MyAdhan Blog

Link: Pakistan: Telenor charges Rs2,500 for a single SMS

Strange as it may appear, it is a fact that the Telenor billing department in Lahore has sent an itemised bill to a subscriber, S Imran Ahmed, charging him Rs2,500 for a single SMS sent from his mobile phone. The number at which the SMS was sent is 92344701, according to the bill carrying invoice number 53567796-004 dated March 14, 2008.Talking to The News, the aggrieved subscriber said he does not recognise the number at which this SMS was sent. He said the company has also applied 15 per cent sales tax and 11.5 per cent withholding tax on this amount, pushing the price charged for this SMS above Rs3,000. Making matters worse, the company blocked all outgoing calls from his cell number as the payable amount exceeded the maximum allowed limit due to the exorbitant overcharging. Imran stated it is bizarre for the company to send such a ridiculous bill and not to rectify the problem even after a lapse of so many days. He said that there should be no issues in rectifying the problem as the highest rate for a SMS is Rs5 for any message sent to an international mobile number. “May be this SMS has landed at some other planet, constellation or galaxy,” he adds. Telenor customer services people have expressed their inability to remove restrictions on outgoing calls from the subscriber’s cell number till the billing department issues a corrected bill. This may take several days. Till this happens, Imran will have to suffer unjustly for the mistake. Fahad Raza, Telenor’s customers services representative in Lahore tells The News that it’s true that the said subscriber has been charged Rs2500 for a single SMS. However, he said that it happened due to some computer error as Telenor is extensively testing a new service that will be launched soon. He also confirmed that the request to rectify this error has been forwarded by the subscriber more than once. Fahad sympathises with the subscriber and hopes his bill will be corrected and outgoing call facility restored in a day or two.