How to take advantage of the less smart...

[Omag 2.0]

One of the Belgian phone-providers gives 10.000 sms ( text-messages) with every new subscription... The 10.000 messages need to be sent in... 3 weeks! If you do read the small print in the commercial... And people fall for this...  :-? This is far beyond decent practice...

[ozzy72]

Don't you have a telecoms ombudsman you can report them to?

[pepper_airborne]

And what if they dont send all of em in 3 weeks?

[ozzy72]

They probably lose them. Mind you for the average teenage student of mine that many SMSs would last a week

[john_uk]

as long as it says they must be send in three weeks then their is nothing you can do, its peoples fault for not reading through the contract when signing up for the deal.

[ozzy72]

The problem is John if the advert is misleading then the company can be prosecuted under consumer protection laws. The EU is pretty tight on this but for my money the British Trading Standards are among the best and toughest out there when it comes to looking after people and their rights (mind you they have a lot of time wasting wallies to contend with as well)

[Omag 2.0]

The plot thickens... I visited the website and now they state you have 30 days + you can only use them when messaging to the same operator... and they aren't the biggest in Belgium, so many people will be conned...

[Travis]

Let's do the math:

10000 sms / 3 weeks(21 days) = 476.19 sms per day

476 sms / 24 hours = 19.83 per hour EVERY HOUR OF EVERY DAY!

[Mushroom_Farmer]

Europe has some tough laws.  In the states it would be perfectly legal as long as the conditions are written in the contract, even if it's in the fine print. Credit card companies, mortgage lenders, auto dealers, etc, all do stuff like that here. It's caveat emptor here. Stupid people don't stand much of a chance.

[john_uk]

@ mark
at the pub i work at, one of my old workmates did worked for tradeing standards and he use to come back with some right good stories on people being idiots... like not reading contracts on car deals and things... just LOL! some of the stories, he praised the mute microphone button otherwise he would of had so many compaints against him for laughing at people phoneing up

Let's do the math:

10000 sms / 3 weeks(21 days) = 476.19 sms per day

476 sms / 24 hours = 19.83 per hour EVERY HOUR OF EVERY DAY!

im pretty sure me and my gf have done that many before............ joke

when i signed my phone contract i read the thing, the woman/thing in the orange shop was surprised that someone read the dam thing.
and orange actualy lie about Dolhpin 35 they say it costs

[chiptas]

Here's a thought maybe we can go and talk to our friends in person for free.I hate mobile phones btw.

[ozzy72]

I hate mobile phones btw

You and me both

[ATI_7500]

I only have prepaid.

Since no one cares about me anyways, a 20

[ozzy72]

I put on 5000 Ft (about 12 quid) and that'll last me from 4-8 months (depending on the time of year). I only have the phone so people can contact me re-work

[Omag 2.0]

Currently I have two cellphones! One is personal, the other belongs to my employer! It's just to much...  ;D