[OT] Meteor nicks schoolchildren's pocket money

eircomtribunal

Meteor, the mobile arm of Eircom, quietly nicks Irish schoolchildren's pocket money.
Crazy Frog was a decent guy after all.

We reveal and document how Meteor, in clear breach of the Consumer Information Act, 1978, misleads its young customer clientele about the cost of ring tones etc,.
We have asked Carmel Foley, Director of the Office for Consumer Affairs to investigate Meteor's practices, stop the practices and bring about a speedy refund.

Read all on http://www.comwreck.com/blog_47_feb3.html

I am aware that this issue is "slightly" off topic here, but on closer look at it – closer than done in the ComWreck article, which does not want to confuse the public or the ODCA – it is an Internet related subject: Meteor adds a considerable surcharge to the items – unbeknownst to the consumer – which is based on its overpriced Internet data usage tariffs.

P.

stereo_steve

I had a similar experience about 3 weeks ago. I'm not happy!

You can read about it http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054873372

eircomtribunal

stereo_steve wrote:

I had a similar experience about 3 weeks ago. I'm not happy!

You can read about it http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054873372

Thanks for that.
I am hopeful that Meteor's pick-pocketing is taken up by the national media and that the ODCA will (have to) act.
I'd like to use your experience with the exaggerated "delivery charge" as an extra argument with the ODCA. Please contact me, if that is not OK with you. (info at eircomtribunal.com) I'd also like to be in contact with you about the outcome of your case concerning a refund, if you don't mind. Some of the response you got on your post is really crappy.

I am convinced that we have a very strong case.

Meteor's Terms and Conditions are highly questionable concerning their charging for SMSes:
"Whilst Meteor will make every effort to ensure that all messages are delivered, the Customer shall be liable for all Charges in respect of any MMS & SMS messages that are not delivered." Wtf do they think they are?
P.

Blaster99

Are we talking WAP download charges here? If so, O2 also charges for downloads of ringtones unless I'm very mistaken. Vodafone does not, nor does 3.

Solair

Yeah i found that extremely misleading. They don't really explain it very well. The charges on GPRS/3G data are absolutely insane anyway.
I'd find if you looked at a few pages on O2 Active you'd suddenly discover you'd just cost yourself about 5 euro for the privilage.

There's absolutely nothing on WAP that's worth that kind of money and I have no intentions of using any WAP/iMode services that charge me money to view pages.

RTE News on Vodafone 3G charges something absolutely insane to watch a single report... something in the region of 3 euro ... it's laughable.

eircomtribunal

Blaster99 wrote:

Are we talking WAP download charges here? If so, O2 also charges for downloads of ringtones unless I'm very mistaken. Vodafone does not, nor does 3.

You are correct. We were wrong thinking O2 were not misleading their customers.
Their pricing on the website and terms and conditions are just as misleading as Meteor's. They tell you that extra mobile text charges apply. What a cunning bit of mis-information. See here.
I had wrongly assumed from their information that they did not charge extra, but they do. I rang them and they said they did, but even the supervisor could not say how much it would cost, how one could find out what it would cost and where the information that it was charged could be found.

P.

eircomtribunal

Update on the page

Update 5/1/2006:

1. It has come to our attention that o2 also conducts in this practice, charging a hidden "surcharge" on top of the advertised price, even though they only say (on their web site here): "Monophonic (standard) ringtones cost €2.50(incl. VAT) for O2 customers only, Polyphonic ringtones, Wallpapers, Animations and Message Alert tones cost €3(incl. VAT), RealTones cost €5(incl. VAT) for O2 customers only. Standard text rates to order apply."

Upon contacting o2, they were not able to say how much these extra charges would add up to, how they could be calculated, or where to find the information. However, it is our understanding that the extra charges could as much as double the price of the purchased item.
Only Vodafone and 3 are more honest, and do not participate in this practice, it seems.

2. Prices go up even further if for any reason (for example poor network coverage) the delivery of the purchased item (ringtone, game, etc) breaks off. We haved learned that customers have been charged ~ €20 for purchasing a €5 item from Meteor.

3. Especially heinous is Meteor's promotion to "gift" the ringtones, especially the free one, to another Meteor customer. The recipient of the "free" ringtone will be charged, unaware of it, the "delivery" surcharge of ~ € 3.39.

vito

Does anyone know if the recipient of ths 'free' ringtone has the option to accept or recind the offer before delivery begins or whether they are notified in advance that they are being charged for this serrvice?

