Yahoo Finance Telstra customer gets $707 refund for incorrect charges: ‘Check your account’
The telco was made to pay millions in refunds to thousands of overcharged customers.
Telstra customers are being urged to check their accounts for errors, after one Aussie received a $707 refund for services they were automatically signed up for.
The Telstra customer took to Reddit over the weekend to share the refund and said they had been paying for the unwanted service for more than five years.
“Great start to the weekend, refund from Telstra for premium services auto-subscribed on my account 5+ years ago. Check your account!” the post said.
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The customer told 7NEWS.com.au they had been automatically signed up for a service called Sports Chat. They first noticed the charges after about 18 months and followed it up with Telstra at the time.
“Was on their case for ages. Ended up cancelling. They only just paid me the refund now,” the customer wrote.
A Telstra spokesperson said it was “unusual” the customer’s refund took years to come through.
“We put an end to our customers being stung by unexpected charges by some third parties several years ago by preventing charges for new mobile content subscriptions to our customers’ bills, as well as Premium SMS,” the spokesperson said.
“This customer's case appears to be very unusual and we'll look into what held up giving them their refund.
“If customers see anything weird or unexpected on their bills, please contact us to investigate.”
Telstra told to refund customers
In 2018, the Federal Court ordered Telstra pay penalties of $10 million over its third-party billing service known as “Premium Direct Billing”.
The court found Telstra misled customers and breached the law when it charged them for digital content, such as games and ringtones, which they unknowingly purchased.
Telstra admitted more than 100,000 customers may have been affected and committed to offering refunds to these customers. Later that year, the telco reported it had refunded $9.3 million to 72,000 customers.
Telstra no longer offers third-party content subscriptions.
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