JEDDAH, 26 May 2004 — Saudi Telecom subscribers complain that the company’s credit limit facility is hit and miss at best.

The facility allows subscribers to set credit limits ranging from SR300 to SR2,000. If their bill exceeds the limit, the service will be stopped until they pay. That at least is the theory.

In practice, subscribers find themselves billed far beyond their limit, or cut off while there is still leeway. “What then is the point?” they ask.

Muhammad Al-Ghamdi said that he only agreed to his daughter having a mobile phone because he could set a limit. “Her credit limit was SR500 and yet we get bills as high as SR900,” he told Arab News. “The whole point of the credit limit system is to limit the expenses,” he added.

Another father who had allowed his son a mobile on the same grounds was in for a shock. “The credit limit we set was SR300, and the very first bill was over SR800,” he said.

“I went to STC and they told me that this mistake was due to the employee not registering my credit limit order. But why should I have to pay for their mistakes?”

Other subscribers complain that not only do they find their mobile services frozen while they are well below their credit limit, but they receive the notice late so that they get disconnected before being able to pay.

“Sometimes it doesn’t even take 24 hours before disconnection,” a professor at King Abul Aziz University complained. “My credit limit is SR2,000, but I get a notice while I’m still below my limit. My mobile services have been disconnected or frozen repeatedly and when I’ve contacted STC to inquire, I find myself only at SR700,” she said. “It’s so inconvenient.”

Mohammad Ridah has a similar problem, and says the service takes ages to reactivate. “For those of us whose work depends on being available on the phone all the time, such poor services are real trouble,” he said.

“STC credit limits and bills notifications are supposed to be for our convenience, so that we can pay before getting frozen,” Huda Abdul Aziz said. “Yet I’ve repeatedly been stranded in some street needing to call for transportation, only to find myself stranded — days after I’ve paid my bill.

“I guess technology only spells convenience for those in other countries,” she added.