Abuja – Subscribers on Monday lamented the high costs of unsolicited messages and calls imposed on them by various network providers and urged them to find permanent solution to the issue.
Some of the subscribers in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja said that such messages and calls had become so frequent that it was becoming an embarrassment to them.
Mr Mike Osuji, civil servant decried such messages and calls, adding that subscribers should not be forced to accept what the network providers were imposing on them.
Osuji said: “I want to believe that my view will represent a large group of persons in Nigeria.
“There was a day, sometime last week, when a programme being run on television on this same subject, I was in a vehicle almost everybody in the vehicle condemned the act.
“There was a particular message that was sent to me by GLO informing me that belly fat is dangerous and the message was sent up to 15 times and money was collected for all the messages. It was very annoying.’’
“Government should do something about these messages and calls by finding ways of ensuring that only those who subscribe to such messages and calls get them,’’ he said.
Miss Augusta Amosu, a civil servant
said that the worse culprit “is the MTN network provider, whether you subscribe or not MTN will send unnecessary messages to you.’’
“MTN sometimes forces you to subscribe to these unsolicited messages. If you send a stop message it will not deliver but they will still deduct your money.
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“The government should look into it or the people in charge should look into it as their recharge cards sell the most but the way they are extorting people is not the best.
“So government should do something about it,’’ she said.
Mr Gabriel Orumwense, a businessman called on government to ensure that these network providers stop such calls and messages.
“Even when you don’t subscribe, the network will just call and when you pick it, it is MTN or GLO before you know it they have deducted money from your network.
“So these things are not proper, they should just check it and work on it. Sometimes it is embarrassing somebody.
“Somebody will not expect some messages and he will hear messages and most of the calls are from them and when you pick they start saying different things and your credit will be taken,’’ he said.
Mr Prince Okechukwu, a trader told NAN that MTN had been collecting money from him in manners he was not just aware of.
He said that he did a data bundle and immediately it expired, the network provider automatically renewed it with the credit in his phone without him sending them any message.
“Maybe I do not have money at that period, so loading credit in which I want to make use of and is removed automatically is not right and I called to complain they did nothing about it.
“It is so annoying that they just removed my money without letting me know and then they also will be sending me SMS that my music had been renewed in which I did not subscribe to.
“Well other networks do the same, just like MTN. My advice is that if they want to renew someone’s subscription, the person should be notified first.
All efforts by NAN correspondent to speak with officials at the MTN head office in Abuja proved abortive. (NAN)
