Where are the refunds gone?
A new bill aimed at tackling “rogue service providers” in the telecommunications sector and stamping out premium rate phone service scams was brought before the Dail by the Minister for Communications Eamon Ryan yesterday.
While it allows for greater regulation of a sector which has been guilty of all manner of dodginess over the last 10 or 15 years, the new bill seems to have forgotten to include amongst its clauses, the power to force rogue traders to give refunds to consumers it has ripped off.
The Communications Regulation (Premium Rate Services) Bill 2009 provides for greater regulation of a multi-million euro industry. Mobile phone ring-tones, wallpapers, games and competitions are amongst the most popular premium rate services but a number of providers have been accused of taking advantage of vulnerable groups who run up huge phone bills after inadvertently subscribing to expensive services.
At least six thousand complaints were made to the mobile phone watchdog RegTel in 2008, with 98 per cent relating specifically to premium rate service operators.
Many phone users complained they had signed up to services unknowingly while others said service providers had failed to unsubscribe them despite “stop” commands being sent. There were also reports of multiple tariffs being applied for the same service and phone users not being told of a €20 spending limit.
The Bill creates an offence of overcharging for a premium rate service and will see the regulation of the industry transfer from RegTel, to the communications regulator ComReg. It will have greater power of enforcement including the authority to impose fines and suspend or revoke licences, where sharp practices occur.
Labour’s communication spokeswoman Liz McManus hit the nail on the head when she called for the inclusion of refunds to customers affected by rogue providers to be made central to the legislation.
“Under the present regime, RegTel may order refunds to be made to consumers,” Ms McManus said – the watchdog’s annual report for 2007-8 lists refunds of approximately €200,000. “However under the new regime, there is instead a penalty for over-charging, a fine of up to €5,000 in a district court, with higher penalties in higher courts. But overcharging is not the major problem,” she said.
She pointed out a bigger problem was subscription services and how to get out of them, misleading promotions and failure to warn people when they have exceeded price thresholds. “These are the problems for which people want refunds,” Ms McManus said.
12:28 pm
Play.com don’t charge the postage up front but they do pull that trick of charging a much higher euro price than sterling which I know is a pet hate of a lot of people who comment on pricewatch
Comment by Tom Ennis