SoftBank Group
reviews and complaints

In June of 2018 I purchased a SOFTBANK SIM card from MOBAL, order number [protected], for a pending trip to Japan for which I paid ¥3,000. Then the Government of Canada and the Government of Japan placed travel restriction on people due to COVID 19 so I was not able to travel to Japan. I looked at the paperwork and emails I received from MOBAL and there was no mention of an expiry date on the purchase I made only that I must activate the card before use.

I am currently planning a vacation to Japan in March of 2023 for 30 days and when I attempted to activate the card for use I could not and when I contacted MOBAL this is the response I received:

“Thank you for your email and apologies for the delayed response.
Looking at your account I can see you purchased a SIM back in 2018, and sadly this has expired.
With the Voice SIM cards you have 3 months to activate them or else they will expire, we extended the expiration date by another 2 years due to Covid.
We no longer sell that type of SIM card either, you will need to purchase a new SIM card but here is a discounted link;

www.mobal.com/existingcustomer

Apologies.”

I am contacting you to ask if this type of business practice is normal with the companies SOFTBANK aligns with?
Also and to see if there is anyway I can still use the SIM I paid for while I visit Japan without making an additional purchase?

Douglas Knight

[protected]@outlook.com

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

I have been using Soft Bank internet services since 2015. Last week I moved house within Osaka city. The internet stopped working. I tried everything to get it working. It didn't work. It caused a lot of stress as I need internet to work from home. I lost 20,000 yen in wages due to no internet. I visited the Softbank shop in Yodobashi camera on Saturday May 7th. I spent 75 mins there but they couldn't find my account and couldn't help me, despite giving them my name and address. I went back the next day and they found my account. I waited with the Softbank staff for 45 mins to get through to the helpline which didn't help me and couldn't change my address because I moved over golden week and my new address hadn't been updated at the city office on my resident card. All I needed was internet, they recommended buying a new router, so i filled in all the paperwork but at the Softbank shop the system refused my application maybe because my previous address was a share house. They said there was nothing they could do. So the Softbank man introduced me to Docomo it took 2 and a half hours on May 7th top sign up for the 5G home plan. The whole situation took more than 6 hours and was hugely stressful.

a Then on May 14th I called with a Japanese speaker to cancel the non-working Softbank service. We spent a total of two hours on the telephone. First they told us the internet should be connected as they had moved it to another tower, the internet still didn't work. We called back and finally they told us that the service should work fine they had registered my new address which they could do over the phone and change my router to a different tower. Why didn't they do that on May 6th or 7th? When I desperately needed internet for my work. They do it one week later - it's too late!Then they told me I should cancel docomo as it is within their cooling off period. This would mean another 2-4 hour ordeal in Yodobashi Camera. I said no I couldn't spend my week-end again in such an awful situation wasting time I needed to prepare for work and unpack my things in my new house. So Softbank insisted I have to pay 10,000 yen cancellation fee and a month of internet connection, totaling almost 15,000 yen.

My complaint can be summarized as follows:

1)The staff at Softbank didn't give the correct information and help customers on the first visit which leads to huge stress, wasting my valuable time and energy.

2) Their service both in person at YC and on the phone is slow and confusing (different staff give different answers) and they require the telephone number to access the account - if it's an old number it's so time consuming for them to find the account. I just started 3 new part time jobs and i need to use my free time to relax and prepare for my new jobs not to sit around in loud noisy environments while soft bank staff try to find out what they need to do.

3) Their system of handling customers and dealing with situations is rigid and inflexible. They consider me not having internet is my fault as I didn't follow their procedure. Despite the fact that Softbank didn't help on May 7th and gave me incorrect information.No-one told me of this procedure, yet i am responsible for that.

