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Tuesday, April 21, 2009


Rants about mobile services

I am extremely dissatisfied with the mobile service provider and plan that I have subscribed to. Here are some reasons why:

Problems occurring within 2 years of signing up for my mobile plan
1. Opt-out (read: charged) services
In case you haven't realised, opt-out services refer to services that are provided by companies without notice to customers. Which means that if such services are charged (they usually are), customers pay for services that they do not sign up for. In my case, a service which replaces the standard connecting tone with a song was provided without my knowledge. I only realised this when I received the phone bill that costs more than usual. How am I supposed to know that this service was provided to me, when I would never call to my own number (and hence never realise the connecting tone was replaced by a song)? For mobile users who do not check their phone bill, they will be paying extra forever without knowing that they are charged for something they do not want.

2. Campus Calls
I am subscribing to a student plan which promises 'free campus calls'. However, at the point of subscription, I was studying in a junior college. And the service didn't cover JCs. So I did not get to enjoy this service, despite making calls in a 'campus'. I suggest they should have called it 'free tertiary campus calls' instead.

And so I thought: Okay, if I can't call in my JC, I shall use this service when I am in any tertiary institutions. So when I was attending a camp in NTU, I made quite a number of calls to my camp group members to inform them to gather and for discussions. When my bill arrived, guess what? I had exceeded the call duration for standard charges to apply. (I don't usually exceed as I monitor my call durations, so I know that those extra call duration came from my calls in NTU). When I checked with the telco company, they said that campus calls services have to be activated through calling their company before it is provided. What!? Who would have known that a service that they signed up for, which is explicitly highlighted in advertisements, have to be activated before they can use it? The irony is that services that customers did not sign up for are activated automatically, while services that they have signed up for are not activated.

NB: This plan is recently changed to include junior colleges too. And I heard from a friend who recently signed up for a student plan that campus calls are automatically given nowadays. So whatever problems that I have encountered about campus calls above may not apply for now.

3. Free 1000 sms
In addtion to free campus calls, another highlight of the advertisement for student plans is that there are 1000 'free' sms-es provided. Sounds great. So when I sent less than 1000 sms-es, I realised that I was still charged more than the standard monthly charges. I realised that, in fact, only the first 500 sms-es are provided 'free'. The next 500 have to be sent to numbers from the same telco company. Fantastic. Now this telco company expect customers to go around surveying the companies that their contacts subscribe to.


Problems occurring after 2 years of signing up for my mobile plan
1. Solving the mystery of free campus calls (again)
This time round, I have graduated from JC and have entered university. Yay! I can finally make use of the 'free campus calls'. This time, my previous 2 year contract had ended, so I had to sign a new 2 year plan. The customer service officer who called me to confirm my new plan told me to bring my student card to any of their outlets so that the student plan privileges are activated. So I happily brought my card there, yet those working there shot me a puzzled look and said there wasn't a need to do this.

As expected, the campus call service was not activated. So I called the company instead. This time, I successfully activated the service. I could only choose one institution from the whole list of institutions available. Which means only calls that are made in the chosen institution will count towards the 'free campus calls'. It's okay, since I am mostly making calls from my school only anyway. To be very sure, I asked the terms that are regarding this campus call thing. So it is cappped at $50 per month and the calls must be made from the instituion chosen to any local residential or mobile phone number. Is that all, I asked. Yes, that's all, came the reply. Phew. My tortuous journey in seeking a way to use the service that I signed up for has ended!

No, that's not all. My bill arrived and it has exceeded the standard monthly charges again, as I've exceeded the call duration. But most of my calls are made in school, so I don't see why I am still charged extra. So I proceeded to call the company again, and this time round the customer service officer said the campus calls are only applicable for calls made from the instituion chosen to any local residential or mobile phone number that is within a campus. In other words, campus-to-campus calling. Not to mention the fact that the previous customer service officer did not menion this to me when I probed, how many prevalent is such campus-to-campus calls? It feels almost like an advertising gimmick, where people are misled into mistaking a limited service for something better.

Lesson #1
Read the fine print, even if it means using a magnifying glass/ enlarging the words using a copier/ dying of eye fatigue. Even if you can't change the terms, you should at least know what kind of unfair terms are imposed before signing your contract.

Lesson #2
Customers are almost always at the mercy of market monopoly. There are only so few choices in the market, and for student plans or some other standard plans, the terms (like call duration, number of sms-es, caller-id, monthly prices) are mostly the same. What happened to fair competition?

Lesson #3
Customer service officers are not always accurate in answering enquiries. It is best to consult the fine print.



If you are a student or mobile plan subscriber: I hope to share you you some of my problems in my mobile plan, so that you will be more cautious and prepared. And please do note that I am not discouraging anyone of you out there to terminate you plan or whatever. Despite all the problems of a plan subscription, there are obvious conveniences which makes people stay on their plans.

If you are a high-ranking officer from a telco company (and you suspect that I am talking about your company): Please do not sue me for defamation or any other fancy names you can come up with. I am just a poor student who is scrimping and saving to pay for my college fees, textbooks and your mobile bills. If you don't like my entry, I welcome you to discuss with me about it.

boo!
9:08 AM