Can Meteor legally charge their customers for a service which they have not ordered or entered into contract for same (since a third party has instigated the process, not necessarily with the knowledge of the final recipient)? If this is the case it could create a very dangerous precident.

I am an O2 customer and have had many battles down the years over issues such as excessive roaming charges and the like, but this for me really has to mark a new low for the mobile telcos.

Well done eircomtribunal for following this up. Have you approached the press with this yet?

Best rgds

Vito

Sponge Bob

Its a bit like saying a car costs 5k and delivery costs another 5k but the car is 'only 5k' even though you seemingly can not get permission to 'collect it' yourself .

The advertised prices should be all in inclusive of vat and inclusive of data download at 3 x 50% slots ...about 22kbits per second that is.

Robbing kids pocket money is the perfect analogy. MMS delivery should be verifiable betwen all Irish networks , Comreg should not accept that such verification is technically impossible nowadays.

Urban Weigl

Sponge Bob wrote:

Its a bit like saying a car costs 5k and delivery costs another 5k but the car is 'only 5k' even though you seemingly can not get permission to 'collect it' yourself .

Only that if the delivery truck breaks down, you are charged another 5k and so on. Oh, and the way you find about these extra charges is by checking your bank balance and finding a 20k overdraft (5k for the car and another 15 because their delivery truck is shíte)! The terms only said you had to pay for the postage stamp if you ordered by letter.

eircomtribunal

In the Sunday Business Post (page 4)

Meteor to review promotions
Mobile operator Meteor is reviewing promotions on its website after a complaint that customers were unaware that the firm charged delivery costs for downloading ringtones, writes Eamon Quinn. The Office of Director of Consumer Affairs last week received a complaint about the ringtone delivery costs.
Peter Weigl, a telecoms expert, said that Meteor had levied a delivery charge of at least € 3.39 per ringtone, which was advertised on its website as costing nothing.
A spokesman for Meteor said the delivery charge was outlined on the website and its customers had the opportunity to cancel the order after the ringtones were sent to their mobile phone. He said all regulations required by communications regulator, ComReg, had been followed.

P.

dahamsta

Well done ET, this kind of duplicity is shameful and needs to be tackled.

pepper

is that why not they have brought in that" browse before you buy" thing

eircomtribunal

This is the suggested change of logo–slogan for Meteor from its well-known "My Meteor – your world your way"

From the press release:
Meteor lies; O2 preys on our children, too.

"Following our revelation that Meteor nicks our schoolchildren's pocket money, a company spokesman tries damage control. We can show how he is telling lies to the Sunday Business Post.

And we demonstrate that second largest mobile operator O2 is in the same dirty business of misleading its customers about the price of ring tones, games etc.

We have asked the ODCA to stop this profitable breach of the Consumer Information Act of 1978 and we have asked communications regulator ComReg to enforce compliance with its 'tariff information guidelines'."

All in the new article on comwreck.

Sponge Bob

The provision of accurate information to the Irish public ????

Thats asking an awful lot of Comreg

sturgo

I've been with Meteor (eircom) for about 9 months. My contract is up in September. After that I'll be switching over to 3G.

watty

Why? It costs more for the same thing basically. 3G is a damp squib. Too slow and expensive to use as mobile Internet. Too expensive and slow for video hence the suppliers of GSM and 3G will be selling DVB-h content. Frequently roams to GPRS 28Kbps for data / GSM for voice.

I'll only move if it:
a) is cheaper
b) is cheaper

WiFi hotspots, Wimax and other services are answer to mobile Internet, not 3G.

damien

You can't get the Internet on 3 can you? It's their "online" content only for now I had thought.

sturgo

watty wrote:

Why? It costs more for the same thing basically. 3G is a damp squib. Too slow and expensive to use as mobile Internet. Too expensive and slow for video hence the suppliers of GSM and 3G will be selling DVB-h content. Frequently roams to GPRS 28Kbps for data / GSM for voice.

I'll only move if it:
a) is cheaper
b) is cheaper

WiFi hotspots, Wimax and other services are answer to mobile Internet, not 3G.

even if it does cost the same, history has shown us that, as telcos go, eircom (in particular), are a shower of robbing bas***ds.

indeed... bring on wifi / wimax phones, but by september. maybe not.

watty

On a Nokia Communicator EVEN WITHOUT GPRS by getting two GSM slots I had real internet browsing mobile at 28k. At the time my dialup was no faster (though a lot cheaper). With a later phone I could use it as a modem for 28K on GPRS with the laptop. Much cheaper on connect time, though more expensive on KB download charge.

3G seems not much faster than dialup and more expensive than GPRS or GSM.