On August 2018, Telekom Malaysia (TM) has added and enforced an unfair contractual term to all new and existing TM customers under their Unifi Internet Service. The new clause states that any termination of contract must be applied 30 days prior and termination has to be done 5 days after the 30-day period.

Within the 31st to 35th day after the termination notice, the customer has to walk in to select TMpoint stores to terminate the contract. Most TMpoint store do not open on weekends and only open during office hours on weekdays. Customers are forced to take leave from work to do a task that can be done easily online, or over the phone. TM has unnecessarily made the termination more difficult lengthy without justified valid reason.

In addition, the way the new contractual term was announced via a small pop-up when visiting Unifi official website briefly around the time the new terms were enforced. The announcement was purposefully done in a way to make Unifi customer base unaware of the new changes.

I call upon the Board of Directors of Telekom Malaysia Berhad, and the Ministry of Communications and Multimedia to take heed upon the misuse of power by the largest ISP in Malaysia.

List of things that I would like to see changed

1. TM are exploiting the lack of legislation around unfair contract law and this should not be the case.
2. TM should at least revise any contractual terms that does not unfairly prejudice the customers. Any updates to their T&C should be formally agreed by both parties. TM also has to exercise transparency in their business conduct.
3. TM should simplify, not complicate the termination process, just so TM has a chance to lure back their declining customer base.
4. Lastly, for a company slogan that strives for “Life and Business Made Easier for a Better Malaysia”, it certainly does not look like they do.