KAMPALA, UGANDA- Customers of one of Uganda's newest telecom service provider Warid Telecom have come out to complain that they are being fleeced by the company through unsolicited messages and calls that reduce their credit.
The customers say that the company first calls them through numbers 168001, +151, 0182, 157 and others, and when they receive these numbers, the system starts to automatically deduct the available credit on their mobile phones.
"The moment I received. They thanked me for subscribing to Warid services. The next thing was to realize reduction of my airtime and receiving unsolicited messages from +151 and MaBeat jingles," noted Mr. Jerome Mukasa a Warid customer.
"They also send you messages like your number has been chosen to participate in today's grand prize, send WIN to 151 or else you will lose your participation, of which they charge you for receiving such a message."
Another customer acknowledged receiving the messages almost on a daily basis. She said when she receive the messages, they deduct between Ush50 to Ush500 depending on the message received.
"When they send me the MaBeat jingle, I find my airtime reduced by Ush500. These other messages they reduce by between Ush50 and Ush300," she stressed.
Several customers to such mobile companies are knowingly or unknowingly losing their money through such shrewd means of deducting airtime in unsolicited calls and messages.
When we visited the company's customer care centre in Kampala, the service personnel said, "You should be the one who solicited for these messages or somebody else you share your phone with. We cannot send you messages when you didn't subscribe for them.
"If you want to unsubscribe, load airtime of more than Ush1000 and reply No to every number that send you messages. Each message will be charged Ush500," said the customer service personnel.
When we tried to contact Mr. Shine George, the company's head of products and services, his known telephone contacts were unavailable.
However, Mr. Fred Otunu, the director communications at Uganda Communications Commission, the telecommunications company regulator explained that "it's unlawful and unethical for any telecom company to send unsolicited messages and deduct money."
"Continued sending of messages to any customer should be consent of the recipient with clear subscribing means, with an option to reject or accept a service.
"In conditions where it involves a cost like music, it should not be forced on a client," noted Otunu.
He added that by a company calling someone and automatically subscribing that person to a service is a shrewd means which is unlawfully done and should be investigated.
"We're going to investigate and where necessary enforce this company to refund all customers their money because it's unlawful," he stressed.
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