We would like to bring to malaysiakini 's attention of a very unfair and deplorable act by Astro in their recent promotion of its Emperor Package.

Astro is forcing their existing Dynasty subscribers an automatic upgrade to its new Emperor Package if the subscribers do not reply to the promotion offer by returning their response form by April 21. And additional fee of RM30 will be charged to the bill starting May 2003.

Here's what Astro said in their response form: "Remember! If we do not hear from you by 21 April 2003, we will automatically upgrade your current subscription to include the Emperor Package with effect from May 2003 to avoid disruption to your viewing."

Like many other people, we didn't bother reading this all-important mail from Astro. We thought it was some programme brochures. But we were shocked and surprised when we were told by a few friends to check the mail again. Indeed, many of our friends did not realise they need to reply to Astro in order not to have the additional RM30 added to their bill.

There must be many other subscribers like us who failed to read the fine print in this mail from Astro, and imagine their surprise and anger when they see their Astro bill. By virtue of not replying their mail, these users are automatically paying for the services/channels that they didn't opt/apply for!

Furthermore, many of these users pay their bills using automatic payments, where money are auto-debited from their bank account. Some subscribers will not realise what had been paid until much later, which of course will be too late. This is really unfair and unethical!

What Astro is doing is nothing short of being unscrupulous. It is acting like a big bully in this monopolistic satellite broadcasting industry in Malaysia. We will be truly disappointed if Astro is to get away with this. Many of our friends are also terribly angry and upset. Such foul tactics should be checked and curbed before they are imitated by other companies.

We would truly appreciate if the appropriate authority can carry out a full investigation o­n this.