Why should I pay for a mistake I didn't make?

Dear Dayre,

So frustrated with M1 that I could stab somebody like now?

It's been almost two weeks since I contacted M1 and until now I haven't had a satisfactory solution to my problem.

What happened

Back story: I've been with M1 since I was 14 or 15. That's a good 15 years with M1. So around six years ago, M1 introduced a multi-line saver discount that allows for a bundle discount of 35% if you have 5 lines under one account.

Since then, I've held five different lines: 2 under my name, 2 under YZ's name and 1 more internet line in order to enjoy the 35% off.

This 35% discount is quite a hefty amount because one of the lines that YZ uses is a SunRisers line: it's the most expensive plan (around $200 a month) and 35% discount off that one line alone works out to be about $70 already.

A few weeks ago (in the beginning of May), I went down to M1 Tampines to get SIM card replacements for some of my existing phone lines.

Reason being I hardly use those secondary lines and only keep them for the sole purpose of enjoying the 35% multi-line saver, but decided I might as well use the SIM cards for my iPad/spare phone.

M1 has a mySIM mobile plan that offers higher data usage (4gb as opposed to 3gb if I remember correctly) at a lower price because this plan can only be signed if you're getting just the plan alone without any handset/phone.

As seeing that I'd be using the SIM cards for these lines in my spare phone/iPad, I thought it made better sense to change my existing plans to the mySIM plan so that I'd be paying less and yet be able to enjoy higher data usage.

The M1 sales person that attended to YZ and I told us that there would be no further discounts on mySIM plans, but we would still enjoy our 35% multi-line saver for our two main lines (YZ's $200 SunRisers line and my $72 phone line) and so I happily changed a total of three lines to the mySIM plan. (One line was changed the week before at a M1 retailer at ION while two lines were changed at M1 Tampines the following week.)

I'm sure you can see where this is going: Surprise surprise, I received my M1 bill around two weeks ago and realised that heyyy my 35% multi-line saver is no longer reflected in my bill! 😳

We called up M1 to check, and here is when we found out that due to the changing of our lines to mySIM plan, the 35% multi-line saver has been revoked and we are no longer able to enjoy the 35% off our lines.

Of course, our first reaction was confusion: because the dude that served us at the M1 shop had clearly told us that we would still be entitled to the 35% multi-line saver on our two regular phone lines, although those lines under mySIM would not be further discounted because they were the cheapest plans already.

We were quite shocked and informed the CS officer serving us over the phone of the circumstances and the misinformation we received at the shop.

Obviously, the first thing we wanted to do was to find out how we could restore our 35% multi-line saver, right? So it was quite a blow when the CS officer told us that the 35% multi-line saver has already been phased out and is no longer in the system, which means that we can never be able to get back our 35% discount off our bill again.

35% works out to be almost $100 for just our $200 + $72 line. I'm sure you can understand why I'd get upset. Here I am, holding on to five lines just to enjoy this 35% saver, and now having unsuspectingly changed some phone plans due to misinformation from an M1 staff, have now been revoked of $100 off my monthly phone bill.

Srsly, M1?

I explained to the CS officer what happened at M1 Tampines and although she was quite apologetic about it, she explained that she would not be able to restore my previous 35% multi-line saver discount and instead what she could do for me was to try to salvage the situation: By shifting the phone lines to YZ's name (because our home's fibre optic internet plan is under his name), we could be entitled to a 30% discount off our lines instead.

So instead of enjoying the 35% discount, we could now have a 30% discount if we transferred the lines to YZ's account, for which M1 would waive the transfer fees out of goodwill.

不是我计较.

I can very well accept this solution if it were by some fault of mine that my 35% multi-liner saver got revoked. But this happened because of poorly-trained staff who gave us the wrong information, y'know what I mean? Why do I even have to go through all these inconvenience and pay for a mistake I didn't make?

Had I been informed at M1 Tampines (or even the ION retailer shop) that changing my plans to mySIM would strip me of my 35% multi-line saver discount, why would I even do it in the first place?

