Sunday, February 20, 2011

pay yourself first (3)


i had some niggling queries in my mind on my monthly bill statements and when i called starhub today for clarifications, i was shocked to discover that the company has been billing me for services which i either was not aware of or did not utilise the services from the day i purportedly signed up for them.

what do i mean?

some time ago according to the customer service officer from starhub, i signed up for their livetv service which was complimentary at that time but i was billed for the service from august 2009 for $25.00 monthly.

and i was also informed of the internet service which again i purportedly signed up some moons ago for $10.00 monthly.

but of course, i wasn't thrilled to learn i have been paying an additional $35.00 monthly for my starhub mobile services for some donkey months without the benefit of using these services.

my comments:

my experience of paying my hard earned $$$ for virtually nothing can be compared to signing up for insurance contracts and being not really aware of the 'fine print' which are usually exclusions which the insurer will bear no liabilities whatsoever to the life insured.

another so-called 'blind spot' lies in the pricing of insurance coverage of homogenous products where pricing can be as different as night and day.

does the consumer know?

my thinking here is one of doubt because although the average singaporean is well known to be a bargain hunter, this may not extend to the sourcing or buying of insurnace products as more than half of our consumers do their business with the tied agency channel even as at the end of 2010 based on stats from the lia (life insurance association of singapore - http://www.lia.org.sg).

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