Story By: Lee Bullen,Sub Editor: Joseph Golder,Agency: Central European News
A 71-year-old Japanese phone user has been arrested for complaining to his telecommunications operator 411 times in a single week and 24,000 times in total over the past two years.
According to local media, elderly citizens in Japan are often calling their phone companies to ask about trivial matters such as how to send an email or join Netflix.
While it is easy to sympathise with elderly technology users adapting to modern life, the situation has reportedly caused a heavy burden on Japanese customer service staff.
Akitoshi Okamoto, 71, from the city of Kasukabe in the central Japanese prefecture of Saitama has been arrested for calling telecom company KDDI‘s free customer service hotline 411 times during a single week last month.
Some of his complaints demanded that the company “apologises for violating our contract and for unfair business practices”.
According to local media, KDDI did not want to press charges against the elderly client over the matter, but continual complaints affected the customer service staff and the 71-year-old has been arrested.
According to the company’s logs, Okamoto has called the customer services department around 24,000 times in the past two years.
If complaining daily for 730 consecutive days, he averaged 33 calls a day, according to reports.
According to the local police, the OAP was upset that his phone could not pick up radio broadcasts.
Okamoto may be charged with obstruction of business, an offence in Japan that makes it illegal for someone to interfere with a company’s ability to carry out regular business practices.
The probe is ongoing.
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