The mobile phone operator Vodafone was fined 50.000 LEI by the National Consumer Protection Authority for incorrect commercial practices. What this means ? Well, Vodafone somewhat restricts its customers to some prepaid offers, imposing the condition that "nthe number of minutes of initiated calls should NOT exceed by 500 the number of minutes received".
Basically, if a customer calls too much in another network and is not called back, Vodafone restricts their access to national calling and that's where the discussion ends until the option is renewed. The situation is of course similar to last year when Telekom restricted some Vodafone numbers due to the large number of calls made to them, but then no fines were applied.
The fine of 50.000 LEI applied to those from Vodafone is insignificant compared to the company's receipts and of course it will not stop them from acting in the same way in the future. However, it is good that ANPC raises an alarm and shows us that some complaints are not forgotten by the drawers, and those from Vodafone should review their attitude towards customers.
On this occasion, I urge you to submit complaints to ANPC every time you consider that a telecom operator is treating you unfairly.
The National Authority for Consumer Protection fined the mobile phone operator Vodafone for the use of unfair commercial practices.
The mobile phone operator made available to consumers a series of prepaid offers that included a fixed number of minutes, SMS or Internet access. The offer was valid for 28 days. After analyzing consumer complaints, it turned out that, although they were within the validity period of the offers, the calling services were restricted because they were conditioned by a sufficient number of received calls.
A condition was imposed on the consumers which it was impossible for them to respect, only the professional having the technical ability to monitor the calls received. The same happens in the case of benefits offered when recharging different cards, consumers, in order to be able to use the purchased benefits, are conditioned by the number of calls received.
Another detected irregularity refers to the rechargeable cards that offered unlimited national minutes and SMS. The mobile operator considers that the reasonable use of the service means that the number of minutes of initiated calls does NOT exceed by 500 the number of minutes received. The website through which the merchant promotes its offers for these cards does not mention these restrictions.
By using the word unlimited it is understood that there is no restriction; practically, the professional uses this term only for marketing purposes, consumers taking a transaction decision that they would not have taken in another situation.
For using a deceptive commercial practice, the professional was penalized with a fine of 50.000 lei. The professional was obliged to eliminate the mechanism of automatic restriction of services as a result of the ratio between the number of minutes or SMS sent and those received.
A commercial practice is considered deceptive when a trader hides or offers in a unclear, unintelligible, ambiguous or untimely way, essential information or does not indicate the commercial intention of the practice, if this does not already result from the context, and when , in any of the cases, the average consumer is determined or is likely to be determined to take a transaction decision that he would not have taken otherwise. (Law 363/2007).
Thanks to Radu V.
