Penampang handphone user in dilemma
Published on: Tuesday, April 23, 2024
By: Sidney Skinner
The subscriber had been to Blue Cubes in ITCC and Suria Sabah (above) several times looking for help with a game app which had found its way into her phone.
A PENAMPANG handphone user has spoken out about the difficulty she has encountered in moving to another telecommunications service provider.
She has been trying to “port out” but claims that her existing telco, CelcomDigi, seemed to be preventing her from doing this.
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JANICE said her request to join the new service provider – sent via short messaging system (SMS) – kept getting rejected.
“I decided to port out after I wound up with an app which has been eating up my handphone credit,” she said.
She said RM1 was deducted every day from her account because of this application.
“I have neither the time nor the interest to play these games. How the app ended up in my phone is a mystery.”
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When she realised what was happening, she sent a message to a five digit number – saying “STOP” – to cancel the daily renewals, per the instructions in an SMS which was sent to her.
For whatever reason, this message was blocked and the deductions have continued unabated, according to her.
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“I related my experience separately to staff at the Blue Cubes in Suria Sabah Shopping Mall and ITCC Mall but none of them were able solve this problem.
“So for almost three months, I have been losing money to a scam operation.”
Owing to this, Janice had elected to change to another service provider.
“I have SMSed multiple port out requests, only to receive a reply from Celcom, each time, saying: ‘Sorry, we are not able to proceed with your request to switch to another provider as we have not received your confirmation.
Please submit a new request by contacting your new provider’.”
She said this happened regardless of whether this request was sent out during the day or at night.
Janice reported these frustrating developments to the new telco but found that there was little that this firm could do.
She admitted that she was “exhausted” by the numerous attempts she had made to leave her existing service provider for the new one.
“I feel it is irresponsible of Celcom to prevent me from leaving the company, considering its staff could not help me deal with the scammer who sent me that app.”
Janice provided Hotline with the pertinent details, including her handphone number, which were forwarded to CelcomDigi.
A spokeswoman for CelcomDigi regretted what had transpired but clarified that it was in no way preventing her from joining the new telco.
“We are in the process of trying to sort out the technical problems which are holding up her wish to port out,” she said.
She said the company’s Suria outlet manager had been in contact with the subscriber continuously since it was contacted by the media.
“A check of our records shows that a supplementary number which was attached to her account initially caused a ‘hiccup’ to the port out process.”
She said the customer had since settled the charges from this other number, as well as the one she was using.
“We have also explained the probability of rejection to the subscriber which she has understood.
“On top of this, we have advised her to inform the other telco of her intention to port out from us and to resubmit the order again.”
The spokeswoman said CelcomDigi had agreed to give her a one-time waiver for the third party SMSes which she had been charged for, as “a gesture of good will”.
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