GatorArcade | iMatchUp: 25000, 45998, 65000, 81000, 44577, 31000”

1. Tania Porter says:

   Found this on my cell phone bill today. I’ve never used one of these in my life:

   Data
   Application
   Date Time Usage Type Description Min. Price Total
   10/13 9:00A Premium TXT Messaging PREM_SMS 71888 ItemPurchase — 9.99 9.99
   10/13 9:01A Premium TXT Messaging PREM_SMS 44577 RngTnC11 9.99 8003870290 — 9.99 9.99

   October 18th, 2007 at 6:44 am

2. Vic says:

   I found a charge for this “service” on my bill in September of 2007. Got the runaround from Sprint and was told to contact New Motion at their 800 number. Called and cancelled. December 2007, I found a charge for this same “service” charged to my mother’s phone line, which is on my account. Called and cancelled. Is there any way to get my stolen money back without a lot of hassle? Neither I nor my mother authorized these charges. It’s ridiculous to think that Sprint can include the charge on my bill, but can’t do anything about it. I’m pissed.

   December 20th, 2007 at 10:22 pm

3. Mike says:

   A charge of $9.99 for PREMIUM TEXT MESSAGING started appearing on my wife’s phone, on our Verizon Family plan in October.

   My wife was driving home, and my daughter was co-piloting. They were expecting a text message from me while on the road. When the unsolicited message from this crooked outfit arrived, my daughter quickly opened it, said “Hey, this isn’t Dad,”, and deleted it.

   Apparently that is all that is necessary to “subscribe” to this “service” is to open the message before deleting it. Bad enough that I had to pay the 15¢, but then had to pay $9.99 for NOTHING every month.

   Verizon was helpful in teaching me to send 44577 STOP to discontinue it, and refunded $9.99 for ONE of the three months, but their take is that the company is “legal”, and somehow it is my fault that I did not READ the unsolicited message (disclaimers, legalese) and immediately send “44577 STOP”.

   I don’t get how it is “legal”. To me it is exactly like pickpocketing, or hacking into my checking account.

   January 7th, 2008 at 1:00 pm

4. MarcM says:

   This happened to me on my AT&T service. AT&T is going to refund the charge and block any more data downloads for us.

   January 7th, 2008 at 4:04 pm

5. Scott says:

   I received a $9.99 charge on my 1/5/08 bill for “New Motion: Informational - NewMoiton 8003870290.” This was on my 9 yr. old daughter’s phone number. She claims to have never authorized the charge (as if a 9 yr. old can authorize anything!).

   January 7th, 2008 at 11:16 pm

6. John says:

   I never know this company, never went to their website to register, don’t know how to get this fee, I argued with Sprint, but they refuse to credit back this fee, I argued with Bid4Prize, they said I went on line to input some password which they sent to my cell phone, but I never went their website, and even don’t know what the website doing, I heard this Bid4Prize name is from my Sprint Statement, and Sprint also charged this text message fee, looks like Sprint and Bid4Prize together to charge the money from the user. We need take action to against this Cell phone company and New Motion company, otherwise more and more people will be charged this fee

   January 14th, 2008 at 4:42 pm

7. Lisa Elder says:

   I just discovered that Bid4prize had been billing my Verizon account for 6 months on my daughter line. She has never heard of them. I tried to call the company. They could not tell me how she was enrolled. When I asked for the address of the company to send a complaint they hung up on me. When I asked Verizon how I could escalate my complaint within their company for complying with these fraudulent companies, they did not answer my email. When you get the silent treatment you know you are being scammed.

   January 18th, 2008 at 2:47 am

8. Baron Fink says:

   I saw this $9.99 charge for the last 3 months on my 13yr old son’s cell bill. He swore he didn’t by anything. I called the company, and they were very quick to want to cancel my account as requested, but I also asked them how it was that my son had the authority to OK a recurring charge on a phone. Basically, they get some type of offer to play some game or the like, and when they OK that offer, they are in essence agreeing to get screwed out of $9.99 per month. It’s a scam that should be illegal. I asked her how they policed the fact that the cell user is indeed under 18, and of course, as far as they are concerned, if the user presses the button, then all is well. Why even ask the question - it’s useless.

   January 24th, 2008 at 12:15 am

9. MarcM says:

   Your son probably never even ok’ed it. I certainly didn’t and got slapped with this charge.

   January 24th, 2008 at 12:48 pm

10. Mark S says:

    My son “won” a ringtone from Dr. Pepper. When he tried to get it, he got registered in this ripoff site.

    January 25th, 2008 at 4:41 am

11. Janet Christiansen says:

    Got my Sprint Bill and had 2 charges on bill for New Motion Never have autorized any of this and I will not pay

    January 25th, 2008 at 5:17 am

12. June Palmer says:

    We also received unauthorized charges from this New motion at 9.99 a month for 2 months. Fortunately Sprint is refunding the money back. Although, it is a complete mystery to us how we ever were billed for this in the first place.

    January 26th, 2008 at 8:23 pm

13. Jim, Connecticut says:

    They just did it to us too. We didn’t sign up. Called Verizon and they were arrogant and useless. I will go right to the top of verizon if I have to. If they don’t remove teh charge I will switch to another useless cell phone provider. We are not responisible for fraudulent charges.

    January 30th, 2008 at 2:29 pm

14. Holly says:

    I have two phones on my account and at first just assumemd that the person with the other phone was responsible for the chsrge. Then I googled the number and found out how many people had been enrolled without their consent. I then found out the the second phone on my account was the same. This is insantiy when you can be charged for a service through your cell phone company that you never consented to. I have sprint and I have seen a lot of Verizon testimonials, but it is not only Verizon. I think the cell phone companies need to offer their customers protection from fraudulent charges not made by the person using the phone and that “bid4prizes” etc be prosecuted. I don’t even care anymore if i get my money back so long as it stops and doesn’t happen again.

    January 31st, 2008 at 3:26 am

15. David says:

    Charge appeared on Verizon. Called BID4PRIZE 800 number. They cancelled my services and will issue refund check in 2 weeks. They also said they cancelled services and blocked the number.

    Will call verizon tomorrow to see if I can get refund from them too….

