Busuu
Reviews and Complaints

I repeat my complaint about the quality of the French complete review, since you are not answering my earlier complaints. Rejecting a result on the basis of the article to be used is ridiculous. You cannot guess whether the correct answer is with or without the article. One of the ladies' voices is so difficult to understand that I make mistakes all the time when I listen to her. Today, the instructor clearly said "Prier" when the correct solution was "la Prière". You really have to look into that.

I canceled my service months before a renewal but they charged my card anyway. They lack sufficient contact information to resolve simple issues like this so ended up getting the run around through email. They also don't send advance notification to communicate they are about to charge you. These are all very shady practices.

They refused to refund my money even though I don't use their service and didn't authorize continuous payments.

I really like your course. Presently I am doing review work (French) on a daily basis and I find it very frustrating that most of my mistakes have to do with the article. It is impossible to predict whether the word in the exercise is supposed to be with or without the article. I really believe this ought to be changed. Hope you agree. For example, I see a picture of a whale, I know that the French translation is "baleine", but the right answer appears to be "la baleine". There are many of those examples. How Ma is supposed to know? Your response said some information was missing, but I don't know what.

I signed up for a three months subscription. Realised within less than an hour of using the course that it would not be useful. System neither builds vocabulary like Rosetta Stone, nor helps to learn useful everyday phrases like Pimsleur. Unfortunately the service does not provide sample lessons so you can decide before buying. I considered it a sunk cost and decided to let the subscription run out.

System automatically charged me for an additional three months. I asked for an immediate cancellation. Admin told me subscription was cancelled but they could not refund me for the three months renewal.

1. there is nothing on the page outside of the multi-page fine print terms and conditions stating that renewal is automatic. This is misleading business practice.
2. Renewal for three months is not standard industry practice. If it had been a one month renewal it would have been mildly less distasteful.
3. Customer service completely unhelpful.
4. Given what others on this site have written, I am not 100% confident I won't be charged again in three months, and if so, if I have any recourse short of blocking my credit card.

My strong impression is that Busuu's business model is not providing a language course, but borderline fraudulent business practice.

one day, I received advertising for a very interresting offer to learn English via aplication on my smartphone;
I accepted this offer and made the first payment with my visa card.I bought a Bussu application last year to learn English. but I never wanted to renew this purchase.
and I note today that you have taken from my visa account sixty nine euros ninety nine hundred.
nowhere is it indicated that I was going to be debited. I do not agree and wish a refund.they are dishonest techniques.
what is the procedure to follow to get my money back?

Good day,

I've opted (28/10/2018) for the 7day trail to learn Italian with the understanding that the app will prompt me to enquire whether I want to continue with the paid option. This had to happen yesterday but instead you just debited my account with R989.99! This is unacceptable. As a customer I need the choice and given the fact that there is no place on your app to cancel the service, I'm being unfairly disadvantaged. I need you to reverse the transaction since I'm disillusioned with the way the company operates.
My name is: Melanie Coetzee
Cell: +[protected]
My email: [protected]@swu.co.za

Dear sir i have already tell your community.I have choose a plan 50% disscount.But i have receive a message in my bank acoount your payment successful paid .But not a subscribe.I am contact in you busuu community but they do not responded i have send your screenshot in one more time Kindly contact me and tell about me.I have send already purchase proof but your busuu community do not contact me.Please please believe me i am not a liar BY GOD BY GOD KIND OF MOTHER I AM NOT LIAR WITH YOU.Kindly kindly help help me busuu is a biggest community.I HAVE TELL ABOUT ALL INFORMATION.i click a restore button but do not response me

I have bought 3 months premium membership at 26.02.2018. During payment, I entered my credit card information. My membership is expired at the end of 26.05.2018 . I saw that busuu.com took money from my credit card without my info and wish and renewed my membership. How a company is able to keep my credit card information and take money without my permission? I am not asked to renew about this membership on the site. I didn't confirm anything about renewal. I didn't confirm money amount. I am not given any information when buying membership about "BUSUU.COM WILL TAKE MONEY WHENEVER THEY WANT"
I have written busuu.com support many times. I am not responded for 4 days. Taking money from my credit card is obviously violation to my rights. I don't accept that! Shame on busuu.com terrible, awful business style, shame on customer care and support services. I will never ever buy membership and warn people around me about this.
I WANT MY MONEY BACK AND CANCELLATION OF THIS MEMBERSHIP!

