Subscribe to Print Edition | Sun., November 02, 2008 Cheshvan 4, 5769 | | Israel Time: 01:42 (EST+7) web haaretz.com   Back to Homepage Haaretz Toolbar Diplomacy Defense Jewish World Opinion National Print Edition Car Rental Books Haaretz Magazine Business Real Estate U.S. election Travel Week's End Anglo File

Communications consumer: Unwitting lender? By Barr Hayoun Tags: communication, cellular phone  Imagine you could borrow money interest-free and repay it next month or next year. Even if you didn't use the money, it would be accumulating interest until the repayment date, so you'd come out ahead. Now imagine the opposite: You're the lender. How? Some companies overcharged you and are delaying your refund for weeks and months. Advertisement Complaints that have reached TheMarker, the Israel Consumer Council, Public Trust and the Kamaze (How Much) price comparison Web site indicate that many consumers have become unwitting lenders. In some cases, the error is corrected immediately. Sometimes, however, the same mistake is repeated time and again. S., a Pelephone subscriber, asked to switch out of the service plan for which she had signed up, and paid a fine - not once, but twice. When she called the customer service center, she received a credit of NIS 540 on her next bill. N., of Tel Aviv, a Pelephone business customer who switched to the company about a year ago, with eight subscribers, tells a different story. "A few months after the first mistake in the charge, I told the customer service manager, 'You know what? I will cancel my standing order; you can send me a bill every month and if the sum is in keeping with the contract I signed, I will pay.' He looked at me as if I had come from another planet," says N. Before N. signed up with Pelephone, he was promised various perks, including a full rebate (against the monthly installments) for all eight cell phones he purchased, on the condition that the monthly user charge for each phone would exceed NIS 79. The rebate part of the service plan was never activated. Each month, N. had to personally go to the customer service center, equipped with a copy of the service contract. Each month, along with the accounting correction for the previous month's error, the rebate for the current month's payment for the phones was missing. It took 10 months to correct this problem. N. claimed that the customer service staff told him the problem stemmed from the default setting in the billing system, which requires a higher minimum user charge than he was promised. Pelephone declined comment on N.'s claims. Pelephone is not the only company that occasionally overcharges clients. TheMarker has received similar complaints against virtually all the cell phone companies. Alon Aginsky, CEO at cVidya Networks, which develops revenue assurance and management solutions that use control systems to detect mistakes, explains that billing systems are not an exact science, and that mistakes are inevitable in systems that deal with tens of thousands of clients, or more. Aginsky figures that in N.'s case, there was a communications failure between one of the network systems and the billing system. "The credit was promised to the client by the marketing department," explains Aginsky, "which input the data to an external system that communicates with the billing system. The communications breakdown was between the systems, not between the people." Many systems communicate with the billing system, which has to make adjustments for special offers, rates and fines in each bill. For example, there could be a situation in which the system responsible for fines instructs the billing system to charge the final bill a certain sum. If, for any reason, the billing system does not send a message confirming the request, the fining system continues to send requests to charge the client. Aginsky says that mistakes of excessive charges are usually caused by software problems. Another type of errors stems from an internal conflict between functions. "Suppose a client subscribed to a plan entitling him to a 20% discount on calls between family members and 30% on calls made on weekends," continues Aginsky. "What discount would he receive when he phoned a family member over the weekend?" Since the billing system is not an exact science, companies have developed systems to handle mistakes. "The communications companies know the mistakes are usually to the detriment of the customers, and occasionally give an across-the-board credit to entire client sectors," says Aginsky. "A company that receives 14 complaints concerning a specific mistake is likely to credit all 50,000 clients who were erroneously charged, in order to reduce the risk of a class action suit." Agninsky says that in addition to mistakes that are made in good faith, there are others that are not so innocent. "The biggest problems involve charges for cell phone customers abroad. The local operator overseas can charge a foreign customer 'by mistake,' and rely on the chances that the customer and his cell phone company will have difficulty tracing the charges." S., an Orange client who took his cell phone on an overseas trip, noticed that his January bill included a charge of several hundred shekels for calls from Cuba that he never made. Aginsky himself relates that one of his employees returned from abroad with an inflated cell phone bill, and it turned out that every time he had attempted to log onto the Internet, even if the attempt failed, the local operator abroad charged him for 15 minutes of Internet air time. "It has become a 'money-maker,' and many cellular operators around the world make big profits on this kind of mistake," notes Aginsky. "As a company that puts its clients first," responded Orange, "if a client contacts us or a mistake is discovered by the company, Orange makes sure to credit the client as soon as possible. The company has a policy of not delaying refunds. Sometimes checking a mistake takes time, because it involves external entities such as international operators or content providers. As soon as the error is clarified, the company will credit the client immediately." The question is not whether errors are inevitable, but rather how the companies handle clients who have been erroneously charged; how long it takes for the clients to be credited after a mistake is detected. S. for example, the Orange client who returned from abroad and discovered inflated cell phone charges, received credit for the overcharge only six months later. Was this due to justifiable delays in checking the complaint, or is slow processing a policy? Sources at Public Trust report that customer service personal at Hot Communications Systems told clients the company's policy is to reimburse clients within 10 days of the recognition of a mistake. If the client is no longer a Hot subscriber, however, he will receive a refund only after 40 days. "This practice does not differentiate between active or inactive clients," explained a Hot representative, "but rather priority is given to active clients, just like in other companies. Active clients will receive a credit within four business days, while inactive clients will receive a refund within up to 30 business days." A complaint by a Hot customer that reached us relates that he was overcharged for three consecutive months. He called customer service in June and was credited only in September. In another instance, an 012 Smile Communications customer was charged for a telephone line that was not even in his home. When he phoned to complain, the customer service representative apologized, but the billing system began charging him for two lines. He received partial credit only six months later, and another month went by before he was reimbursed in full. Complaints received by the Israeli Consumer Council against overcharging by Bezeq revealed that if a client discovers he has been being overcharged for a long time, Bezeq claims it is the client's responsibility to keep track of his bills - and credits him for only the previous six months. If the client was undercharged, however, Bezeq insists on collecting the full amount owed, even if it is from more than six months ago. "The company has no policy concerning crediting clients if a mistake has been made," said a Bezeq spokesman. "Every complaint is checked individually. Contrary to the report by the Israeli Consumer Council, Bezeq credits clients even beyond six months, including interest and linkage, if there has been a mistake. As for clients who did not pay a bill due to a mistake by Bezeq, the company asks them to pay the net sum, without interest or linkage, and in installments." Bookmark to del.icio.us   Star is born Report: Hezbollah taps Mughniyah replacement. The namesake Why did Holland fund megaship named after prominent Nazi?

