Comments on: Are Mobile Companies Using Deceptive Marketing In Pakistan?

By: Amir Khan

Amir Khan — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 10:25:18 +0000

Another hike in tarrif, I believe that majority of customers are unaware of, the increase in GST from 15 % to 21 %, which has further resulted in increased call rates.
I wonder why the present government is trying to snatch away this facility from the poor that was abudantly provided to people by the previous government. OR we are all fool?

By: nasreenqureshi

nasreenqureshi — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 22:08:39 +0000

i am a artist i want to come in any advirtisement plz send me your contact number ore any website i can come in your any advirtisement any mobile company like nokia or sonyercson or samsung

By: State of Telecom Industry in Pakistan » Falling Quality Of Service in Pakistan Mobile Telecom

Mon, 24 Dec 2007 14:25:48 +0000

[...] to keep spending. Look at where we stand now. One has to pay for a customer service call. The ads are misleading. There are hidden charges. Wrong billing is common. Calls get dropped. I can go on and on but you [...]

By: Babar Bhatti

Babar Bhatti — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 15:00:30 +0000

Sohaib, Binary-Zero, Rizwan, Adil and Inspirex,

Thanks for sharing your views. All the comments here show that this is a real issue about which something needs to be done.

I agree that we desperately need strong consumer advocacy groups in pakistan which can work closely with authorities (PTA in this case).

By: Inspirex

Inspirex — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 04:56:14 +0000

Id agree with Shoaib. There is a dire need of consumer advocacy groups in pakistan, but sadly there is none. Telecoms rank highest amongst the ambiguous advertisers lot, and tragically there is no regulatory control over their advertising and marketing strategies, in which they take shameless liberty of the “fine print”.

In Pakistan, no advertising sector is regulated, except for ads by Asset management companies which manage and sell mutual funds. Not even banks. I have had the honour of drafting the code of ethics for Asset management companies but the only reason that happened was because they were headed by Chartered accountants and amongst the new breed of CEOs were regulators themselves.

There has to be a need from within the telecom operators to put an end to deceptive advertising.

By: Adil Muhammad

Adil Muhammad — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 15:05:21 +0000

I agree with Rizwan, its the responsibility of regulartory people, because in capital market, company interest is to make more and more money, and if they have open market like Pakistan, where there are no rules, that become heaven for these multinational companies, and they get the licenese to do whatever they wanted to do.

By: Rizwan

Rizwan — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 08:37:42 +0000

Ideally the responsibility should be on regulatory authorities, these tactics have been tried and tested in west, luckily in west they have regulatory bodies, judicial system and common sense which results in clamping down on this very quick. In Pakistan we do not have all three, therefore the advantage is with who ever can take the advantage. I am not totally disharted as at least there are few handful sites like this which are at least pointing out concern and this is the right thing to do.

By: binary-zero

binary-zero — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 06:30:12 +0000

Its a general topic, you may have herd a UBL scheme for iPhone gift few months ago when every one know its illegal to have iPhone (apart from technical issues) and no body sued them in consumer courts :)

believe me if we had a correct judicial system in wich you can sue a company like in USA on a general thing for millions - this all crap in these companies will go away and they would start acting like professionals.

By: Sohaib Athar

Sohaib Athar — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 22:34:03 +0000

Very true, with a few of the billboards that I have seen, there’s no fine print.
The * just says “Conditions Apply”. Another ad touts all night FREE calls with the fineprint of something like 24 Rs per day, which translates to around 1000Rs. per month.
A few months ago, there was a discussion on such deceptive marketing practices on the marketing-360 group @ Yahoo, which is a gathering of advertising pros, among other people. I think there’s a consumer act about such practices too, though I’m not a lawyer. Maybe someone will get really frustrated and take it to court some day.