Crammed Into Your Bill? | The Communication Blog

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Crammed Into Your Bill?

By Jasmine Kabra

If you haven't checked the list of itemized services on your telephone bill lately, you might in for some surprises. There's a good chance that you're paying for bogus services.

Many a times, we end up paying for the service we haven't actually subscribed. Often we see a term VAS (Value Added Services) in our bill. But hardly any of know what all does it comprises of.

"These operations are very sneaky. Someone might call and say, 'Hi there! Are you enjoying the weather out there?' Well, you're being taped, and as soon as you say, 'yes' you're signed up for some phantom service. And if you contest it, some actually play the edited tape back to you."

The rip-off is usually quite small for households, because a five or ten rupees charge is easy to overlook and the customer will continue to pay it, but the big payoff comes with business accounts. An operator may call a temp receptionist with the company and ask if she wants to enter a contest to win a cell phone, or if she can verify that the company is on list subscribing to some service. It makes no difference that the receptionist lacks the authority to verify or add a service. It will show up on the next month's bill along with a myriad of others, and remain there until someone catches their presence.

If it's your name on the bill, you have a right to the full refund. That can add up to a substantial amount of cash, because charges that have gone on for a few years can total hundreds of rupees. If you haven't saved your bills your carrier can trace the charges for you, but don't expect much more.

It is really hard for a common man to defragment all these technicalities. But online assistance like yourbillbuddy.com helps you to choose plans for you with no hassles and thus make your life easier. This service finds the tariff plan most suited to your usage, ensuring that you pay the minimum bill amount.

Gone are the days when you had to fight your way through the confusing jargon of plans and toppings of so many service providers. We currently support the major providers across India - Airtel, Vodafone, Reliance, TataIndicom, BSNL and Loop. To use the service, all you need to do is tell us your usage either by uploading an e-bill or by specifying minimal high level usage data using their Recommendation wizard module.

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