    February 1st, 2008 at 12:36 am

16. Cheryl says:

    Charge appeared on 15 year old daughter’s phone bill. Called Bid4Prizes 800 number and found out account was cancelled same day it was opened. Reminded them that she was a minor and they said they can’t remove the charge from our phone bill but will send a refund check in 7-10 weeks. (Wish it was only 2 weeks) Had my husband note the date to see if we actually receive it.

    February 2nd, 2008 at 6:38 pm

17. Kathleen Hutchison says:

    My husband tried to get a “free” ringtone and it didn’t work on his phone. My daughter then texted stop, quit or cancel to the number and six months later I’m still paying 9.99 a month. Sprint tells me I have to deal with New Motion Inc. How is this possibly legal?

    February 4th, 2008 at 7:11 pm

18. Norma B. says:

    I have the same problem and just now I called Sprint luckily they credited me for all the charges that was charged on my account from this company New Motion 800-387-0290. Sprint advised me to text this number 44577 and type STOP or CANCEL and I told Sprint to please block this number or any text on any future attempt I don’t know if that would work I hope so. When I called this number (800-387-0290) they were very rude and they told me that my provider gave me the wrong number to cancel it so in other words they gave me the run around. When you talk to your provider insist on getting to the bottom of this or at least compensate you for something you never subscribe for because it’s not your fault that this company is very sneaky.

    February 5th, 2008 at 7:50 pm

19. Anne M says:

    Same problem - with my daughter’s phone - when she visited a web site - she was signed up for this text messaging service without authorizing the charges. I just filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau for the company’s address (given to me by their customer support staff). Better Business Bureau website = http://www.labbb.org
    New Motion’s Address is: 42 Corporate Park, Suite 100 (and/or Suite 250), Irvine, California 92606. Please file additional complaints with the BBB - hopefully they can put this company out of business or get them to change their practices.

    February 6th, 2008 at 10:52 pm

20. Caffrey says:

    I just used Sprint’s chat service to speak to a rep who first told me this charge was for visiting websites like CNN and ESPN that I have been doing for FOUR YEARS with the $15 data plan I’ve always paid for. Once I pointed that out, she told me I downloaded a game. I informed her I don’t play games on my cell phone. Then she said it was streaming video. Again, I informed her I’ve never streamed video to my phone. I assured her that my cell phone use has been EXACTLY the same it has always been for 4 years and nothing has changed except these two $9.99 charges to “New Motion”. I told her I wanted this service I never agreed to cancelled and refunded for both months (I was being BACK-billed for December). She told me I needed to call the company. I said that should be her job. Her company should not be allowing third parties to alter MY cell phone bill…especially against my consent. She pretty much just told me to go F myself.

    Good thing my Sprint contract will be over in 4 months.

    February 9th, 2008 at 4:45 am

21. kameleon_o says:

    This just happened to us. Sprint said that we had signed up for this program via a text message although we don’t even have text messaging enabled on our phones. Sprint also said that the day we did this was on the same day that this particular phone was broken. We were waiting for a new one through the mail and weren’t able to make phone calls, much less text messaging. It’s totally dishonest and the fact that Sprint and others are allowing this is bull. Problem is that I can’t stand any of the other cell companies and don’t have a lot of choices or I’d cancel Spring too.

    Also, like Anne M. above, I also filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. I don’t know if it’ll do any good but I can hope.

    February 10th, 2008 at 10:35 am

22. Johnny says:

    I was slammed by this company. My son did enter the stop text number but my phone was charged anyway.
    I called them and they were quick to offer a refund in 4 to 6 weeks.
    I am very annoyed that this company can steal my money without consequence as long as they give it back in 4 to 6 weeks.

    February 14th, 2008 at 11:31 pm

23. Lynn says:

    Just received my Sprint bill with two $9.99 charges on the same day-one of which was from this New Motion. The charge was on my son’s number, which he rarely uses. I called Sprint and was told that this was a download. I told them that he had not downloaded anything and that I’d gone through the content on his phone–no download to be found. I also said that I’d just found numerous complaints about this company on the Internet and that it was a scam. The Sprint rep said they would open a case (whatever that means) for me. I told her that we would not be paying theses charges and that they should not be allowing their customers to have fraudulent charges assessed on their bills. She said they will get back to me in 2 to 3 business days. In the meantime, I have called the 1-800 number and hit “1″ to cancel this service (still don’t even know what it was to begin with). Next, we will file a complaint with the BBB. The cell companies scam you enough as it is with their own billing methods and contract extensions every time you make one simple change to your plan. We don’t need them allowing other companies to scam us as well!

    February 17th, 2008 at 2:46 am

24. John T. Mathew says:

    Same happened to me. I had a charge from “PREM_SMS 81000 Bid4Prz3 9.99 8008617414″ for $9.99 I called up VERIZON Customer Service and they said it was a premium service and that I have SUBSCRIBED to in at some time. The problem is, I have never even heard of this company until now. In my opinion, this IS organized stealing.

    February 17th, 2008 at 6:20 am

25. Nena Sarmento says:

    These crooks did the same thing to me. AT&T is removing the charge from my bill and BLOCKING all text messages from these morons. Had AT&T not been so accomodating, I fully intended to file my own suit in small claims court against New Motion. Imagine their misery if I had sued them for the maximum amount allowed by the state, and forced them to come here to resolve it. My refund would have been a LOT more than $19.98, and I would have aggravated them more than they did me. They need to be shut down!

    February 18th, 2008 at 7:52 pm

26. Curt says:

    We got taken by this scam too. My kid merely opened a text from them. Sprint was quick to give us the text number to “STOP” future charges. They could stop it if they wanted to. It’s like Dominos Pizza charging my cell phone account for the price of the pizza I ordered using my cell phone. New Motion’s reply was immediate and included a 800-861-7414 for their customer service. Now to report on BBB, Sprint, AND my congressman about this slamming tactic.

    February 19th, 2008 at 5:06 pm

27. Mike Toofer says:

    I am being charged for these programs that I never purchased. I tried calling the 800 number that appears on the bill alongside the charge, but no one answers. I am on hold forever. I will take this matter up with Spirnt.

