The subject of this post is accurate and very unfortunate.  I regret writing this, but find it important to inform this community about what Qobuz has done and how they've responded to my request for restitution.  In November of 2019 I paid for an annual subscription to Qobuz.  They had a promo going on and I signed up for $149.99 for the year.  Payment was made using my PayPal account.  In May of this year I was going through my PayPal records, something I only do a few times a year.  I found that Xandrie (Qobuz's parent) had been charging me $14.99 since January which I did not authorize.

 

On June 23rd I submitted a ticket request with Qobuz informing them of the issue.  On June 24th Sebastien from Qobuz replied asking for additional information.  I provided screenprints of the transaction in the body of the email and downloaded the Xandrie/Qobuz statement from PayPal in a pdf and attached it to the email as well as other info. I didn't hear back from him.  On June 27th Qobuz charged my PayPal account for $14.99 again.  I followed up with Sebastien who informed me to cancel their service from my PayPal account so I wouldn't be charged again.  I did that.  He said if he didn't get back to me by July 13th (2 weeks later) to contact him again.  I contacted him on July 21st requesting a status.  He replied saying "Thanks for your follow up email. I'm sorry to say we can find no evidence of your monthly billing. Please cancel at PayPal while we continue to investigate your claim. If you have other email addresses we can look for that would be great."  I had already cancelled PayPal.  At this point Qobuz had charged my PayPal account a total of $89.94 from Jan - June without my authorization.

 

I emailed Sebastien back on July 21st with a pdf of each month's PayPal statement which included the Qobuz Transaction ID, Invoice ID and Order number.  I followed up on July 22nd and 23rd and received no response.  I followed up again on August 9th, then again on the 11th.  He finally replied saying "Thanks for your follow up email. Our billing department has authorized me to offer you a code for one month of Qobuz service or one complementary Hi-Res audio download."

I replied "Qobuz double charged me $89.94 for the months of Jan - June 2020.  One month of service does not equal $89.94.  I would either accept a credit of that amount toward continued Qobuz service or a refund to my payment method.  I would be happy to discuss this with you over the phone."

He replied on Aug 12th saying "Thanks for your follow up email. I'll let the billing team know you have rejected their offer. "

I replied on Aug 13th saying "Does billing understand how much I was overcharged?  Do they have the receipt copies I provided to you? What happens next?"

He replied on Aug 13th saying "Thanks for your follow up email. Yes, the billing team has all of your provided information. They offered you compensation, and you rejected the offer.  If there is anything else I can help you with, please let me know."

 

I have emailed Sebastien back 7 times since then asking him a simple question "Do you and your billing department recognize that you overcharged me $89.94?".  He has not responded.  I opened a new ticket request and he has not responded.

 

I filed complaints with PayPal for each month except January which was too long ago to file against.  PayPal sided in my favor and refunded me each of the transaction costs.  So I have recouped all but $14.99.  Several things upset me about this situation.  Qobuz being a French company is very difficult to communicate with.  I called Xandrie a couple times and spoke with someone once who could not help me. It was a black hole.  You have read Sebastien's comments verbatim here.  They just upset me to no end.  I rejected their offer of a download or free month when they charged my account $89.94 without authorization.

 

I authorized the annual charge and they used that authorization to continually charge me.  I have never experienced this before and now will need to check my PayPal statements monthly.  You may not think this is theft because I authorized the original annual charge which opened up the door to Qobuz, but they refused to return what they charged.  They provided no additional service for what they charged.  They now refuse to communicate.  That qualifies as theft.