Email billing blunder meant MVNO iD Mobile told 24,000 customers to pay up or have their service suspended
- Reference: 1632924307
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/09/29/id_mobile_email_billing_error/
- Source link:
In an email sent to customers earlier this week, the MVNO warned: "There is currently an outstanding balance of £[xx] on your iD Mobile account. Unfortunately, your service will be suspended until the full outstanding balance has been paid."
It went on to say that suspended services would only resume "once a payment has been made."
[1]
One of those who received the erroneous email told us that iD Mobile hadn't taken any payment so far this month, but that "irate customers" were flocking to Twitter to share their concerns.
We're aware of an issue where some customers have been sent an outstanding balance notification in error. We're working on restoring access to the iD Mobile app so those affected can check their balance as soon as possible. We apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused. — iD Mobile (@iD_Mobile_UK) [2]September 28, 2021
As a result of a spike in activity from phone users trying to sort out what it was they were being asked for, iD Mobile's portal didn't work for some.
[3]BT jittery about Cellnex snapping up UK mobile tower assets
[4]Three UK says its 5G plans are under threat if tower merger with Euro giant Cellnex is blocked
[5]Watchdog slaps down Three's claims to be building the UK's 'fastest 5G network' – again
[6]BT to phase out 3G in UK by 2023 for EE, Plusnet, BT Mobile subscribers
In a statement, iD Mobile – which has 1.1 million customers according to its 2020/2021 Dixons Carphone annual report – admitted their error and apologised.
On Monday evening, an error resulted in 24,000 iD Mobile customers incorrectly receiving an email stating there was an outstanding balance on their account. We have since contacted all affected customers via SMS and apologised for the error.
As a result of the above issue, we experienced an increase in traffic to our app, and this has meant some customers have been temporarily unable to access their account.
Our team are working on this issue, and we expect the app to be available to all customers again shortly. We apologise to any iD customers that have been unable to access the app today, and for any inconvenience this might've caused.
Earlier this month consumer group Which? quoted figures from telecoms regulator Ofcom
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which stated there are more than 80 million active mobile subscriptions in the UK, and the overwhelming majority of customers are with one of the "big four" networks – EE, O2, Three and Vodafone."It's easy to be reassured by a big brand, but virtual networks have to work harder for your money, and do so by offering extremely competitive alternatives," it said. ®
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[1] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YVSNzSaTL50Wq@dkxZokoAAAAEw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[2] https://twitter.com/iD_Mobile_UK/status/1442749484476379140?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2021/09/23/bt_concerned_about_cellnex_deal/
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2021/09/20/three_uk_cellnex_cma_filing/
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/21/threes_asa_fastest_5g/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/15/bt_3g_shutdown/
[7] https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0013/220414/online-nation-2021-report.pdf
[8] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
But...
"It's easy to be reassured by a big brand, but virtual networks have to work harder for your money, and do so by offering extremely competitive alternatives,"
Yes, probably true but if, like us, you have no choice but to use EE as they are the only one providing a signal, what can you do?
If only there was some way of overriding the laws of physics.
Re: But...
https://mbnl.co.uk
Yes, probably true but if, like us, you have no choice but to use EE as they are the only one providing a signal, what can you do?
If only there was some way of overriding the laws of physics.
Three & EE share masts and backhaul across their networks. no overriding physics needed, just jump to Three or an mvno of three or EE.
Re: But...
just jump to Three or an mvno of three or EE.
iD Mobile is an mvno of Three, run by CarphoneWarehouseDixonsPCWorld...
"some customers have been sent an outstanding balance notification in error"
I know that, where email is concerned, it is really easy to fuck up even when you're trying to do things right.
However, it must be said that it would make things simpler if you could compare the recipients actually generated to the list you're expecting before sending out the mailing.
I do not know of any tool that allows you to do that. Of course, you could use Word and generate the mails before sending them off to Outlook, but that is you doing the job. I'm thinking of something integrated in your mailing tool that does the job and flags any discrepancies before proposing to send it all.
Re: "some customers have been sent an outstanding balance notification in error"
Something a bit like running a SELECT statement in SQL before changing SELECT to DELETE?
A mail generator that would inform you that X mails will be sent and log to which emails it will be sent to, so that the data wrangler can look if the number is way off.
But I dobt that that athat would be viewed as a sellig pont. Who poofreads things befroe hitting submite?
It really fucks me off
when a company "apologises" and uses the phrase…
"and for any inconvenience this might've caused."
it should read something like "and for all the inconvenience that we have managed to cause you because we are arseholes"
Just saying