If your tariff plan provides for metering and accordingly charging the traffic achieved, you should pay attention to all the tariffs mentioned in the contract (standard or preferential) and to the settings of your terminal.
Before you access the internet service, you should check:
- terminal settings (telephone, notebook, tablet etc.);
- how the traffic meters installed in the equipment work (e.g. measuring unit);
- whether you have programs set to automatically connect for updates, regular e-mail check etc.;
- whether the settings of your mobile device allow for an accidental connection to the internet/WAP.
Generally, the cost control service the providers make available to the users is just for your reference.
Caution! If you use a free wireless connection, you should constantly check whether you are still using the respective connection, because your telephone model may allow you to automatically connect to your provider’s network when the signal of the free wireless network fades and, thus, you could incur additional costs.
Bear in mind:
- you must pay the bill despite whether you have received 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;
Your provider will issue a non-itemized 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.
The itemised bill must contain, among other things, information on the number of hours/traffic volume included in the subscription (the traffic limit), as well as the additional traffic achieved.
The itemised bill must contain the following:
- billing cycle;
- monthly flat rate for your subscription and the tariff for the additional traffic, if applicable;
- connection/ installation/reconnection/disconnection fees, as applicable;
- equipment lease/provision fees, as applicable;
- other charges for additional services, if applicable;
- discounts/ free services you have benefited from and how they are granted, if applicable;
- total amount charged, including VAT;
- a telephone number where you can request additional information regarding the itemised bill;
- exchange rate applied, as the case may be.
In addition to the above information, for the mobile internet or for cases where traffic is limited, it will also specify:
- the date and hour when each data session began, the traffic volume consumed/session, the total tariff applied for session/group of sessions, depending on the charging unit;
- the number of hours/traffic volume included in the subscription (traffic limit) as well as the additional traffic generated by exceeding the number of hours/volume of traffic included in the subscription, differentiated by period of day/week when the access to internet was achieved, if applicable;
- the minimum traffic metering unit, as well as the way to round up a session, if applicable;
- the tariff per unit minimum used for traffic metering.
About what, how and where you can complain
If you want to complain to your provider about the billing service, we advise you to consult the Complaint Handling Procedure, a document that must be found on the provider’s website.
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 how your provider settled your complaint, you may address the National Authority for Consumers Protection.
In this situation, ANCOM can provide counselling 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 data 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 provider to make available the content of the users’ communications in order to check the billing accuracy.