Hi,

I enrolled to the busuu subscription for 3 months for 20.99.
and I got an email saying,

Dear [protected]@gmail.com,

We just wanted to let you know that we have received your payment of EUR20.99 which was made on 01/22/2018.

And yesterday I again got an email saying.

Dear [protected]@gmail.com,

We just wanted to let you know that we have received your payment of €29.99 which was made on 22/04/2018.

This subscription is total fraud and when I asked for a refund, they tell me that "We are unable to refund memberships that have already been paid but I have now cancelled the renewal of your subscription and so you will not be charged again"

I am an unemployed person and I can´t afford this kind of fraud. I want them to give me a refund.

This company is a total scam, they are charging people money through trials and hidden terms.

Thanks for taking this issue seriously,

Regards,

Savita Ubhe

I used busuu for a short time, didn't find it worth the money and canceled - or, so I thought. A year later, I get a notification from PayPal that I sent payment to Busuu Ltd in the amt of $69.99! I get that companies do this auto renewal thing, but if a company has any kind of sense of honesty and loyalty to the consumer, it warns you first, especially after a yearlong hiatus. Had I known my acct was not canceled, I would have made sure that the pending charge would cease before it was too late. I haven't set eyes on this app for almost a year and now I'm being charged $70?! I emailed them to get a refund and they have refused. And, they couldn't even have a real person deal with me. All I got in response was some crappy automated message. This is shady business practice, folks. I have reported them to PayPal and have left many reviews online (and plan to keep leaving more) to spread the word so that people know what they're getting into with this horrible company. Stay away! With all the other language learning options out there, staying away from these thieves should be very easy!

I see that this has happened to other people. I purchased a premium package and then was 'automatically renewed'. I emailed and complained and Busuu refunded the amount.
However, now I am receiving emails saying that my credit card is about to expire and please will I update.
BEWARE: I tried going into settings to make sure that there was no auto - renewal but could not find it.
I then deleted my account - and hopefully will not be charged again.

Hello,
I purchased the premium membership in October 2017. I had to redownload the app and when I did I no longer had my premium membership. I've tried several times trying to get in touch with customer service and was told my account could not be traced even after sending a screenshot of my purchase. I am very frustrated and would like a full refund or my account restored.

I increasingly frustrated at how difficult it is to cancel my busuu account. I have tried to cancel my account on several occasions the latest being on the 28th of July. When I forwarded the following message onto the company after following the directions given on the app:

(This is an auto-generated message, you can send it straight away.)

Hello,
I would like to cancel my busuu Premium membership.
Username: Kieran Edward
Email: kieran.[protected]@googlemail.com
User ID: [protected]

Thanks,
Kieran Edward

Since sending this message I have been charged for the past 5 months to a total sum of £44.95 at £8.99 pcm. I would like this money to be refunded to me as soon as possible. I have also attached a screenshot of the email that I had sent.

I had an6 month subscription for a Spanish class I was taking and yesterday I get an email that says I've successfully made a 59.99 dollar payment. So I'm freaking out because money is tight and I'm in SPAIN. So this really put me in a financial bind. I email the support team and get told that they do not do refunds and that my subscription will be canceled in January. Well I will either be taking this up with my bank or continue to leave awful reviews for everyone I know and let the Spanish department in my school know that busuu is absolutely awful until something happens.

Hi Busuu,

I have joined busuu membership and pay through mobile phone, so it cuqt my mobile balance. I have pay 33, 000 IDR for 1 month. but I still can't access membership premium. Please your help.

I thought after I pay through mobile pay, i can access busuu premium member

My email : [protected]@gmail.com
My number : [protected].

Please your help as soon as possible.

Thanks and regards,

Jennifer.

Last year I have bought 1 year premium membership. During payment, I entered my credit card information. My membership is expired at the end of 2016. I saw that busuu.com took money from my credit card without my info and wish and renewed my membership. How a company is able to keep my credit card information and take money without my permission? I am not asked to renew about this membership on the site. I didn't confirm anything about renewal. I didn't confirm money amount. I am not given any information when buying membership about "BUSUU.COM WILL TAKE MONEY WHENEVER THEY WANT"

I must say I am quite upset and disappointed that I was charged 3 times by Busuu.com (with total amount of £149.97) when I have not used their services at least since 2nd of November 2014. I received no notification of the membership being renewed nor was there clear and conspicuous notice of the change of the charges prior to charging me even more than I initially sign in for. To me is a shameful practice of securing payments, quietly hoping that the customer will not remember. Yet it is a very short viewed one. I no longer am interested in using their services nor will I recommend it to anybody.

