Mobile phones are to blame for the increasing numbers of young Australians seeking to declare themselves bankrupt, the NSW government says.
Fair Trading Minister Linda Burney said a survey conducted by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) had highlighted concerns about “premium” mobile phone content and the massive bills being racked up – often unknowingly – by users.
“Suddenly they have got bills of $3,000 to $4,000 because they thought services they were getting in term of downloads and ringtones, and voting on Big Brother, were free,” Ms Burney told reporters.
“In fact it is enormously expensive … it has become an enormous problem.”
“The survey of 1,000 respondents found 75 per cent were “not confident” their mobile phone premium content provider would address their concerns about a high bill.”
I am pretty confident that if I buy a lot of stuff, the company that sold it to me will want money.
Who remembers the cellphones of about 15-20 years ago…
NOT much has changed in charging.. Just different names for it.
Hell my phone bill is $11 a month. That because I not an idiot teen who needs the latest ring tones or vote for some moron on Australian Idiot.
Anyone old enough to declare bankruptcy who 1) is going to be driven bankrupt by a single $3000 phone bill and 2) doesn’t have the fucking sense not to waste their time on custom ringtones and voting on TV shows…well, they deserve whatever they get.
A little social Darwinism is good for the gene pool.
Makes me proud that my country really dosen’t have a lock on stupid teens and others, as some would have us believe. 🙂
Stupid little fluckers!!
Only a total moron wouldn’t understand that they’re gonna get totally screwed by these stupid “hip” ringtones and crap like that!
Seriously, why don’t these stupid jerks read ANY of the fine print in the TV ads that states that its gonna cost them $40+ a month for each of the dumbass services they subscribe to!
Anyone getting into debt this way should have their right to own a cellphone permanently revoked AND be forced to pay the debt off!
#6
Whoa doggy, slow down on the redbull slurppies. This is happening all over the world no need to get yer tata in a twist. teens communicating is not the end of the world as we know it. Whats the frequency Kennith?
8675309
It’s a good thing the multi-billion dollar multi-nation telecom industry has you guys to stand up and be righteously indignant on their behalf… Otherwise who would look out for their interests?
First off… These so called services are scams buried in contracts and misrepresented to novice consumers by slimy snake oil pitchmen. They aren’t even substantial enough to be called services and shouldn’t cost anything beyond the monthly fee.
I know enough to tell Skippy at the phone store that i don’t want Internet access, email, text, etc… I just want a damn phone. And my provider obliged… But I’m not a new kid on the block.
You “capitalists” sing the praises of your hero companies like they are making the world into a shiny utopia. Cell phone providers are thieves and cutthroats. Ripping people off is ripping people off whether it is legal or not.
What every country needs is a “Consumer Union” which can leverage collective power to fight back against scam artists.
I dunno if they can do this in the US. But in Oz, they have TV ads on all the time selling ringtones to kids. The dirty little secret is that when one buys a ring tone, for let’s say $5, what they are really buying is a subscription to a ringtone service. Then they get slammed with more and more ringtones and the associated charges.
I think it is very deceptive advertising. Even me, as a cheap-ass, read the fine print adult, don’t see where this is made clear, or even said.
fuck the war on drugs. we should have a war on cell phones.
Yeah, it’s a tough way to learn that Mr. Cellphone Provider, despite the hip, cool ads on the tube, is not really your friend. Boo-fuckin-hoo, indeed.
when I used to support cellphones (thank gawd I dont do that anymore) – we would get these sort of complains all the time – like, daily.
#10 has the right of it – this thing happens all the time, and its very legal… the provider gets a cut (aka Enhanced messaging/download packages, or whatever its branded as)
Is this because of the freebie culture on the internet that teaches kids to expect free stuff everywhere? Paying for a download? What’s that?
It seems that along with all the inherited debt from previous generations the kids are going to have to deal with, they are running up a good sized tab of their own. Good to see that the Stupid Gene has been successfully passed from generation to generation.
Blame the parents, would you give your kid a credit card with no limit on it? Ringtones are bullshit anyway. My phone rings, it sounds like a phone. Riiiiiiiiinggggg.
