I am actually a happy Singtel camper since 1997. My fixed line, mobile line, and my ADSL internet service were all with Singtel. Although I have received offers from competitors like M1 and Starhub, I have never bothered considering switching providers. Singtel provided good service, and I was contented.
However, I have noticed recently that Singtel plans are no longer competitive. And their bundles are always more expensive than its competitors. Over the years, my perception of Singtel is that it has decided to focus only on 2 segments: the upper-middle class and higher segment of the market, and their MIO TV customers. Because of this focus, you will not get the best price from Singtel if you are not interested in MIO TV, or if you just want a budget plan.
Also, there is general agreement that all the 3 telcos are spending large sums to acquire new subscribers, and completely ignoring their existing customers. If you are an existing customer, you will not get a discount as generous as that given to new sign ons. Basically, all the telcos run on the same business strategy that do not reward customer loyalty, but encourage customer defection instead. Thus, if you want to get the best deal, you should sign on with a different service provider to get the goodies that are given to new customers. You are a fool if you stay with your existing service provider, as your provider will just take you for granted and will not give you the best deal that is suited for you.
This happened to me.
I received a mailer from Singtel in April telling me that as a long time MIO customer, I was entitled to a special plan to upgrade from my 3 Mbps ADSL internet service to a 150 Mbps fibre internet service for $45/month. Unfortunately, this fibre plan only comes with a free fixed voice line, but no mobile phone plan. If Singtel has a good CRM system, they ought to know that my existing MIO plan includes the mobile phone plan, so a promotion that is targeted at MIO customers should also include the mobile phone plan. But since Singtel is not interested in MIO customers any more (they are only interested in MIO TV customers), a promotion that is supposedly targeted at MIO customers doesn't even include the mobile phone service - which is a core component of the MIO plan. (I am not interested in switching to their MIO TV plans because the TV programs are inferior to those offered by Starhub Cable TV - of which I am a subscriber).
I went to Singtel's website to read up on this special $45/month fibre plan for MIO customers. From the website, it was apparent that this special offer is actually not exclusive to MIO customers, as anyone can actually sign on to the $45 plan directly from singtelshop.com (Singtel's internet shop), but NOT if you are a MIO customer! If you are an existing MIO customer, you cannot do any of these transactions over singtelshop.com, but must conduct them physically at their brick-and-mortar establishments, the Singtel Hello Shops that are sited in various shopping malls around Singapore.
Non-Singtel customers : You can subscribe to the $45 plan from singtelshop.com.
Existing Singtel MIO customer: Sorry! Please travel to a Hello Shop and join the physical queue at the shop to upgrade to this fibre broadband plan designed just for you!
Since the new fibre plan does not include a mobile line, I will need to get a mobile plan to maintain my mobile line. Now, when I signed up for the MIO plan many many years ago, Singtel upgraded me from my original iOne plan to the iOne Plus plan. However, the iOne Plus plan costs $26/month (the iOne plan was only $19/month), and it was overkill for my needs. iOne Plus comes with 100 minutes of outgoing calls, and 500 SMS messages. However, in all the years that I was on the MIO plan, I have never made more than 30 minutes of outgoing calls per month, and never more than 20 SMS messages per month. Right from day one when I upgraded to the MIO plan, the iOne Plus features were excessive of what I needed.
I saw from the singtelshop.com web site that Singtel actually offers an iOne Value plan at $15/month - which includes just 50 minutes of outgoing calls and 150 SMS messages per month, which matches exactly to my needs. So I decided that when I switched to the $45 fibre plan, I will ask to downgrade my mobile phone plan from iOne Plus to iOne Value.
So, I made my way to the Hello Shop at Causeway Point with the Singtel promotional letter to take up the fire broadband promotion. And that's when I got a rude shock.
- I cannot switch to the iOne Value plan. Although the plan was clearly listed on the singtelshop.com website, the customer officer told me that the Hello Shop and singtelshop.com are separate entities. This was truly ironical because as a MIO customer, I cannot subscribe to the fibre plan at singtelshop.com, but has to do so at the Hello Shop. But the Hello Shop only offers the expensive phone plans, and not the budget plans from the singtelshop.com. I can only remain with my existing iOne Plus plan from the Hello Shop. Apparently, if I was a new customer, I would not even be able to sign on to the iOne Plus plan either. The Hello Shop only sells Singtel's Flexi Plans (these are mobile and data phone plans), and the cheapest Flexi plan - the Flexi-Lite - was even more expensive than my existing iOne Plus plan.
- I was willing to retain the iOne Plus plan, but then, I got another shocker. Apparently, there was an $85 installation charge that I had to pay when I sign on to the fibre plan.
I told the customer officer that this $85 installation charge is not listed anywhere: not on the promotional letter, and definitely not on the Singtel web site where I was directed to for more information about the $45 promotion. To me, this $85 that was suddenly foisted on me is the classic "hidden charges" bait and switch deception as practised by many an unscrupulous vendor.
Besides, I have already noted that Starhub had advertised free installation charges for some of their fibre plans, while M1 had listed the installation charge as only $58 for their $39/month plan. Not only did Singtel hide this hidden charge in its brochures, advertisements, and website, unlike Starhub and M1, Singtel's $85 installation charge is even more expensive than M1's ($85 versus $58)!
I told the Hello Shop customer office that I have decided not to sign on to the fibre plan because of this hidden charge. Because with this additional charge, the Singtel $45/month promotional plan is no longer value for money. Fed up with the Hello Shop experience, I decided that I have no choice but to switch providers if I want to get satisfaction.
M1 was offering their 200 Mbps fibre plan for $39/month, whereas Starhub only offered a 100 Mbps plan for the same price. I decided to sign on with M1.
I went to the M1 web site, and found that they had a $15/month mobile phone plan like the iOne Value, which offered 50 minutes of outgoing calls and 150 SMS messages. They called it their GSM DIY plan, and there is no problem for me to sign on to this cheapest mobile plan, unlike the hurdles Singtel placed before me to prevent me from downgrading to their cheaper plan. This made my decision to migrate completely from Singtel to M1 a no-brainer.
A few days ago, I received a call from Singtel's PR department enquiring my decision to move to M1 (they know that I have moved to M1 because I have to port both my fixed line and mobile line numbers to M1). However, the Singtel PR lady appears to be filling up a questionnaire, as she was asking me what was the mobile phone that M1 offered me that triggered my switch - without even asking me WHY I switched! I explained over the phone that my switching over to M1 had got nothing to do with smartphone offers, but everything to do with customer service perception. But from the tired way that the PR lady's voice sounded, I doubt she even wrote down all the other stuff I told her about my reasons for switching on her questionnaire.
This is why I decided to write this particular post.
