Discount telecom fined after overcharging Alberta customers

The CRTC has fined an Alberta-based discount phone company after complaints from Edmontonians who said they were overcharged.

On Thursday, the telecommunications regulatory agency ordered VOIS Inc. to pay a penalty of $15,000 for violating its regulatory requirements.

The CRTC said VOIS Inc. failed to cooperate with the Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunication Services (CCTS) while it investigated six customer complaints.

VOIS didn't provide customers with the remedies they were entitled to, the CRTC added.

In 2013, Edmonton resident Anwar Khokar contacted CBC's Go Public after his friend Mazhar Malik mistakenly paid VOIS more than $1,300 and engaged in an eight-month battle to get his money back. After CBC News contacted VOIS, the company refunded the money.

Khokar told CBC News he was pleased to learn the government is now taking action.

"I am very happy," he said. "It should not happen to anybody as it happened with my friend."

Last year, several Edmontonians also complained about being on the hook for overseas charges they never agreed to. When CBC News contacted VOIS director Harpreet Randhawa, he blamed the abrupt charges on a technical glitch and agreed to resolve the billing issues.

The CRTC said it could impose an additional $25,000 penalty on VOIS, as well as $5,000 on Randhawa "for failing to provide information to the Commission."

"This marks the first time the CRTC has imposed a penalty on a telecommunications service provider under the Telecommunications Act for failing to comply with a CRTC regulatory requirement not related to telemarketing," said the agency.

andrea.huncar@cbc.ca @andreahuncar