Telecom firms accused of cheating customers
Telecom firms have been accused of cheating their clients through bogus telephone transactions where clients lose huge sums of money in double charges and unsolicited messages.According to documents seen by New Vision, a client made a telephone call using a Uganda Telecom (UTL) line last November and ended up being charged twice for the same call. The documents show that when the call was ongoing, another call was initiated using the same numbers, resulting into double charging. “I don’t know how this came about. It looks like they have been cheating me for long because previously, I would just pay the bill without checking it,” said the subscriber who preferred anonymity.Ali Amir, the UTL managing director, denied the accusations. “Universally, customers complain about being overcharged when they are on prepaid services because they lose track of consumption of services at time of usage. This is a common issue across all networks in the world, not just in Uganda,” he said.On unsolicited messages, Amir said UTL has a database of customers who have agreed to re¬ceive and those who have opted out of receiving messages about product offerings. Subscribers have also accused Airtel and MTN of continuously cheating them through making unauthorised deductions off their airtime. Read more