I recently decided to terminate the rental of one of two cable set-top boxes I have with StarHub to save myself $12 every month.

I disconnected the device and took it down to the StarHub outlet at Westgate mall, only to be told by the customer service staff that the only way to terminate the rental of the equipment was to call the service hotline to make an appointment for someone to pick up the set-top box.

A fee of $53.50 would be charged, I was told, as there was a need for some configuration to be done before the rental could be terminated.

After some protest, the service fee was waived. I subsequently arranged for the pick-up. On the appointed day, the service technician took all of one minute to collect the set-top box which I had packed for my earlier trip to the StarHub shop.

The service technician was as puzzled as I was when told of the configuration that the customer service had mentioned. He said he was there just to collect the set-top box.

All the inconvenience and time wasted could have been saved if StarHub had just received the set-top box when I brought it to them in the first place.

Why is there a need to charge a customer and make it compulsory to arrange for collection just to terminate the rental of a set-top box?

Although the charges were eventually waived, a lot of time was wasted as I had to take a day off because a technician was coming down to collect the device.

Hefferich Tan