4) As a result of this problem, I wasted more than 8 hours in person and on the phone trying to fix this problem. It caused me huge stress after moving and a lack of sleep. I lost 20,000 yen in wages due to no internet. Now I have to pay Softbank 15,000 yen in fees for cancelling. Truly shocking customer service. The company's whole focus is about their system ands getting the customers to follow that system. I feel completely powerless, disregarded and used by Softbank system that doesn't care about customers at all.. I wouldn't call their helpline a service as they don't do anything to help other just to inform you of what regulations you have to follow.

Dear SoftBank,

I would like to let you know that I need clarification on my final billing (February 26, 2021).

My phone number was [protected].

I will let you know the background of my contract termination with you.

January 26, 2021:
My phone died and would not charge anymore.

January 27, 2021:
I consulted with the SoftBank store - Chigasaki about the problem. A male store person assisted me for a bit then told me to come back the following day. He said he will arrange a service for me with an English-speaking support person.

January 28, 2021:
The store female English-speaking support person couldn't decide well on the matter so she sought help from the Customer Service over the phone. So I talked with them one at a time, back and forth. Of course, they and also had their own discussion.

Both of them could not give me a better option nor an alternative on how to acquire a new one. They said it was all because of the expiry my passport (Feb. 24th) and my visa (Mar. 30th). They asked me to wait for three months (as a rule; payment sustained: February, March, April) to acquire a new unit which I find absurd because my phone is a necessity for my personal life and for work. How my phone worked was beyond my control, the occurrence of the problem which was quite untimely as well.

After all the disappointing options, I asked the man from the Customer Service if I could just terminate my contract and he firmly answered (arrogant in a way) that I can do it and there will be no fees to be imposed.
When I informed the female English-speaking support person about my decision to terminate the contract, she then told me that I have to pay for the Penalty Fee of 10, 480 yen then let me sign some documents without even explaining them to me.
(Article reference: https://www.nippon.com/en/news/yjj2019090600293/softbank-to-abolish-2-year-binding-mobile-contracts.html#:~:text=1., of%20the%20two%2Dyear%20term., https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/09/06/business/corporate-business/softbank-to-abolish-2-year-binding-contracts/)

As I was aware that my billing time was always on the 26th of every month, I even asked them if I will be charged for the next month. They answered that there will be no more fees.

Note: The service that I received on that day was unpleasant, one of the reasons why I came up with the decision to terminate my contract with you.

February 26, 2021:
19, 800 yen was deducted from my bank account.
Would you explain it to me?
You can easily check my usage from your database, a one-month gap (January 26, 2021 to February 26, 2021) of no network service with you.

I am eager to hear from you.

Sincerely,
Charmagne

I bought a phone and specifically asked the employees what the return policy was. The employees did not know and as a result did not explain the return policy. The phone features the employees claimed were false which I didn't know and as a result I bought the phone. When I tried to return the phone since it did not do what I over paid for, the employees lied to their manager about it and ensured they were away from work so as not to face me since they knew they lied and I was coming in to return the phone. I trusted these employees because Japan is well known as an honor based culture but clearly this store employs dishonorable people. As a result I am stuck with a phone that doesn't do what I paid for and in fact paid $400 over retail for. Manager is constantly away and rude when he finally does come to work. The manager was scheduled for work but was away on a personal errand. I called the Corporate office for support and at first it appeared they were supporting me. But that quickly changed and they supported this dishonorable behavior of their staff and tried to play the language barrier card. Talking with the manager was only for show for him as he called me a liar. return policy is only 8 days and only if the phone itself has a hardware defect or damage defect. If I would have known that clearly I would not have come to return the phone as I would have known the policy and wasting a whole day waiting for a manager to finally come to work (on a day he was scheduled) says a lot already. Store location: MCAS Iwakuni Japan. Do not buy their phones, DO NOT trust their staff, BUYER BEWARE, and look up the long list of horrible experiences SoftBank is reported for. They do not care about their customers and will do everything in their power to swindle you and then play the language barrier card or cover their employees dishonorable conduct.

