The misleading text message I received
I was very surprised to receive a text message recently from my Dutch mobile operator…
What did it say? They told me the EU was forcing me to change my subscription. I thought to myself, ‘what on earth are they talking about?’ The European Commission is not forcing anything of the sort onto mobile subscribers!
In fact, what my operator meant was that we at the European Commission have just brought in a new rule protecting you and me from “bill shocks“. That means you can’t be charged hundreds or thousands of euros without your consent, for doing basic things like checking your email or watching a video on your mobile device while you are abroad. As of 1 July you have the new right to set a cap on what you may be charged, and the default is €50 a month. If you don’t mind paying unlimited charges, you can still choose to get rid of the cap. So no-one’s freedom is restricted by this initiative, we are just stopping innocent consumers from getting “bill shocks.” FULL DETAILS HERE.
We used to see these bill shocks every week. Young students charged thousands for using their mobile internet while on a study exchange for a few months or someone paying thousands just for getting a month’s automatic email updates. It was not fair, so the European Commission stepped in to stop it.
Therefore, I was not really impressed to receive this misleading text message from my operator. The EU is offering consumer protection, not pointless or confusing restrictions. I won’t name my operator out of politeness, but if you are receiving any such messages from any operator in the EU – please let me know, and I will take the issue further.”
Number of views: 5322
Email This Post
RSS comments feed on this entry