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Comreg dismayed at WAP Overcharging
The communications regulator, Comreg has reacted with dismay at overcharging by Vodafone for WAP services.Wireless Access Protocol - WAP - gives users access to the internet on their mobile phones.
According to Comreg, customers where overcharged by Vodafone on average 25 cent a month, or less than €5 each in total. Overall, the total amount of overcharging came to €2.65m.
In co-operation with Price Waterhouse Coopers, Vodafone has been reviewing it's billing structure and it is understood that under this review, the overcharging became evident.
Vodafone has begun the process of contacting and reimbursing all customers in relation to this incident and it is anticipated that all customers impacted will have been fully reimbursed within the next 48 hours. Each customer will also receive a compensatory payment of 10% of the overcharged amount. Vodafone is advising customers of this issue and is texting or writing to anyone impacted.
Vodafone Ireland CEO Paul Donovan said, “I want to assure our customers of our absolute commitment to even-handed and honest behaviours at all times. We apologise to any customers impacted by this incident, and I want to reassure them that their accounts are being appropriately credited, and that we are applying an additional compensatory payment to recompense for any inconvenience. This issue, which has its origin in system changes that took place over a year ago, was identified through our recent internal review. Given the complexity of the issue, we brought in PwC to assist us in identifying the extent of the problem and support us in calculating the appropriate customer credits. We consider this action to be in the best interests of our customers and our shareholders.
“It is an unfortunate fact of commercial life that human errors can occur in the course of manually inputting into systems. However, if we make mistakes, we are committed to fully addressing them and putting them right. With PwC’s support we are also making changes to our WAP billing processes and deploying additional resources thereby underpinning our commitment to a continuous cycle of process improvements.
“The trust and confidence of our customers is essential to our business. I believe that our compliance to the highest standards of corporate behaviour in proactively identifying and correcting the error - particularly in the absence of any customer complaints - will fully reassure our customers. In reviewing our processes and obtaining independent third-party support for our billing process improvements, we are demonstrating our commitment to ensuring the integrity of our billing procedures and that they operate to a high-quality,” he concluded.
An incident report has issued to ComReg. Customers are being contacted directly by Vodafone, but a freephone number 1800 22 55 88 is also available to deal with any queries.