it's always in the fine print!

from the free tabloid, today:

Contractual fine print unfair to consumers
Letter from Kee Puay Kiang
04:46 AM Oct 17, 2011

Recently, StarHub increased its cable television subscription rates for existing customers, including those under contract.

As a simple consumer, I expected the contract I had signed would be valid for the two-year period without any increase.

When I queried StarHub, it informed me that there was a clause in the contract to cover the increase without needing our consent.

Many do not read the fine print. In this case, the contract favours StarHub and is unfair to consumers. When we want to change or terminate plans, we must pay a penalty.

When companies decide to increase charges or change contractual terms, they have themselves "covered". We cannot even seek early termination without penalty.

The S$2 monthly increase seems nominal, but the business practice is unacceptable. Consumers should pay for such increases when their respective contracts have ended and we have a choice whether to renew the contract at the higher price.

my comments:

yes, it's always in the fine print or like they say, the devil is in the details. like mr kee puay kiang, i'm contracted to starhub for cable tv. and because i'm a hubber, i have also signed up for my home's broadband, land-line and 3 mobile accounts as well. what's more, i'm also contracted to singtel's mio tv for the sake of my love for the english premier league and specifically, manchester united football club.

and that's a grand monthly total of more than $400 of my hard earned monies going to the 2 telco companies with the bulk enriching starhub's coffers.

but i guess there is no escaping the fact that we will have to bear with the increase in rates unless we opt out (if we can).

in the same way, consumers here should be aware of the trend of our insurers pricing insurance products with premiums that are both reviewable and non-guaranteed, meaning the insurer has the sole discretion of reviewing and repricing the premiums payable at any point of time during the premium paying term of the policy.

therefore, unless we can live without the services of our telcos and should we self-insure, we can only hope that future price increase(s) are few and far, far away.