Vodafone told me my Disney+ subscription didn’t exist… then charged me anyway
TL;DR: Took out a Disney+ free trial through Vodafone rewards, tried to cancel it before the trial ended but no subscription showed anywhere on my account. Vodafone support confirmed there was no active subscription and said I wouldn’t be charged, but I still ended up being billed £5.99 on my broadband account. Turns out subscriptions taken out through the My Vodafone app don’t show properly on the account, and the only solution they offered was blocking future third-party charges.
I wanted to give people a heads up about a really frustrating experience I’ve had with a Disney+ free trial through Vodafone.
About 3 months ago, I activated a Disney+ free trial through the rewards section of the My Vodafone app. Around a month ago, I got an email saying the trial was ending soon, so I clicked the cancellation link straight away.
The cancellation page just redirected me back to my Vodafone account settings without giving me any option to manage or cancel the subscription.
The problem was that no active subscriptions showed up anywhere on my Vodafone account. I also checked directly on Disney+, and under payment details it clearly said billing was through Vodafone.
I contacted Vodafone via online chat, and the agent confirmed there were no active subscriptions on my account and told me I wouldn’t be charged after the trial ended. I took screenshots of everything, including the chat, just in case.
Fast forward to this month’s bill, and I noticed a £5.99 Disney+ charge added to my broadband bill.
I contacted online support again and explained that I’d already been told there was no active subscription. For nearly an hour, the agent kept insisting he couldn’t see any subscriptions on his side and that I needed to cancel it myself despite me repeatedly showing screenshots proving there was nothing to cancel and sharing screenshots from the previous agent confirming the same thing.
Then the chat got disconnected with no resolution.
I eventually called customer services, and thankfully that agent finally figured out the issue: because the subscription was created through the My Vodafone app rewards section, it apparently doesn’t show up properly as an active subscription on the account.
The only “solution” they could offer was to put a restriction on my account to block all app/third-party charges in future. They also said they couldn’t refund the Disney+ charge directly, although they did give me a £10 Sainsbury’s voucher as goodwill.
Just posting this as a warning in case anyone else has a Disney+ trial through Vodafone. It’s probably worth double-checking your bills even if your account shows no active subscriptions.