is this legal?

[kilk]

Hi All,

I just got an sms (I assume from Telkom):

"Dear Customer, for your convenience, Telkom will increase your monthly spend limit to R300. This will make it easier for you to purchase additional data bundles or stay connected with friends and family just in case you deplete your inclusive benefits during the month. If you do not want your spend limit to be adjusted, simply reply "NO" to this SMS, within 48 hours. T's and C's apply."

This feels like very bad practice to me. Is this legal? What if I was out of the country, my phone had died, I was out of reception, etc. Then I might not have gotten this sms, and my account limits would have been increased without my consent.

I have posted to Telkom's facebook wall:
https://www.facebook.com/TelkomZA/posts/803261906437541

But, they don't seem to understand my concern, replying: "Hi, please inbox us your account or telephone number, we will look into it and provide feedback. ^RY". It has nothing to do with me or my account. This is a concern I have with the legality.

Is it just me, or does this feel wrong to you as well?

Cheers,
Dave.

 

[envo]

If Telkom is a registered financial services provider, they're subject to the laws governing it.

However, they're not giving you credit, or charging interest on such credit facilities. So most probably they're not subject to those laws.

The spend limit is what they use when dealing with customers with bad credit records, to limit their bad debt in their books with possible non-paying clients. This is subject to post-paid clients mostly.

For example, you can't run up a bill of R34000 by accident (or just because you're stupid), because they stop your service after R300 and alert you.

I think the fact that they have spend limits is great, because if it was MTN or any other provider, they'll just send lawyers out for their R34000 worth of data bill you racked up.

 

[kilk]

I agree that having spend limits are very good. I think its fairly risky not to have one on a contract.

I get all the min's and data I need on the contract I am on, so I very intentionally put in a tiny spend limit when I started the contract. I think it was R100. I never use this, and that R100 buffer was there only for emergencies really.

What I find surprising is how they can increase that spend limit (what feels like) without my consent. A lack of a reply on my behalf is not the same as explicitly saying yes. This should be opt in, not opt out I feel.

If the sms I had received was the other way around: "we offer you the option to increase the limit, reply YES to do this." Then that would be brilliant.