“I opened the envelope from STC and in seconds I couldn’t breathe,” Firas said. “The first thought that came to my mind was whether I could sell my house fast enough to be able to pay my phone bill.”

The reason for Firas’ panic was that the second line of his STC invoice showed call charges of SR196,085.16.

“It took about a minute for me to read the third line of the bill, which gave me a credit of SR195,232.85,” continued Firas. “The total I owed was SR1,674.33. I read every line in the mobile bill several times. Then I called STC just to try to understand how they could send such an invoice.”

Opening an invoice from STC is always a stomach clenching experience due to the company’s policy that customers must pay the invoice before STC will discuss any billing errors. Firas had a previous incident with STC where the phone bill erroneously totaled tens of thousands of riyals. That invoice had been for a personal phone line and the line was eventually disconnected due to non-payment during the months it took for STC to sort out the billing issue.

“The bill I was opening where the call charges came to SR196,085.16 was for my business phone, which is how everyone reaches me now,” said Firas. “If that line gets cut off, clients can’t find me. I can’t run my business. It’s a disaster. STC claimed that the problem was caused by data usage on the line which is first billed and then discounted by the system.”

So there you have it. STC’s best value added service: A free heart rate and blood pressure test with every Jawal and Hatif invoice!