    February 20th, 2008 at 12:22 am

28. Anne M says:

    Update:
    Listen up. This is what I did.
    Step 1 - Call your cell phone company, and ask for the phone number of the company charging for the premium text messaging service. Ask your phone company to block all premium text messaging for your phone, and ask them to refund the charges since you never authorized them. They will block Premimun text messaging, but may not want to refund the money (yet).
    2. Call Premium Text Messaging company (usually a 1-800 number). Be polite - get the following information: When (what date) they allege you signed up for the service. Their mailing address. Ask them to cancel the service and refund the charges - since you did not authorize the charges. They will refuse - but you’ve got the information you need to file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau.
    3. If the company is New Motion (or one of its many aliases), they are in California, and the Better Business Bureau for that area is http://www.labbb.org. If they have a different address - look up the appropriate Better Business Bureau (at http://www.bbb.org).
    4. File a complaint (online) with the appropriate Better Business Bureau. It’s quick and painless, and they (the Better Business Bureau) respond within 1-2 days. They will contact the company about resolving your complaint.
    5. I got a response from the Better Business Bureau that New Motion would refund my $9.99 within 3-4 weeks.
    6. I then called my cell phone company (Verizon) back - told them I had filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau - and that I had never authorized the Premium Text Messaging service. I again asked them to refund the charges - which they agreed to do. Again, I was polite but insistent that I had never (and my daughter had never) authorized the charges.
    7. If it works for you - as it has for me - spread the word. I asked the Verizon rep if Verizon and the other cell phone companies could band together to put this company (New Motion), and others like it - out of business.
    8. Good Luck !!

    February 20th, 2008 at 3:29 pm

29. Luke Scott says:

    My mom just got our AT&T bill in the mail. There was a subscription from New Motion Inc. I never subscribied to it. It says, Subscription:Bid4prizes:88230#7010. It was $9.99. This company needs to be sued.

    February 21st, 2008 at 3:31 am

30. Sheila Baker says:

    I received on my mobile phone bill a charge for $9.99 it was for subcription: Bid4prizes88230#7010. I never subscribied to this. And I never subscribied to anything off of my phone. The charge I was told will be removed from my phone bill.

    February 23rd, 2008 at 4:37 pm

31. Elaine says:

    Have been charged 19.99 last month and 9.99 this month. Got run around from Sprint. I did not order, nor used this service. Does anyone have 1-800 number to call. Thanks

    February 24th, 2008 at 9:06 pm

32. Norma says:

    Well…I tried complaining to BBB regarding NEW MOTION but I just got an email from them that they closed my file just because they didn’t get any respond from this company after I said I wasn’t satisfied with their answer and that I need my money back. You can only tell what king of reputation this company has they can’t even depend their own business because they are guilty on all these complaint being slapped to them!!! I just hope that they shut this company down and BBB will at least consider all these complaints and do something about it. Of course my money is forever gone can’t get any refund from this morons!!!!!

    February 27th, 2008 at 6:01 pm

33. Anne M says:

    See my previous comments. Call your cell phone company (again), be polite - ask to speak to a supervisor if necessary, tell them this is a case of fraud, and that you filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau - against New Motion. Tell them that you are considering filing a complaint against them (your cell phone company) since they allowed another company to bill you for services that you never authorized. Be polite, but firm. Follow through with the BBB complaint if necessary. By this time (complaints have been mounting for several months) - cell phone companies should be aware that New Motion is engaging in fraud. If cell phone companies have to refund money to customers - they will go after New Motion themselves. Good Luck! When I called Verizon Wireless a second time (after filing a BBB report against New Motion) - they (Verizon Wireless) credited my account for the charges.

    February 28th, 2008 at 3:18 pm

34. Desiree says:

    I too was charged $9.99 on my cell phone bill. Immediately I called the 800 number listed on my bill and was treated SO RUDELY by someone named Jeff. I called Sprint and they were most accomodating and removed the charges and blocked all future 3rd party texts.

    February 28th, 2008 at 7:56 pm

35. patti hung says:

    same thing happened to my daughter’s phone. she claimed she never singed up for anything, and for once, i believe her. what is really scarey is that not only did she receive messages , but that her phone was sending them BACK!in all it totaled 225 messages in 2 weeks, AND she doesn’t have a text package, so we got charged .15 for each one. OUCH!
    To Verizon’s credit, they are reversing the charges for the $9.99 AND the $33 worth of text messaging that the phone racked up. Additionally, that phone # is now blocked.

    On my end, i called the 800 # and got a message with a choice; to unsubscribe automatically, or to speak with a cust. service rep. I initially chose to speak w/ a rep, ( guess I was looking for an excuse to get angry with someone), but the office was ‘closed’. so i opted for the ‘unsibscribe automatically’ option. After i punched in my daughter’s #, it was confirmed that she had an account with them and that it was now cancelled. Just to be sure, i called again 5 minutes later, and surprisingly, but thankfully, the automated system could no longer identify her # as a valid account. I hope it ends here. but what a hellava waste of my time. i’ve got better things to do….

    February 29th, 2008 at 5:32 am

36. Jeffery says:

    When you don’t get a refund or assistance from the cell company you fail to understand the situation. As always, follow the money!!

    You cell provided is the “unindicted co-conspirator” in this transaction. They welcome these snakes because they get a cut in exchange for adding these fake charges directly on your bill. They profit, therefore they ARE NOT YOUR FRIEND!!

    If I remember correctly, however, if you refuse to pay these charges they cannot turn off your service since it is not a company charge, but a 3rd party charge.

    These companies are maggots that should be squished firmly beneath the sole of your shoe……

    February 29th, 2008 at 3:51 pm

37. alma pasca says:

    they charged me for 2 months for Bid4Prizes and Thum bplay, services i never subscribed to. how can this happen? is this a rip-off country or what? do they actually think that everybody is so stupid and nobody will notice? who is starting to sue these companies, because i will support them!

    March 3rd, 2008 at 9:41 am

38. justme says:

    The reason it’s legal is cause verizon is getting like 30% of the money. That’s why!!!!!!! I saw this on the news a couple of weeks ago. That is why verizon won’t refund your money most of the time cause they are losing money when they do and they have no desire to stop this.

