Tan Kin Lian's Blog: Excessive charges by SingTel

Monday, January 24, 2011

Excessive charges by SingTel

I am moving my office. Singtel wants to charge me $120 to move 2 telephone lines and 1 internet line. Actually, they are not moving any line. They are just changing their computer records. Why do they have to charge so much? I am writing to the manager of Singtel to get a written explanation.

They also want to charge me an additional $40 every quarter to retain my number. Why is this necessary? Are they incurring additional cost to retain the number? Are just finding an excuse to charge their customers to boost their profit? I am asking them for a written explanation.

I search their website for a statement on corporate social responsibility. I could not find any statement. The search button returned "no document found". At least Singtel is honest in declaring that they do not believe in corporate social responsibility - so they can charge their customer anyhow without feeling guilty about it.

Tan Kin Lian

15 comments:

Vincent Sear said...: In the 90s, when I moved residential line (not office), SingTel charged nothing for the move and retaining the number as it was within the same zone. They also said retaining number wouldn't be possible if it was out of the same zone.

Within the same zone, moving line and number was cheapeast as it was free. Terminating existing line and reinstalling a new line would incur more charges.; January 24, 2011 10:46 PM
hongjun said...: I do agree with you the charges are indeed excessive. It is understandable they charge an amount but the amount you stated is way too much.

Plus, why is there a need for quarterly $40 payment? One-time $40 payment sounds reasonable to me.

hongjun; January 24, 2011 11:26 PM
Unknown said...: Hi Mr Tan,

In my personal opinion, this is how money is made from the SME and man in the street in the name of rules and compliance.

Every little thing is chargable at a high rate instead of a low or flat rate because of they need QP to Check or for approval.

Do they really care whether it unreasonable or overcharging or overdoing it? Their customer service is "take it or leave it". cause you have NO other choice.

Many SME do not have the time, money or muscle to fight them. In my case, I just take this cost as part of start up cost or moving cost. (Yes, we can ask them for explanation and starts the "Tai Chi push hands" and delay. In the end, you will recieve a standard reply or no approval given or you will be fine for failing to comply.

If you fight them, (this will involve in another set of cost to fight them in court). For them, they are no additional cost because this their Legal dept business but you have to pay for yours. Thus, many of us (I am one of them), just pay up and get on with our businesses or move our business overseas. This is my 2 cents contribution or less to the economy.

I believe you have previously experienced this cost and hustles process when you did your minor renovations for your property and Office (e.g. engineers fees, application fees, drawing submission fees, QP, etc).

Good luck and hope you can share their reply.; January 25, 2011 2:22 AM
Anonymous said...: Make good money easily. This government-linked company is having a good time.; January 25, 2011 6:40 AM
rex said...: rex comments as follows,
It may not be so simple as computer change records alone. I think there is probably a need to rejumper wires at the telephone exchange. In the old days, they absorb such labour costs since the labour costs are part of the salary of techincians doing this as routine jobs under works orders. However, since the new style is to charge on a usage basis, just like your per minute usage charge, singtle makes you pay 120 dollars.
Your question is basically the same as asking, why singtel charge fixed line calls on per minute basis when there is no additional work involved.. all the network isin place and there is not any extra cost incurred if you make a call for one minute or for two minutes...
Fixed line is a monopoly in singapore, so its very tough to fight a monopolistic empire who wants to charge 120 dollars.

rex; January 25, 2011 8:09 AM
Unknown said...: Hi Mr Tan, obviously you had not search hard enough for Singtel's statement on corporate social responsibility :

http://info.singtel.com/about-us/careers/life-at-singtel/csr

http://home.singtel.com/about_singtel/community_role/communityrole.asp

Anyway, what has CSR anything to do with this case?; January 25, 2011 10:21 AM
Unknown said...: I think there should be a charge but at a reasonable price since SingTel is still getting recurring revenue from a existing customer. With number portability, it is not so much a labor to for retaining the same number. SingTel should have certain social responsibility to ensure businesses can be setup easily example relocation to new offices etc.; January 25, 2011 2:24 PM
Serendib said...: This is why POTS (plain-old telephone systems) are becoming dinosaurs. IP-based systems are far more flexible.
My home phone and internet access are both via Starhub (ie IP-based).
When I moved from Seletar to Bt Timah in Dec 09, all I had to do was fill up a form on the Starhub website to update my address. I installed the set-top box and phone myself at my new residence and it worked perfectly.; January 25, 2011 2:35 PM
ray said...: i also relocated recently,they wanted to charged me $40 for relocating my broadband service...i called them up..made some 'noise'..they waived it.. :); January 26, 2011 2:33 AM
Tan Kin Lian said...: Reply to yaoting
When a company adopt corporate social responsibility, they make a statement about their ethical conduct. This statement usually include treating customers fairly - which is against the concept of ripping of the customer and holding the customer to ransom.; January 26, 2011 8:28 AM
Tan Kin Lian said...: Reply to rex
There is no need to change any jumper in today's nmodern telephone exchange. It is a matter of updating a computer record to retain a current number or change the address of the customer.; January 26, 2011 8:29 AM
Tan Kin Lian said...: Reply to yaoting
I went to to Singtel website and clicked on many links to see if any link showed "corporate social responsibility" or similar statement. I found none. I went to their search bar and type in "corporate social resonsibility" and it returned "no document found".
I did search quite hard, but not to the extent that you did. If a company is proud about its corporate social responsibility, it will have provided a separate statement with a bold title that can be searched.; January 26, 2011 8:31 AM
Vincent Sear said...: It's very sad and costly nowadays. During pager era, SingTel though a monopoly stat board, was widely reputed and recognised to be one of the best service standards and reasonable charges in the world.

Introduction of competition in this mobile phone era was supposed to bring prices and charges down for customers, but it didn't work out that way, quite the opposite, all kinds of charges unheard of and unknown before come in.

Just like the recent football and World Cup broadcast fiasco. Introduction of competition caused prices to escalate and rocket, charged to customers of course.; January 26, 2011 6:21 PM
bic_cherry said...: Hi Mr Tan, I think its not just Singtel, too many companies fail to perform their CSR properly. I have suggested some standards, your comments welcomed.

See: http://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/showthread.php?p=54387052#post54387052: 30Mar2011 Why 8 million die each year from hunger, neglect and malnutrition.; March 30, 2011 7:18 PM
Anonymous said...: The monthly $40 charge is because the phone number doesn't belong to the "telephone exchange" that's serving the new place. SingTel needs to secure resources in the old exchange to forward the number to the new exchange. The $40 pays for the rental of the equipment to do number forwarding.

If you move within the same area served by the same telephone exchange, there will not be this $40 charge.

The first 4 digits of our phone number specifies Singtel's exchange. eg: 6466 is Bukit Timah's telephone exchange.

If u want to retain your number all the time, subscribe to Starhub's digital voice residential number. Your number can follow you anywhere in Singapore.; October 06, 2011 3:46 PM