'A Rule Is A Rule, Locked Doors Have To Remain Locked'

I have received an e-mail response from Singnet to my query about their unreasonably high charges for the premature termination of my broadband account. In a terse, business-like manner, it says unflinchingly:

"Dear Mr Koo

Thank you for your email.

I would like to inform you that we base our Early Termination Charge for 512kbps Unlimited plan as follows:-

For contract balance of more than 12 months: $420
For contract balance of less than 12 months: $315

I would also like to highlight that this is applied across for all existing 512kbps SingNet Subscribers who wish to terminate their account prematurely. I seek your understanding on this and hope that you would comprehend."

I checked the agreement form that I have signed. The above terms and conditions were indeed stated clearly in the form. The different terms and conditions which I mentioned in my last post were nowhere to be found in the agreement - I must have seen them somewhere else. But I still think that what I mentioned is the maximum anyone can charge for any breach of contract. A more reasonable amount should be even lesser.

In any case, how many of us read the small print before we sign on the dotted line of an agreement? At my age, I couldn't read them even if I wanted to, if I didn't bring my reading glasses along. In addition, there are so many clauses and legal terms in the agreement, the sales staff never have the time or patience to explain them to the customer. In all likelihood, the customer might not understand the legal mumbo jumbo even if they did.

Is this another case of poor service and inflexible rules? Well, maybe and maybe not. I can only utter the same words as I did in an earlier post, i.e. caveat emptor or buyers beware.

A Backdoor That Is Locked

Our family has been with Singnet for more than 4 years now, ever since Mar 2001 when we got our first PC at a S'pore Expo exhibition. It is a Datamini which is still serving us faithfully albeit slowly. I recently heard from a sales person that the company had since closed down. No wonder I don't see this brand being sold in the hyperstores anymore. It makes me reflect on how many products we are still using for which their manufacturers have since closed shop. It might be that they don't make companies as well as their products anymore.

Except for the recent connection problem (see my recent blog entitled 'A World Without Internet') and a power supply problem with the PC, we are generally quite satisfied with Singnet's quality of service as well as our antique PC.

I had a chance to try out Starhub's MaxOnLine service recently (see recent blog) and was quite impressed with the reliable and fuss-free connection. I was eager to switch my loyalty to this ISP. So I sent an e-mail to Singnet asking what will be the penalty imposed if I switched loyalty now since my contract with Singnet was up to 1 Dec 2005. To my surprise, Singnet's reply was I have to pay a penalty of $315 if I breached the contract now. Compare this amount with the slightly over $140 which is the subscription fee that I would have incurred if I just let the contract expire by itself on 1 Dec 2005. Moreover, while I could pay the $140 by 3 monthly instalments, I doubt that I could do the same with the penalty amount.

Which of the 2 options would a sane person choose? Unless I am a moron, the answer is obvious. And it looks like Singnet is treating me like a moron because their opt-out offer to me looks as good as a 'backdoor that is locked'. It remains a mystery to me how Singnet came up with the magical figure of $315. According to what is written in the fine print of the contract (which I have earlier 'misplaced') the penalty amount should be the 'monthly subscription' x 'remaining number of months of contract period'. This is logically the maximum amount Singnet could charge as penalty. Whether the amount is reasonable or not is however another matter.

得心应手

得心应手
Chris, the above 4 letters were created using Microsoft IME 3.0 for Chinese (PRC).
Quite easy leh. (I can almost see you swearing "Show Off!" at me again, hee。）
To switch from 中文 to English, you just need to press the 中 (Chinese) button if you want it to toggle to English. You press the “英” (English) button again to toggle it back to Chinese.
Simple isn't it?
And to choose tones you can type the figure directly after the pinyin e.g. "ta" gives you 他 but "ta3" gives you 塔, and "ta4" gives you 踏。
Alternatively you can type "ta" first and get 他 and when it is underlined by the program, you hit the right arrow key - this will bring up a list of possible variations of the same hanyu pinyin character based on the various tones available. Press down arrow to move to the character you want and then hit to choose the right character.