    March 6th, 2008 at 5:22 pm

39. justme says:

    wouldn’t not would it should say. I am as pissed as the rest of you and we are all stuck between a rock and a hard place in nice terms.

    March 6th, 2008 at 5:28 pm

40. Norma says:

    I really hate this company (New Motion) I just got another charge from them for January and I’m soo tired of calling Sprint. I don’t even know if they did something the last time I called them. I tried everything calling Sprint, complaining to BBB which is pointless ’cause didn’t get any respond from this company. The sad part about it is when I called the 800 number my husband’s number is not recognized in their system but then again I see the charge on my Sprint bill with the same 800 number. I am sooo frustrated I hope somebody will sue this company and I will 100% support them!!!!

    March 6th, 2008 at 6:03 pm

41. Randy Jansen says:

    Just checked my Sprint bill. Was charged three months for New Motion. Called Sprint and the guy I talked to was fantastic - removed all charges.

    Don’t bother with the Better Business Bureau. Contact the FCC. I’ve done this a number of times - they actually do close and/or fine companies that abuse communications.

    March 8th, 2008 at 9:57 pm

42. Christiana Rabe says:

    DO NOT sign up for anything at www atzmi com - they offer you a “free week” subscription and ask for your cellphone number so they can send you a text message confirming your subscription to their newsletter but when I contacted them via their web e-mail form before my week was up, they never responded and then I found out today that I had been third-party billed on my Sprint bill for 1 Premium Service. I contacted Sprint but they wouldn’t do anything about except block any Premium Services - i.e., SMS text messages - for my number - and Sprint wouldn’t refund me! Good thing I never gave the company that runs Atzmi.com any other numbers! So I finally got a message from the same short code - 44577 - saying I’d been unsubscribed and would receive no further messages - and then I called the 800 number - 800-387-0290 - and found out it’s the company this complaint Web page is about and that Atzmi.com is one of their services. I told the woman I had sent an subscription cancellation e-mail on their website and wanted a refund of the $9.99 charge that they had billed me via Sprint. Big clue on who to watch out for, people: no phone number on the website and their e-mail is “no reply” (send only, not monitored).

    March 13th, 2008 at 4:59 pm

43. jean rae says:

    I was charged $9.99 on my sprint cell bill - service never called/authorized. I was told by spring telemarketers were texting individuals and when you open text you are automatically authorizing monthly charge. Sprint has removed & blocked new motion from my account.

    March 13th, 2008 at 7:04 pm

44. Shannon says:

    Atzmi.com got me, too. I’m pretty sure I sent them a “stop” message as well, and I unsubscribed from their e-mail services. Fortunately I caught the bill but Sprint says the charge is valid. I had Sprint turn off all “third-party text messaging,” which allows you to get regular text messages from your friends, just not companies who charge you. I won’t ask for a refund because it’s not Sprint’s fault and they shouldn’t have to pay for someone else’s dishonesty.

    March 14th, 2008 at 4:24 pm

45. Christiana Rabe says:

    I was able to get Sprint to remove the charge after I sent them this e-mail:
    I discovered that a text message I received from the Atzmi.com website (44577) on March 11 at 9:07 pm has been charged to me by Sprint for $9.99. I did not know that a text message from a website - apparently a SMS text - is viewed by Sprint as a PREMIUM SMS service. I have already contacted Atzmi.com (e-mailed them via their website) - once to their third-party billing me and again today - to cancel my subscription to their services and have requested a refund from them. I received another PREMIUM SMS message from them this morning (March 13) at 11:53 a.m. from 44577 saying: “Your subscription has been discontinued. You will receive no further messages from this program. 800-387-0290″ I request that this message not be charged to my phone. I called this 800 number - apparently the Atzmi.com website is one of their services - and asked that they refund me the $9.99 because I had already contacted the website within my “free week” of service and requested that they cancel my subscription. The customer representative with whom I spoke requested my name and address so that they could send me a refund check.

    I understand I can request that any and all “PREMIUM SMS” access be blocked. As I have no intention of ever again using a PREMIUM SMS (ie, third partybilled) service, please do block all such service from the two lines on my account.

    In addition, as a customer who has been with Sprint for over four years and had very little difficulty with your company, I ask that as a basic courtesy to your customers that you include on a prominent place in the customer literature that a text message from a website - apparently a SMS text - is viewed by Sprint as a PREMIUM SMS service and that they can be third-party billed. It should be made clear because this is a frustration that may lose your company customers.

    Thank you!

    Christiana Rabe

    This was the response I got from Sprint:
    This was the reply I got from Sprint Customer Solutions - eCare1 :

    Dear Christiana Rabe,

    Thank you for contacting Sprint. I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience you have have faced due to Premium sms and will assist you in the best possible way.

    As per your request I have removed the charges of $9.99 from the account. Further I have blocked Premium sms service from both the lines. Be assured that the account will not be charged for this service in future.

    Thank you again for contacting Sprint. We appreciate your business.

    March 14th, 2008 at 6:04 pm

46. Diallo says:

    Saw a 9.99 charge on my Sprint bill under my 15 year old’s number and assumed that he had ordered some music or wallpaper. This past month, I saw it again and told him that he needed to cancel it. He did not know anything about it. Sprint could not give me any information either. I decided to google it and here I am. It is not Sprint’s fault but …

    March 15th, 2008 at 5:03 pm

47. John says:

    Just got my Cingular/AT&T bill and found the same entry as everyone else - Bid4Prizes:88230#7010 New Motion Inc 9.99 Charge .55 Tax

    I called the merchant contact number which turned out to be AT&T Customer Service. They told me it was a subsription that was probably accessed via a website. Of course, I was clueless as to where it came from so I Googled it and found this site. AT&T was quick to remove the charge and stop the subscription charges. Great customer service from AT&T … Bad show of consumer entrapment by New Motion Inc.

    March 16th, 2008 at 4:16 am

48. Susan says:

    I found these charges on my cell phone…
    They’ve been on for two months and according to Alltel will show up on my next bill also. I’ve never ordered ringtones and have no idea how they came to be on my bill. After reading some of the other complaints on this website I suspect it was when I signed up for the coke rewards program.

    This is a scam and I hope that somehow someone can stop these people.

