Mysterious charges added to cell phone bills

Surprise ! Your cell phone bill may contain another… against your will. Koodo customers discovered it in recent months without really understanding what was going on. And, above all, without knowing how to get a refund.

Direct mobile billing is still very little known in Quebec. But it has already claimed victims.

This payment method allows you to subscribe to paid applications and to be billed by your mobile service provider. The transaction can therefore be done very quickly since it is not necessary to provide your credit card number and billing address to another company.

In theory, therefore, the principle is effective. Clever, even.

In practice, however, direct mobile billing doesn’t just make people happy.

On the forum of Koodoo, a low-cost subsidiary of Telus, one can read a host of testimonials from frustrated customers who complain of having been fooled. The stories are all alike: one day, they saw suspicious charges on their bill.

“For three months, I have [des] 3rd party app charges on my bill and I have no idea where it came from. What should I do ? asks one of them.

Another customer writes, “I was charged $13.99 for PBM.CX usage fees [Pay by mobile] which I have never ordered. How can I be credited and how can I ensure that these charges are canceled on future invoices. I don’t understand the scheme. »

We also wonder about the responsibility of Koodo. “My 79-year-old mother received a mysterious [note] $14.99 off his July phone bill. The description reads: “In-App purchase”, which according to the invoice history, took place at 3:51 a.m. on July 3, which is absolutely nonsense. She never uses her phone at this time of night […] To me, it looks like these third-party apps are scamming Koodo users, and Koodo should never allow that to happen. »

Alexandre realized that something was wrong before he even received his monthly bill.

“While browsing the internet with my iPhone, I saw a pop up wondering if I wanted to subscribe to the streaming app Live Soccer Club (from PM Connect LTD) for $13.99 per month. I quickly weighed on the “X”, but I immediately received a text message telling me that I was now subscribed and that the sum would appear on my next invoice”, he told me.

Searching the web, he discovered that PM Connect had already made headlines in Belgium for its “forced subscriptions”. Again, Internet users who pressed the “X” found themselves having to pay for the service.

In other words, if you come across advertising, there is no way out!

The consumer defense association Test Achats denounced the practices of this company last year, which had given rise to more than 300 complaints. In a report by the Belgian public channel RTBF, Test Achats also deplored the attitude of the cellular supplier Proximus, the operator most often involved in complaints, judging it responsible for the costs billed without warning.

In Quebec, the Consumer Protection Office (OPC) has never heard of direct mobile billing. Ditto for the Commission for Complaints for Telecom-television Services (CCTS). The principle is not known there, even if “misleading and aggressive sales practices are closely monitored”, reports spokesperson Mathieu Pierre Dagonas. The CRTC did not respond to my messages.

At Telus, we allow “certain app aggregators, such as Boku, Infomedia UK and PM Connect, to offer a simplified online payment experience to their customers”, I was told.

The affected applications are accessible through advertisements displayed online and are not downloadable from the Apple Store or the Google Play Store. “They are responsible for requesting payment consent from their users, stating that fees will be charged through their telecommunications provider,” said Telus spokeswoman Stéphanie Dussault.

But obviously, the issue of consent is not on point.

The issue of reimbursement is just as vague. Telus promises to facilitate the process with the aggregator by transmitting the coordinates of the latter. But you can imagine that these companies established abroad are not easy to contact. What a waste of time!

Despite the amount of testimonials from dissatisfied customers on the Koodo site, Telus claims that it ensures the quality of its interactions with merchants. “If there is a problem, says Stéphanie Dussault, we suspend their accounts until the problem is resolved. »

Bell and Videotron customers have the advantage of not being caught because these two providers do not allow direct mobile billing, they told me. Like Telus, Rogers allows it.

It’s true that direct mobile billing makes payments easier… but a bit too much.