Hot Mobile accused of selling “free gifts” that turned into large charges

A Makor story says Hot Mobile’s sales practices left customer Giora Meyuhas, a pensioner, with bills totaling 27,172 shekels after he went to a Hot Mobile booth two years ago to buy an Apple phone. He says he was offered two top-end iPhone 16 Pro Max models, 256 GB and 1 TB, for 250 shekels a month over 36 months, with no other options presented to him.

According to Meyuhas, the final bill showed 8,347 shekels for one phone and 9,980 shekels for the other, both including interest and indexation. After the purchase, he says company representatives repeatedly called him and claimed he was entitled to additional “gifts,” sending accessories to his home that later appeared as charges on his account. The items included AirPods for 1,448 shekels, a charger for 424 shekels, accessories and a backup battery for 540 shekels, a silicone iPhone case for 577 shekels, a cleaning kit for 206 shekels, a screen protector for 283 shekels, a clear iPhone 16 case for 355 shekels, and another charger for 428 shekels.

Meyuhas also says Hot Mobile then offered him a Robot vacuum as a supposed free compensation, but he was billed 4,284 shekels for it. He says he was told it was a gift, while the company insists he was informed it was a paid deal. His most recent bill was 838 shekels, after a previous bill of 1,660 shekels, which included a 800-shekel charge for incoming calls from London made to his wife even though she used only WhatsApp. Meyuhas has since canceled his lines and moved to a rival carrier, but Hot Mobile is still collecting monthly payments for the equipment.

The article says this is not an isolated case. It cites a single mother of seven, identified as Malka, who was charged 3,564 shekels for two supposedly free pairs of headphones and then hounded over an inactive ninth line, and Amir Gluckman, who says he was promised one free pair of headphones but received three pairs and was charged over 36 installments plus hidden transfer fees. The story also notes that in October 2025 the Communications Ministry fined Hot Mobile about 326,000 shekels after 34% of complaints received that period were about the company, and that last month the Tel Aviv District Court approved a class-action settlement worth about 10 million shekels over allegedly unlawful 5G charges.

The Consumer Council says it is aware of the complaints and that a new class action involving the same type of allegations is now being filed. Hot Mobile said it contacted the customer after the complaint, reviewed the case, and found the transactions were legitimate deals made in March, May and November 2025, adding that the matter was resolved to the customer’s satisfaction and that the company acts fairly and transparently.