There seems to be this attitude that its okay to to say to these people who were ripped off that its a tough lesson to learn… but they just have to deal with it. But there seems to be a great deal of opposition to the idea that people who are ripped off should not be allowed to complain, and that these multi-million dollar companies should not be subjected to any action that says it isn’t okay to rip people off.
I wonder what it is in some people’s mindsets that prefers to attack the weakest party in a dispute… especially when that dispute a) doesn’t even involve the commenter, and b) the stronger party, with its highly educated and very expensive army of lawyers, is in no need of defense.
Not everyone who gets hit with an expensive bill for dubious non-services is an idiot. Many of them simply aren’t savvy yet. They are young. They took the salesman’s word. They made honest mistakes. Why is preying on the uninitiated considered a legitimate business model? Do people like being subservient to big business?
If you are buying a ringtone online and the page says “We are charging yo $5 – do you agree?” and you click “yes” then you owe $5 – and if you do it 100 times then you $500…
But many of these charges are stealthily flown in under the radar and some folks never know they are racking up bills when checking movie listings or sports scores or sending jpgs from their phones.
Yes… It’s “legal”. So maybe not voting for candidates who serve only big business, and not acting like regulation is such a criminal act would be in the better interest of regular people.
Because at the end of the day, many of those outrageous bills are to pay for absolutely nothing at all.
I know I’m tired of being a serf. But as long as everyone around around is happy to act like blissfully unaware lambs marching of to the slaughterhouse, I have little leverage to use to pay a fair price for the few digital services I use.
People have said I’m very angry. Well, I am. I wouldn’t have to be but that the massive horde of consumers aren’t nearly angry enough, I have to take upon myself to pick up the slack.
#18 – I like when you comment cause it usually saves me the time of having to type. In this case, I wanted to add that at least one thing that should be outlawed with these companies is charging you for involuntarily RECEIVING text messages. That’s like charging you for phone calls that you don’t pick up. I HAD to add a TEXT plan for $5/mth just to prevent getting charged over that for text messages that were sent to me without the ability to reject them. Does the cost that the sender gets charged not fully cover the expense + profit to the cell companies for this low tech service? That’s “black mail”!
Like John, I’ve switched to prepay phones or ”burners” as john likes to call them. I ‘ve never looked back!
It’s apparently never too early to teach longwinded teenagers the value of a dollar. Not that it’s all that much these days, but still. Mommy and Daddy won’t always be there to bail you out. Uncle Sam might if you declare bankruptcy, but then you’ll ruin your credit rating for at least seven years.
How to avoid all this? SHUT UP!
#21 – Uncle Sam might if you declare bankruptcy, but then you’ll ruin your credit rating for at least seven years.
The upside of having 18 year olds declaring bankruptcy is that since the Republican controlled shadow government (corporate America’s CEOs, board members, and the stockholders worth 8 or more figures) has sold us out and created a shaky service nation of serfs who hash and bash cheeseburgers at drive through windows for jack shit an hour, none of these kids would have been able to afford a house in seven years anyway.
Every cloud has a silver lining.
Lot of ignorant comments here. Australia has one of the most convoluted mobile phone industries in the world, the company I work for has to track mobile phone plans for costing purposes – last count there were over 700 of them, and they are deliberately vaguely worded and deceptive. Very predatory and poorly regulated.
Don’t most cell phones nowadays play Mp3’s, Real player, and even flash? And don’t they come with a lil chip? I mean who actually pays for ringtones and the like? get it from the net and put it on your chip. Duh!
Also if I had kids I’d get them a pre paid phone for their first phone. Let them learn what it means to pay for things.
#24 – Don’t most cell phones nowadays play Mp3’s, Real player, and even flash? And don’t they come with a lil chip?
Sadly, yes… and all I ever wanted was a phone.
#24:
I have a teenage stepdaughter. She has a pre-paid phone, with a set amount that we put on the phone per month. If she uses it up in the first day, then she doesn’t get to text/call her friends on it until the next month, or until she can pay (or do work around the house) to make up for what she wants added. So she learns what it means to pay for things, she also learns (eventually) to ration what she already has so it doesn’t run out too quickly.