Wireless Companies & "Preimum" Texting

[Niflmir]

Yes, I thought that's how I would approach it and see what happens. The text dating agreement was between my son and them but the charges went to my bill. I didn't authorize the charges and my son cannot agree unless he has my permission. Sort of like someone using my credit card without my permission. I'm going to see what happens.
I will do so if I can't get any positive resolution to this whole thing. I'm a fairly private person but sometimes you need to "step up" and I'm willing to do so. We'll just wait until I've sent the letter (I've been working on it for 2 weeks!!) and hope to send it off tomorrow with a cc to the CTRC. Have also emailed the textdating people again.
Dixie

Yeah, the more I think about this whole thing it seems like it should be as simple as this:

1) If the phone company is charging you for a service that they provided to you(r son), then they should have made that service clear in the contract and certainly not lied to you about no hidden fees.

2) If the phone company is charging you for a service that a third party provided to you(r son), then they should be fully aware that you did not make any agreement with the third party that they are attempting to bill on behalf of.

There is no middle ground. Either they provided the services, or they did not. If they provided the service, it must be in the contract; if they did not provide the services, then you did not make an agreement with the third party.

 

[SLM]

I will do so if I can't get any positive resolution to this whole thing. I'm a fairly private person but sometimes you need to "step up" and I'm willing to do so. We'll just wait until I've sent the letter (I've been working on it for 2 weeks!!) and hope to send it off tomorrow with a cc to the CTRC. Have also emailed the textdating people again.

Dixie

I hear you on the privacy thing, not sure I'd be willing to give that up either.

CC everyone involved when you send the letter though.

Best of luck.

 

[damngrumpy]

Find a radio station or TV that has a problem solver feature. They are pretty good at getting
the attention of the phone company and sometimes they lean of Provincial or Federal Politicians
for a bit of attention. Make sure you are putting this in the form of questions when speaking to
the broadcast people. This tends to allow them an avenue to assess whether you are asking
because you are in difficulty getting an answer or already in a confrontational situation with
the service provider. (translation a professional troublemaker)
Media is willing to assist a listener or viewer, they are not necessarily interested in getting in the
middle of a bitter dispute. Be sure to have all the facts and share areas where you might not
have fully understood but should have asked. Remember you were taking them at their word
and that meant you believed they had consumer integrity, and that turned out to be in error,
confusing, or misleading and you are not sure how it ended this way. That is the route to go.
I spent more than three decades in media, I know how it works. I did a few of these cases
myself. Separate the idea they are a bunch of crooks from the facts at hand and you will get
some action that could be to your benefit. Good luck.

 

[Dixie Cup]

Find a radio station or TV that has a problem solver feature. They are pretty good at getting
the attention of the phone company and sometimes they lean of Provincial or Federal Politicians
for a bit of attention. Make sure you are putting this in the form of questions when speaking to
the broadcast people. This tends to allow them an avenue to assess whether you are asking
because you are in difficulty getting an answer or already in a confrontational situation with
the service provider. (translation a professional troublemaker)
Media is willing to assist a listener or viewer, they are not necessarily interested in getting in the
middle of a bitter dispute. Be sure to have all the facts and share areas where you might not
have fully understood but should have asked. Remember you were taking them at their word
and that meant you believed they had consumer integrity, and that turned out to be in error,
confusing, or misleading and you are not sure how it ended this way. That is the route to go.
I spent more than three decades in media, I know how it works. I did a few of these cases
myself. Separate the idea they are a bunch of crooks from the facts at hand and you will get
some action that could be to your benefit. Good luck.

Wonderful advice! Thank you very much. I will keep that in mind should I decide to go that route!

Dixie

 

[JamesBondo]

I think it is high time that judges and courts take a new stance: it is simply unreasonable for a $50 per month cellphone to result in a bill in the thousands of dollars.....for any reason.

 

[taxslave]

Just one more reason I like smoke signals. No monthly billing. NO roaming or LD charges. Night calls are a bit shaky though.

 

[petros]

You forgot peace and quiet.

 

[TenPenny]

I think it is high time that judges and courts take a new stance: it is simply unreasonable for a $50 per month cellphone to result in a bill in the thousands of dollars.....for any reason.

Really? I think it's simply unreasonable for people to not read their contracts, and then whine when they have to pay a bill.

 

[petros]

Everybody else has a phone, I just ask to use theirs if I need one.

 

[Kreskin]

If you don't pay they will lodge it with the credit bureau and affect your credit. You might want to pay it then take them to small claims court. When you send payment send it with a dispute letter (advise you are only paying to protect your credit) and to advise of your intentions to proceed to small claims court. Send the payment and letter to the President of the company.

