On our phone bill last month we saw that there was a $79.80 charge for texting 542542 that our 11 year old made on his cell phone. This was a crazy charge (in our opinion) and I went to investigate it. I found out that 542542 is a text messaging site that charges $. 99 per question answered. My stepson was asking questions to this site like, "How do I get a girl to like me" and such like that. Then the company would also send him text messages that mentioned something trivia-like and ask him to text them pack a word to find out more about it.
I called the company to inform them that the person they were soliciting questions from and answering questions from was a minor. The person I talked to sounded very concerned and told me that the refund department would get back to me within 48 to 72 hours. I received an email from the "refund department" (sounds like a silly name to me since from the email I wonder if they ever issue refunds) and was told that they wouldn't refund the money. Actually I was told that back in October, my stepson agreed to the charges and therefore he agreed to the terms and conditions. (Although they never even asked him if he was of an age where he could agree to the terms and conditions.)
I have just researched our phone records and saw that he did have ONE text message in October to them and then he didn't text them again until the end of January. Although I'm not saying he didn't do anything wrong. He did. He lost his phone over this. I have blocked KGB off of his phone as well (as a just in case.)
My husband even contacted a tv station in which the person sent an email telling my husband that he was interested in this and he would contact him early this week for an interview and to see if they can help and turn this into a story... To be honest, I'm not sure what it'll accomplish but I would love for others to see that this company doesn't see any need to be held accountable for not making sure that the person who was texting "YES" to them was at an age where they could be held to their terms and conditions.
I know it was only $79.80 (this month). I think next month will be around $8 since we caught it pretty early on, but what bothers me is their lack of accountablity.
I did learn though that I need to go through my cell phone company and cut off the capability to text any of these type of sites. I just have to contact our cell phone company and ask for the Premium Text Messaging to be taken off of the kids' phones.
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