    March 17th, 2008 at 4:38 pm

49. Patrick says:

    OK people I was a former employee of a company very similar to this, a phone rep who had to take your very angry calls.

    To address the first issue I keep seeing, yes it is legal, barely. To keep it legal its all day phone calls from one office to another making sure the follow what the law allows but with every single loop hole they can muster. @nd issue, how can my kids sign up? very easy the site it self states you need to be 18 or over to join, legally thats all they need to do. ITs kinda hard to ask for ID over the net, there is not one site that does that, sorry. ITs the same as your child stealing your credit card and ordering something over the phone, its called fraud.

    Why this happens is because people are so fucken foolish when they are on the net, looking for something for free or filling out some dumbass survey.

    The only reason why these sites exsit is to lore you in , then bombard you with ads in the hopes you will click on one and fill it out without reading the tiny little print hidden away from plain site.

    As a rep my company gave me a directive, no refunds unless they ask to speak to a supervisor and then only offer them an address in which they can write too. After they you may or may not receive a check for your 9.99 6 to 8 weeks later. And thats if you get lucky. They will tell you they cannot reverse or credit the charge, and thats true for the basic rep you get on the phone, however the call center manager can. However he will not take your calls unless it is pushed to that level, A supervisor cannot reverse it either and she will try to push the refund address down your ass in every nice way she fake out on the phone and most people swallow it up. Don’t be the ones, demand a manager call you or better yet demand to speak to him now and do not hang up, record the calls too
    as they certainly do. Have your back up to support your claims, and they hate it when you start to mention the BBB. I was directed to report every call and email that spoke of the BBB. No one uses our services cause they wanted too , out of a year of being there I only had one caller who likes the service. And don’t expect to get answers by email. All the emails sent are 99% per generated responses.
    The reps laugh at the complaints and thats in between dope smoking sessions. And do not fool your selves thinking your calling some huge office with a 100 people , your not, your calling a small room with 2 to 3 people. But don’t blame the reps , they are doing what there told to do cause if they don’t well they get fired like me. The company has no place for a rep with morals, its shady business and I was told that before going in. I am glad I did it though because its just another reminder of how bad money rules no matter what the cost. If they were to auto refund everyone who request it there be no business, thats why they make you write. But I know for a fact the manager can have the charges reversed as I have seen it done.

    March 17th, 2008 at 9:21 pm

50. Bob says:

    On my Sprint bill I also had two charges which are bogus. Called Sprint, got the around and they told me to call New Motion. The rep at New Motion said I did not have an account so to get a refund, that I needed to fax them a copy of my bill. I am now trying to do that but the fax number 949-777-3717 does not answer. Sprint has not been helpful at all. I am ready to cancel my Sprint service if this can not be resolved.

    March 18th, 2008 at 1:43 pm

51. jason Charles says:

    I was charged for a year and didnt even know it

    March 18th, 2008 at 4:45 pm

52. jlo says:

    I been charged for two month, i don’t know why, because i never used this ringtone or whatever it is. Beause somebody else might used my number without knowning anything . Oh well you guys need to cancell the account. the account number is :8009886084. and i was trying to cancell i couldn’t because the text number was unable to go . They said there was an error with my request. They told me to contact this website: Supporting@ringtonechannel.com 4help. Please i begging you guys to disconnet this account, because this is the last time i got charge by you guys. Thank you.

    March 26th, 2008 at 3:03 pm

53. patti says:

    WOW patrick! thanks for the inside look. it’s sad, pathetic, despicable, and very, VERY scarey to think there are so many people in our society that are so willing to debase themselves for that sake of money. I wonder what they teach their kids? Days like this, I think ‘the sooner I die, the better’. But then, I still have kids of my own to teach how to stand up to these degenerate, poor- excuse-for-human-beings. Sigh…I’ve got my hands full. and a long road ahead of me…

    March 28th, 2008 at 3:16 am

54. Lisa Tintner says:

    I was charged 9.99 from this company thru deceptive methods. They said in order to access their website to give a cell number and an access code would be sent to my phone. THEN all of a sudden I received a bill of 9.99 when I NEVER signed up for anything!!! I want to be part of this lawsuit as I plan to contact a lawyer to sue their sorry deceptive asses!

    April 7th, 2008 at 9:38 pm

55. Rachel Cummings says:

    My grandson whose is 12 years old cell phone was charged for 9.99 for bid4prizes.

    April 10th, 2008 at 6:14 pm

56. Cermelo Woodgett says:

    I’ve been charged for it too. I’m even more angry because I’ve found a lot of other “mistakes” in our bill. We’ve even been charged for calls on days after we cancelled our service. Has anyone else had problems with Cingular charges since they became AT&T?

    April 10th, 2008 at 11:00 pm

57. Bill Walker says:

    Yes, I found the charge on my bill. I promptly contacted ATT and they removed it and credited me with the charges. Regardless of age, your children do not know what they are signing up for. You can sign up for this garbage either on the net of the phone. It is real esay to sign up on the net. Toooo easy. All they need to do is put in their phone number.

    All parents need to review not just their mobile bills, but the call times as well. I bet most parents do not know their kids are using the phone well into the night or are setting their alarms to talk at 2. Don’t trust me, look for yourself. You are in for a surprize.

    April 11th, 2008 at 9:32 pm

58. Andrew Biggs says:

    My 3/08 bill from AT&T included two charges under “Communications Purchases Downloads Detail” for a service called Bid4Prizes, and charged by a merchant named New Motion Inc. I had no idea what this was, so I called AT&T customer service to check it out. I hadn’t even finished my question, “What is New Motion Inc..” before the customer service person interjected, “Oh, we’ll remove that for you..”. I thought that was pretty funny, clearly I wasn’t the only person calling in about this ;-). We reviewed my previous bills as well and found $20 more in charges from the same merchant! I need to start reading my 10-page AT&T bill more carefully…

    April 12th, 2008 at 11:09 am

59. Andrew Biggs says:

    Oh, forgot to mention. The AT&T person then offered to put a purchase blocker on my phone. Great, now my cellphone needs malware protection!

