Aya L.

I was horrified that Busuu (a company I have never heard of) deducted £69.99 from my PayPal credit account and they claimed I have subscribed with them (which was not the case). It felt like they had committed day time robbery, on tackling this by contacting their customer service wasn't great - the agent 'Andreea' refused to refund my £69.99 and displayed a great deal of disinterest and an attitude towards me in her email, which I reacted very badly and reflected this in my response to her email; she had dismissed my clear state of distress. I even explained my personal circumstances of homelessness and financial difficulty, and that I can't afford these fraud committed against me, especially in these times of extreme hardship. She then referred me to Paypal to cancel this mysterious subscription and get my refund back. When I contacted Paypal and sought advise, I raised a fraudulent case, the agent informed me that the Busuu agent was being dishonest and had misadvised me, that they are holding my money, therefore I should go back to Busuu and get my refund back as my money is with their company, not with Paypal.

After googling Busuu I learned it was a company that provides learning new languages, and by default I am a woman with a polyglot background, I was not required to learn additional languages, at least not at this stage. I would never have subscribed to this service, especially through PayPal and it is a lot of money for me to spend on learning a new language.

Update:
After going back and fourth with contacting Busuu and PayPal, a member of Busuu staff by the name Christelle communicated with me by email. She was much more professional, cooperative and helpful, which was such a relief as I was losing hope. Thanks to this member of staff that I managed to get my full refund back.
With further investigation on my side, I discovered that this subscription went back to a time when multiple fraud was made against me by the same two individuals from last year which still impacted me recently (i. E. Busuu payment), it was so serious that the police and a fraud team were involved, as other people have been victim of their fraud crimes too.
I realised that Busuu was a legitimate company, that only acted upon an online request made by these fraudsters.

Christelle (Busuu agent) treated my case sensitively, unlike her colleague before her. I am grateful for this. I have not used Busuu service to comment or provide a specific star rating, but I give Christelle 5 out of 5 for handling my case as it was a very delicate situation, being that I am a vulnerable customer. I gave overall 4 out of 5 rating. Thank you.