How Telkom Kenya is stealing airtime from unsuspecting clients

Mugo Kibati – Chief Executive Officer – Telkom Kenya

Telkom Kenya, the ever broke Telco has devised new ways to fleece its clients.

The few clients who have stuck with the mismanaged Telco that will never break even found themselves forcefully listed on a premium text service number 70197 that charges Sh10 per text received.

Now, laws stipulate that such services must have a subscribe and unsubscribe instruction.

“Telkom subscribes you to this service, but there’s no way to unsubscribe unless one calls the customer care or writes to them’, said a client.

To make matters worse, one has to wait hours to be unsubscribed.

This is wrong and Communications Authority of Kenya must punish this Telco for this.

READ:

The evidence

Some clients have shared their frustrations with the Telco over the premium service.

Despite Telkom promising the one has been unsubscribed from the service, many still reported that they kept receiving messages and airtime got depleted.

This is theft and unethical practice from @TelkomKenya . Why deduct my airtime and no such subscription has been made ? Your customer care department confirmed termination of this illegal subscription to +70197 but nothing seem to happen ! What is this scam ?
— Bogonko (@silasbogonko) July 9, 2021

Why doesn’t it have an unsubscribe mechanism like other premium services from other Telcos?