    April 12th, 2008 at 11:11 am

60. Kathy Riggins says:

    Same as many above. I just happened to look closely at my bill last night and found a $10.61 charge for Bid4Prizes. Son denied all knowledge. I called AT&T and they immediately offered to refund charge. Double checkng this morning, I found we had actaully been recieving this charge since January. I agree it should be illegal to trick you into these charges. The cell phone bills are so complicated it is way too easy to overlook these scams.

    April 14th, 2008 at 11:17 am

61. Jody says:

    Does anyone know of a class action law suite against this company? There should be. I noticed a charge on my sprint bill from New Motion Inc that I did not sign up for as well. $9.99 a month. I think we would have enough people eager to file a suite. Any takers?

    April 14th, 2008 at 5:57 pm

62. Jody says:

    Any takers on a class action law suite against New Motion? I also had a charge on my bill as well as a friend of mind.

    April 14th, 2008 at 5:58 pm

63. martin says:

    good point this company does not actually file a suite…

    April 14th, 2008 at 6:39 pm

64. SHEL says:

    YES, I BECAME ANOTHER ONE YOU GOT SCAM FOR $53.00. I CALLED AND COMPLAINED TO MY VERIZON AND ALL I WAS TOLD IS FOR TO CONTACT THE COMPANY WHICH I DID. WELL, I WAS CONNECTED TO THE “SO CALLED” CUSTOMER SERVICE DEPT AND AFTER ONE HR I GAVE UP, THEN I SENT THREE EMAILS REQUESTING COPIES OF THE SO CALLED TEXT..NEVER RECEIVED ANY ANSWER. I THEN CALLED BACK TO VERIZON AND EXPLAINED THAT THIS IS A TOTAL SCAM, I THEN WAS GIVEN $25,00 CREDIT. I REFUSED AS I WANTED THE ENTIRE $53.00 CREDIT OR NOTHING LESS. I WAS INFOMRED THAT THE BEST THEY WOULD DO. WELL TODAY THEY SUSPEND MY SERVICE FOR NON PAYMENT. I JUST SENT A LETTER TO THE CEO ALONG WITH THE DATA FROM YOUR WEB SITE. AND WE WILL SEE WHAT HAPPENS WITHING THE NEXT 10 DAYS.

    April 15th, 2008 at 8:27 pm

65. Diana Scroggins says:

    This is awful. I received a text from New Motion just yesterday and new nothing about them. Just deleted the message. This morning looked at my account on line and saw this call was Premium Service, billed me at $9.99! Had to first check to see who these people were then called Sprint. They were great. Removed the charge and said they blocked the number from coming in again. We will see! Something must be done to stop this from happening again.

    April 16th, 2008 at 8:02 am

66. Christine Bush says:

    I contacted the Better Business Bureau and the FCC about this company. Haven’t heard from the FCC but the BBB opened a complaint and got my case resolved. Got me unsubscribed from their service and never got another text message from them. Most importantly the complaint is on file in case the BBB gets more on the same company. Contact them.

    April 18th, 2008 at 10:19 am

67. Colin Cody says:

    $9.99 appeared on our Sprint bill today. Daughter said she was talking with Sprint a couple weeks ago and the Sprint representative noticed the item and asked if she was aware of it. Sprint took preemptive action, canceled the item and said they’d credit the account.

    April 19th, 2008 at 9:17 am

68. Rick says:

    I just discovered a mysterious charge for $9.99 0n my AT&T cellular bill, with a description of “Bid4Prizes” and a merchant name of “New Motion, Inc.” After reading the information on this site, I called AT&T and was pleasantly surprised to find a fully understanding and cooperative customer service representative, who indicated that I’d actually been charged for this for several (4) months, and that the’d credit me for all the past charges and put a block on my account to prevent future charges like this.

    April 21st, 2008 at 4:16 pm

69. John says:

    I just got my SPRINT bill today, noticed this charge on one of my numbers…not on the other one though…Emailed sprint, used the 44577 number to text STOP…got text back from the number stating the account was cancelled…
    hope I get my money back from SPRINT…

    April 24th, 2008 at 10:36 pm

70. John says:

    Sprint actually called me to apologize about the charges, they still claim that I might have inadvertently signed up for something…
    They fixed my bill and gave apologies, not bad…I have had bad SPRINT experiences myself but this one was actually pleasant…

    April 26th, 2008 at 7:11 am

71. Melissa says:

    I took a personality test from the Dr.Phil show called the Atzmi test. I was very apprehensive about giving my telephone number but did anyway much to my dismay. Ringtones immediately started text massaging me and after many attempts via emails and texts messages and finally cally Tmobile they still have not stopped. They are trrying to bill me 9.99 a month for services I did not want. This is the worst sort of rip off. Really makes me afraid to trust anything on the internet and also makes me wonder about Dr. Phil. Why he has these types of theives on his web page. I will ask him. How to Stop the stealing.?

    April 28th, 2008 at 8:15 pm

72. Mike Benjamin says:

    I’m brand new to the computer, so when my Alltel bill came up and this unknown charge came up, I was shocked. My husband and I are both new to the internet, and it took a lot of convincing for me to get this. I have tried to cancel this, but I still keep getting charged. Is there anyone out there that can help me. My husband is threatening to cancel my cell phone! Thank-you Teresa Benjamin

    April 30th, 2008 at 5:04 pm

73. Richard Blunden says:

    I had a charge on my cell phone bill of $9.99 and it was from New Motion, Inc. Description on bill was “bid4prizes”. I called them at 949-777-3700 and they told me to call 1-800-387-0290 to talk to a customer service rep. I called and explained that I had never heard of your company or use my cell phone for any billing. The lady told me that I Did use my cell phone number and that they sent me a message to my cell phone to authorize this. I cannot receive any text messages as I do not have this service with ATT. I also asked her for the name on the account and she did not have one. They said they would cancel this but not refund any past fees. I told her that I would then report her to the state attorney general and BBB. I also looked up bid4prizes on the internet and it is not a site that I have ever seen or use. I do not use auction sites. This is a scam. The company has 3 names. They answer their phone 949-777-3700 under the name of Integra (Spelling?)

