Vodacom billing shock from Google Play Store

beans100 said:
How do you link payments from a Google account, to a sim card (phone number)?

I'm wondering now....how easy is it to add your phone number as payment method in the playstore. Wait, let me test.....hope my wife and kids don't try this ****

EDIT: Well this is kaak easy. I just opened my "playstore > tap 3 stripes > payment methods > tap Use Telkom Billing" and it was added automatically. No 2fa or confirmation sms, nothing. This is definitely a serious issue.
Click to expand...
Its easy to enable but, not a serious issue.. You have to specifically enable it to use it, as you just did..

Further to this, you can configure that a password be required for every purchase made, an additional safeguard..
 
WAslayer said:
Its easy to enable but, not a serious issue.. You have to specifically enable it to use it, as you just did..

Further to this, you can configure that a password be required for every purchase made, an additional safeguard..
Click to expand...
But...but...OP says this is Vodacom's responsibility... :rolleyes:
 
WAslayer said:
Its easy to enable but, not a serious issue.. You have to specifically enable it to use it, as you just did..

Further to this, you can configure that a password be required for every purchase made, an additional safeguard..
Click to expand...

Can the password be reset by the guy/employee holding the phone/sim?
 
MetalBasher said:
It's a lot of money and if his Google account was hacked then not really his fault. I can't understand how I was opted into this and why there are no limits or OTPs or passwords.
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What exactly was purchased that resulted in a R48k bill?

When you say "his Google account" (hacked or not) how is that related to the Vodacom cellphone contract?
 
beans100 said:
Can the password be reset by the guy/employee holding the phone/sim?
Click to expand...
Depends on whether the Google account used on the phone is owned by the person using the phone or not.. My point is, the fact that you can enable password verification, means that you cannot unknowingly run up a bill with your carrier.. Unless of course you give your Google password out to everyone who uses your phone and they go crazy making purchases..

Nevertheless, specific to the OPs situation, he could have controlled and prevented this by making use of Google's Family account functionality..
 
The Sim and Google account are not linked , I can take any Sim (phone) add my Google account on it.
 
j4ck455 said:
What exactly was purchased that resulted in a R48k bill?

When you say "his Google account" (hacked or not) how is that related to the Vodacom cellphone contract?
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In game purchases...some of those bundles are more than a R 1000 each.

Should be very easy to see on the Google Account used.
 
Chinmaya said:
Its only telkom who has built in limits on the contract. Others busy exploit the thing and hold customers liable as in your case.

All business houses in this country are crooks. What matters to them is the bottom line.
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I agree, OP should move to Telkom Mobile.
 
Wasabee! said:
I agree, OP should move to Telkom Mobile.
Click to expand...

Why? (hint: see the below post)

Johnatan56 said:
706997

Accepted payment methods on Google Play - United States - Google Play Help

You can purchase apps and digital content on Google Play using payment methods from your Google account. If it's your first time making a purchase, your payment method will be added to your Google acc
support.google.com support.google.com

Do you not have a spend limit in place? This also has to be done via the Google Play store, so the phone has to have been stolen basically. Also note how it's supposed to show up on carrier account within 15 minutes.
That much cash on Google Play is probably a kid playing candy crush or something.
Click to expand...
 
MetalBasher said:
It's a lot of money and if his Google account was hacked then not really his fault. I can't understand how I was opted into this and why there are no limits or OTPs or passwords.
Click to expand...

If it was his personal account and it got “hacked” Google would still expect him to pay for it.

This is literally no different.

In either case proof of said “hack” (aka bullshit excuse) would need to be provided to Google to have a hope in hell of reversing the charges.

You need to contact Google about this to have any chance of an refund or reduction in fees.

Vodacom is only the payment method, not the provider, it really has nothing to do with them.
 
MetalBasher said:
It's a lot of money and if his Google account was hacked then not really his fault. I can't understand how I was opted into this and why there are no limits or OTPs or passwords.
Click to expand...
In order for carrier billing to be activated, it would have had to have been done on the phone with the sim in. So how did these "hackers" activate carrier billing without access to his phone.

I'm not even going to bother asking about Google's 2FA
 
So it seems I asked Vodacom to deactivate the service on the 14th January 2019.
Ref :EC-1RSI-28IEA8. Nothing was done and my Book keeper thought the account seemed in line with other cell phone accounts the company has.
I know that this seems silly that I did not notice this, but it slipped through the cracks. The amounts are trivial in relation to other company expenses. My position is that I was never made aware of the ramifications of carrier billing, and that I never authorized it, I have just had a long and unhappy conversation with Vodacom where they confirmed that an employee may make no changes to my vodacom account without authorization, but that they can enable vodacom billing on the google play store with my say so.
 
What is the employee saying in all of this?
 
So was this OOB or actual purchases like Apps and pro versions of apps?
 
MetalBasher said:
So it seems I asked Vodacom to deactivate the service on the 14th January 2019.
Ref :EC-1RSI-28IEA8. Nothing was done and my Book keeper thought the account seemed in line with other cell phone accounts the company has.
I know that this seems silly that I did not notice this, but it slipped through the cracks. The amounts are trivial in relation to other company expenses. My position is that I was never made aware of the ramifications of carrier billing, and that I never authorized it, I have just had a long and unhappy conversation with Vodacom where they confirmed that an employee may make no changes to my vodacom account without authorization, but that they can enable vodacom billing on the google play store with my say so.
Click to expand...

To be blunt. Discipline the employee and leave Vodacom out of it. The actions of your employee are your responsibility and not Vodacom's. You authorised the employee to use the device, he or she then used it accruing charges you had not envisaged. If you don't have a mobile device policy in place for employees you should implement one to cover non-work related activities.
 
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