Have you ever received a bill from your home phone, mobile phone or broadband service provider that unexpectedly cost more than your typical monthly bill? Perhaps you exceeded your standard monthly allowance of calls, texts or data that resulted in an unexpectedly higher than normal bill.
Known as ‘bill shock’, it refers to the negative reaction a consumer can experience when their typical bill contains unexpected charges.
While there are existing protections already in place to help consumers avoid instances of bill shock, there may still be a risk of harm to certain consumers should these protections prove insufficient to safeguard consumer interests in light of a rapidly changing market and consumer behaviour.
ComReg has published on its website a consultation on bill shock to help us to better understand the issue of unexpectedly high bills, and to determine if there is scope to devise any new bill shock measures to help improve consumer experiences and avoid bill shock so that consumers are protected.
We are seeking the views from members of the public, individuals and groups to share those views and experiences, and to let us know your opinion through the consultation process.
If you wish to respond to the consultation, please mark your submission “Submissions to ComReg 19/83”, and send it by post or e-mail before 5.p.m on Friday, 11 October 2019, to:
Retail Consult
Commission for Communications Regulation
One Dockland Central
Guild Street
Dublin 1
D01 E4X0
Email: retailconsult@comreg.ie
The full consultation can be found at this link.