    May 5th, 2008 at 12:51 pm

74. Mike says:

    state attorney general and BBB is not going to help .. cant stop somthing thats legal

    May 6th, 2008 at 7:55 am

75. Richard Blunden says:

    When someone takes money from any of account of yours without your permission - it is illegal. This company received money from my telephone company illegally. I did not sign up or authorize them to use my account for anything - I have never heard of this company.

    May 6th, 2008 at 11:07 am

76. John S says:

    For the last 5 months since I had upgrated my cell phone, I started getting these $10.00 data charges and a once a month text e-mail on my cell phone from a company called bid4prizes.com, which I ignored and deleted. I usually don’t see the Verizon phone bill, as my wife always just pays it. Then last night she brought it to my attention asking if I’d added texting as a feature. I told he now as I only use the phone for calls. I called Verizon billing today to question the charges and was told that this was a premium pix service and that I would have to unsubscribe to stop it. Only then could Verizon start blocking any texting to my cell phone. But since Bid4prizes.com was a 3rd party, Verizon claimed to have no responsibility as they were just passing through the charges on my bill. I was BS! I wanted a credit for the last five months that I had be fraudently charged via this scam. They went to a supervisor who then offered only a one month credit - No good! I finally asked for address the Verizon Wireless office and for a contact within their legal department as I explained that I was not dropping this and that wile I was on hold read many blogs on this company posted on the Internet as to what a big scam this was. I also explained that I found postings about complaining to the FCC and how more customes who have been ripped off by Verizon, AT&T and Sprint seed to let the FCC know to stop this. Finally I go an executive supervisor on the phone, who wanted to any legal action and then offered to refund all of my scam bid4Prize.com charges, and to block any further textin to my account. I have been made whole, but for those of you who have not… Contact the FCC at: http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/complaints_tcpa.html

    — OR give a call to the scam company’s corporate ownership of all these companies that are ripping us off:

    New Motion, Inc.

    42 Corporate Park
    Second Floor
    Irvine, California 92606
    United States

    Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. (http://www.godaddy.com)
    Domain Name: BID4PRIZES.COM
    Created on: 08-Sep-06
    Expires on: 08-Sep-08
    Last Updated on: 02-Nov-07

    Administrative Contact:
    walker, scott scott@newmotioninc.com
    new motion
    42 corporate park
    #250
    irvine, California 92606
    United States
    (949) 777-3700

    Technical Contact:
    Scott Walker
    scott@newmotioninc.com

    new motion
    42 corporate park
    #250
    Irvine, California 92606
    United States
    (949) 777-3700

    May 7th, 2008 at 4:14 pm

77. Norma B. says:

    Well, after months of fighting for all these charges that I never ordered (4 months) I finally got my refund for four charges from New Motion. It’s just unbelievable how these things works I have to fight for my own money that I never approved or ordered. I started with BBB which they ended up closing my complaint but until at the end I told them that I wasn’t satisfied with everything I even complaint to FCC which I don’t know if something happen to that also. My suggestion is start calling your phone provider (mine is Sprint) get all the informations from them and then call (in my case New Motion) and complain but I’m telling you these people are rude at first they are saying that our phone#s was never on their system which is a lot of BS because how did I get the refund so I guess just try and the next step I did complaint to BBB and hopefully this scammers will respond, in my case they did but to let me know that only one of my cell# shows in their system again BS, because they responded BBB is saying that the company still has a good reputation because they did respond but I wasn’t satisfied and told them that and then finally they closed my complaint I was about to give up and then after a month I got a note through BBB from New Motion that they will refund my money in 3 to 4 weeks which is to be exact I got it yesterday. Just don’t let this company take your money just like that we worked hard for our money just to be taken away with these kind of people I still want this company to be shut down!!!!!

    May 8th, 2008 at 10:38 am

78. Richard says:

    Well, my mobile bill goes directly to my CC and I pay it monthly without a lot of notice. However, I did notice last month’s mobile amount was appx 10.00 more than normal. This month’s was back to normal, so I started checking. Sure enough, $9.99 was billed “04/06/08 New Motion 9.99 Subscription:GatorArcade:87777#8950″ (that # is actually part of the number) and a notation “Do not renew on 05/06/08″

    AT&T kindly credit back the charge and since it didn’t recur this month all looks well. AT&T was very nice and apologetic about this, BTW.

    Long story short, I never heard of them and find no record of any text from or to them (including no STOP texted to their site to cancel). Appears to me to be a SCAM, pure and simple.

    May 16th, 2008 at 10:55 am

79. PG says:

    For the above problem just dial the following number and it will be taken care. The system will ask you for your cell phone number and once you provide that, you will be automatically unsubscribed from this plan. The number you need to call is 1-800-235-7105. This should save you some time by calling to customer care.

    May 23rd, 2008 at 10:19 am

80. Roberta Newman says:

    I am also a victim of the New Motion, Inc./Bid4Prizes scam. A $9.99 charge has appeared on my phone bill for 3 months now, though of course I never signed up for this racket, whatever it is. Today, thanks to this web site, I was able to contact New Motion and “unsubscribe” myself from something I never subscribed to in the first place. But I have gotten very little satisfaction from Sprint. I finally convinced one of the customer service people to put me through to Sprint’s “fraud department” only to have someone there insist over and over that this is “not a case of fraud,” and to repeatedly accuse me of being mistaken, insisting that I must have subscribed to the “service.” They seemed uninterested that all over the Internet many other Sprint customers are complaining about this scam. At this point, I am planning to contact one of the consumer rights reporters at one of my local news shows about both the scam and Sprint’s (apparent) collusion-by-negligence (if that is a legal term!) with New Motion.

    May 23rd, 2008 at 1:22 pm

81. Tim says:

    I just found this same charge running back to November. I really can’t wait to hear Sprint’s response to this since my cell phone has not even been turned on once since September. I have been a sprint customer since they began, ( I was one of their original customers when they introduced PCS.) I have no contract preventing me from leaving. I have a company provided cell and the only reason I even kept the sprint account was because it was a family plan with my wife on it. They can refund, or I can leave, its their choice.

    May 27th, 2008 at 4:44 am

82. Sandi DeBenedettis says:

    Have same problem with bid4prizes - new motion, Inc. Was billed since last Nov. Sprint promised to block but are still charging me. Called the 800-861-7414 and rep told me I would be mailed a refund for all chgs 9.99 ea = 39.95) and credited for June chg of 9.99. Should receive a ck in 3-4 wks in the mail. I HOPE IT HAPPENS.

