BusuuReviews 81

They offer you 15 days free after that the premium promotion with a 50% discount which most of us take advantage of. Then you do not hear from them about any type of expiration or automatic renewal, they only let you know, after 1 year! That your membership has been renewed for another year and of course at the full price (about $100 dlls CA). Immediately, after I received this email, I requested my cancellation and my refund, my cancellation was immediate but the refund never came, so I contacted them and explained my situation, I had not used busuu for months because I felt stagnant, it becomes routine, likewise I told them that I could not pay another year that I had never received an expiration or automatic renewal notice, which was somewhat abusive, because there isn't better adjective to describe their business methods, and this was their response:

=============================================================
Hi Paulina,

Thank you for contacting us.

I am afraid your subscription was not cancelled and by not cancelling it you authorised us to renew it automatically. I am sorry if you did not realise Busuu subscriptions always renew automatically.

As per our Terms and Conditions, I am afraid you are not eligible for a refund. However, I can confirm the auto renewal feature has been cancelled from your account so we won't take anymore payment from you in the future.

It would be great if you could take a moment and complete our short survey below so that we can learn more about why you wish to cancel and what we can do to make Busuu better.

Kind Regards,
Peter,
=============================================================

Judge by yourselves, and no, I don't recommend busuu.com, they lack of integrity.

When I first tried the free version of Busuu, I received daily emails prompting me to get the Premium Plus version. After I purchased my one-year subscription, I didn't get any emails except for the receipt--which, by the way, did not direct me to the Terms of Service. By the time a year had rolled around, I had long before lost interest in the service, as it wasn't particularly useful. I hadn't received any emails in ages, until about a week ago when they told me they had already renewed my subscription. They did not warn me in advance. When I asked for a refund, that's when I found out that the subscription is renewed automatically, without notice and that this is their policy. They also told me that they had cancelled my subscription. Well, at least that's something, I had thought. But when I checked my profile, I discovered they had NOT cancelled my account and that I was going to be billed again in May 2022.

Like many other people here I made the same mistake, I forgot to cancel my subscription and was charged the full amount for the next year. Tried to reason with the customer service as I hadn't used the app in months and was not planning to use it, but got the same answer "Your fault, blah blah blah". Moreover, I was told that they have canceled my subscription and I won't be charged the following year, which was a lie. I canceled it myself, and if hadn't checked it myself I guess they would have simply charged me again for the next year. Be very careful with this company and their shady subscription.

I'm not a Busuu subscriber. My partner is and he linked my PayPal account to their app (with my consent) last year for work, when he was able to get a discount. Their subscription is ordinarily unaffordable - we have three children and only one of us is working and that person has been furloughed until recently.

Neither myself or my partner knew about Busuu's automatic renewal as it isn't clear, so neither of us knew to cancel anything - not that I could because I'm not their subscriber. Incidentally, their subscription cancellation instructions do not work in the app or online.

Anyway, because of the automatic renewal I got charged £79.99 yesterday, without my consent - remember, I'm not even their subscriber! When I told Busuu about this they refused to refund me and now I've opened a refund case with PayPal.

Busuu are morally corrupt. I have therefore reviewed them here and on Trust Pilot to warn others. I have since seen that other people have also suffered this automatic renewal problem with Busuu.

So disappointed. This is not a time when people can afford £80 on an app. I need that money to feed my children.

Busuu is a fraud! They contacted me through my youtube platform, and 2 days before the video is suppose to go up they back out. They are doing this to alot of other youtubers, they are a SCAM. Just putting it out there for anyone trying to work with this company.

They withdrew 80$ from me without any warning or reminder. I contacted them directly when they took 80$ dollars from me and they only refer to their terms & conditions. Their strategy is to buy their offer on Busuu premium for 1 year, then they renew the subscription for another year. Never got any email about it. You can also no longer use the app when you have already done all the courses... which they know and then take the opportunity to renew your subscription if you do not end it. I never knew about this, because it is very unclear. I also do not seem to be alone in this when I read reviews about the company.

They apply automatic renewal without advice and one day before the deadline of the invoice.
Suggested not to subscribe.

I paid for an initial 12 month subscription a year ago for which I paid around £40. Since then I have completed the Spanish course and I have not used the app for the last 3 or 4 months.

Recently I wanted to check to see if I was going to be charged again so I looked on the app under 'manage my subscription' and there was a blank page with no information. I then checked my iTunes Store and Google Play Store accounts to see if there were any active subscriptions and there were none.

Three days ago Busuu took £80 out of my account with no warning, double the amount that I paid initially. I emailed them with a screenshot of the 'manage my subscription' page on the app which just shows a blank screen. How was I supposed to cancel my subscription?

I explained to them that I have absolutely no use for the app now since I have already completed all of the lessons in the course and that it was their fault that I was unable to cancel my subscription since there was no information on the 'manage my subscription' page.

The customer service team sent the most standard, uncaring response, which basically amounted to "we have your money now, too bad". I have since sent two more emails and I have not received any further response from Busuu.

Be very, very careful with Busuu.

I've been using Busuu (Version v22. 15. 0(1) German and French course until November 2020 on my iPhone with IOS14.2 until I canceled this application last November (please see attached photos).

