A word of warning for those with DTAC post-paid SIM cards. My wife started receiving SMSes in Thai that came from "Nation". At first we thought they were just spam but when I looked at a few, I realised that they were all different messages so I surmised that they were probably the news headlines.

When the bill came yesterday, I noticed a B49/month charge for this subscription to the Nation so I called the customer support to find out what was going on. I was told that they had sent us some sample messages and then sent us a message (in Thai) telling us that if we did not want to subscribe, we should respond. Otherwise, they would just set up our subscription and start charging! Of course, this message came through as just another Nation message and was deleted... I got them to cancel the subscription and refund the money but I thought it was a bit cheeky to automatically subscribe us for something unless we told them otherwise!

I understand that I'm in Thailand and therefore messages will be in Thai but are they not able to set up their systems so that it doesn't automatically sign me up for things?! Sample messages are fine but then just stop the subscription if I don't contact and give my approval for the charge...

If you are receiving unsolicited messages on DTAC, watch your phone bill to make sure that you're not being charged for them!

Thanks...I've been getting spam SMS in Thai and was just deleting them. I'll take a closer look at teh bill next time.

...I thought it was a bit cheeky to automatically subscribe us for something unless we told them otherwise!

Not just cheeky, but definitely illegal, which is why they refunded you immediately and without a murmur when you asked for it.

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Maestro

...I thought it was a bit cheeky to automatically subscribe us for something unless we told them otherwise!

Not just cheeky, but definitely illegal, which is why they refunded you immediately and without a murmur when you asked for it.

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Maestro

Well, I wouldn't say that they refunded it immediately without a murmur. The person I spoke to at Customer Service thought she was doing me a favour by cancelling the subscription and it was only when I pushed that she agreed to take off the existing charge. I'll find out next month if she actually did take off the charge or just said she would to get rid of me...

Hmm.... I think we have all received messages in Thai having no clue what is.

now I wonder whether us using pay-as-you-go deals can ALSO risk that some of these messages "eat" talk time - and since we never see a bill we might not even know it is happening?

Cheers!