Beware of Singtel's unfair offer "forced" upon you via SMS

I thought it's always safe to delete those <ADV> SMSes without reading them... until I received this unpleasant surprise from Singtel:

"<Singtel ADV>U have been selected to enjoy 30 days FREE trial for Colour-Me-Tones. SingTel's 'Friends' will replace your standard connecting tone on 10 Dec. To opt out of trial, SMS 'NO' to 741490 by 09 Dec. $4.28/mth applies after the free 30days trial..."

My gosh. Since when did Singtel do such auto inclusions? They purportedly give you a free "trial", and WITHOUT your express consent, start charging you later.

I couldn't believe it's from Singtel, the largest listed company in SGX by market capitalization. But alas, it is from them. I called 1626 and confirmed it with the apologetic customer service officer.

Granted, $4.28/mth is not a big sum. But is it fair to do business this way? How many unsuspecting customers, such as this and this, have fallen into this trap?

Moreover, do you want your bosses to hear cute connecting tones when they call you?

And I shudder to think how many such "trials" I have been included in. Without me knowing.

Singtel must stop this nonsense.

http://www.salary.sg/2008/beware-of-...n-you-via-sms/

Shi* man I think i just deleted something from Singtel recently......

oh my!!! time to check sms....

haha! I got that too! I replied NO almost immediately just in case I forgot abt it.

Watch out guys, SingTel is doing some fishy marketing strategy.

now that people will read those adverts (thanks to singtel), i'm sure there'll be scammers in future who scare you into responding to their sms, and then bill you for using their 'value added service'...

I never read those adv and immediately delete hmm... and actually i wonder if we can opt out the whole entire adv. They are spam >.

I guess the complaints worked or something. The version I received was:

Greet your callers with your favourite songs. Colour-Me-Tones allows u to replace the standard connecting tone with a song of your choice @ only $4.28/mth. Reply "Y" now to enjoy FREE 1st 30 days!

@cleodux: I've just replied your question. The number is 741520.

Damn they removed the tags. There is a "Stop ADV, reply unsub" at the end of the message.

I believe consumers should always have a say!

You're absolutely right. I called back my no. and found out that the ringtone has changed to a x'mas tone. Its very unprofessional of ST to conduct such unprincipled business practices. Pretty disappointed with ST on this and will probably jump ship to SH once contract ends next yr.