Feeling tricked by subscription!

I downloaded my du statement for October 2016 and was astonished to see a bill for Dh205. So, I looked at it in further detail and found that they had mentioned I had subscriptions amounting to Dh49. So, I went to the main du office in Abu Dhabi and met with a customer service agent. I tried explaining that I had not subscribed for anything, but they did not believe me. Then, I went into a room that had a large screen and video conferenced with one of the du billing employees. He told me that I had downloaded some applications from the app store and that some advertisements had popped up, which led to me clicking the ‘subscribe’ button. He also told me that sometimes, these advertisements automatically subscribe people for a service when they click on it. In any case, I did not accept what he told me. He was irritating, as he kept talking like I was in the wrong.

The representatives told me that there was nothing they could do for me, and that I would have to pay for the subscription, but that they had unsubscribed the subscription, so going forward, I would not be billed again. I paid my bill and told them that I would share my story.

If, by some luck, an advertisement suddenly pops up and you click to close it, is it going to subscribe you to that service, without even sending you an SMS? Well, that’s plain fraud, if you ask me.

Why is du not doing anything to solve this issue of false subscriptions, which is causing customers to pay for services that they do not even know about?

From Mr Mohammad Khalid Flaifil

Abu Dhabi

The management of du responds:

In response to Mr Flaifil’s complaint, we have investigated the incident and our team has confirmed that the charges resulting from the customer’s subscription to third party services are valid. The customer was informed about the details and on the methods available to avoid such incidents in the future. The case is now closed and the customer is satisfied with the outcome.

(Process initiation: November 23. Response from organisation: November 28. Completion process: December 14.)

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