The TELCOS back in action... to sneak in and grab your money!
Couple of days back I got a message saying I have subscribed to some stupid ’Contakt Gaming service’, which I had not. I have never played paid online games in my life, nor intend to do so in future. I decided I am going to discontinue the service right away.
I opened the service App provided by the telecom company. To my surprise, the service wasn't listed under my account. So there was no way I could unsubscribe it from the app.
So I decided I am going to call the customer care. There are two numbers provided by the company. I called both. They keep offering six to seven option to chose from... none of them covering deactivation of a value added service. With couple of to and fro jumps (and after about 10-15 minutes), one of them offered to talk to a customer care executive, phew:
The executive told me that I may have 'accidentally' clicked some advt link which might have resulted in subscribing that service. I explained him that there is zero chance, since I was in IT for long and was well aware of phishing and how to prevent... well, most of them. Then he argued it is a third party service and not our service, so he cannot help.
But I argued if it is a third party service, how are you guys allowing it to debit from my account balance, without personally calling me? Even the banks need to verify signature or seek OTP to complete a transaction. Also the handle which was sending this 'offer' clearly had the trademarked name of the mobile company. If it has nothing do with the original company, why aren't they suing that service provider for violation of trademark, at least suspend the debit privilege they have offered that service to all their mobile subscribers? Interestingly the message about this VAS simply says enjoy this service and the handle name does contain trademarked name of the telco. So you are trapped into believing that this is some additional service being offered by the company itself. And as per the customer care guy, you click that link and you are subscribed to the service. Wow: No description page for the the service, not Agree/Disagree button, no OTP of seeking consent for the debit, wallah: You are officially trapped.
Finally he agreed and reverted the debited money to my account.
Wait... the story doesn't end there.
Couple of days later, I get a message from the same service to 'enjoy this service' with a link. Obviously I ignored. But to my astonishment, it followed with a message which said Rs. 25 are debited for the service. I got pissed off and I tried calling the two customer care numbers.
But after repeated calls, the 'talk to customer care executive' was missing. I tried VAS option, it said 'You have not subscribed to any VAS service. (in a later conversation the lady from social media cell did call this a VAS!). So I am stuck. The App as well as the customer care not working, I moved to social media page of the company. I first wrote the entire incident in the Inbox. (I was prepared to create a post out of it on their wall, as it is a community page) Fortunately within minutes the money was reverted back to my account.
Wait... the story doesn't end there.
Along with the message, I got three more messages saying my request for blacklisting/whitelisting is being processed. I was puzzled. But within five minutes I got a call from the social media cell of the company from the same person who responded through inbox. She told me that the service as well as other VAS service are being blacklisted for me.
I was irked. This is like cutting your leg because there is pain in it. Shouldn't there be a way of getting consent from the customer and then executing the debit? No, it's only auto-debit, I was told. Even so, while starting it, consent could be sought from me; otherwise the service could remain available/whitelisted but not active... simple logic, right? Not possible, says the executive. As it is I don't intend to avail any VAS so I finally gave up, and allowed the services be blacklisted for me. She also assured they can be whitelisted whenever I want, but she could not ascertain whether this can be done through the app. 'Message us/call us' was her reply.
Wait... the story doesn't end there.
Just I finished the long call with her, I got the invite for the same service, from a different number. Now I got totally pissed off. Informed this in the social media message box. I got another call assuring that the services are indeed blacklisted and no debit will happen. I hope that is true.
Now imagine a common man without knowledge of English or someone who doesn't have a smartphone or someone who is not active on social media. What option did he or she had?
Find the so-called service outlet of the company which, by the way, are like shifting goal posts. Or like finding the Pokemon. Now it's there, now it's somewhere else. Once you are able to locate it, get a token, sit there patiently and waste your time. Then the person at the counter would first try to convince you 'it's not our problem.', just like the guy on the phone did to me. Then after some convincing, you get what you want.
But wait... they usually promise that the things would change in 48 hrs. Till then the meter is on and you keep losing money for no fault of yours. AND- as in my case- if it happens again, you waste another half a day at the service center and more money.
This is pathetic.
- oOo -
(Next: Customer is my Slave)
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