8-year old girl was charged almost 50,000 baht in phone bill

Parents of an eight-year old girl in Ratchaburi were shocked after they were shown a phone bill amounting to almost 50,000 baht from her daughter’s smartphone for August, including 49,200 baht for one single day.

The parents of the girl, Mr Atthachai Wutthapant and Mrs Banthita Sirikong, lodged a complaint with the Damrongtham centre in Tambon Don Krabuang, Ban Pong district, on Tuesday seeking for help. The couple earlier lodged a complaint with Chom Bung district police.

Mrs Banthita, a textile worker, said she bought a smartphone for her daughter slo she could get in touch with her while she was away from home. She however said she subscribed to the 299 baht/month phone use promotion and capped the phone usage at 1,000 baht/month.

After two months, she said she had never received a notification of phone charge from the service provider until, one day, the service was terminated. Her husband, Mr Atthachai, then went to an outlet of the service provider to pay the phone charges so that service could be resumed.

However, Mr Atthachai was rendered speechless when he found out that the phone bill went up to almost 50,000 baht, with 49,200 baht phone charge for August 22.

It was discovered that the girl phoned in to a reality programme, Academy Fantasia, on August 22.

Thakorn Tanthasit, secretary-general of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunication Commission, said that True Coporation, the service provider, had agreed to waive the phone charges above the 1,000 baht cap.

That means Mr Atthachai had to pay the service provider 1,000 baht phone charges in order to have the service resumed.

Because of this case, Thakorn said he had instructed service providers to keep the phone usage records of all users and must not exceed the capped amount and to inform the users of their monthly phone usage.

Thai PBS

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