Man claims he was charged for unanswered calls overseas, Singtel says charges are valid
A Singtel customer complained he was charged for incoming calls he did not answer while overseas and was given conflicting information by two different Singtel staff members.
Stomper BT said he was in Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur recently when he received the calls from Singapore.
He recounted: "The Singtel WhatsApp support manager claimed that even if you didn't answer the incoming calls when overseas, you would still be charged.
"However, after complaining to Singtel's Singapore customer service manager, he replied that I should not be charged if I didn't answer the calls, meaning what the Singtel WhatsApp support manager said was completely incorrect.
"After investigating, the Singtel customer service manager claimed I was charged because their Thailand and Malaysia telco partner said I answered the calls, which I did not.
"When I asked them to produce data evidence that I answered the incoming calls, Singtel couldn't. Upon my insistence, my charges were eventually waived."
The Stomper was appalled that Singtel was "indiscriminately" charging customers for unanswered calls when they are overseas.
In response to a Stomp query, a Singtel spokesperson said: "We provided the customer with roaming support when he travelled to Malaysia and Thailand where he had received calls and made outgoing SMSes, resulting in additional charges.
"Upon his request to confirm these activities, we conducted a thorough investigation with our roaming partners in Malaysia and Thailand and were able to validate the transactions through the network logs, resulting in additional charges. These charges are valid."
The spokesperson added: "We have been actively engaging the customer on this matter and apologise for the initial misinformation from our customer support team on charges for unanswered incoming calls while overseas."
Stomp understands that the agent was providing general counsel on calls that are charged even if unanswered in some countries. In this case, that condition did not apply to the Stomper as he was not travelling to the affected countries.
"The staff member concerned has since been counselled. As a gesture of our good will, we have waived these charges," said the spokesperson.
"We advise all travellers to review their phone settings to ensure voice mail functions as well as other data related functions are turned off to avoid incurring additional connectivity charges."
Stomp recently reported that another Singtel customer was charged for calls he did not answer when he was in China and was incorrectly informed by a Singtel agent that disabling voice mail would not have made a difference.
Stomp understands that the agent had just started on the job and had misread the terms and conditions that indicate operators in some countries charge for incoming calls even if they are unanswered. He has since been coached.
The charges the customer faced were due to him not deactivating his Live Voicemail function on his iPhone which picked up the calls. The customer has acknowledged this.
