[ UPDATE 7/11/2019 19:30 ]: Celcom has updated its postpaid individual and family pages. The Free Video Walla offer is now clearly displayed with 12 months validity.
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Last week, several Celcom customers have received an SMS that Free Video Walla is no longer be offered from 1st November 2019. This is a complimentary data quota that allows you to stream video content from YouTube, Netflix and more. As expected, many were pissed and now they would need to pay extra if they wish to enjoy Video Walla. So what happened here?
According to Celcom, the Free Video Walla quota was offered as a promo and it is only valid for the first 12 months. If you’re on the lower Gold (RM80/month) and Gold Plus (RM98/month) plans, you’ll have to pay RM1 for 1GB/day, RM7 for 10GB/week or RM20 for 15GB/month.
Celcom has a specific T&C for Free Video Walla promo that commenced from 19th October 2017. For FIRST Gold postpaid, they are giving 30GB of Video Walla, while the other three higher plans come with 100GB of Super Video Walla under the promo.
The 12-month duration for Free Video Walla was communicated clearly during the initial announcement and you can read our post about it here.
For those on Gold Supreme (RM128/month) and Platinum (RM148/month) plans, you still get Free Video Walla but at a reduced monthly quota of 25GB and 30GB respectively. For Platinum Plus, you still get 100GB Video Walla as part of its original plan.
So what went wrong?
So if it does come with a 12-month duration, why some customers felt like they’re getting the short end of the stick? If we look at Celcom’s redesigned website, there’s no clear indication that the Free Video Walla is going to be a time-limited promo. On the postpaid page, there’s no asterisk or symbols to indicate there are other terms and conditions apply.
Even if you go into the specific postpaid plan, it mentions FREE 100GB Super Video Walla for the Gold Supreme plan without indicating a 12-month period. If you click on the FAQ for Gold Supreme plan, it states the original base quota of 25GB while the lower Gold Plus has no mention of Video Walla it under the FAQ.
What’s interesting is that some postpaid users have enjoyed the free Video Walla quota beyond 12 months in their subscription. It looks like Celcom has forgotten to enforce the expiry for existing customers, so they had decided to put an abrupt end on 1st November 2019.
To avoid such situations, Celcom should put the 12-month term upfront in all channels including its website. At the very least, they should add an asterisk next to its Free Video Walla mention instead of expecting users to dig through their Video Walla-specific T&C.
Since Celcom is still offering the 100GB Super Video Walla for new customers (Gold Plus and above), perhaps, one solution is to cancel and resign up for the plan to reset the Free Video Walla offer. To make it easier, Celcom could consider renewing the offer for customers with good payment history.
Celcom is among 7 telcos in Malaysia that have recently signed a pledge to provide greater transparency to consumers. The General Consumer Code will be tightened in the area of advertising to avoid confusion among customers. This means all terms, conditions and contracts of telco services must be refined and communicated clearly so that consumer rights are protected.
Are you affected by this change? Let us know in the comments below.
