This article discusses the issue of getting a refund for charges made on calls and messages sent over WhatsApp. While the app is free to download and free to use, it is still possible for calls sent over it to cost users a lot of money. The circumstances where this can happen are described, as are the methods for requesting a refund.
WhatsApp is a free messaging app that uses your phone's Internet connection to allow you to call and send messages to your friends and family members. Because it uses the Internet connection you already have, WhatsApp does not require a subscription or charge any fees to make these calls and messages. There are not even any charges for calling or sending messages internationally. However, none of this means that calls and messages over WhatsApp do not cost you anything.
Making voice calls with WhatsApp can cost money if you are make the calls using your cellular data alone. If, for example, you travel a lot and don't always have a Wi-Fi network you can access, WhatsApp calls can use up a lot of the data you are paying for with your data plan.
Depending on the phone and carrier you are using, a single minute of voice calling over WhatsApp can cost you anywhere from 600 KB to 1.3 MB of 4G LTE data. If, for example, you have a 1 GB plan, then you could easily have less than 30 minutes per day before you used up all of your data, if you used the data for nothing other than making WhatsApp calls.
Because all potential charges you might accrue come from your phone carrier rather than from WhatsApp, you would generally have to go to your carrier with any refund requests for any of these charges. However, if you are in a situation where you believe that WhatsApp is responsible for these charges being made, such as because of hacking due to a data leak, you can contact WhatsApp's customer service. The company does not have a customer service phone line or chat service. Instead, you will need to go to their help forum and make the request there.
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