After I have discovered that they have charged me yet another Premium memebership on April 26, 2016(just one day after the payment was taken from my account) I have contacted the customers service(client number 8807705) to straight it up explaining that I haven't use the service for over a year and just realized I was charged again asking for reimbursement of the latest payment.
They customer service wasn't helpful at all hiding behind terms and conditions. It's hard to explain issue with character limit of 450 and no phone number to talk to real person neither.

At times when more and more payments are taken online it's hard to remember all the payments I make. I acknowledge that the 2 payments they took I lost as I didn't realized they were taken early enough to claim reimbursment. Yet it is outrageous that they won't reimburse me within of the day of last payment. I had a similar experience with Amazon.co.uk where I was charged premium just because I forgot to sign out. As I have realized that I contacted Amazon the Premium charges have been immediately reimbursed to me.

It is general good practice among companies with automatic renewal to send an reminding e-mail prior to renewal. I receive it from my mobile company, electricity and internet providers, and other respectful companies. I think Busuu.com practice is dishonest and predates on people who have to busy life to remember all the subscriptions they have. I for one am a single, working mum who have nor time nor resources to pay that high price for not remembering.

As you might suspect I am still client at Amazon and other services who cared to warn me that my subscription is about to renew. This is a very surprising and disappointing experience to me damaging their image of "community company" which they try to sell. As you may expect I will no longer be a costumer for busuu and I will advice my connections to stay clear from such and dishonest company. They lost more than one client today.

Just to add up to it I tried to unsubscribe twice on 11th of May 2016 from the membership and place my compliant yet the system still says that I am premium member. Not impressed at all.

Last year I have bought 1 year premium membership. During payment, I entered my credit card information. My membership is expired at the end of 2015. I saw that busuu.com took money from my credit card without my info and wish and renewed my membership. How a company is able to keep my credit card information and take money without my permission? I am not asked to renew about this membership on the site. I didn't confirm anything about renewal. I didn't confirm money amount. I am not given any information when buying membership about "BUSUU.COM WILL TAKE MONEY WHENEVER THEY WANT"
I have written busuu.com support many times. I am not responded for 4 days. Taking money from my credit card is obviously violation to my rights. I don't accept that! Shame on busuu.com terrible, awful business style, shame on customer care and support services. I will never ever buy membership and warn people around me about this.
I WANT MY MONEY BACK AND CANCELLATION OF THIS MEMBERSHIP!

Hello,

I've been a premium Busuu user for a year. On january 25th (about 10 days ago), they wrote me an e-mail announcing that my yearly membership would've been renewed.

Since I don't use the website anymore, I opened my account only to CANCEL my membership in my account settings in order not to be re-billed again.

However, THEY STILL RE-BILLED ME, and ON A DIFFERENT DAY than the one scheduled (I still have the e-mail they sent me). They completely ignored the fact I canceled my membership some days earlier. Funnily enough, my "status" on Busuu still reads "free" (because I canceled my account before), even if they took my money again.

Now, I'll try to figure out how to proceed to get my money back (yearly membership, costed me 90 swiss francs). And also, how can I effectively cancel my membership, in order not to get re-billed one more time a year from now.

If they don't refund me, I'll spread the word as much as I can and advise people not to give their credit card numbers to this website. 'Cause they'll just get re-billed over and over again.

Two attached files: one shows how my status on Busuu still reads "free", the other one is simply the e-mail they sent me, announcing my membership would've been renewed on january 31 (but instead, they billed me today, february 3).

I'll let everybody know how this thing ends, but for now, it looks like a clear scam. I canceled my membership and they still re-billed me and made me a member again against my will.

Trying to cancel my membership. Just discovered they automatically renewed my membership. Instructions on how to cancel membership do not work. I was billed on December 7th, 2015 I contacted Busuu on December 7th, 2015 asking for a refund and to cancel my membership. I was sent instructions which do not work. Still trying to contact them and get more help.