Address-change charges for fibre broadband subscription unreasonable (Forum letter)

ALL content used in this not-for-profit blog remain the property of their respective owners.
http://www.straitstimes.com/premium/forum-letters/story/address-change-charges-fibre-broadband-subscription-unreasonable-2013102

I recently moved to a new place, and wrote in to StarHub to update my mailing address and transfer my existing cable TV and fibre broadband subscriptions to my new residence.

My request was submitted via their "Modify Address and Contact" page online, and StarHub acknowledged my request the next day.

At my new place, I had no issues with cable TV. However, I discovered it wasn't the case for my fibre broadband subscription.

I was unable to connect to the Internet.

I then called StarHub to find out the reason. This was when I was informed that the "Modify Address and Contact" page on its website did not cover fibre broadband subscriptions, and I had to contact the hotline or go personally to the service centre to request an address change for that service.

Nowhere on that website was there a message that alerted me that I had to do something different for my fibre broadband subscription. Neither did the customer service officer, who acknowledged my request via e-mail, inform me of it.

I then found out from the technical officer who took my hotline call that it would take almost one month to process a change of address for fibre broadband as StarHub had to liaise with OpenNet for this.

To add to my frustration, I was then informed that StarHub and OpenNet considered my change of address a termination of my subscription, and hence, they would need to charge me a termination fee of over $500 (which they said they would waive), relocation fee of $107, activation fee of $32.10, as well as an installation charge of $53.50.

Even with the waiver, I was still supposed to foot a total of $192.60 just because I had shifted to a new home.

It was not stated in the service agreement that a change of address was considered a termination of my contract. My new home already had the fibre cable point installed by OpenNet, so I don't understand why there's also an installation charge.

It was also not mentioned in the address change form that there were any charges involved in a change of address. I did not have to pay any charges for cable TV, and according to the StarHub customer service officer, if my broadband subscription had been a cable subscription, it would have been free, too.

StarHub said it had no choice but to impose these charges as they are controlled by OpenNet. Charging customers almost $200 just to switch my subscription to a different address is extremely unreasonable.

Lee Lin-Min (Ms)