GoMoNews vs Tanla Mobile – an update
Rating: Premium rate texts still arriving
Having complained to the UK regulator, PhonepayPlus, about a service which Tanla Mobile operates, I was amazed to discover it’s exactly the same company I’d ‘exposed’ some 12 months ago.
Meanwhile, premium rate texts continue to pile up against my Orange account at the rate of £4.50 per week.
The situation is becoming almost farcical and it’s just the sort of incident that gives the whole mobile content industry a bad name.
Since I first complained about the want-tone service from Tanla, I’ve received a phone call from Tanla’s helpdesk and was duly informed that the messages would stop. The very next day they arrived again – meaning I’m another £4.50 lighter. That’s £18 so far this month and April’s hardly over.
I’ve also tried calling the regular telephone number contained in one of the text messages which Tanla sends. It goes straight to an IVR system which once again took my mobile phone number and promised that it would be removed from the company’s database.
It turns out that Tanla – formerly known as Mobizar – is exactly the same entity that I’d exposed as operating only a premium rate support line. So talking to them for 10 minutes on my Orange mobile would previously have cost exactly the same £4.50 which I’d be trying to recover.
One interesting fact that has emerged is that PhonepayPlus has assured me that as a body it does have the power to order refunds.
In the meantime, I’m campaigning for anyone suffering from Tanla’s services to complain to the regulator, in the vane hope that it might invoke its ‘Emergency Procedure’. That would shut down the want-tone club until complaints have been thoroughly investigated.
The shocking thing is that my own network provider – Orange – is almost totally powerless. The only thing Orange’s helpdesk could suggest is that I change my mobile phone number. But considering that I’ve had the same number for over 12 years, that really isn’t an option.
In effect, companies like Tanla have the ability to suck funds from your mobile phone contract and there is nothing you can do about it, save try to kick up a stink.
How many other industries would tolerate such a situation?
Related News:
Leave a Comment