    May 28th, 2008 at 1:44 pm

83. Kumar Ganapavarapu says:

    I received a charge of $9.99 for the past five months and only now realized it. I am going to complain to the BBB and contact New Motion via email for a refund. I talked to a Customer service rep over the phone and she said there is nothing I could do to get a refund. She said there is no billing department where I could speak with someone.

    June 2nd, 2008 at 11:40 am

84. Doug Stone says:

    I received this charge of $9.99 two months now. The first month I was assured it wouldn’t appear again, and it did. I have been reimbursed for both months, and am sceptical as to whether or not it will be taken off. Sprint is my company and they took the charges off. If it is, I plan to leave. I’d rather cough up the contract fine then give them another cent over the next year and a half.

    June 2nd, 2008 at 7:40 pm

85. clarence phillips says:

    We received this charge on our phone bill as well. We called AT&T and let them know we did not order anything. They credited our account immediately and blocked the company from doing it again. This just happened today, I’ll watch for my next bill to make sure. AT&T responded positively right away.

    June 6th, 2008 at 7:39 pm

86. Enos says:

    I found it on my bill, too. How can they charge me 9.99 per month without my authorization? I will call AT&T and see if I can get all the credit back (3 months).

    June 8th, 2008 at 5:55 pm

87. M. Stoddard says:

    There were 2 charges of 9.99 on my Sprint bill from Motion Inc, Bid4prize. The charge didn’t stand out to me until there were 2 charges back to back on this recent bill. I looked back at past bills and it has been going on since Oct. 2007. I have never given my number nor signed up for this particular website. I called the customer service and asked how this happened when I never signed up for their services. She gave me the day that my number and email were “registered.” I can only imagine that I signed up for something else, some other survey, and somehow, somewhere in fine print this company was included. Could that actually be the case? I just know that I wouldn’t have wasted $10 a month to bid on things. It’s just not what I’m into. I talked to Sprint and they said I must’ve replied to a text that asked me to send back a code word. No, I didn’t do that either. I only text with people I know. Sprint will credit the current 2 charges back to me and block any “premium texting” type services on my phone. The Bid4prize customer service also said that they would block me from their adds. I know that I know that I know I did not sign up with them directly. But now lesson learned…read the fine print. Not cool.

    June 9th, 2008 at 3:14 pm

88. Rexanne McCrary says:

    I am so upset but glad to see I’m not alone. I had two text messages from the Bid4prize but ignored it since I knew I didn’t want it. Stupid on my part not to read the message that says you have to cancel it or you will be charged. Since when do people have to decline a product instead of responding if they want it? I am contacting the BBB and should have a refund coming in the mail. We will see about that.

    June 13th, 2008 at 1:01 pm

89. Mary Evans says:

    Please take me off this, I do not know how it got on my phone bill.
    Thanks

    June 16th, 2008 at 3:55 pm

90. connie splawn says:

    Bid4Prizes :88230#7010 was on my bill. I have no clue how I got signed up. AT&T is removing the charge. Pretty sneaky of them. I didn’t sign up and I don’t give out my cell phone online for anything.

    June 18th, 2008 at 8:36 am

91. connie splawn says:

    Oh, and the contact phone number that is on my bill is AT&T customer service.

    June 18th, 2008 at 8:36 am

92. Jeff` says:

    I can not believe the wireless the law, let alone the wireless companies allow this. I NEVER signed up for this in anyway, yet for 5 months I was charged $9.99 for a service that even Verizon Wireless said was never used. The phone itself shows absolutely NOTHING related to this service, yet I am still out $50. I hope something can be done to get these people out of business.

    June 25th, 2008 at 12:14 am

93. John says:

    i had a $9.99 charge from new motion on my sprint bill, actually i hadn’t noticed it for 6 months. I never authorized it so i was furious. i called the 800 number for new motion and the girl said she could cancel but not refund. i told her i never authorized it, she said she would explain how it happened but i was so mad i told her the only explanation was that it was a scam!! a superviser was supposed to call me back but never did. I called sprint and they said they could get all of the money refunded for me. so any of you who had problems with sprint should call back. maybe they realized the problem. oh, and they also blocked all 3rd party texting

    June 27th, 2008 at 8:26 am

94. John says:

    New Motion: Informational - NewMotion 800-387-0290 I say we burn their phone lines up and if we can get their sms address we bombard them and denial of service attack, they’re thieves!!!!

    June 27th, 2008 at 10:04 am

95. Tim says:

    So a follow up, Sprint agreed to refund $40 worth of this scam artists charges. Credit was received on my next invoice and they’ve blocked premium services at my request. I called new motion who incidentally now operates as Atrinsic , http://www.atrinsic.com/

    I guess the strategy is run under a name and then change it when that one gets smeared. Anyways the woman told me I confirmed the service on Oct 13 (funny how that happened since my cell phone was off packed in a bag for over a month at that point… Still going after these con artists.

    June 30th, 2008 at 11:18 pm

96. Carmen G Pastor says:

    I’m one of the many that have been
    scammed by one of these company and my wireless company. I have reason to believe there is definitively a
    connection between these two. Besides
    filling with the BBB, FTC, FCC, I’m one of the many interested in pursuing a class action against both, the company
    and the wireless provider.
    Anybody knows why this doesn’t apply to a land line phone ?(faxes communications
    excluded). This could be a well backed organized scam and also an unfair trade
    practice with maybe in collusion with
    all or many major wireless companies to get extra money the easy way.

    July 7th, 2008 at 6:08 pm

97. Gail says:

    Same story - these dirtbags charged my phone. A second dirtbag outfit called Predicto - OpenMarket is doing the same thing ($9.99 per month each). I called AT&T and they reversed the charge from last month and on the current billing period. I then called New Motion Inc and demanded they cancel service. Some smooth speaking PR type explained to me that I had to access their website and give them my phone number, which is total b.s. We’ll see if they bill again next month.

    There are some real dirtbags in the world, and these guys are it.

    July 18th, 2008 at 2:18 pm

98. Gail says:

    btw - the “