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In order to downgrade the package rates for his elderly family members, a China Mobile user spent two months and traveled back and forth to his hometown twice, and even experienced an increase in the rate in between. The case of users' difficulty in downgrading their rates exposed by the media recently has attracted widespread attention and has once again revealed the tip of the iceberg of the chaos in operators' package rates.

Beijing News Shell Finance reporters learned from various sources and found that it is not an isolated case that it is easy to upgrade mobile phone packages but difficult to downgrade. Many users of the three major operators have similar experiences. In addition, operators also have chaos such as "secretly adding packages to users" and "'deceiving' users to upgrade their rates". Many users have also "condemned" "charging according to the original package after changing the package", "advertised unlimited traffic with speed limit", "high frequency harassment of users to promote upgraded packages", etc. On the Black Cat complaint platform, there have been tens of thousands of complaints related to the packages of the three major operators.

Industry legal experts said that this type of differential treatment (upgrade and downgrade) by operators is a breach of contract. Consumers have the right to choose goods or services independently, and operators have no right to interfere or set up obstacles. The reason why this kind of chaos has not been curbed is mainly because the existing regulatory documents have limited constraints on operators. At the same time, telecom operators have a monopoly advantage, and the contracts they use with users are mostly standard contracts, and the terms in them are naturally favorable to operators.

On the evening of July 26, a reporter from Beijing News Shell Finance inquired about the three major operators about the package chaos (complained about) in which they were involved. As of press time, no party had officially responded.

Three major operatorsIt is easy to upgrade a package but difficult to downgrade it

Recently, Mr. Zhou from Wenzhou, Zhejiang, went through a lot of trouble to downgrade his package. At the end of last month, he wanted to change his China Mobile SIM card package of 39 yuan/month to 8 yuan, but the mobile customer service representative who answered the phone said that he did not have the corresponding authority and needed to open a work order for the account manager to handle it. However, the account manager who called later first asked him why he changed his package, and then recommended new packages of 59 yuan and 79 yuan to him. After the sales promotion failed, he said that he did not have the authority to change the 8 yuan package, and Mr. Zhou needed to go to the offline business hall to handle it.

Mr. Zhou was very puzzled and continued to contact China Mobile customer service to seek a solution. After making more than a dozen calls, he completely lost his patience and decided to "port his number to another network." Not long after, local staff in Wenzhou contacted Mr. Zhou and advised him to stop porting his number, and promised him a certain discount, but also said that he did not have the authority to change the package. After many troubles, Mr. Zhou finally had to complain. After that, the staff finally agreed to give Mr. Zhou a compromise plan: first downgrade his package to 18 yuan/month, and then give him a discount of 10 yuan per month for three months. When Mr. Zhou returns to Wenzhou during the National Day holiday, he will go to the offline business hall to communicate the need to change to an 8 yuan rate.

Some of Mr. Zhou’s communication records with China Mobile 10086 and his complaint to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. Photo provided by the interviewee

Although he reluctantly accepted this plan for the time being, Mr. Zhou was still confused. "You can change the 39 yuan package to 59 yuan or 79 yuan online, but it is so difficult to lower the package."

China Mobile is not the only operator that users say is difficult to downgrade. The other two operators also often cause similar troubles to users. Mr. Huang from Nanchang is a China Unicom user. Last year, he wanted to change his 60 yuan/month package, but the China Unicom APP prompted him that he could not downgrade. Mr. Huang had to put the matter aside temporarily. Five months later, he returned to his hometown and completed the process at the local offline business hall. Another complainant is a China Telecom user for nearly 10 years. He wanted to change his package, but every time he asked the customer service, he was told that it was the lowest tier at the moment, and the fee started at almost 130 yuan per month. Another China Unicom user mentioned that the customer service told him that the 8 yuan rate was for people over 60 years old and low-income people with subsistence allowances to change their packages.

The reporter called the hotlines of the three major operators in several provinces and cities, including Zhejiang Mobile, Guangdong Unicom and Ningxia Telecom, as a user. Except for a few provinces and cities, most staff said that users can upgrade their packages directly online. If they want to downgrade, especially to an 8 yuan number-keeping package, they need to register and wait for feedback from a specialist, or go to an offline business hall in their area to handle it.

Li Yuan, a partner at Beijing Jingshi Law Firm, commented that this type of differential treatment (upgrade and downgrade) by operators is a breach of contract. "For operators, upgrading and downgrading packages for users are obligations that should be fulfilled under the contract. Based on the principle of fairness, when providing similar services, there should be no difference based on whether it is beneficial to themselves." Li Yuan also mentioned that users' downgrading packages is also an act of autonomously choosing the service method in the process of purchasing services. Operators have no right to interfere or set up obstacles to this, otherwise it will infringe on consumers' right to autonomous choice.

