A shop assistant in Mae Sot district of Tak province received ahuge shock when her latest mobile phone bill arrived - with nearly 600,000 baht in charges run up by her teenage son playing a combat game on her phone for four days.
Achara Jaikhrua, who works in a beverage shop in the Mae Sot market, told the media on Tuesday that she had first wondered why her mobile phone service had been suspended. On inquiry she found out the bill for June amounted to only 614.46 baht, but the mobile phone operator demanded another 595,398.51 baht for ordered "products and services".
Ms Achara said that her phone service was suspended after she let her 15 year-old son use her phone for only four days. She said her had played a combat game on her mobile and ordered coins and weapons in the game, believing that payment would be covered by her phone service promotional package.
Ms Achara said she was extremely shocked by the massive bill, but fortunately after she explained things the phone service provider agreed to cancel the extra charges and she paid only the phone fee.
Her story follows a similar shock received by the mother of an eight-year-old boy in Ban Lat district of Phetchaburi, who received a mobile phone bill of 163,405 baht this month.
The mother, who asked her namenotbe used, said on Tuesday that her son had played a well-known game on her smart phone during the school holidays and ordered items in the game because he had thought he could pay for them with his accumulated game scores.
The woman said the boydid not know the game charged in a foreign currency and argued it was unfair for her mobile phone service provider to fail to warn her that her phone use charges far exceeded the limit set earlier at 2,000 baht per month.