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App-slammed!
Mar. 12th, 2012 11:52 amYesterday I got 3 unsolicited text messages from something calling itself "Calc IQ" welcoming me to "Trivia Alerts." This essential service sends you 3 pointless "trivia messages" per month for the trifling charge of $9.99. And you don't even have to sign up - they do it for you! I checked my Pay As You Go balance, and sure enough, $10 had just disappeared.
So I got to spend 15 minutes this morning traversing customer service Voice Mail Hell to get the charge reversed. I also got a "purchase block" on my account, which requires me to verify any purchases online with a special new PIN #. This setup should, of course, be the default. But until you get slammed once you don't even realize it's an option. When I got my purchase PIN# email it was identifed as "Parental Control." Which suggests that they probably wouldn't even offer this blocking feature if it weren't for the ongoing hysteria about children being corrupted by online smut. Yay for hysteria.
Apparently if you don't have this feature turned on, any 3rd party that feels like it can simply add a charge to your bill without asking you. I'm surprised I haven't had this happen sooner. Oh well, all's well that ends well. I still got charged $.60 for the text messages, but it didn't seem worth arguing about getting those charges reversed. Besides, I did learn how to defend myself if I'm ever attacked by an alligator.
So I got to spend 15 minutes this morning traversing customer service Voice Mail Hell to get the charge reversed. I also got a "purchase block" on my account, which requires me to verify any purchases online with a special new PIN #. This setup should, of course, be the default. But until you get slammed once you don't even realize it's an option. When I got my purchase PIN# email it was identifed as "Parental Control." Which suggests that they probably wouldn't even offer this blocking feature if it weren't for the ongoing hysteria about children being corrupted by online smut. Yay for hysteria.
Apparently if you don't have this feature turned on, any 3rd party that feels like it can simply add a charge to your bill without asking you. I'm surprised I haven't had this happen sooner. Oh well, all's well that ends well. I still got charged $.60 for the text messages, but it didn't seem worth arguing about getting those charges reversed. Besides, I did learn how to defend myself if I'm ever attacked by an alligator.
