come on guys.

this is common sense. you have to pay the last bill still. just because you ignored it for the past 3 months or 3 years does not make it ok to ignore.

the fault on celcom (or any billers) is they did not properly communicate to you the last next bill.
the fault on your behalf is you did not follow up.

terminated my Maxis - immediately lock me out from accessing their billing area.

terminated my Streamyx - immediately all my past bills becomes not available, let alone newer bill.

terminated my Celcom - immediately gets unlisted from OCS and have to check over the counter.

MNP-ed from Celcom to Hotlink - a few, also gets unlisted immediately and have to check over the counter

BUT I have always followed up own my own effort to make sure nothing is owed by me, or owed by them. i MNP-ed and terminated almost 6 accounts in the past 2 months. it's the same everywhere.

regardless whether it's prorated from previous bill till terminate, or full commitment like what celcom is doing, there will always be one last next bill.
you have lived long enough and old enough to register your own account and to realise this is the same with any biller.

Celcom FiRST is not prepaid lorrr.

What you paid when signing up all is used to offset first bill. It's "upfront payment", not "deposit".

From 2nd bill onward it will really be use first, bill later.

When you terminate or MNP, what and how much you used between previous bill till termination is not yet determined, regardless how you wish that such timeliness is the case.

As someone who has "been there, done that" in telco backoffice, I can confirm that while charging for postpaid is done real time, the unified accounting of the various chargeable elements for postpaid does not happen in real-time.
Telco charging is a complex and expensive operation on its own and a simple error can escalate into major monetary discrepancies and "shouting" matches between operators, partners, and customers.
As much as we'd like you to pay your dues immediately when you decide to terminate our relationship, this is not all-you-can-eat for one price, and we can't determine exactly how much you have used at your whims, fancy, and timing.

Just like electricity and water, you are free to eat as much as you can; but wait for you next bill for us to account properly how much you have actually used.

I personally have seen correct items that should have gone appeared in previous bills, appearing in next bill. That is how delayed the accounting can be.

(We can make it real-time, but will ALL of us be receptive to paying the same expensive charges as what prepaid users are now "enjoying" the the real-timeliness? it can't be some want and some other decline. either we're all all in the same boat or none at all.)


Yang merajuk,

____
Customer Service
Telco XYZ

This post has been edited by cicak.fakir: Jan 13 2017, 04:39 PM

why?

nothing scary lorrr.

different part of the back office handles different charging.

it's expensive to keep them all in sync at all time.

real-time is required for prepaid - all the different parts have to keep updating the central "balance" server in real-time, and every time customer do something that requires deducting balance, have to get clearance from central "balance" server in real-time.
cannot have delay else customers start to complain "slow" response when dialling, when spending credit on google play, .. etc.

but for postpaid, real-time is overkill and unnecessary. it's operationally cheaper to batch-update the central "balance" server during "quiet" time. sometimes the many different part reports late to the "balance" server, even after beyond cut-off time for your next bill; and you will not see that call you ended just before last midnight appearing in the bill that came out today.

want to test how delayed? delay paying your postpaid bill till the last minute on the day before your bill comes out. while the "balance" server will note that you have paid, high probability that the payment will not be reflected in your bill tomorrow.


another example?
try having departmental meeting every hour of the day rather than weekly - keep everyone in your team up-to-date and in-sync. see you boss' response about how "expensive" such meetings if conducted ever hour instead of once a day or once a week or once a month.

i didn't say i did billing system. but i had my opportunity to do things in back office of several.

anyway, celcom postpaid first always have last next bill. whatever you paid during sign up is finished by the time 2nd bill out - if not finished yet in 1st bill.

postpaid is always USE -> ACCRUE -> PAY -> REPEAT

prepaid is always PAY -> DEDUCT -> USE -> REPEAT

------------------------------------

see? payment during signup all used up by 2nd bill.
from then on whatever i USE first will have to POSTPAY in next bill.

i only use for data. replaced my streamyx.

the day i signup till 1st bill is about ~13 days. i think. that's why prorated.
the data entitled for that period is also prorated.
payment during signup minus prorated 1st bill , still have balance carried forward.
no need to pay anything.

then the full period between that 1st bill till 2nd bill.
because the balance from signup cannotcover the 2nd bill in full, now i have to pay the difference.

if and when i pay, the outstanding balance shown in 2nd bill will become zero.
i don't own celcom anything, and celcom does not own me anything.

after 2nd bill .....

scenario 1. i keep on subscribing.
celcom will issue 3rd bill where my commitment and additional usage between the 2nd bill and 3rd bill is listed.
then i will become liable again.

scenario 2. i terminate after 2nd bill but far before 3rd bill AND celcom processed termination to completion before midnight of bill date.
celcom will issue 3rd bill where my commitment and additional usage between the 2nd bill and 3rd bill is listed.
then i will become liable again.


scenario 3. i terminate after 2nd bill but close to before 3rd bill AND celcom processed termination to completion before midnight of bill date.
celcom will issue 3rd bill where my commitment and additional usage between the 2nd bill and 3rd bill is listed.
then i will become liable again.
but in very unfortunate case that a usage charge arrived too late to accounting, probably, a 4th bill will be generated for that last missing piece of puzzle.


scenario 4. i terminate after 2nd bill but close to before 3rd bill BUT celcom processed termination to completion after midnight of bill date.
celcom will issue 3rd bill where my commitment and additional usage between the 2nd bill and 3rd bill is listed.
then i will become liable again.
and specific to celcom, if my understanding is correct from exchanges with 1111 and counters, a 4th bill will be generated for that period i was still active.



the above are potential scenarios that i anticipate of. this does not mean celcom will behave exactly like the scumbag i am imagining.
nor it does not stop you from appealing to waive the 4th bill if you find yourself in the last 2 of my scumbag senarios.

for the FiRST plan, the 1st bill is prorated (not sure how "additional use not inclusive" in determined).

the 2nd and onward always full commitment + "additional use not inclusive" as laid out in T&C, not pro-rated.

that's why if based on that "full commitment" clause alone, it's possible for celcom to be scumbag even if you terminate before midnight but they couldn't complete termination before midnight.

when i upgraded from Basic 38 to Blue 45 two days before bill date, i was cautioned that if it does not complete before bill date, i will still be charge RM38 postpaid not only for current period (was incoming Dec bill) but also in next period (the next incoming Jan bill).

thus i panicked because 25hrs after call to upgrade and 12hrs to midnight, they still have not switched.

eventually when they completed the upgrade ~8hrs before midnight, the bill came out like this
+ full RM38 for the period
+ prorated RM45 for 1 day (the day the completed switch)
+ additional use

This post has been edited by cicak.fakir: Jan 13 2017, 06:22 PM