We apologise, but we're confused.
But we'll explain.
On Thursday evening, we outed Circles.Life (thanks to the experience of user Winston Ong) for misleadingly advertising that its phone plans come with "Unlimited WhatsApp (excluding video calls)", when it actually comes with a 1 GB data usage cap — this, as part of something they call a "Fair Usage Policy".
In the wake of our article being published, a few Circles.Life users who read it took to their Facebook page to ask them directly about it.
Will people be charged $6 per GB of WhatsApp used even when they have additional data allowance to cover the excess? Is there *really* a limit on the unlimited WhatsApp usage policy?
We checked out the telco's responses to its customers' questions over the past 15 hours or so.
Here's one of their earliest responses to a post for instance, at about 2am Friday:
So here, they're saying:
- Only users who make "excessive" video calls will "breach these reminders/alerts".
- "Normal usage will not be hitting any kind of limit".
Now, Ong said in his post earlier this week that he did not ever use WhatsApp video calls (so he is not one of these "excessive video calling" users):
And yet, he was notified that he exceeded his alloted 1 GB WhatsApp limit:
Clearly, this first response from Circles.Life isn't aligned with what we know.
But let's look at another response, this time posted at 1:26pm Friday:
This time, new information was introduced — "if you don't have sufficient unused data (base or 20/20)".
This one just confuses us further — how is the unused data bundle relevant to this discussion? Are they now saying excess WhatsApp data usage can be offset for free by unused data in a person's prepaid quota?
But okay, that's what they said.
After those two that we found, these comments were posted between 3:26 and 3:35pm:
So here's what we've learned from this round of comments, which, bear in mind, come just two hours after the earlier responses and are sent by a different administrator:
- The Unlimited WhatsApp service actually does have a 1 GB limit, due to Circle's Life Fair Usage Policy.
- If a customer exceeds this 1 GB use limit, despite not using video calls, they can reach out to the Circles.Life staff to get their excess charges (the $6 per GB) waived.
It's not clear how long this policy will stand. Also, these details were only shared with customers who asked them about it.
- Video calls will be counted as part of a user's prevailing data bundle, and not as part of the 1 GB "Unlimited WhatsApp" limit.
It is also not clear if this is a new or temporary policy.
But again, this all makes us wonder: would Circles.Life have said anything about these apparent changes in practice publicly if no one first asked questions about it?
All that said, perhaps this is the most important feedback Circles.Life needs to put into action:
Here's what they said in response to that piece of feedback, in case you're interested:
Read also:
We cycled through 700 years of Singapore history just to write this article
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Top photo: Screenshots adapted from Circles.Life website; comments from Circles.Life's Facebook page
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