Premium rate texts prove unstoppable

17 Apr 2008 | 12:47 BST

By Tony Dennis

A PREMIUM rate text service – want-tone club – is giving this particular INQ hack a major headache. Despite phone calls, emails and text messages, the content provider - Tanla Mobile - just won't stop sending the texts.

It turns out that Tanla is the very same company that an INQ reader complained about back in January 2007 here.

One of the problems is that your own mobile network provider – in this case, Orange – has no powers to stop these messages being added to your bill. You have no course of action other than to complain to Phonepayplus (the artistes formerly known as ICSTIS).

Theoretically, you should be able to put an end to the annoyance by texting the word 'stop' to the shortcode which the provider is using, in this case 82600.

The catch is that, in this instance, nothing happens. This also highlights another problem. Official advice differs on the exact form the message should take. Tanla itself says 'stop' should work.
Yet the official advice on the Phonepayplus web site says it should be 'STOP ALL' or 'STOP'.

Anyway, the INQ tried phoning up the number given in the text by Tanla which, for a change, isn't a premium rate service as well. All you get is an automated system which takes note of your mobile phone number and says the messages will stop. But they don't.

So you try emailing the company. A few days later, Tanla's customer support desk phoned up and said the messages have been stopped. The very next day, the three messages – charged at £1.50 a piece, bringing the total to £4.50 a week – arrived again.

The INQ tried to access the bill for this particular phone online but the Orange UK web site has a problem, which we first reported here.

So resorting to the good old dog and bone, Orange finally informed us that, just this month alone, Tanla has charged £18 so far.

We contacted Phonepayplus who informed us that complaints like this have to be investigated thoroughly and take time.
Interestingly, Phonepayplus also informed us that it does have powers to force refunds – which didn't seem to be the case last time we investigated.

It does mean, however, that Tanla can go on charging its £4.50 a week until the wheels finally grind into action. There is one ray of hope, though. If enough people complain to Phonepayplus, it can trigger its 'Emergency Procedure' which will stop the service until an investigation has been completed.

So if enough of you who are suffering at the hands of Tanla/82600 complain via the Phonepayplus web site, then the messages might stop before the INQ's bill reaches £50. µ

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