Consumer speak against Opt Out Sales Tactics

Dear Mr. Tan,

I like to tell you about my personal experience concerning the practice of opt-out Sales Tactics.

Recently, I upgraded my mobile hand-phone with a leading local telecommunication provider.
I have been a loyal customer of this provider for more than 12 years and have been upgrading my phones at each regular cycle of 2 years.

This time round, I noticed that since the upgrading I have been receiving a barrage of SMS such as Gaming results, CNA news flash , ringtones etc.

After this recent financial fiasco, of which I am a victim of the MiniBond mis-selling, I am more wiser and call up the Service Provider hotline representative.

I was told these SMS messages form part of the upgrading contractual package and will be charged at $xxx after the 30th day from purchased date, unless I opt-out during this period.

Further, I was told by this representative that the Provider shop sales person has made this fact known to me during the sales. It was not made known to me ! Of course like the MInibond, I was made to sign some documents, which was quit routine like the previous upgrading I had.

I like to draw some parallel in this episode to the MiniBond selling procedure. Sales people did not disclosed all hidden costs and risks to their customer but only emphasis the unique selling point.

Mr Tan, I Fully support your efforts in educating the public and getting the authorities to review and investigate into the current selling procedures of these Institutions. These Institutions have become more profit focus and lose touch with their loyal customers (we placed too much trust in them) over the years.

In the name of efficiency, Institutions seems to heading this path of “Express Sales “ with fine prints embedded in the contract. Some Day our Life may also be opt-out !

Martho2008

REPLY
I suggest that you bring this matter to the Consumer Association of Singapore , www.case.org.sg. They will be able to act on this matter more effecitively than me.