BOUND BY UNREASONABLE CONTRACT

For the past nine months or so, my mother has not been able to receive any mobile phone reception when she is in her room.

Being an elderly woman unfamiliar with technology, she brought up the possibility of a problem with her phone. Her family bought her a new smartphone, but that did not solve the problem.

My brother would like to switch her mobile service provider to the one he is using, as he did not face any problem with phone reception when trying to make a call in her room. But my mother's contract with her service provider has one more year to go.

The telco told us that it is looking into it, but we have heard nothing after about two months.

Under such circumstances, when a service provider is unable to provide acceptable and effective reception, should a consumer be tied to an unreasonable contract and subject to the ridiculous penalty of early termination?

Should the consumer bear the consequences when the fault lies with the service provider?

Gay Bee Kio

QUALIFICATIONS NECESSARY?

I was recently discharged from KK Women's and Children's Hospital.

At the end of our stay, we were asked to fill up a feedback form on our stay there.

We were also asked to indicate our educational qualifications on the survey form. The options given were: Primary, Secondary and Diploma to Tertiary levels.

Why ask about academic qualifications?

Annie Loh

BAD PROPERTY PRACTICE

The practice of selling leasehold residential properties built on freehold land is a good strategy for the developers but bad for the general public.

The authorities should clamp down on such practices to avoid a situation similar to that in Hong Kong where the younger generation feels deprived and displaced due to a lack of opportunity.

Foo Sing Kheng

DANGER OF NEW E-BIKES

When I read about the new generation of power-assisted bicycles, what caught my eye was how similar these e-bikes look compared with regular bicycles (Easy rides on e-bikes, Jan 8).

By law, e-bikes are allowed only on roads and cycling paths. However, the designs of the new generation of e-bikes will make it increasingly difficult for pedestrians and the regulators to identify whether the bicycle travelling on a footpath is an e-bike or a regular one.

The new e-bikes can potentially pose similar dangers as e-scooters to pedestrians, if they are not regulated effectively.

Albert Foo