Wednesday, January 26, 2005

All Praise The TIO.

Last week I received a strange and unsettling invoice for $69.50 from a telecommunications company, supposedly for having accessed a pay-per-view website. Now, I'm no angel, and I do admit to [ahem] maybe having, you know by accident, once or twice, viewed skanky porn sites... but I knew for sure that I had not knowingly accessed a pay-per-view site. I mean, frankly I'm both kinds of cheap and certainly wouldn't pay for anything I could find free elsewhere.

Soooo, I did a bit of surfing on the interweb super highway net and went to the telecom company's website. They had all sorts of crap on there about how the charges were likely incurred, including the helpful suggestion that even if you thought you didn't access a pay-per-view site you probably once clicked an 'OK' or 'Enter' button without reading the fine print (which I guess was probably hidden somewhere in transparent 4 point font most likey), or the even better suggestion that maybe someone broke into your house to use the internet, because people do that.

I figured I would get nowhere talking to these guys and they seemed very suspicious to me, so at my room mate's suggestion I sought out the site for the Australian Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO). The TIO handles all complaints against telecom companies in Australia. I spoke with a lovely chap called Bryan (who also sounded vaguely hot) and they sent a letter off to the telecom company on my behalf.

Not surprisingly I received a letter two days later from the telco to say they had dropped the charges and would bar my phone line from the site, so that I could not incur further charges. Fine with me guys, bar away.

Bryan and the TIO, I love you guys! Kisses!

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