Do you know, dear subscribers, what happens to you when you move the SIM card of the carrier “MechanoTractorStation” into a different phone? I am currently living through the consequences of exactly that, and I would like to share them with you.
First of all, an annoying service gets activated on your device — SILENT notifications that pop up even on the locked screen. Those notifications have two options, “YES” and “NO”, and their purpose is to subscribe you to extra services, pictures, and ringtones at cosmic prices of 5–10 hryvnias per item. The notifications appear spontaneously and are noticeable only visually — no sound, no vibration. It is very easy to accidentally tap one of them while navigating the phone and end up paying extra. So don’t be surprised when a few messages follow, along the lines of “Sports Forecast” or “Horoscope”, as happened to me — you will never be able to prove to the carrier that you did not order them, since you might have tapped something by accident. The only way out is to pay, and then try to disable all this “happiness”. By the way, those silent notifications are called “CLICK” by the carrier, and supposedly can be instantly disabled through the SIM card menu. But if you are as naive as I am and believe these liars, let me disappoint you — it does not actually turn off through the menu (even though it says “Disabled”). In my case it only stopped after the second consecutive call to a live support agent — apparently the first time around the command was to NOT disable it.
The “GUDOK” (ringback tone) service deserves a special mention. It is supposedly provided free of charge and replaces your dial tone with a pleasant melody. You are informed by SMS that the service will be connected within 24 hours. And strangely enough — tech support says it is impossible to disable the service before it has been activated! Only after you receive an SMS confirming the service is active can you disable it yourself. But — right at the moment of activation, another message arrives informing you that you have ordered some melody for this ringback tone, costing 9 hryvnias. And on top of draining your wallet again, while that service is in the process of being disabled, everyone calling you will hear some (often hilariously moronic) melody.
This is how unscrupulous carriers earn money for their Christmas holidays.
And as an afterword: of course, I am not using this crappy carrier by my own free will. The choice was imposed by my company, but here is what’s strange: the treatment of a corporate subscriber is worse than that of a serf. You cannot order or disable anything — only through a written request in the company’s name. As for me — the end subscriber — they couldn’t care less. Burn in hell and happy holidays, dear ideologists of MechanoTractorStation.