TIO Annual Report 2006/07

Case study: Mobile Premium Services

The complaint

The complainant contacted the TIO claiming to have received premium SMS services that he did not request.

He claimed that, after speaking with his mobile provider, he requested that the services be cancelled, but that he continued to receive messages. He advised that, while the mobile provider had offered to credit any charges incurred after he asked for the service to be cancelled, he wanted all the charges credited as he did not request the services.

TIO response

The TIO asked the provider to consider the complaint and advise the TIO how it believed the matter could be resolved.

In its response, the mobile provider advised that the complainant subscribed to the services and had downloaded the ring tones and games received from the subscription. In order to resolve the complaint, however, in addition to its previous offer to credit charges incurred after he opted out of the service, the provider offered to credit approximately $40 in late payment and barring fees that it had applied to his account, leaving the complainant to pay approximately $60 in premium SMS charges.

After receiving this information from the TIO, the complainant restated his claims that he had not requested the premium SMS services, and that the first time he received a message he thought it was from a friend but that when he opened it, he could not access anything. He claimed that, although he had then received one message a day, he deleted them without opening them. He also claimed that no one else had access to his mobile service. In response to this information the TIO requested that the mobile provider supply evidence that the complainant had requested the premium services

The mobile provider provided detailed evidence that, while the premium SMS services were requested over the internet, a request was received from the complainant’s mobile service asking for a PIN number to access premium services. It also provided evidence that a PIN was provided to the complainant’s mobile, and that the same PIN was used from the complainant’s mobile to confirm acceptance of the subscription. It also re-stated that the information provided to the complainant’s mobile was used to download games and ring tones from the internet.

The outcome

Based on this evidence, and the complainant’s claims that no one else had access to his mobile service, the TIO formed the view that no further investigation was warranted and that the offer previously made to the complainant was in fact a reasonable offer aimed at resolving the complaint.

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