|
Friday, November 05, 2004
Roperos: Ways of ‘fleecing’ people
By Godofredo M. Roperos
Politics Also
There was this story in a national daily that two giant cellular companies are making a lot of money out of “drop calls and network inefficiencies.” The estimated revenue could run up to an estimated P7 to P10 billion annually.
This is an income that a lawmaker would like to impose taxes on and that cellular firms should pay since the incidental earning is not the subscribers’ fault, but because of the companies’ ineptness.
Drop calls are calls that are terminated due to network problems, or one wherein callers fail to successfully connect with their recipients because “of network weakness” or because “the subscribers taking the calls are in moving vehicles.”
The complaining lawmaker could not show how extensive are the drop calls since there are no efforts at listing them.
But the two cellular firms have a reported 4,000 cellular sites throughout the country. With improvement in their operation, a Globe official said it can already trace drop calls and remove them from the subscribers’ bills, although calls voluntarily terminated by the subscribers are still billed.
However, the cellular companies’ ability to identify a drop call will only be true to post-paid subscribers. This means pre-paid subscribers, who are estimated to compose more than 80 percent of the total subscribers, are practically sitting ducks for a kind of “fleecing” operation on the captive users.
The way things are going, cell phone users seem to be helpless from all sorts o money making schemes perpetrated in the cell phone network. The idea is to prod subscribers to spend as much and as fast the loads in their units and entice them to buy some more.
One of the rather exasperating load-costing schemes is the so-called ring tone that I consider a racket in the sense that once you subscribe to it, you’ll find it difficult to “unsubscribe.” Here, for every message you send, you pay P2.50, more than the P1 per text message for regular messages.
I know, because the other day I tried to unsubscribe because I understand, one is charged P15 for renewal of subscription, which is monthly.
So I sent text messages, which must have cost me P2.50 each for that was what I was told if I reply to 2332. This is the number that told me I have to renew my ring tone subscription, and to choose any title from the list I was given.
I replied that I wanted to discontinue my subscription. I got this message: “Sorry that is an invalid keyword. myGlobe Ringback subscription: you are currently subscribed to 2332. Questions Text INFO 2346.
I sent a text message to 2346 inquiring how I could stop my subscription. I got a reply that told me I could quit anytime by sending “unsubscribe” to 2332. But to my surprise, there was silence from the number for sometime.
Almost a half hour later, I received a series of messages repeating the earlier ones about sending invalid keyword. I suspect they wanted me to keep pouring out those messages at P2.50 per text, until I have depleted my load, and be forced to again “unload” on them.
Anyway, in my exasperation, I realized there were other gimmicks about dialogues with popular show biz personalities, and to pay so much per text message.
And poor prepaid subscribers, for they will be holding the empty “load” bag, and their wallets, too.
(November 5, 2004 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board.Click here. |
|
[return to top]
[home]
[network page]
|
LOCAL NEWS
BUSINESS
OPINION
SPORTS
LIFESTYLE
FEATURE
SUPERBALITA
WEEKEND
|
