The Austrian Broadcasting Corporation (ORF) digital SAT cards must be replaced every five years. He also takes a nice basket of money from his customers via a toll-free telephone number.
A Tyrolean received an email from ORF Digital that he was about to change his digital SAT card – for €21.90. Otherwise he would soon no longer be able to receive the ORF programs and those of the red-white-red private television – while he still has to pay the GIS fees.
Who knows the GIS number?
To order tickets, a form must be completed, on which the GIS participant number must also be entered. Only: it wasn’t in ORF-Digital’s post, the ORF customer couldn’t remember where he left it – probably decades ago.
The result: an e-mail to ORF-Digital with the request to release the number. The quick answer: We are not responsible for this, but the GIS, ie the Fees Info Service GmbH of the ORF.
Days of waiting for an answer
So: Mail sent to the GIS with the same request. The automated response: “Due to a technical change, there may be a delay in processing your request.” As a result, there was actually no response for days.
ORF’s mandatory customer did not want to miss a deadline. So he called the GIS service hotline – a toll-free 0810 number. There, a computer voice first led you through the menu, which took a long time, before announcing the “estimated wait time”: three minutes and 45 seconds – and at your (!) expense.
Survey at customer’s expense
Finally, the request was politely answered. As a bonus, of course, he should have taken part in a survey, he was chosen at random. However, as this would have gone through at his phone expense, he hung up after a grueling 9 minutes and 26 seconds.
Strange ending
The curious end of the story: The GIS subscriber number was now in the online form – as if it had been inserted by a miraculous hand.
The GIS – so the state radio – collected at the time. Although “only” a maximum of 10 cents per minute, with so many forced participants, it’s a decent amount. But no one can avoid the GIS and card exchange fees anyway.
Source: Krone
I am Ida Scott, a journalist and content author with a passion for uncovering the truth. I have been writing professionally for Today Times Live since 2020 and specialize in political news. My career began when I was just 17; I had already developed a knack for research and an eye for detail which made me stand out from my peers.
