I do the books for my brothers business and recently I noticed his Telstra mobile phone charges had risen considerably . I phones Telstra and was advised that he was being charged for a "premium SmS service " by a company called Open Market Pty Ltd . I sppke to him and he had not opted in or subscribed to them so I phoned Telstra . OpenMarket Pty Ltd 's phone number is 1300 760 083 by the way.
Well , Well Well, what a shock I got when I spoke to them . They know of these scammers and are actually charging for them . If you get hit on your bill from Telstra phone them on 13 22 00 and insist you get a refund . Refer to the TIO if need be to shake them up a bit. . I got back $67.50 . Read the following links from Telstras own ācrowd support forumā and others to see how deep this problem runs . I am a member of the Telstra forum .
The numbers will show as starting with 19 on your bill . Remember to opt out of Open Market Pty Ltd phone number 1300 760 083 before phoning Telstra for a refund .
I have included a link to a Premium SmS barring service through Telstra
I am a member of the Telstra online crowd support forum and all Telstra customers who have been affected by this scam are urged to notify the ombudsman . Were Telstra getting a ākick backā from this scam . Go figure . Posts are still be added the Telstra crowd support forum as of the 6th Feb 2017 so obviously little has been done to address this rip off .
A friend of ours (yes really) was in a similar situation with receiving billing for a premium service he didnāt ask for.
He cancelled it (opted out) on his phone. It kept comingā¦ He cancelled it, & cancelled it, & cancelled it. It kept coming.
He finally rang Telstra to complain, and ask who it was that was charging him. Funnily, Telstra apparently had no idea and could provide no contact information. When he asked for a refund, Telstra insisted they couldnāt do anything until he cancelled the service. He explained that he had tried unsuccessfully many times. Several call same result going around in circles.
Telstra didnāt want to do anything until my friend said he was going to the TIO. Amazingly, Telstra then managed to organize the refund and somehow cancel the service.
Personally, I would have done it much earlier, but my friend is a dyed in the wool Telstra customer, and a softie. So it took some encouragement to get him to threaten them.
My brother is like that Tamas . Some people just havenāt got that confidence to make harsh calls . This is not the first time Iāve picked up scams on his bills . He just does not seem to be IT savvy. We are all different I guess
Hi,
On our recent Telstra monthly phone bill there is a charge under a section headed purchase which indicates that on a certain date and time in March 2020 my wife made a purchase with the description of āMimi-Me 500cā for a charge of $5.00.
I rang Telstra and after much delay went onto a chat system and finally received an answer as follows:- āThis is a 3rd party charge on your account thatās been purchased through Telstra. We are unable to dispute this charge as it isnāt a Telstra product. Please contact Mini-Me to dispute the chargeā
I have googled Mini-Me 500c and found a number of people have also been charged the same with one link which seems to be a Telstra CrowdSupport. This person reports as follows:-
āMini-Me 500c: a purchase I did not make, did not subscribe to, yet Iām charged for.
I need some form of human help regarding this matter, Telstra online support always lead me to a merry-go round of webpages that does not necessarily help my problem. As at 3rd March 2020, I have been charged by Telstra for a $5 subscription/purchase of airG MiniMe 500c, which I did not even purchase or subscribed to. I have found out other people who had this similar problem dating back to 2015. Any calls to 13 22 00 is a roller coaster of sending me links to support pages that does not even help or is unrelated to the subject. I did not pay this extra $5 in my March and I will not be paying it in my April bill. This is outrageous and I feel that I am being scammed with something I did not even purchase, subscribed to, or even plan to use.ā
I am seeking assistance on how to contact Mini-Me to have the charge refunded.
Thanks for your post which I have moved to a thread with others who have encountered a similar problem. If you would care to read through the posts, you will find suggestions on how to progress your complaint.
Also if you have a look at telstra 3rd party charging court & ACCC telstra complaints you will see that Telstra has a history of misleading customer over 3rd party charging and has been fined $10M, and threatened with a $100M fine if it continues with these practices.
You will also find links to making a complaint to Telstra and to the ACCC.
Hi,
I sent a complaint on this matter to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (OIT) on Thursday April 23 and received a reply from Telstra on Sunday April 26 2020 indicating as follows:-
"Good Morning
This email is in relation to your TIO complaint about incorrect $5.00 charge on your Mobile service.
"I can confirm we have credited this charge today and made sure you are unsubscribed from this service and wont be billed for it any more.
We have notified the TIO the outcome of this case too and closed this matter."
It seems that as soon as a complaint is made to TIO that Telstra jumps into action to resolve it and provides a satisfactory resolution. Its a shame when I spoke to a person and on line chat that they simply refused to assist. I suggest if anyone receives no satisfaction from Telstra that they go to TIO.
