Cancelling My Campus Mobile Plan Cost More Than ¥800

I have had one phone number for many years. It came with a campus plan I signed up for at university. The plan included 100 GB of campus data, some call time, and a monthly rebate. The listed fee was ¥48 per month, with a ¥20 rebate, so I paid ¥28 in practice. The data worked only on campus. After graduation, I moved to another city for work and could use only 20 GB of domestic data, which was not enough for me.

About two years ago, the student campus plan was due to expire. That would mean losing both the ¥20 monthly rebate and the 20 GB of domestic data, so I planned to transfer my number to another carrier. I contacted customer service to ask when the plan would end completely and what conditions applied to a transfer. They told me they could renew the student campus plan for two years, through 2026. I agreed.

This July, I happened to notice that the ¥20 rebate was no longer arriving. My actual monthly bill was ¥48. At that price, 20 GB of data was not worthwhile. The number was now mainly for receiving verification codes and signing in to accounts anyway. I contacted customer service and asked to cancel the plan. They told me it was a contract plan that would not end until 2028. In other words, it had been renewed for four years rather than two. Cancelling early would cost me more than ¥800 in penalties.

I did not agree. I asked customer service to cancel the plan, or I would file a complaint with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, because I had not knowingly agreed to this plan.

Two working days later, someone from the carrier added me on WeChat and asked for a photo of my ID card. After another two days, he told me the campus plan had been cancelled, but the monthly fee was still ¥48. If I wanted another plan, I would have to arrange it myself.

So I called customer service and signed up for a ¥8 plan online. During the call, the representative said places were limited and an application was required. I knew that was another sales line, so I was firm about it. Fortunately, it was finally sorted out.

There are so many traps hidden in something as ordinary as a phone number. It is hard to stay on guard against all of them.