Mr Tay is 59-years-old and uses a lao kok (super old) Nokia handphone.
Hell, it’s not even a smartphone.
Yet in just one conversation with a salesman, his monthly phone bill jumped from S$9 to S$70, and all that money for items he would and could never use.
It started when a salesman from a local telecommunications company knocked on his door one night in March this year.
The salesman spoke to him in English and told him that he needed to upgrade his handphone plan.
Poor Uncle Tay agreed to the upgrade, under the impression that he only needed to pay S$4 more a month and that the upgrade was necessary.
Yeah, uncle doesn’t understand English very well since that’s not the language he commonly speaks.
Later on, Uncle Tay got the shock of his life when he received an SMS informing him that he didn’t pay just S$4 more, but a total of S$69.90.
That’s when he panicked and asked his neighbours for help.
His neighbours checked online and found out that he had been persuaded to sign up for a high-speed data plan for home and handphone.
The big problem was – Uncle Tay uses that old Nokia brick phone and he doesn’t have a computer at home!
Fortunately for Uncle Tay, he called up the telco’s customer service hotline and managed to cancel the new plan and revert to his original S$9 a month plan.
He had 5 days from the day the plan was activated to cancel his subscription.
So always remember to listen carefully and check the fine print when pushed newfangled telephone schemes.
And if you’ve elderly relatives who are clueless about all this, be sure to let them know too!