Softbank is the worst cellphone provider. If you are a foreign and new to the country, DO NOT use Softbank. Don’t fall for that cute hachiko logo. They have English speaking staffs in the Ginza office, but if you want to speak with one of them prepare for at least an hour wait. They are not fluent to begin with, double triple doubt on whatever they are telling you. Before I left the country, I was pretty sure that my phone bought in 2014 was locked, I went to the Ginza office and spoke to the “English-speaking” representative about unlocking it. She said.. you don’t have to worry about it all the phones are unlocked. I asked her multiple times, she just kept saying it’s fine it’s fine it’s unlocked already and of course once you left the country and tried putting a new sim card in the phone, it was LOCKED! I called the Ginza office and Softbank customer office, it always goes to machine and eventually got hung up. Can’t even talked to an actual person and ask for help. If that’s how you treat your customer or previous customer, no one will ever go back to Softbank or recommend it to anyone. Seriously, not even a way express frustration to the Company and the next thing you know all these complaints will go online and be visible for everyone. FYI if you are looking into a 1 or 1.5 or 2 year contract, forget about going over to the Softbank office to set up a plan. Service is crappy, English speaking staff is pretty useless, and they only offer a 2 year contract, which you would be forced to pay penalty if you are only staying in Japan for a year. Go to BicCamera or Yodobashi, you would be able to get a 1 year plan and the transaction would be much cleaner based on my fd’s experience. Wish I knew about that when I first arrived in Japan. Too late for me, but hopefully someone would be able to read this before entering into a contract with Softbank.

I purchased a prepaid sim card to use with my iPad. I was cycling from Niigata to Hiroshima and needed an affordable why to keep in contact with my family back in the USA and my friend back in Niigata. After much research I found that SoftBank sold a 1 gig prepaid data sim card. I went to bic camera and the sales rep sold me a card. It worked wonderfully! I was able to get a connection while cycling through the mountains of Matsumoto! Though i thought it was peculiar the network i was connected to said Docomo. When I hit the 1 gig limit I was prompted to renew by credit card. I did so, but noticed it was through b-mobile's site. The service continued to be stellar. I made it through my trip safely thanks to this card.

Now I am living in Saga, Japan and need portable Internet access. I went to the SoftBank by Saa Station, next to the AU. They took an hour of my life only to inform me that they couldn't do anything because I had a Docomo sim card.ok.i understand...but Docomo doesn't sell prepaid service. Fine. They didn't even seem to care that one of their 3rd party representatives was selling another company's product/service under their name. And instead of selling me a SoftBank prepaid sim card, their eyes ushered me to the door, as if doing their job as a customer service rep was such an uncomfortable inconvenience. I don't know which company to thank for the excellent Internet service, but I do know which one doesn't hold integrity to be an important value.

Hello,
I was in Tokyo, Japan from July 2010 to April 2011. I got a post-paid mobile connection with SoftBank Mobile from Sep 2010 onwards and my mobile number is 080 [protected]. Initially I have given my ICICI credit card for bill payment as I didnt have local savings account. For the first month bill - SoftBank deducted Rs.19, 473.18/- from my credit card. The actual bill in Yen is 33, 976.00/-. However, they sent me the same bill to my Tokyo home address somewhere in Dec 2010. I was not aware that it was of same month's bill and I paid the same at local convenience store. This resulted in double payment.I realized the double payment later at some point in Jan '11 and started talking with SoftBank. Seems like SoftBank recieved an instruction/memo from ICICI bank in Dec 2010 asking them to cancel that transaction. Hence they sent me the same bill to my home address. They also claim that they have explained the same in that bill, since everything is in Japanese language, I didnt understand. From subsequent month onwards, SoftBank started deducting the bill amount from my Shinsei bank savings account as per my standing instructions. I got my savings account by that time.

Is it possible to check :
a) Whether the SoftBank has recieved double payment from me?
b) Whether the SoftBank can provide any proof which shows that they didnt recieve the amount from ICICI credit card?

Thanks
Sundar.