2/20/2006
mtouche, you touch you pay
how could a company just send any nonsense to anyone and have the audacity to ask for payment? and how could those stupid telcos send the bills automatically to their customers to collect payment for these content providers without any verifications and authentications? and how could ida not step in and put a stop to it?
the first contact, telcos, should have stop it immediately. they cannot claimed ignorant and that it is none of their businesses. by aiding the content providers to collect payment, would not they be part of the scheme, an accomplice?
come on telcos, you are more professional than this to take a handsoff approach, that it has nothing to do with the telcos. your bills come with the demand for payment, and with your letterhead and big corporate logos. it is you, the telcos, who are demanding for payments on behalf the errant content providers. how could you do it and said you are innocent?
we demand that telcos be more responsible in their billings to their clients. they cannot send the bills and claimed that it is system error. the system sent the bills blindly and they did not know
can the subscribers claim for damages from the telcos for harrassment for payment? can they also sue the content providers for harrassing their lines by sending them nonsense? ida better clarify on these.
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7 comments:
I'm not surprise by the telcos response to the mtouch fiasco. In time of trouble or embarrassment, the telcos tend to act blur and innocent.
There is nothing we can do about it. Our long overdue privacy law is still in the making.
let's hope ida will come out with a regulation that telcos will be fined and compensate subscribers for wrong billings of such nature. the fine shall be 20 times the amount they billed indiscriminately to their subscribers.
then we will see some seriousness and justice in the system.
"More queries for mTouche"[http://www.todayonline.com/articles/102039.asp]
This article was posted on Today
and Singtel's reply to disclosure of customer data. http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/forum/story/0,5562,372458,00.html?
oops cannot see the link
Customer data not revealed: SingTel
I REFER to the letters, 'Extra charge of $1 in SingTel telephone bill' (ST Online Forum, Feb 16) by Mr David Low Chong Yong and 'Is it legal to send SMS to cellphone users and charge them without their consent?' (ST Online Forum, Feb 17) by Ms Neo Bay Lee. We have contacted Mr Low and Ms Neo and resolved their issues.
We would like to share with readers that a third-party content provider, mTouche, recently sent out an unsolicited Chinese New Year SMS greeting, intended to be free, to some SingTel Mobile customers. However, mTouche incorrectly charged these customers a $1 fee.
We advise affected customers to ignore the $1 charge if it has already been billed to their account as it will be cancelled. For affected customers who have already paid the $1 charge, this amount will be refunded. We apologise to these customers for the inconvenience caused.
We assure customers we did not disclose their information to this third party. In this incident, we understand affected customers had previously used services managed by mTouche, for example SMS voting, thus enabling mTouche to acquire their mobile phone number.
As a responsible service provider, we strive to protect our customers' interests and privacy through terms stipulated in our commercial agreements with third-party content providers.
These content providers are also obliged to clearly communicate to our customers any charges that may be payable in respect of their services. In this instance, mTouche has therefore breached its obligations to us.
We assure all our customers that we take a very serious view of this matter and will take all necessary action against mTouche.
Peter Heng
Director
Corporate Communications
SingTel Mobile
thanks anonymous,
if they don't refund and pass the buck to mtouche and expect every subscriber to call mtouche directly, then all the subscribers should take up a class action agaisnt the telcos.
now they said the $1 will be refunded. i was about to cancel my giro payment. and i wanted to cancel my mobile with singtel also.
but unfortunately there is no alternative telco provider.
ida better have more regulations to protect innocent subscribers.
the thing is that they(operators) did not release a notice to tell subscribers that the issue has been resolved(on their side). This should have been reported on the local tv new also. Rather they just see action taken on mTouche side(albeit questionable) just because they bothered to publish a notice
this case provides an opportunity for telcos and ida to work out something to prevent a recurrence.
this is the same as those pranks where they send you something and on replying or clicking it you will be charged without your consent or awareness.
such malpractice or cheating shall not be allowed to happen..
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