Letter to the Editor: Telmex customer complains about extra charges

On June 19, Paula Danylevich, a Riviera Maya resident, sent the following letter to the Yucatan Times regarding her Telmex bill:

Telmex/Inbursa are running an illegal scam on their customers. I posted about it on the Facebook group Expats and Locals Playa Del Carmen and others have come forward saying they have been illegally charged for services they never requested as well.

Here is my story.

On May 26 I received an email from Telmex with the subject line: Notificacion alta Nuevo servicio. In the body of the email it advised me that they added something called Inbursa Integral to my Telmex account. It had a link that said “en caso de no reconocer esta operacion favor de communicarte a la linea de atencion a clients de INBURSA” and provided the phone number 01800 4624 636.

I never authorized this charge on my account nor did I ever sign up for this insurance.

I do not speak Spanish so I had my friend call for me. She told them I received this email and that we were calling because I never authorized this and we want to cancel immediately.

Inbursa kept my friend on the line for over 40 minutes, arguing with her and switching her over to 3 different people. They said they had called me and I authorized them to add it to my account. She laughed at them, telling them  they are liars and said “she doesn’t speak Spanish and she doesn’t even keep a phone plugged into her Telmex line because it has never worked properly.” I only use the internet. Finally after she said we would report this to Profeco did they agree to cancel.

Well, they didn’t cancel it. They charged my bill. I saw the charge on my bill last night and called Telmex directly this morning. They agreed to reverse the charge on my next bill. I was able to speak to someone in English and told them I never authorized it and that I had called Inbursa last month as well. She clearly had heard this story before – she was not surprised.

It is illegal to add services onto my account without my authorization. I also wonder how legal it is for Telmex to share my personal info with Inbursa.

The people who responded to my post on Expats have said they never got the email but discovered the extra charge on their account.

Someone needs to do a story on this. I am planning on going to Profeco as soon as possible this week to make an official complaint against Telmex and Inbursa.

Thank you.

Paula Danylevich