Like I mentioned, these secondary phone lines have been kept with the sole purpose of allowing us to enjoy the 35% multi-line saver discount which requires you to have 5 lines under one account. It makes absolutely no sense for me to jeopardize this discount if I had known this would happen.

你了解我的不爽吗? 😤

So is it even my fault that I have now been revoked of my 35% discount when I was told that I would still be able to retain the discount?

If it's not my fault, then why is it that I have to pay the price for it? 🙄

The next M1 CS officer that spoke to me was very polite and nice about it and she told me that she'd worked out a solution in which I wouldn't be at any loss at all. I was appeased for about two seconds, until she informed me that we could shift the lines to under YZ's name to enjoy the 30% discount, and on top of that, instead of a 22 months re-contract period, she would be able to give me a 12 months re-contract so that I could have a re-contract voucher worth $350 every 12 months.

No offence, but I don't bother to re-contract my phone every 12 months because I don't see the point in doing so. It seems like M1 is trying to pacify me with something that sounds great (you get to save another $350 and you won't be making any loss!!!) but is actually pretty much rubbish to me because if I were to re-contract my phone plan with a new phone every year, I would be paying EXTRA money for a new phone that I don't need.

I told her no thank you. I am not interested to re-contract my phone every year! I will not use your $350 voucher so it is useless to me. I just want my savings on my monthly phone bill!

I just want back my previous 35% multi-line saver discount. Nothing more or less.

It sounds so easy, but apparently it is impossible because the 35% multi-line saver has been phased out of the system and every single office that I've spoken to has told me that they are unable to put it back for me because it is no longer "in the system".

Again, I pointed out that it really wasn't my fault that my 35% discount has been revoked and made it clear that I was not going to accept their "solution".

Apparently though, the dude that attended to me at M1 Tampines was on leave and thus they were unable to get to the bottom of the matter to find out what had been communicated across to me at that time, and thus I would be put on hold again until further investigation.

The last call I received was from M1 Tampines, last Monday.

"Hi, this is calling from M1 Tampines. Errrr I'm not the guy who attended to you (why leh, scared I scold you ah) but I'm his colleague and I just wanted to follow up with you on this situation. We advise you shift your lines under your husband's name after which you will be able to enjoy a 30% discount cos after signing for mySIM plan your old 35% multi-line saver discount is no longer applicable blah blah blah…."

我要爆炸了💥

Is anyone even paying attention to me seriously? I've already said a million and one times that NO THANKS I do not want to transfer my phone lines under my husband's name so that I can enjoy 30% off my phone lines instead of 35% just because one of your colleagues made a mistake!

M1 shop dude then went "OHHHH. Okay erm I will write a feedback form to M1 and we will get back to you again…" After which I didn't hear from him for like.. One week already.

And since then, NO ONE has followed up on me, until I called again today and got a new CS officer who then had to check on records and then tell me he would call up M1 Tampines to ask them to get back to me and all that blah blah.

With every CS officer that I spoke to, I clearly said "I understand this is not within your means. If you cannot do this for me, then please pass this on to someone with higher authority who can resolve this issue for me."

But nope. Nothing is happening.

I am extra frustrated because I've been a loyal customer of M1 for so many years already and we are paying so much monthly for our phone bills.

If M1 cannot even retain a loyal customer and find a satisfactory solution to this issue, I really don't see why I should stay on with M1 anymore. Why ah M1?

Whyyyyy M1 whyyyyyyyyyyy?

Let's move on to happier things. Like my weekend that was spent at @jazreeltan and Leroy's holy matrimony!

Attended the church ceremony together with @ceejayam, @joycesayshello, and @jongsy!

Look at the radiant couple 💑 Finally married hehehe

During the march-in 💕

So happy for this friend that she's finally hitched!

And at the wedding dinner with YZ! 💕 He and Leroy are more BFF than me and Jaz like seriously 😂

With my lovely friends @ceejayam and @joycesayshello!

I ended up keeping Summer Romance Maxi in pink cos it's really too sweet lah. Seems that cutting runs slightly bigger for this so I recommend XS for UK6 and S for UK8! Comes in XS-L 😘 I'm wearing S.