SG telcos find new ways to fleece customers

Recently, we read about how Starhub and Singtel used dubious methods to overcharge customers

Just now, I realised M1 is up to sneaky ways to con us of our money too. My latest M1 bill had 7-8$ of something called voicemail access. When I called them, M1 told me that this was the duration for which people left voice mails for me. I was shocked as I was never told I would be charged for the time people left voicemails for me. If anything, we were told that under our plan, there is free voicemail.

Anyway, I thought that is impossible as 7-8$ is almost 50 minutes of voice mail (at 15c a min) and told M1 I have at the most 3-4 voice mails a month – never that many. But they were adamant and said there is no error in the bill. When I asked for proof to show who left me so much voicemail, I was told I need to pay a fee to get “itemised billing”!! The slimy telco then offered a “One-time” waiver of this fee as a “goodwill gesture”. I also terminated my voicemail to prevent getting cheated again. I also wonder, why voicemail is charged as outgoing call? Voicemail is left by incoming calls – so should it not be free? Anyway, uniquely Singapore!

So please, we need to look carefully at our bills. Trust our telcos no more. They are out to make any extra dollar from us that they can get.

Also, I realised all telcos quietly changed their plans to make the per second billing effective only from the second minute. So, if you call someone for 1 second or 10 seconds, you still get billed for one minute. Earlier, it was strictly per second irrespective of the duration.

Ash