SingTel customers complain of wrong additional charges
in telephone bills
By Zhao Quan Yin |Posted: 03
January 2013 2024 hrs
SINGAPORE: Some customers of telco SingTel have
complained of wrong additional charges in their telephone
bills.
One SingTel customer said her husband received more than 10 charges
for a premium rate service she did not subscribe to.
Premium rate services are available to all mobile users, and
include services like games and quizzes.
Each charge was S$4 to S$8. The total charges came up to
S$64.
The charges are from a third-party company TMG Asia Pte Ltd.
A police report has also been filed and the third party company is
uncontactable.
"We just told SingTel that we received these web messages from a
company. And they immediately told us they would give us a 50 per
cent discount. How can there be an additional service that we do
not know of? If we don't opt out of it, will such things happen
again?" the customer said.
In response to a query from Channel NewsAsia, SingTel said it
received feedback from some customers about such charges.
It said it bills on behalf of the content provider, and assists
customers if there are disputes over charges by highlighting their
case with the respective content provider and tracking the progress
on their behalf.
A SingTel spokesperson also said under the IDA's guidelines,
content providers like TMG Asia Pte Ltd are required to state
clearly upfront the charges for each and every transaction.
Customers have the option of opting-in or opting-out of the
charges.
SingTel has advised its customers to ignore and delete SMS text
messages from unfamiliar numbers, if in doubt.
It added it has provided customers with the option of blocking such
premium rate services from their phones since February last year.
But a one-time charge of S$10 applies.
Consumer watchdog CASE said it has seen 98 of such cases involving
third-party charges in 2012.
- CNA/de
times are always bad.
