An elderly man was locked into a 67-month mobile phone plan costing six times his usual bill for unneeded services, according to Hong Kong’s consumer watchdog, as it warned that elderly residents were among the vulnerable targets of those using predatory telecommunications sales tactics.
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The case was one of thousands of related complaints received by the Consumer Council over the past two years, with issues ranging from elderly customers being oversold services to unfair auto-renewal clauses and long refund delays.
The victim of the phone plan case, the 80-year-old father of a complainant, had previously been paying less than HK$100 (US$12.74) per month for his mobile service.
However, after a visit to a physical branch of “Company A” in August 2024, he was persuaded to sign up for a 67-month contract with a monthly bill of about HK$600, including a basic fee of HK$478, an HK$18 “tunnel fee”, and several redundant add-on services, according to the watchdog.
The extras comprised a secondary SIM card, two data roaming pass packages, two voice and data roaming packages, and four cloud storage services that would cost an additional HK$60 per month after a three-month free trial, unless cancelled.
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Suspecting his father had been deliberately upsold by staff – especially since the elderly man neither needed a secondary SIM card nor roaming services as he did not travel – the son sought an unconditional contract termination or to switch to a more suitable plan.