There must be a bug on the Busuu platform for IOS users because I know that I've canceled the Busuu subscription last November (more than one month before the deadline) and on the 1st of December 2020, I've been charged 79,99 Euros (via Paypal). Please see attached photos (from my iPhone) that show that Busuu is not on the list of subscribed applications (it's like this since November 2020). The status subscription on the Busuu App shows a "--". I've experience another glitch/bug on Busuu with IOS around two months ago - the Busuu platform for IOS users was automatically completing - I've contacted Busuu's support services on 16/10/20 and a helpful Customer Satisfaction Manager - Adriano - solved situation lessons (see attached email screenshot) - this kept me from using the application for 3 days - so it's not uncommon to have bugs on the Busuu platform for IOS users.

It is not the client's fault if a technical malfunction of Busuu application ignores the subscription cancelation request. I've tried to explain this situation to one of the support team members "Peter" without success - support+*******@busuu.zendesk.com - he was not at all concerned about my extremely unfair and absurd situation. DUOLINGO refunds immediately in a situation like this.

I have several premium Busuu users among my family and friends that are absolutely shocked by this non-refund situation, taking into account the fault is technical and that is entirely on Busuu's side. If people lose faith in the Busuu application and become aware of the unhelpful client services the very tricky subscription policy that Busuu currently practices, Busuuwill lose much more than what they earn with the clients they force to be premium members.

Please keep in mind that I'm being insistent not for the money that I lost but for the sake of principles and will not stop until I have a total refund.

Knowing that the Busuu application is always sending emails to their users regarding their progress, goals achievements, etc., it's very interesting to learn that once we get close to the date of the renewal of the annual subscription, there are no emails or notifications informing that we are about to start another cycle - only an absolute silence from Busuu until the money is transferred from the client's account to Busuu. I'm sure that it is only a big coincidence and it has nothing to do with the fact that Busuu wants their users to forget to cancel their second annual subscription which is "only" at least two times more expensive than the first subscription.

It's also very interesting the fact that a client/member has to cancel the Busuu subscription several times and on different platforms (website, application, etc.) to make things even more complicated. The rule of having to cancel the subscription on the place where you first subscribed is absurd - the cancellation of a subscription is a cancellation! Why do you have to do it several times? Busuu - Easy to get in, impossible to get out... What a great trap! Congratulations!

Busuu should urgently revise their policy of not letting their members know (via email or notification) when the new Busuu cycle is about to begin. This policy is creating a significantly large group of Busuu Forced Premium-Members that feel scammed, robbed, frustrated, and end up hatting a good language learning application and giving very negative reviews. This is terrible publicity for Busuu! On this website alone - https://www.sitejabber.com/reviews/busuu.com - I can count 46 Busuu Forced Premium-Members that gave one star ( and this is only referring to the last six months). I will have to take a look at all the other application-review sites and try to reach a global number of scammed Busuu members.

A year ago I needed to learn German. I tried several programs including Busuu.
I loved the idea of peer reviewing exercises, so I bought Premium for a year for 50% off.
And now, a year later, without email notification, they renewed Premium subscription for a year at full price!
After contacting the support team, I was told that I had read the Terms and Conditions, in which they are not required to notify before renewing the subscription. Thus, this company behaves like real thieves, "quietly" continuing premium subscription and charging the full cost of it.

So when buying a Premium subscription, be prepared to lose money in the future.

Below are quotes from their support team responses:

"Usually, you would need to cancel your subscription before the automatic renewal if you don't want to have a renewal."

"However, as per our terms, we do not issue refunds over 7 days after the initial purchase, which was in 2019."

Hi,

I am me too victim of Busuu and their method.
I discovered today that 69.99 eur were taken from my bank account.

After contacting busuu service stating that I did not receive any email from their part stating that my subscription was coming to an end, they just said that I should have read the terms and conditions.

They automatically renew your subscription for a period of ONE YEAR with an impressive price for an app of almost 70eur.

They don't send you ANY renewal email saying that you come close to your end period, so you can be sure that no one will remember their end day. This is SUCH a deceptive technique.

I will try my best to fight this company and get back my money as well as warning people to NEVER take a subscription there.

Upon purchasing Busuu, I was initially pleased. That didn't last long unfortunately, you have to take a introductory test when you sign up, which puts you at a level depending on your correct answers. I was put at intermediate, which I thought was about right. I struggled to understand some of the grammar as the answers and questions aren't always in English. Why? Surely if you're learning a language it's always better to have everything in your own language to understand? As I progressed through the lessons to the next level, it then jumped up to quickly in terms of understanding. It was literally too many words and conversations, of which I didn't understand. And with no English to help, it just didn't make any sense. I also had issues about the speed of the Italian speaker, it's either to fast, which is very difficult to understand, or when you slow it down, it's like a drawl. I've tried many language courses, some good and bad, Busuu, is a let down for me, mainly for the lack of English in the questions and answers, and the big jump, in terms of ability in the lessons.

They charged my paypal after 12 months. I immediately stopped them but too late. They don't even have a number to call or contact them directly. I have to use email.
They refused to refund, I didn't let go, I called PayPal file a dispute, then email them, back and forth, they finally agreed 50% refund, of course I rejected and I TOLD them I am asking 100%, I won't stop fighting until I got my money back.
I then email them again, I am going to file another dispute with my credit card, not just PayPal, guess what. They replied and say 100% refund but I will need to cancel my dispute.
So, please don't let it be if you are into this, fight for it.

Angry Bird