It would seem rather belated to start complaining about cleverly worded adverts that appear to offer things like mobile ringtones and games for ‘free’, only to sting you with some indecipherable small print after you’ve signed up.
This sort of thing has been going on since fonts were made small enough to be barely legible, yet industry regulator PhonepayPlus has only recently announced that it’ll be keeping a sharper eye on services.
The company has been stirred into action by a series of complaints from consumers, generating an apparent 40% rise in customer dissatisfaction already this year.
Problems seem to have arisen either from companies clearly breaking rules, for which penalties of £291,500 have already been imposed in 2008, or of not ‘outlining clear and accurate pricing and honest advertising’.
A formal review is underway that will look at how to deal with unsolicited texts and the wanton use of the word ‘free’. Teenagers are by far the largest audience for these sorts of promotions, with children’s magazines often used as a medium for advertising.
It borders on exploitation if your key market is either apathetic towards or unaware of the sorts of hidden costs they might encounter, so let’s hope something gets done about it pretty sharpish. – Paul Lester
[BBC]
mobile phone ringtones mobile gaming
Editor and Contributor | Martin Lynch
Contributor | Tamlin Magee
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