Grameenphone fined for duping a customer with false offer

The government has fined telecom carrier Grameenphone Tk 250,000 for duping a customer into a false offer.

Directorate of National Consumer Rights Protection slapped the operator with the penalty after the end of the hearing of a customer's complaint on Sunday.

The Directorate's Deputy Director Shaheen Ara Mamataz told bdnews24.com that the mobile-phone operator has agreed to pay the fines within five days.

She said the customer - Abdullah Shibli Sadiq - filed the complaint on Oct 13, 2015, over an Eid offer of 2 GB free data with 1GB for Tk 275, which the operator said could be used for 28 days.

When Shibli accepted the offer on Oct 3 that year, Grameenphone charged Tk 325.74, including VAT and SD, instead of the promised Tk 275.

Later, the customer was informed through a text message that the bonus data would expire after seven days and could only be used from 2am to 12pm, not the entire 28 days.

"Shibli's complaint was that the SMS informing about the offer did not mention any condition. It clearly said the using period as 28 days. He contacted Grameenphone Customer Care Centre, but they did not give any solution," Mamataz said.

Shibli wrote in the complaint to the director general of the directorate that Grameenphone baited him with false advertisement and by concealing information.

The details of the incident are available on the Facebook page of the

Directorate (https://www.facebook.com/dncrp/?ref=page_internal&hc_ref=PAGES_TIMELINE&fref=nf).

The complainant, Shibli, will receive 25 percent of the fines in line with the law.

Grameenphone in a statement said the Directorate Committee issued the judgment in favour of the complainant.

It also said it was not ready to comment on the issue before reviewing the verdict.