Dodgy AIS billing

[iforget]

I just had a helpful email conversation with a very helpful AIS help desk person.

 

I asked why it was that the bill for my B488/month package came to B595.99 - an extra 22%.

 

I was told that it was partly because I had sent 15 SMSs at B3 a time - not part of the package. Fair enough. And then there was VAT of B38.99.

 

But I was also charged B24, he explained, for 'calling stickers'. What?

 

The guy explained, 'Calling Sticker is the service that you can send cute sticker upon your call when calling to the destination number. If you don't need to apply it anymore, please kindly cancel by press *499*1# and dial to unsubscribed this service.' Done. Immediately.

 

So AIS is charging people for a cute stickers service they probably don't want and may not even realise they are getting (if they don't pay close attention to their bill and ask a bunch of questions).

And check out the math: AIS (according to Wiki) has 35 million subscribers. Multiply by B24 a month and that's revenue of just over 10 billion baht a year from Cute Stickers. Jeez.

 

In addition, I was apparently charged B90 for the privilege of sending SMSs, for which I was already paying B45.

 

Someone seems to have felt ashamed, though, because (the helpful chap explained) 'You have sms subscription which cost you 90 baht but call center has adjusted this expenses for you 90baht. '

Sure enough, B90 had been knocked off the bill. Hmm.

 

I'm off out of ThiaVisa, and logging on to my broker to tell him to buy lots of shares in AIS. Better value than cute stickers, I reckon.