E-Plus is a bastard of a Telco
Let me clarify the title. All Telcos are bastards, but E-Plus is the bastard of the moment in my life. I found the choice of mobile plans in Germany particularly limited. I feel that the german government is not encouraging enough competition and looking after its people, in the hope that the German monopoly (Deutsche Telekom) will have enough capital to invest in other EU countries - and one of the trickle down effects of their lax approach to competition is that the price of telco services in Germany is one of the highest in the EU, despite having the single largest population.
But that's not my primary rant. Before signing up for a mobile plan, I did a lot of research and calculations. It worked out that if I were in Germany for 6 months over a 2 year period, it would be cheaper to sign up to a plan and get a mobile than use pre-paid and purchase a mobile. Unfortunately, 3 months after that, I got this contract in Holland. So - I lived with the loss, but still used my German mobile for SMS' back to Germany as I don't want to carry around a dutch phone in addition to my German and work phones. I've been paying €0.39 for every SMS I send, which is quite phenomenal, but I accept the cost every time I send one. But last month I decided to phone home.. There were some problems with some of the calls - I don't know why - but there was no connection, so I tried a few times, and either succeeded, or gave up trying. I also rang once or twice, but hung up before anyone (or voicemail) picked up. I was very surprised to see that these calls appeared on my phone bill at €0.79/call, because that's not normally what happens. I assumed it was a problem in the way that calls are billed between countries - so I complained, and told them that they were in error. Sure, billing errors happen - but the reason why E-Plus is a bastard of a telco is their off-hand response to my complaint. They came back simply saying, "We have reviewed your bill and it was correctly billed." (in German, of course). I have complained again, telling them that it is not correct, and that charging for services that weren't provided is actually illegal, and I await their response. I dislike that I have to bring the law into complaints - I would hope they would be already aware of it.
It also appears that Germany does not have a telecommunications ombudsman like Australia (or the Netherlands or in fact most civilised countries) so the consumer's only option is legal action. I wonder how many other telcos are similarly charging for non-service. Hopefully this will be resolved, and they will fix their billing issue - I intend to test it again.
If they give me a hard time (or fail to point me to a section of their contract which states they can bill me for uncompleted calls, which I'm fairly confident doesn't exist and would be illegal if it did) then I think my next step is to accuse them of breaching the terms of the contract and instruct them not to direct debit any more money from my account, and ask for the address to which I should ship the phone and SIM card. If they then withdraw money, I will have an additional basis for a legal case. I can also complain to the EU regarding deceptive billing practices.
Update: E-Plus, while not admitting any billing errors, has given me credit for the phone calls. I think I'll contact the EU anyway. I realise it's most likely the Dutch telcos' fault for charging for the uncompleted calls, but I'm not a customer of the Dutch Telco, so it's up to E-Plus to keep them honest.