Refunds For Expired Pre-paids

[george]

Refunds for expired pre-paids

Service providers will be prohibited from invalidating pre-paid cellphone cards that are not used up within the validity period, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) said yesterday. This rule is set out in two drafts of a new regulatory framework on standard contract and pricing structure for telecom services, to be approved by the NTC board and published in the Royal Gazette, commissioner Sudharma Yoonaidharma said.

Under the new regulatory framework, the first to cover all telecom service agreements since the Telecom Business Law took effect, service providers are not allowed to unilaterally invalidate pre-paid cards. More ...

[ovenman]

This sounds like more trouble than it's worth. Imagine the hassle involved in collecting the remaining unused satang from the prepaid number you let lapse. The way this reads, one thing I can also see coming is a monthly service charge for maintaining a prepaid number, a portion of a prepaid refill card's value going towards number maintenance, or something similar.

[stumonster]

I would like number portability. the expiry date is not an issue - I have a year on my card , but I would like to be able to change providers.

[ovenman]

I would like number portability. the expiry date is not an issue - I have a year on my card , but I would like to be able to change providers.

I'm guessing that AIS would really dislike having to allow number portability.

[sriracha john]

"Service providers will be prohibited from invalidating pre-paid cellphone cards that are not used up within the validity period"

Am I reading this right? Are they saying it required a governmental regulatory commission ruling to stop providers from cancelling my number (that I "topped" up with a card and that I still had money on, but hadn't used all of it) BEFORE the time period expired? :D

and that prior to this ruling, they could?

<deleted>??? .... talk about corporate greed and arrogance....

"bend over..."

Edited May 24, 2006 by sriracha john

[britmaveric]

Interesting, so leave credit on sim card and it will never expire? Seems to me this will create a shortage of numbers after a bit of time.

[Toni]

"Service providers will be prohibited from invalidating pre-paid cellphone cards that are not used up within the validity period"

Am I reading this right? Are they saying it required a governmental regulatory commission ruling to stop providers from cancelling my number (that I "topped" up with a card and that I still had money on, but hadn't used all of it) BEFORE the time period expired? :D

and that prior to this ruling, they could?

<deleted>??? .... talk about corporate greed and arrogance....

"bend over..."

YES, and this happened not only in Thailand! In Europe all over! If I remember well Germany was the first country where the law forced the providers to keep the numbers valid as long as there remains money.

[Netfan]

I bought a 300 baht 1 2 Call card last week, and made the grave mistake of not having the 7-11 girl load it. got it home and scratched it, and the number couldn't be read. Called AIS, was told "just bring it back to where you bought it". Next day (big mistake) 7-11 looked at the card and said "no". Called AIS and was told by a very serious and well-meaning customer service woman "You live in Prachuab? Take card to service center in SONGKLA. They will exchange it for you". All you can do is laugh, i guess.

[ovenman]

YES, and this happened not only in Thailand! In Europe all over! If I remember well Germany was the first country where the law forced the providers to keep the numbers valid as long as there remains money.

If the implication of this is that prepaid telephone numbers never expire as long as some value is left on them (and that's not at all clear from the news story), trust me, that won't happen. What will happen is exactly as I posted earlier, a monthly service charge will be imposed on prepaid numbers that will steadily whittle away any remaining balance on otherwise dormant accounts.

[sriracha john]

I wouldn't expect an unlimited expiration date on the money put into the number through a card... normally it's a reasonably lengthy enough period of time that it's used up prior to expiring anyway, eg. 30 days for a 300 baht card.

The problem I see in this news is that, if the provider decides to, it could cancel the number, by invalidating the pre-paid monies, BEFORE, as in my example, that 30 days is up.

????

[Toni]

I wouldn't expect an unlimited expiration date on the money put into the number through a card... normally it's a reasonably lengthy enough period of time that it's used up prior to expiring anyway, eg. 30 days for a 300 baht card.

The problem I see in this news is that, if the provider decides to, it could cancel the number, by invalidating the pre-paid monies, BEFORE, as in my example, that 30 days is up.

????

that is exactly what they do (did?) in Indonesia, Singapore, the Phils and Germany for example untill someone or some organisation made a courtcase in Germany because of this theft. The consequence was also that you lost your number! Our solution was to leave the telephone behind with (business) relations to have it topped up frequently.

[sriracha john]

I wouldn't expect an unlimited expiration date on the money put into the number through a card... normally it's a reasonably lengthy enough period of time that it's used up prior to expiring anyway, eg. 30 days for a 300 baht card.

The problem I see in this news is that, if the provider decides to, it could cancel the number, by invalidating the pre-paid monies, BEFORE, as in my example, that 30 days is up.

????

that is exactly what they do (did?) in Indonesia, Singapore, the Phils and Germany for example untill someone or some organisation made a courtcase in Germany because of this theft. The consequence was also that you lost your number! Our solution was to leave the telephone behind with (business) relations to have it topped up frequently.

Thank you. I thought I was just being ignorant and not reading or understanding this all correctly. Now that I know I wasn't just being stupid.... in this case, anyway....

all I can is ....

That's fcuked up!.... That's like my landlord saying I have to move out after I've paid the rent AND I haven't violated the lease in anyway..... <deleted>??

Who the frick do these companies think they are? It's robbery....

[slimdog]

The way I understand it is:

Presently, providing a (prepaid) number has credit on it then the user keeps the number. If the (prepaid) number has no credit, then after a period of time (I believe 3 months) then the number goes back into the telephone companies pool of available numbers for new users.

Having a period of validity on each credit means that even if a phone is never used, once the validity expires and the 3 month time period has been used up, they can recycle numbers.

Having no period of validity would mean that even if someone lost their phone, the number could not be used by anyone else. Hence the proposal that a monthly charge can be made by the telephone company. So even a lost phone's number would eventually be able to be recycled and put back into the pool.

The latest proposal that I heard was a charge of 10 baht per month per number (regardless of whether the number was in use) payable to the NTC. This figure was proposed to stop telecom companies from hoarding numbers. Whether or not this figure would be passed onto the user would be upto the companies.

[Toni]

I wouldn't expect an unlimited expiration date on the money put into the number through a card... normally it's a reasonably lengthy enough period of time that it's used up prior to expiring anyway, eg. 30 days for a 300 baht card.

The problem I see in this news is that, if the provider decides to, it could cancel the number, by invalidating the pre-paid monies, BEFORE, as in my example, that 30 days is up.

????

that is exactly what they do (did?) in Indonesia, Singapore, the Phils and Germany for example untill someone or some organisation made a courtcase in Germany because of this theft. The consequence was also that you lost your number! Our solution was to leave the telephone behind with (business) relations to have it topped up frequently.

"Thank you. I thought I was just being ignorant and not reading or understanding this all correctly. Now that I know I wasn't just being stupid.... in this case, anyway....

all I can is ....

That's fcuked up!.... That's like my landlord saying I have to move out after I've paid the rent AND I haven't violated the lease in anyway..... <deleted>??

Who the frick do these companies think they are? It's robbery....

"and not reading or understanding this all correctly"

no, because it is a unbelievable story for a normal thinking human and that's why they won the case in Germany