The reporter found that although the operator’s customer service claimed most of the time that they did not have the authority to change the package, once the user’s attitude was firm, especially when preparing to complain, this "authority" often seemed to be able to be opened.

China UnicomHidden increase package,telecommunications"Deception" upgrade

In addition to the difficulty of downgrading rates, operators also have problems with "secretly adding packages for users" and "'tricking' users into upgrading". Ms. Liu from Henan Province has been using China Unicom's 29-yuan Dawang Card package for the past few years. In June this year, she found that an additional package had been added to her personal bill two months ago, with an additional 15 yuan per month, and an additional 5-yuan SMS package. She was very confused because she had not actively subscribed to these two packages.

After failing to communicate with customer service, Ms. Liu filed a complaint in the China Unicom app and applied for a refund, but after waiting for a few days, no one responded. Ms. Liu then complained on the Black Cat platform, and soon after, a China Unicom staff member contacted Ms. Liu, took the initiative to cancel the extra package for her, and refunded the total 45 yuan deducted from the previous three months.

Starting from April this year, Ms. Liu's China Unicom package has an additional 15 yuan/month fee. The picture on the right shows her complaint on the Black Cat platform. Photo provided by the interviewee.

In fact, Ms. Liu had a similar experience in March this year. At that time, she received a text message informing her that a new service of 5 yuan per month had been opened. Surprised, Ms. Liu immediately called China Unicom to inquire, and the customer service cancelled it.

In addition to secretly adding packages, some users were also "tricked" into upgrading. In July this year, Mr. Liu from Guangxi contacted China Telecom when he moved to consult about relocating the fiber optic network. The staff replied that the fiber optic network could be relocated but the original package could not be retained. Mr. Liu's mobile phone package is 114 yuan/month, and the broadband package he previously applied for on this basis is 9.9 yuan/month, and the fiber optic speed used is 300M. The staff said that due to the upgrade of the fiber optic line, the new address building no longer has the original package, and it needs to be replaced with a 1000M speed, which costs 199 yuan/month.

The new home is less than 2 kilometers away from the original address. Mr. Liu did not agree to upgrade because China Telecom’s statement was not convincing. Besides, he did not need such a high network speed. After many unsuccessful communication, Mr. Liu complained on the Black Cat complaint platform. As a result, within two days, China Telecom staff called Mr. Liu to handle the fiber migration.

"Both of these chaos use fraudulent means to mislead consumers into consumption. It is a revocable civil legal act, which means that the contract can be revoked. In essence, it is also profiting through fraud, which seriously infringes on the rights and interests of consumers." said Zhu Wei, deputy director of the Communication Law Research Center of China University of Political Science and Law.

Li Yuan also said that the above chaos shows that there are many irregularities in the services provided by operators, and it also shows that there are still gaps in industry supervision and current regulatory powers.

Changes to package during the contract periodDisaster

If the original package involves a contract, it is more complicated to change the charges. In addition to the time cost, termination of the contract sometimes also involves liquidated damages.

In February this year, Mr. Liu from Shenzhen wanted to downgrade his package, but was told that the package was still in the contract period and could not be processed. But Mr. Liu remembered very clearly that he only participated in one event in 2019, and the second year of the contract period had ended. During the other contract signing times mentioned by the customer service, he did not have any correspondence with 10086. Mr. Liu made 5 phone calls to communicate about this situation, and finally said that if it could not be processed again, he would complain. Faced with this "tough" attitude, the staff finally processed a downgrade for him.

In July this year, Mr. Chen from Nanning, Guangxi, also encountered a similar situation. Customer service reported that his package had a two-year contract and could only be changed after the expiration. Mr. Chen was able to change his package only after he complained through multiple channels including China Mobile APP, 10086, Black Cat Complaints and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

The reporter learned from the operator staff that some contracts require users to pay a penalty for early termination, while others do not. The amount of the penalty varies depending on the situation. In addition, some contracts can be terminated early, while others must wait until the expiration date before the package can be changed.

Li Yuan analyzed that whether the relevant provisions of the contract are compliant depends on the specific circumstances. The contract packages signed by operators and users usually impose some restrictions on user rights while giving users certain discounts. If both parties are clear about their respective rights and responsibilities and the legal consequences of signing the contract, it should normally be binding on both parties. The current prominent problem is that in most cases, when the contract is signed, consumers do not have a comprehensive understanding of their obligations, and operator staff will exaggerate the discounts that users can get, causing users to make wrong judgments. In this case, there is a question whether the concealment and inducement of the operator is in compliance with the rules.

Li Yuan mentioned that telecommunications service contracts are standard contracts (standard contracts are clauses that are prepared in advance by the parties for repeated use and are not negotiated with the other party when the contract is concluded). The prominent feature of standard contracts is that the drafting party of the contract naturally occupies a dominant position, which can easily lead to unfair results for the counterparty of the contract.

