Do radio stations have to make clear

FANDABBY

the cost of sending a text to them.My local radio never charged until last month,you just payed your network charge 12p in my case.Now when you send a text you recieve a reply which costs 25p.Total now 37p.What has annoyed me is that no mention is made of this new charge.The show in question relies on people texting and 100s do every night,5 night a week.A profit of thousands a year.

thefirs

Yes, I agree this is a matter that a regulator should step in to examine. Another pernicious, disguised charge with these texts is that they don't appear to be included in your "50 free sms" bundle.

I see lots of parallels to 0870 charging here. Anyone in the know over cash-backs to the receivers of these short-code messages?

zx2011

First of all you should take it up with the radio station.

Then you can take it up Icstis(www.icstis.org.uk) for mobile phone text shortcodes prefixed with 2, 6 or 8 that are 4 or 5 digits in length.

gromituk

I wonder the same about all this "support London's 2012 bid - text xxxx" to a short code that spammed all over Tube trains and stations. No mention of the cost there, but I'm sure a short code is a premium amount.

andy88_2

thefirs wrote:

Another pernicious, disguised charge with these texts is that they don't appear to be included in your "50 free sms" bundle.

This is true. I hardly ever send text messages, but I was surprised to be charged 12p for a message to Radio 5, when I wouild have expected it from inclusive ones.

As people are suggesting, it must be due to revenue sharing. The real network cost of a text message should be about 1/2p

FANDABBY

Thanks for the replies,I'm sending a letter off tomorrow and will let you what happens.

DonnyDave

No they don't!

I got stung for 25p by Galaxy 105 a while back with their short code. I only found out when I received my bill!

The charge was for a message being received, so I paid 35p in all (including 10p for normal network charge). I complained to the Radio Authority (now part of Ofcom). They replied saying that ICSTIS' regulations didn't require pricing information for premium texts under 50p, and AFAIK this also applies to 090 numbers which cost less than 50p per call.

Apparently they did say that in the terms and conditions on the website, and as a result of my complaint made it more clearer. They also allowed me to opt out of receiving the premium rate reverse billed message.

They now have an 0870 phone number for the studio as well! I haven't listened to them much since then and I won't be texting any more businesses, whether they have short codes are normal 07 mobile numbers.

These messages are a licence to print money. What is to stop rougue companies just spamming a load of numbers at random?

jockettuk

our local radio station has a normal mobile number for comps etc .. the moment they change is the moment i stop listening ..