Gomo chatbot gives wrong data allowance information, causing roaming charges
A Gomo chatbot gave a customer incorrect information about included data for roaming in France, resulting in unexpected roaming charges. Salt, Gomo's parent company, confirmed the error and agreed to reimburse the customer after initially offering only a plan upgrade.
What happened
A customer contacted Gomo's chatbot to ask about data usage and roaming charges while his 14-year-old daughter was in France on a school exchange. The chatbot stated that a data package of up to 3 gigabytes was included in the subscription.
When the daughter returned, she received a roaming bill of approximately 44 Swiss francs, despite having used significantly less than 3 GB of data. A separate data package should have been purchased to avoid the charges.
Salt, Gomo's parent company, acknowledged the error was caused by an outdated chatbot version that had mixed up information in the product description. Salt stated it would reimburse the customer for the roaming charges and has since optimized the chatbot to prevent similar issues.
Reported impact
The customer incurred unexpected roaming charges of approximately 44 Swiss francs due to the chatbot's incorrect information.
Index analysis
Martin Steiger, an expert in digital law, stated that companies should be held responsible for their chatbots' statements, treating them like human employees. He criticized Gomo's initial response to the complaint as problematic and called for faster AI regulation in Switzerland.
Governance controls
Gomo initially offered to waive the roaming charges only if the customer switched to a more expensive subscription plan costing five francs more per month, which the customer rejected.
Classification
Sources and evidence
Sources not yet published
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