"The operator should fulfill its obligation to provide reminders and explanations regarding terms such as the contract period, conditions for termination of the contract, and liquidated damages at the beginning of the signing. If the operator does not provide special reminders or even conceals the terms at the time of signing, then the clause will be invalid," said Li Yuan.

Zhu Wei also analyzed that if consumers and operators want to change the contract during the performance period after signing it, in principle, they should follow the contract agreement. However, many problems and chaos have occurred at this stage. The main reason is that most consumers do not carefully read the important terms in the contract process. "These are standard terms. Disputes that arise in the end, such as the need to pay liquidated damages to change the package, are all completed according to the standard terms in the contract. If the operator does not give a notice in advance, some of them are violations."

OperatorsGrowth of individual user business slowed down，Existing regulatory documents have limited constraints

As early as around 2006, the media had exposed this phenomenon. In the following years, with the diversification of packages brought about by the development of smartphones and communication technology, the related chaos has intensified. On the Black Cat complaint platform alone, there have been tens of thousands of complaints related to the packages of the three major operators, including 29,896 complaints about China Mobile packages, 23,645 complaints about China Unicom packages, and 8,233 complaints about China Telecom packages.

Behind the frequent chaos, reporters found that this may be related to the operators' business considerations. The financial report shows that the revenue growth rate of the three major operators has declined in recent years. Taking 2023 as an example, China Mobile's annual revenue was 1,009.3 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 7.7% (the growth rate in the previous year was 10.5%), China Telecom's revenue was 507.843 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.9% (the growth rate in the previous year was 9.5%), and China Unicom's revenue was 372.6 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 5.0% (the growth rate in the previous year was 8.3%). In fact, this sign of slowing down has begun in 2021. At the same time, the gross profit margins of the three major operators have been on a downward trend overall.

Starting from 2021, China Mobile's revenue growth rate showed signs of slowing down. Image source: Wind.

On the other hand, the personal market is still the basic plate of operators. Taking China Mobile as an example, the group's revenue in 2023 was 1009.3 billion yuan, of which the personal market revenue was 490.2 billion yuan, accounting for half of the total. However, with the saturation of mobile users in my country, the business growth of operators' personal user market has gradually slowed down in recent years. Taking 2023 as an example, China Mobile's mobile ARPU (average revenue per user) was 49.3 yuan, a slight increase of only 0.3 yuan compared to 49 yuan in 2022. At the same time5G ARPU will drop from 81.5 yuan in 2022 to 78.2 yuan in 2023. China Telecom's mobile user ARPU is 45.4 yuan, a slight increase of 0.2 yuan compared with 2022. China Unicom's mobile user ARPU is 44 yuan, down 0.1 yuan from 2022. Many securities reports pointed out that the ARPU of operators in recent years has been lower than expected.

Relevant national departments have also issued relevant regulations many times. In 2008, the Ministry of Information Industry issued the "Guiding Opinions on Regulating the Management of Telecom Rate Plans". In 2017, relevant departments of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology also interviewed the three major operators and required them not to restrict users' rate selection rights unless otherwise agreed in the contract between the two parties.

In August 2018, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the "Notice on Further Regulating Telecom Rate Marketing Behavior", which stated that telecom business operators should fully respect users' right to choose independently. When promoting rate plans, they should also fulfill their obligation to remind users of the rate plan's restrictive conditions, validity period, billing principles and other matters.

Why is the above chaos still rampant despite the issuance of multiple documents? Li Yuan said that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology is a subordinate department of the State Council, and the regulatory documents formulated by it are not as effective as the relevant laws formulated by the National People's Congress, and have limited constraints on operators. At the same time, operators have a monopoly advantage, and the contracts they use with users are mostly standard contracts, and the clauses in them may be naturally favorable to operators.

Zhu Wei also made suggestions for the package chaos. He suggested that these standard terms for consumers should be changed into filing-type terms. The telecommunications consumer group is huge, and such standard contracts involving many consumers should be filed and reviewed by the market supervision and management department or local consumer associations. "Information disclosure is also very important, such as trying to send relevant consumption receipts to consumers regularly every year, every quarter and every month." Zhu Wei said.

Li Yuan said that when consumers face such problems, they should clarify their own rights and interests and recognize the other party's infringement. They should first negotiate with the operator. If the negotiation fails, they can file a complaint with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other administrative regulatory departments, or protect their legitimate rights and interests through legal proceedings. In the face of the difficulty of users in protecting their rights, regulatory departments should strengthen system construction, unify regulatory standards, issue relevant guidance documents, clarify the responsibilities and obligations of operators, and effectively protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers.

Sun Wenxuan, financial reporter of Beijing News Shell

editYue Caizhou

Proofread by Yang Li