 

[Ron in Regina]

Well, I've been trying to contact someone above "supervisor" to no avail. That's why I'm writing the letter, hoping it'll get to someone who actually has some authority.

Basically, this whole situation came down to my son being "dangerously" smarter than is good for him, but not so smart to know better and realize the consequences and we're left to try to fix things. Its really frustrating at times

Unfortunately, locking him in his room and forbidding him from going anywhere is considered abuse now-a-days so what's a person to do?

Dixie

Maybe try telling your story, in detail, to your MP....and have Her/Him try
to shake the tree with the CRTC....and if the MP gets frustrated, maybe
this will come up in Parliment to get argued. Just try'n to think outside
the box.

 

[Niflmir]

Really? I think it's simply unreasonable for people to not read their contracts, and then whine when they have to pay a bill.

Do you really though? Even credit cards come with limits. No bank (of reputation) is willing to give credit enough to a person that they cannot handle, and cap credit at a reasonable limit. Meanwhile no phone company seems to be willing to cap an account without government intervention.

 

[DurkaDurka]

Don't even get me going on this, I got hit with a $900.00 bill for texting with chick I only banged twice.

 

[JamesBondo]

Really? I think it's simply unreasonable for people to not read their contracts, and then whine when they have to pay a bill.

I think you missed the point. I have many $50/month contracts. I can't think of any that would be able to ding me with charges 400 times greater between monthly statements . In fact, I think most services would run me through a credit approval process if they knew a $2000 bill was possible.

 

[Dixie Cup]

Really? I think it's simply unreasonable for people to not read their contracts, and then whine when they have to pay a bill.

That's the whole point - there's nothing in our documents describing costs for 3rd party charges. BTW, we didn't have a "contract" - we could cancel w/30 days notice.

I've finally sent my letters; one to the cell phone provider and one to the CRTC complaints dept.(?) - both by registered mail. I haven't heard anything back as yet. I have also pursued the text dating site and ironically have heard back from them. They are prepared to credit the account by $750 which is awfully nice except that the bill is now $3,800.00. I am still hoping that both the dating site and the cell phone company will split 1/3 each - I'll be happy to pay the other 3rd just to finish this whole process. I guess I should pay something for my ignorance and a lesson well-learned.

As for our credit, we have a spotless credit rating right now and I have been advised to contact Equifax and Trans Union to tell them that, should something negative show up that its because the "bill is in dispute" so that other creditors know that we're not just renegaing on a payment, so I plan on doing that.

JMO

 

[JamesBondo]

Dixie, i think if you ask the following question " who took all legal and reasonable steps to prevent this bill from happening? And wh didn't?"
i think you will find your legal position is much better than the vendors.

dixie, did you provide your SIN number to the phone company? If not, then they are not able to file against your credit record. Some people think that everything affects their credit record but that is simply not true because you should not be passing out your SIN to everyone.

 

[55Mercury]

who the hell gives their SIN to a phone company? It just isn't done.

 

[JamesBondo]

who the hell gives their SIN to a phone company? It just isn't done.

to be fair, dixie hasn't said one way or another, and I didn't mean to imply that she did.

thanks for the negative rep, do you always hand them out for the slightest of reasons?

 

[Ron in Regina]

Dixie, i think if you ask the following question " who took all legal and reasonable steps to prevent this bill from happening? And wh didn't?"
i think you will find your legal position is much better than the vendors.

dixie, did you provide your SIN number to the phone company? If not, then they are not able to file against your credit record. Some people think that everything affects their credit record but that is simply not true because you should not be passing out your SIN to everyone.

Someone at a collection agency, I'd assume, would be able to
cross refference your address & postal code & full name including
the middle one(s) & your place of employment & land-line phone#
& so on and so forth against other places that one currently has
(or has had) credit accounts in good standing (it's all on your credit
report...the good and the bad) to come up with a SIN# if need be.

 

[55Mercury]

to be fair, dixie hasn't said one way or another, and I didn't mean to imply that she did.

thanks for the negative rep, do you always hand them out for the slightest of reasons?

Sorry if your feelings were hurt. I'm sure if you ask, someone has a tissue.

But you seemed to me to be making it sound like giving a phone company your SIN was normal. it's not.

that and you said "SIN number", which translates to "social insurance number number" which is just plain redundant. Kind of like Air miles reward miles. I'd give the idiots that came up with that one a negative rep too, if I could.