Call center classics #5: Jamster must DIE!!

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

For those who don't know, Jamster is the company behind those scammy text messaging ad thingies that take several forms, either like this:

FREE RINGTONES! TEXT MUSIKROX TO 45568 TO GET YOUR FREE RINGTONES!

Or in the form of say a TV commercial that says you can find out if you and a potential boyfriend/girlfriend are meant to be together by texting your name and their name to LOVE MATCH at 54993 RIGHT NOW!!

Now to be fair, there are other companies that do this crap, but Jamster is the most notorious.

These services are often heavily advertised as being free or costing nothing more than "standard messaging rates" but in almost all circumstances, you will not only receive whatever gimmick is being advertised, you will ALSO be locked into a monthly subscription at anywhere from $5.99 to $9.99 a pop.

At the call center I took SOOOOOOO MANY calls because of these stupid scummy services.

They always went exactly the same...

"Why is my bill so high?"

"It appears someone on your account signed up for some premium ringtones."

"No! Little Johnny would NEVER do something like that. That's a mistake."

"Oh so he accidentally sent off a text message to get ringtones?"

"Little Johnny doesn't do that! He knows better. Take that off my bill!"

"Are you sure he didn't do it? Because I see here it's been billing for three months now."

"WHAT??!! IMPOSSIBLE!! You people are ripping me off. I want you to credit all those charges back to me right now!!"

"I can credit the charges, but I would suggest you talk to Little Johnny about being more careful about where he sends text messages to."

"My Johnny is not stupid. He knows what he is and is not to do with his phone."

"Well someone caused these charges."

"NO THEY DIDN'T."

"The credit has been applied. Thanks for calling Empire wireless."

These calls were the BANE of my existence, I must have taken, not lying, at least 10 of them a day which would mean several THOUSAND in the entire time I was employed there.

Now of course I fault companies like Jamster for their shady advertising, but my god, there's no reason for parents to be raging douchebags when they call up about these charges.

There's nothing wrong with being upset, but being so angry to the point of THREATENING MY LIFE (yes this actually happened over some stupid text message charges) is going way, way over the line.

[Amajean]

I'm glad I was never that curious about the love thing or wanting a ringtone that much

[barainga]

Now of course I fault companies like Jamster for their shady advertising, but my god, there's no reason for parents to be raging douchebags when they call up about these charges.

But, their special little snow flake would NEVER do anything wrong! Reminds me of a time when little Johnny was getting some adult pictures sent to his phone.

[Mystic]

Ahh, I always thought those things were somehow scams. They are the new 1-900 numbers.

[Sandman]

They threaten your life you should terminate their service.

[PepperElf]

I'm glad I was never that curious about the love thing or wanting a ringtone that much

well the ringtone thing... i like ringtones but these days I just make my own.

[AccountingDrone]

I always thought that the classic clamshell tracphone is perfect for kids. Even if they have no minutes left, they can call 911, they can only burn off the minutes they have actually on the phone, and they are not that expensive it it gets dropped and broken/stolen.

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

They threaten your life you should terminate their service.

Ha! I wish I could.

I nearly called the police on that customer, but since he didn't have a clue where I was located (all I said when he asked was "Eastern seaboard") the threat seemed rather empty. This was a Canadian call center and we dealt with U.S. customers so the odds of him actually carrying out said thread were practically nil.

Did seriously piss me off though. Thankfully my supervisor let me take a few minutes to cool down after that call.

[fireheart]

I think I got lucky...there is/was a website out there called BlueSkyFrog which had some currency called "Bugs"that you could use to purchase ringtones or send free SMS's. (Done both of those a few times) You weren't forced into a subscription service with them either,you'd just get the occasional text. You could earn bugs through quizzes, referring friends or actually purchasing bugs, but you weren't locked into a contract.

They really cracked down on those sort of things a little while ago down here, so the ads about the ringtone providers have gone down heaps. Occaisonally you'll get an ad for the "love" service though.

[DGoddessChardonnay]

I'm glad I was never that curious about the love thing or wanting a ringtone that much

Same here. I can easily make my own ringtones using iTunes and they sound much better than that crap you find online.

As for the love thing, what a joke - not to mention juvenile.

[fireheart]

Same here. I can easily make my own ringtones using iTunes and they sound much better than that crap you find online.

As for the love thing, what a joke - not to mention juvenile.

You can find free "love" compatibility things online. Apparently according to one of them, I was 97% compatible with one particular guy who turned out to be a douchebag upon graduating high school (long story short, he completed Year 12 doing the hardest subjects, failed miserably, tried to apply for the Air Force, failed, didn't have a backup plan. On the other hand, his friend did the same thing, also failed to get into the air force, but went and studied at university. We still chat from time to time)

I have a 91% compatibility rate with my current partner.

As far as the ringtones go, I remember spending at least 30 minutes with my dad trying to make a ringtone without jailbreaking the phone (basically you crop the song down, rename it and then save it as a ringtone). The problem we had was that we hadn't renamed it and because dad had the original song on his phone, it kept recognising it as the actual song. Once renamed, now he has a ringtone.

My ringtone came from a "Funny Ringtones" app and is the Mario Bros theme.

[Dadeo]

I apologise in advance if this is into fratching territory but...

Carriers need to be held accountable for the stuff they allow on their networks. They are enabling this third party billing and making a lot of money but seem to feel no need to take any responsibility for what goes on. I got a huge bill because Kideo had been sucked into these "free" text deals - he did it, I fully admit that but he was twelve. What twelve year old reads, or even understands the fine print for these things. Heck, how many adults even read ( or understand ) the fine print? My (soon to be ex) carrier basically said they have no control over what the texting companies do but they "limit the maximum billing to $50". I called bullshit on them because my bill was more than TEN time that amount. Facebook, on the other hand, completely reversed a couple hundred dollars of charges that went through their billing system and said they would investigate that companies billing practices.

Kideo knew what it was to be roasted in the depths of the Sloar that day I can tell you.

[wolfie]

I got a huge bill because Kideo had been sucked into these "free" text deals - he did it, I fully admit that but he was twelve. What twelve year old reads, or even understands the fine print for these things.

Never mind that - I don't know of ANY jurisdiction in the developed world where a 12-year-old can enter into a binding contract.