SingTel faces backlash as football fever hits locals

With the world cup fever hitting Singapore, consumers are scrambling to secure packages. The last minute surge in sign-ups has landed SingTel in hot water again as many consumers complained they couldn’t get through the phone lines.According to Today, many consumers have said that they were kept holding the phone lines for prolongued periods and when they actually did make it through, recorded messages put them on hold because of overwhelming response.While the telco continues posting promotional messages on its Facebook page, consumers have retorted to leaving snarky comments under the posts.One Facebook user David Reynolds said: “It would be great if I could actually get through on the phone to arrange the subscription to watch the World Cup, rather than an automated announcement to 'call back'! Ridiculous! Been trying for days and it is the same unhelpful answer! Not the way to run a business!”Meanwhile, another customer Chris Ng complained that despite subscribing early in May, his application was rejected and claimed SingTel didn’t inform him on the matter. He was only made aware when he called in to check on the status.SingTel meanwhile has been actively trying to respond to queries and complaints.A SingTel spokesperson said there was a “last-minute rush” of subscribers and it has added on manpower to handle the situation. She clarified that the situation was one SingTel had anticipated but was not completely sure when it would hit. As a precautionary measure, the telco embarked on marketing activities on print, radio and mioTV to raise awareness of the packages.She also added that SingTel has opened up a 24 hour hotline for subscribers and is encouraging consumers to apply for the packages online to ease the congestion.“Even though we encourage consumers to sign up early with our early bird promotions, the last minute surge during World Cup is not uncommon. This is not the first time this has happened. So this time we were prepared with additional resources and manpower on stand by,” she said.In an earlier article done by Marketing, many deemed SingTel’s pricing plan as sneaky because of the high pricing points. However, it seems that despite the complaints, football fever runs high as consumers rush to secure their packages.