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"My family is charged 216 yuan for caller ID every year. If we hadn't checked the bill and discovered it, we would have continued to be charged this way." Recently, China Mobile user Mr. Chen reported to The Paper's Quality Complaint Platform (https://tousu.thepaper.cn) that when he checked his mobile phone bill, he unexpectedly discovered that he and the two elderly people in his family have been charged 6 yuan per month for the "Caller ID" value-added service fee.

A reporter from The Paper learned that China Mobile publicly stated in 2022 that it has stopped selling "Caller ID" charges across the entire network since April 1, 2016. In the next stage, it will continue to actively communicate with some customers using old packages and gradually cancel the Caller ID fee within 3-5 years.

On social platforms, many netizens said that they did not know that the caller ID fee had been cancelled and they were still charged 6 yuan every month.

In response to this, relevant personnel of China Mobile responded to The Paper that since April 2016, all new packages of China Mobile have included the caller ID service fee and no additional charges will be made. However, for some old packages that include the caller ID value-added service fee, the package cannot be modified directly for the user without the user's consent. If the user wants to cancel the fee, he can switch to a new package.

The elderly were charged 6 yuan per month for caller ID

Consumer: Caller ID fees have been overcharged for 8 years

Mr. Chen told The Paper that the two elderly people had purchased their own packages in 2007, with a monthly fee of 23 yuan. When he checked their bills recently, he found that their monthly phone bills were more than 50 yuan. In addition to the call charges outside the package, the two elderly people were also charged a value-added service fee of 6 yuan per month, which was marked as "caller ID".

"Caller ID" refers to a service in which the caller number is automatically displayed on the user's mobile phone screen when there is an incoming call. The user can determine the identity of the caller by the displayed number.

"The elderly in my family have a need for caller ID and have never thought about canceling it. But I found out that China Mobile previously stated that this fee had been canceled in April 2016. Why are they still deducting money from us?" Mr. Chen said that he checked his bill and found that his family of three were charged this fee, totaling 216 yuan per year.

Mr. Chen immediately contacted China Mobile's hotline 10086. The customer service staff said that the caller ID fee was part of the old package and could not be canceled separately. If you cancel it, you will not be able to see the caller number. If you want to cancel the fee, you need to change to a new package.

On the same day, Mr. Chen helped the elderly and himself to switch to a 29-yuan family package, which showed "reduction in the caller ID function fee."

Mr. Chen said that he requested a refund for the caller ID fees collected from 2017 to the present, but the customer service staff of China Mobile hotline 10086 refused. "The customer service said that this fee was charged from the previous package, and this package was started in 2007, so it cannot be refunded. But I have seen many such cases online, and some caller ID fees have been refunded."

Mr. Chen believes that the fee is not too much, but he hopes that the "caller ID fee" can get more attention. "China Mobile said that it will not charge fees since 2016, but in fact it has not cancelled the fees for old users, and many old users are not aware of it. What measures has China Mobile taken to guide users to cancel caller ID? Will users not find out and not correct it?"

The reporter of The Paper noticed that many people on social platforms said that they were still charged for caller ID. One user said that after canceling the caller ID service in the old package, all the incoming calls on the mobile phone became "unknown numbers", and the customer service told them that they must change to a new package to get the free caller ID function. "Since the caller ID of the new package is completely free, why can't the old package users cancel the fee and activate the service?" This made the user incomprehensible.

China Mobile: This is an old package, and it is free if you switch to a new package

The reporter of The Paper learned that in early 2022, a netizen asked in the "Leaders' Message Board" of People's Daily Online, "When will the caller ID fee be cancelled?" The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology responded by saying: Since 2017, it has promoted basic telecommunications companies to give away or include caller ID services in new and on-sale packages, and no additional fees will be charged, and the existing caller ID fee users will be gradually promoted to migrate to free rates. At present, caller ID charges only exist in some old package users who have not been migrated and have been discontinued, accounting for less than 2%.

In response to this situation, China Mobile also responded in an interview with the media on January 28, 2022 that the company has stopped selling caller ID charges across the entire network since April 1, 2016. In the next stage, China Mobile will continue to actively communicate with some customers using old packages and gradually cancel the caller ID fee within 3-5 years.

Regarding Mr. Chen's family's situation, on July 11, The Paper called China Mobile's 10086 customer service. The customer service staff said that since April 2016, all new packages of China Mobile have included the caller ID service fee and no additional charges will be made. However, some old packages that include the caller ID value-added service fee cannot be directly modified or canceled without the user's consent, so users need to take the initiative to change their packages.

She introduced that if users of old packages cancel the caller ID service while keeping the original package, the incoming calls will be displayed as "unknown numbers". If users want to use the caller ID service for free, they must change to a new package.

Can the caller ID fees collected since 2016 be refunded? Customer service said that the charging standards of the old and new packages are different. "For example, some old packages charge 0.15 yuan per minute for calls, while the new packages charge 0.25 yuan. Users have already enjoyed the discounts of the old packages, so other fees included in the old packages cannot be refunded separately."

She reminded that some users’ old packages may be relatively favorable, and if they change to a new package, they will no longer be able to modify back to the old package.