Ringtone rip-offs

nialljourno

Hi
I'm a journalist writing a piece on ringtone rip offs and bad practice, where people get a ringtone and are 'subscribed' and charged without being informed - sometimes only finding out they are being charged after a big bill has been racked up.
Please advise if this has happened to you and you can tell me about it.
Thanks
Niall

Bob the Builder

well i can tell you my experience as a young child using my brand new phone to download 3 or 4 wallpapers from the gprs on my phone at the time, 13 euro credit down the drain.

never went near ringtones as the small print is ridicuclous.

i personally feel that manafacturer's/phone networks are just as much to blame as the companies, for allowing this to happen.

Fighting Irish

a hell of a lot of millionaires are millionaires because of stupid people

Fighting Irish

nevf wrote: »

well i can tell you my experience as a young child using my brand new phone to download 3 or 4 wallpapers from the gprs on my phone at the time, 13 euro credit down the drain.

never went near ringtones as the small print is ridicuclous.

i personally feel that manafacturer's/phone networks are just as much to blame as the companies, for allowing this to happen.

:rolleyes:

pyramuid man

Well really it has nothing to do with the networks or manufacturers. They have no responsibility over what its customers do and they cant monitor what their customers do as that would be an invasion of privacy. Would you like your network calling you everytime you did something on your phone,

Radio Mad.

pyramuid man wrote: »

Well really it has nothing to do with the networks or manufacturers. They have no responsibility over what its customers do and they cant monitor what their customers do as that would be an invasion of privacy. Would you like your network calling you everytime you did something on your phone,

I'm not sure what the law says, but To be fair, I think mobile operators have a duty of care to ensure their networks aren't being used by rogue operators to rip people off.

thebman

pyramuid man wrote: »

Well really it has nothing to do with the networks or manufacturers. They have no responsibility over what its customers do and they cant monitor what their customers do as that would be an invasion of privacy. Would you like your network calling you everytime you did something on your phone,

Manufacturers and Networks lock down phones so wallpapers aren't easily transferable from Pc to Phones.

This has stopped more recently since phones became MP3 players and got Bluetooth/USB support as consumers have demanded it worldwide from manufacturers.

Networks (particularly Meteor [owned by Eircom]) charge ridiculous prices for data usage in this country. Networks should have an obligation to block subscriptions to these illegal services that have no opt out ability or it have an opt out that isn't clearly displayed. Basically I see no reason why 10 complaints from customers shouldn't be enough to label a subscription service spam if they occur in the same month (you could change that if you had real statistics, number is just imaginary). This black list of blocked numbers should have to be shared between network providers.

You could do this if our toothless regulator Comreg actually served a purpose but they are worse than useless. We should reform them or at least investigate why they don't do their jobs (this being just one example of areas where they have not acted, others being broadband, failure to introduce postcodes, allowing price increases to the point where we have an uncompetitive postal market and broadband market).

Bob the Builder

As for getting free mobile phone resources, and to help you write an article, there's a nice forum here for requesting, receiving ringtones and wallpapers for one another. It's a nice niche community nd runs very strongly.
The only thing your not allowed upload is the full mp3 song, as that would be infringing law.

Good luck with your article.