The High Cost of Unspoken Expectations: Cangoh Recounts a 1996 Mobile Roaming Bill Shock

In a recent LinkedIn post, Cangoh shares a personal anecdote from 1996 to illustrate a timeless business lesson: the critical importance of clearly communicating expectations. Recounting his first experience with a mobile phone, Cangoh highlights how a lack of explicit understanding about international calling and roaming charges led to a significant and costly lesson.

Cangoh begins by setting the scene, detailing the purchase of his first mobile phone, a Motorola candy bar model, which was subsidized by Telekom Malaysia. The key to the ensuing lesson, he explains, lay in the payment method.

“Because the line was charged to my eldest brother’s AMEX (he gave me a supplementary card then), I didn’t realize they automatically turned on IDD and International Roaming”

Without a clear explanation of what International Direct Dialing (IDD) and International Roaming entailed, Cangoh proceeded to use his phone while traveling in Saudi Arabia. He found the call quality to be surprisingly good, even better than the prepaid calling cards he had previously used.

The Shocking Revelation: When Common Sense Isn’t Common

The reality of his mobile usage, however, came crashing down about a month later when his eldest brother received his American Express statement. Cangoh vividly describes the immediate aftermath.

“About a month later, when my eldest brother received his AMEX statement, I could hear his screams in Kay El while I was still in Jeddah 😱😅”

Cangoh points out that his brother had not explicitly explained the implications of IDD and International Roaming when providing the supplementary credit card. This oversight, he suggests, was the root cause of the unexpected and substantial charges.

Learning the Value of Explicit Communication

This experience, described by Cangoh as a “veli veli veli painful lesson that I am unable to err un-lim-member lor,” profoundly shaped his understanding of interpersonal and business communication. He argues that the incident underscored the necessity of proactive and clear expectation setting.

“After experiencing this three decades ago, I understood the importance of communicating expectations clearly and early,” Cangoh writes. He directly links this personal financial shock to a broader principle:

“Because common sense is clearly uncommon lor”

Cangoh concludes by posing a question to his audience, inviting them to share their own moments of realizing that common sense is not universally applied. He reiterates his own “aha!” moment, tying it back to his brother’s reaction to the 1996 Amex bill.

The lesson from Cangoh’s story is clear: in both personal and professional contexts, assuming mutual understanding can lead to significant and avoidable costs. Proactive, explicit communication about terms, conditions, and potential consequences is not just good practice—it’s essential for preventing costly surprises.