Read & React Yossi Sarid: McCain would be as bad for Israel as Bush was Responses: 226 Olmert praises decision to pull TV interview with Rabin killer Responses: 109 Livni: Syria must cut Iran, terror ties before we give it what it wants Responses: 140 EU condemns settler 'acts of brutality' against Palestinians Responses: 140 Lebanon: 12 IAF war jets violated our airspace Responses: 126 More Headlines 23:45 Report: Hezbollah picks Mughniyah replacement 23:51 Two Border Police hurt by stone-throwing settlers near Hebron 21:59 Hamas: Next U.S. President should lift Gaza embargo 23:16 Lieberman: Shin Bet could be behind settler violence 19:47 Lebanon arrests cell suspected of working for Israel's Mossad since 1980s 00:23 Brazil reaches out to Iran, suggests presidential visit 16:25 Why did Holland fund megaship named after prominent Nazi? 13:36 Barak: Interim government mustn't stop working to free Gilad Shalit 20:20 Veteran Meretz MK Ran Cohen announces he's leaving politics 22:18 Hezbollah decries Israeli plan to build museum on Muslim cemetery 20:16 UN envoy blasts 'alarming' IDF demolition of Palestinian homes 07:53 Lebanon: 12 IAF war jets violated our airspace 14:41 'Beautiful goat' pageant fetches thousands for Saudi breeders Previous Editions Select Day 31 oct 30 oct 29 oct 28 oct 27 oct 26 oct 24 oct 23 oct 22 oct 21 oct 20 oct 19 oct

Special Offers Advertisement Living in Israel Studying in English Click & Meet our students from all around the world Dan Boutique Jerusalem New Dan Hotel in Jerusalem Young, Fun & Distinctively Dan Book Now Online! Fattal Hotel Chain Perfectly located hotels on best resorts of Israel. Car rental in Israel Shlomo Sixt Receive $15.00 from our low rates. Dial 013 for your long-distance calls and get all your money back US CITIZENS Vote for real change. Request your ballot today! Eldan Rent a Car Israel's leading car rental company offers you a 20% discount on all online reservations Jewish Singles Personal Ads Find the love of your life on JDate.com Israel's Premier Real Estate Website www. israel-property.com Hebrew Summer courses From $39.95 Junkyard Junk a car - get free towing nationwide and a tax-deductible receipt

Home | TV | Print Edition | Diplomacy | Opinion | Arts & Leisure | Sports | Jewish World | Underground | Site rules |

Real Estate in Israel | Travel to Israel with Haaretz | Hotels Israel | Restaurants Israel | Tourist attractions Israel | Shops Israel

birthright Israel | Search engine marketing

Haaretz.com, the online edition of Haaretz Newspaper in Israel, offers real-time breaking news, opinions and analysis from Israel and the Middle East. Haaretz.com provides extensive and in-depth coverage of Israel, the Jewish World and the Middle East, including defense, diplomacy, the Arab-Israeli conflict, the peace process, Israeli politics, Jerusalem affairs, international relations, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, the Palestinian Authority, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, the Israeli business world and Jewish life in Israel and the Diaspora.

© Copyright  Haaretz. All rights reserved