Despite being inundated with consumer complaints and operational chaos for almost a week, Chunghwa Telecom yesterday remained noncommittal as to whether the company would continue to offer low-cost service plans that are to end today.
The nation’s largest telecom carrier last week offered new service plans, with one NT$499 option being the most popular as it included unlimited data and 180 minutes of talk time.
However, the telecom came under fire from Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers who cited multiple complaints from consumers regarding long wait times to sign up for the services and a lack of concessions to existing service subscribers.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
DPP Legislator Yeh Yi-jin (葉宜津) said that people lined up outside Chunghwa Telecom offices and other telecoms on Sunday to sign up for the promotional price plans, rather than celebrating Mother’s Day with their families.
Chunghwa Telecom should take most of the blame, as they started the price war, she said.
Yeh also criticized Chunghwa Telecom chairman David Cheng (鄭優) for making insensitive remarks at a news conference on Friday last week, when asked to address complaints about the new service tiers.
Asked what the company would do with subscribers who had just started new contracts before the low-cost plans became available, Cheng used the example of buying clothes from a store and questioned whether a customer could ask for a full refund if the store decided to reduce the price of the clothes by 20 percent two weeks after the customer had made the purchase.
Existing Chunghwa Telecom subscribers should not be asked to pay a fine for terminating old contracts and should be allowed to switch to one of the new plans, Yeh said.
She said the weekend chaos caused by the plan introductions also affected existing subscribers who had no interest in the new plans, as they had difficulty accessing the customer service hotline for other service requests or were also forced to wait in long lines.
DPP Legislator Lee Kun-tse (李昆澤) blamed the company’s loose management, complete disregard for the interest of existing subscribers and inadequate preparation for the problems.
Lee suggested that the company offer existing subscribers other types of discounts to reward them for their loyalty and make up for any customer service issues.
Chunghwa Telecom should extend the availability of special offers, he added.
The National Communications Commission (NCC) should convene a special meeting to address the issues that emerged from the weekend event, Lee said.
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications, which has a 35 percent stake in Chunghwa Telecom, should promptly convene the company’s board of directors in light of potential errors committed by its management team, he said.
Some of the company’s management should also be held accountable for mishandling sales plans that were supposed to benefit consumers, Lee said.
Because there have been reports saying that Chunghwa Telecom overworks its customer service clerks, Lee said the company should ensure that it does not compromise workers’ rights.
The low-cost plans were available because of Mother’s Day, Chunghwa Telecom vice president in marketing Lin Wen-chiyh (林文智) said.
However, Lin did not say how they plan to mollify their existing subscribers, nor whether the special offers would be available after today.
“We will take measures in line with market demands,” Lin said.
The NCC is scheduled to meet tomorrow to discuss whether Chunghwa Telecom should be disciplined for failing to address the issues arising from the special sale, despite a warning on Friday last week.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods