Let's explore the fine print

Question: My wife thought it would be a good idea if I, being a senior citizen, had a cellphone to communicate with her and as a safety measure in the event I should be involved in an accident, fall ill, etc, when driving around in or outside town. I agreed with her and we went to get one.

I do not use my cellphone an awful lot; but that does not mean, of course, that I am not comfortable having it with me.

It came, therefore, as quite a surprise to me when I called the other day and got a recording saying: "Very sorry, but your phone has been disconnected due to lack of activity." I had to call a couple of times to make sure that I had dialled correctly and had heard correctly; and I had. The phone had been disconnected.

I find this move by the telecommunications company to be most immoral and impudent and wonder if the law allows it.

Does it allow the companies to sell these items and then disconnect them so that they are inactive at the very moment when you may really need them? Is this not marketing under false pretences?

- CC

PFA: Yours is a classic case of a consumer buying an item without being aware of the applicable terms and conditions. In your case, those terms and conditions would have been on the reverse side of the welcome letter presented to the phone subscriber at sign-up.

The provider of the service has a policy that requires that you add credit to your account within 120 days of the end of your air time or lose access to its network.

Air time is the period over which each card remains valid. A $100 card, for example, has air time of 21 days.

It appears that you were a pre-paid subscriber. As such, your account would normally go through a life cycle of four stages: active, inactive, deactive and expired.

Your phone becomes active as soon as you begin to use it, either to receive or to make your first call using your pre-installed credit. How long the card is valid for before it expires depends on its dollar value.

inactive account

Your account becomes inactive when you have no credit on your call account. Although you are able to receive calls, you are not able to make paid calls but you can call emergency numbers, toll-free numbers and customer care.

You are also able to use your phone to top up your account thereby returning your account to the active state.

You move into the deactive state when your voucher time expires. This can occur even with money on the account. Your account can remain in this state for a maximum of 60 days before it moves into the expired state.

In this state, you can send text messages until there is no money in the account. You can also receive calls, call emergency numbers, toll-free numbers, customer care, and top up your account, but cannot make paid calls.

active state

If you top up, you are moved to the active state and money remaining on your account is added to your new balance.

If you fail to recharge your account before the end of the 60-day deactive period, your account is terminated, you are removed from the network, you lose your mobile number, as well as any balance on the account. You may re-activate your account by purchasing a new SIM pack.

Although some of these arrangements may seem unfair to the consumer, you, the consumer, should protect yourself by taking time to read the documents that come with the item.

They are some-times almost im-possible to read. I know that more than most people.

But, don't be afraid to ask questions when you are spending your money.

From my investigations, it does not seem that the consumer-protection agencies are able to help you in this case.

A preferred course you may take in the future is to compare, in addition to products and prices, the terms and conditions of the purchase. This, too, is money management.

For free counsel on money management and investment, email Oran Hall at finviser.jm@gmail.com.