Lost money because of GPRS

(Baonghean.vn) - While using normal phone services, even having canceled monthly internet packages to save money, phone charges still increased dramatically because customers were "trapped" by the network operator into accessing GPRS services against their will...

Being "pickpocketed" without knowing

Recently, many Vinaphone subscribers in Nghe An have complained about their phone bills suddenly increasing 3-4 times. Many people were busy with work, so after a few months, when they went to the VNPT Nghe An Business Center (providing Vinaphone network services), they were told that their phones had automatically accessed the GPRS package!

It is worth mentioning that during the process of customers being charged for this sudden increase in GPRS access fees, they did not receive any advice from the monthly phone bill collector or from the network operator.

A colleague of ours said that his Vinaphone subscription had previously registered for an internet service with a package of 70,000 VND/month. After having 4G network, he asked the billing staff about how to cancel this service to switch to 4G network, the consultant texted him “huy max” to 888 to cancel this package.

Having a 4G sim card makes internet access faster and more convenient than using the previous 70,000 VND package. At home, at work, or at coffee shops, there is wifi signal, so he feels comfortable and convenient when reading newspapers and viewing Facebook on his phone.

The first month, his payment was still normal, even 70 thousand less than the previous internet package fee, but about 2 months later, he was surprised to receive a payment message from the network operator stating that his subscription had to pay 3 times more than the previous month, but the reason was unknown.

He took the trouble to go to VNPT Nghe An Business Center at 1 Ho Tung Mau, Vinh City, and was told by the staff there that the sudden increase in the fee was because his phone had automatically accessed GPRS data, over 500,000 VND/month. Further checking, within just over 10 days of November 2017, he had also lost over 500,000 VND in GPRS access fees!

VNPT Nghe An Business Center - providing Vinaphone services. Photo: Duc Dung

When I asked the consultant here why I was still charged for internet access after canceling the 70k/month internet access package, the consultant said that if the customer canceled the 70k/month package, the network operator would automatically switch to the GPRS package that charges based on usage. If the customer does not want to use GPRS, the customer must text to cancel this service.

It is worth mentioning that in reality, during the usage process, almost no customers are advised to text message to cancel GPRS service, but only when they see the phone bill suddenly increase because the device automatically accesses GPRS, and go to VNPT agent to ask, then they know how to cancel this service.

In addition to not advising mobile phone customers on how to stop using GPRS services when they have cut off their monthly internet subscription packages, so that customers do not lose money, VNPT also "traps" customers by automatically accessing the highest priced GPRS package, because while Vinaphone's normal access package is only 70 thousand VND/month, if customers accidentally let GPRS access automatically for a few days, they can lose hundreds of thousands of VND, even though the service quality is not as good as the 70 thousand/month package.

Like our colleague who was upset because at home and at work he used wifi, he only used his phone to read newspapers and Facebook, but somehow VNPT Nghe An charged him more than 500 thousand VND for GPRS service access in just over 10 days, dozens of times more expensive than the 70 thousand VND/month package, while he had no idea when he used GPRS service!

Customers must protect themselves.

Talking to a technical staff of a phone dealer, he said that when customers use their services, the network operators (in this case VNPT Nghe An - the provider of Vinaphone services) should have specifically advised customers. Especially for services with automatic access like GPRS with such high prices, the network operators should have advised customers, not "trapped" customers like that.

Not only were they unfairly “pickpocketed” because they were “automatically” using the GPRS service with the most expensive package, during our investigation, we also learned that thousands of mobile phone users in our province are being pickpocketed day and night by advertising messages. When opening this message, customers can immediately lose tens of thousands of dong because it will automatically send messages or automatically use the GPRS service to access the network, download and send data!

Unintended GPRS access fee calculation table of a Vinaphone customer. Photo: Duc Dung

But very few people know that they have lost money unjustly like this, because only those who use postpaid subscriptions, and suddenly find that their payment fee is too high in a certain month, and take the trouble to find out, will know that they have been "pickpocketed" without knowing it, and only then will they rush to find a way to prevent this type of "pickpocketing".

Many people said that when there were questions or complaints, customers claimed that they had not registered for the service while the network operator often made excuses that the customer had accidentally performed the operation that led to the service activation. If so, this is essentially a trick to trap customers compared to service providers such as Yahoo, Gmail, Facebook..., customers must perform a series of operations and commitments before using their services.

The issue of customers being unfairly “pickpocketed” has been going on for a long time, but with the “ambiguity” and lack of professionalism of network operators, there will still be many customers who accidentally use GPRS services or advertising messages and become “easy prey”, unfairly losing millions, even tens of millions if they are on a business trip abroad.

Currently on the market, almost all phones provided by iPhone, HTC, Samsung, Nokia... are smartphones, these phones are usually set by default to open GPRS data access mode. In order to avoid losing money and causing more frustration, mobile phone users should clearly understand the syntax to check the services of each mobile phone network they use to regularly look up and promptly cancel services that they do not register to use.

Duc Nghia