Generally, your provider will issue a non-itemised bill for the offered service.
You have the right to ask for your itemised bill, whether you are a postpaid user or a prepaid user, to see how the services have been charged. Some operators charge you for the issuance of an itemised bill. As well, you can either receive it in electronic format or access it online.
Compare the detailed bill information with the features of your pricing plan. Pay special attention to:
- whether the number of included national minutes/ SMS/ MMS/ video calls are available on the provider’s network and/or on other national networks,
- tariffs applicable when exceeding the included national/ international minutes /SMS/MMS/ video calls, itemised by usage network (on-net or off-net), or by time intervals,
- validity period of the extra-options, bonuses or other discounts granted,
- usage order for the included minutes/SMS/MMS/video calls,
- roaming tariffs applicable, if you have used the roaming service.
Bear in mind:
- you must pay the bill despite whether you receive it or not;
- failure to pay the bill in due time may trigger penalties, service suspension or contract termination, while the payment obligations remain valid;
- when your service has been suspended, you may be charged a reconnection fee;
- the cost control service made available by the operators to the users is generally only indicative.
Here are the minimum information your itemised bill for telephony services must contain:
- billing cycle;
- monthly flat rate for your subscription;
- connection/installation/reconnection/disconnection fees, as applicable;
- equipment lease/ provision fees, as applicable;
- other charges for additional services;
- discounts/ free services you have benefited from and how they are granted;
- full list of the voice/video calls initiated and of the SMS/MMS sent, as well as of the received charged voice calls/SMS/MMS/video calls;
- total amount charged, including VAT;
- call billing method; the charging method used by the provider will also be specified, giving at least the time unit used for charging (e.g., by second, by minute etc.) and how each time unit is handled;
- a telephone number where you can request additional information regarding the itemised bill;
- exchange rate applied, as the case may be.
The full list of outgoing voice/video calls and SMS/MMS, as well as of incoming voice calls/SMS/MMS/video calls for which a tariff is charged must contain:
- each called number for each initiated voice/video call and each number to which an SMS/MMS has been sent or from which a charged voice call/SMS/MMS/video call has been received, as the case may be, to the extent the provider can identify this information;
- the date and hour when each voice/video call was initiated, to which an SMS/MMS was sent or to which a charged voice call/SMS/MMS/video call was received, as the case may be;
- duration of each call;
- the tariff for each call made and for each message sent or received, for which a tariff is charged;
- total amounts of outgoing voice/video calls and sent SMS/MMS, as well as of charged incoming voice calls/SMS/MMS/ video calls, differentiated by categories of calls/messages, as the case may be: on-net, off-net by types of networks – to (other) fixed networks, to (other) mobile networks, to certain networks, to numbers within a defined group, international, roaming, to Premium Rate numbers, dial-up calls for internet access;
- The number of minutes/SMS/MMS consumed and, if applicable, carried over from each resource category included in the subscription.
About what, how and where to complain
If you have read the itemised bill and you still have queries, send a complaint to your provider using the means indicated in the Complaint Handling Procedure, a document that you received when you concluded the contract and that is also available on the provider’s website.
The maximum term within which you may challenge the amount of your bill is provided in the contract and it usually spans 30 days from the bill issuance date.
N.B. For each complaint you submit, the provider must give you a registration number.
Warning! Check it in your contract whether the provider allows you to not pay the contested bill/amount until the complaint has been settled or it requests the payment of the whole amount within the due term, being bound to refund the contested amount at the complaint settlement (usually, by discounts granted in the next billing cycle).
If you are discontented with the way in which your provider settled your complaint, you may address the National Authority for Consumers Protection.
In this situation, ANCOM can provide counseling and mediation, but cannot sanction the provider. See the Notify ANCOM section.
Erroneous billing may occur in several situations. The provider’s failure to implement the offer you contracted, due to a human error, may be one of them. Generally, the operators’ exchanges are digitalized, secured systems, their parameters are permanently checked, which significantly reduces the possibility of occurrence of a human error in charging the traffic at the level of the providers’ exchanges. On the other hand, the legal provisions in force do not empower ANCOM either to check the accuracy of the traffic records in a provider’s exchange, nor to request the providers to make available the content of the users’ communications in order to check the billing accuracy.
