Meteor Nicks Irish Children's Pocket Money

Crazy frog was not so bad after all

A recent survey of the National Teachers Organisation (INTO) shows that "almost every student owns a mobile phone by the time they reach sixth class".


While crazy frog has been hanged (because albeit he charged what he said he would, he did not make the subscription terms clear enough), Irish incumbent Telco Eircom's mobile operator Meteor has quietly been nicking our children's pocket money big time, we can reveal.

Here's how its done:
On parts of its customer portal web site, which is only accessible to Meteor's 500,000 customers (mymeteor.ie), Ireland's third largest mobile operator offers ringtones (and images, games, clips etc) to its predominantly teenage pre-pay customer clientel. See screenshot:


The ringtones are clearly priced at €5, with a special free, (price € 0.00), "Meteor Jingle" on offer.
After ordering the free ringtone from the website we got the order confirmation:


What's not on the customer portal website, and what few Meteor pre-pay customers will ever see on a bill is the fact that Meteor surcharges the advertised prices by several euros, in case of the free ringtone by € 3.39. Meteor simply takes it out of the users credit, not a word said.

When queried Meteor admit that they surcharge all ringtones etc. and say they do not feel obliged to inform customers about those "delivery" charges.
There is no information or even hint about those substantial "surcharges" anywhere on the Meteor web site.

When browsing for a ring-tone from the phone, there is a hard to find kryptic reference in the terms and conditions, saying that prices are as indicated plus "the kb associated with the downloads. Full terms and conditions available on www.meteor.ie/about/terms.html". No explanation is given how this could be calculated. On the indicated web page there is no mention of the extra cost or similar at the date of publishing (view pdf archive of Meteor Terms and Conditions 3rd Feb 2006).

We assume that these practices were going on for a long time and have created considerable revenue for Meteor.

Both O2 and Vodafone are not engaging in those practices. (See update below about O2)

This behaviour of Eircom's mobile arm in our opinion constitutes a clear breach of the Consumer Information Act, paragraph 7 and 8 (see resources 2.) We have asked Carmel Foley of the ODCA (Office of the Director of Consumer Affairs) to investigate the practice, stop the practice and enforce a speedy refunding of the ill-gotten revenue.
Afterall, if Carmel goes after sweet shops that do not correctly inform about the price of a kit-kat, this hideous nicking of our childrens pocket money should not be tolerated by the director of the ODCA.


Crazy Frog out-done by Meteor


Update 5/1/2006:

1. It has come to our attention that o2 also conducts in this practice, charging a hidden "surcharge" on top of the advertised price, even though they only say (on their web site here): "Monophonic (standard) ringtones cost €2.50(incl. VAT) for O2 customers only, Polyphonic ringtones, Wallpapers, Animations and Message Alert tones cost €3(incl. VAT), RealTones cost €5(incl. VAT) for O2 customers only. Standard text rates to order apply."

Upon contacting o2, they were not able to say how much these extra charges would add up to, how they could be calculated, or where to find the information. However, it is our understanding that the extra charges could as much as double the price of the purchased item.

Only Vodafone and 3 are more honest, and do not participate in this practice, it seems.


2. Prices go up even further if for any reason (for example poor network coverage) the delivery of the purchased item (ringtone, game, etc) breaks off. We haved learned that customers have been charged ~ €20 for purchasing a €5 item from Meteor.


3. Especially heinous is Meteor's promotion to "gift" the ringtones, especially the free one, to another Meteor customer. The recipient of the "free" ringtone will be charged, unaware of it, the "delivery" surcharge of ~ € 3.39.

Resources:

1. One users experience:

"A few days ago, I was offered a free ringtone on the Meteor customer web site at mymeteor.ie. While I do not usually go for ringtones, I foolishly thought "why not", and clicked the link. After all, it is just a click away. The final price was confirmed to me to be € 0.00, and the ringtone would be sent directly to my phone.

The next time I checked my balance however, I found that I was charged € 3.39 for this supposedly free ringtone. I thought it was likely a glitch in Meteor's billing system, something that certain phone companies seem to have problems with, and sent their customer care department at info@meteor.ie a short message explaining what had happened, and asked for a refund. That would have been it.

Instead, I was surprised to learn that this was standard practice at Meteor, and that they were charging more for ringtones across the board. I was even told, in so many words, that I should be grateful that I got the ringtone for "only € 3.39", instead of the € 8.39 it would usually have cost me, as they were also charging extra for ringtones advertised as being € 5.00.

Upon further questioning, I was informed: "You are not due a refund. A Real tone ringtone cannot get to your phone without GPRS. What is sent from the website for free is the route to download the tone."

None of this was mentioned when I ordered the ringtone, not even in small print anywhere on the page, and as a customer and not a mobile phone expert or engineer, I should not be required to know about the underlying technology used to deliver ringtones by Meteor (maybe they decided to throw technical terms at me to confuse me?). Even if I did know about the technology used, I would still not have assumed that Meteor would misinform about the price they advertise. Apparently, Meteor thinks differently. Imagine having a drink down at the local pub, only to have your pockets picked on the way out for an extra "surcharge" that had not been communicated to you.
In fact, Meteor has also written to inform me that they do not feel obliged to tell their customers about these surcharges.

The issue here is not that I was overcharged by €3.39 (I realise it's small change), or even that Meteor's "Customer Care Department" acted unprofessionally and with contempt towards their loyal customer. The issue is that they are doing it across the board, to everybody who buys a ringtone from them. Let us assume for a moment that Meteor has 500,000 customers (correct according to their advertising), and that on average they have sold a ringtone to every second customer (this may be lower or higher). Let us further assume that on average, customers were charged € 3.00 more than the advertised price. That is three quarters of a million euros. And when you look at the demographic of the largest consumers of ringtones, one thing becomes clear: Meteor is targeting schoolchildren and teenagers, most of whom will not notice, and if they do, will be unlikely to complain.

As an aside, I once took up Jamster on a free logo/ringtone offer. Jamster is the company behind the notoriously infuriating "Crazy Frog". Guess what? They were true to their word, I was not charged. I am finding this difficult to say, but it seems like Jamster are more honest than Meteor."



2. §7 and §8 of the Consumer Information Act of 1978

"Consumer Information Act, 1978

7. (False or misleading indications of prices or charges.) —
(1) If a person offering to supply goods of any description or provide any services or accommodation gives by any means a false or misleading indication of—
( a ) the price or charge for the goods, services or accommodation,
( d ) any charge for installation of or servicing of the goods or any price for ancillary equipment reasonably required for the purpose of the use or enjoyment of the goods.

he shall be guilty of an offence.

8. (Misleading advertisements) —
(1) A person shall not publish, or cause to be published, an advertisement in relation to the supply or provision in the course or for the purposes of a trade, business or profession, of goods, services or facilities if it is likely to mislead, and thereby cause loss, damage or injury to members of the public to a material degree.

(3) The Director may, upon giving notice of the application to any person against whom the order the subject of the application is sought, apply to the High Court for, and may, at the discretion of that Court, be granted, an order prohibiting the publication, or the further publication, of an advertisement the publication of which is or would be a contravention of subsection (1) of this section."


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