Maxis iPhone Crash Day 10...contd

Well I am still waiting for the call from Maxis to tell me my iPhone is ready for collection. I was told one week but it's been Day 10.

When I called Maxis to ask for an immediate replacement, I was told there is no policy for immediate replacement. Then I asked for an iPhone on loan. And the Maxis staff at the call centre told me to go to the nearest Maxis Centre and ask for one. So I went to Maxis Centre at the Gardens. There I was made to wait for my turn while some of the staff were not attending to anyone. Then my number was called and I was quickly told there is no such thing as a loan phone while my iPhone is being fixed. The staff did not even bother to get down my name or phone number. I was told I wasn't the only one with iPhone problems. The Maxis Call centre have been telling its customers to go to Maxis Centre to get their problems sorted out there because they can't handle the problem and Maxis Centre then turns customers away because they also can't handle the problem. This method really works cos I am so fed up by then I have no energy left to follow through with this iPhone nightmare. (Come to think of it, its the same feeling when dealing with Astro..) I was even told at the Maxis Centre, hey, it is a warranty and not a guarantee la. And I was told, Maxis is itself having problem even getting in touch with Apple in Singapore. And I am just baffled at how absurd Malaysian consumerism has gotten to. I have paid the full sum for the iPhone and now made to listen to this rubbish. I think both Maxis and Apple legal counsels need to address this issue and quickly brief their staff about their responsibilities under the sale of goods law. How can Maxis sell the iPhone and collect the money and now wash its hands by saying, I don't know, the supplier Apple is not even talking to me. And how can Apple make these iPhones that couldn't even last for a year and totally washes its hands. If you go to the Apple website and where it says troubleshoot, I was shocked to see, it says, contact your service provider. There isn't even a contact number by Apple for one to call.

I have quickly gone from loving the iPhone to hating it through all this saga. I have to write this down so I will not forget. I must remember not to transact with any company that has no honour.

Astro beyond means...

If we get a hospital bill, we should send it to astro. It's been frustration all the way since we signed up for astro beyond. We now call it astro beyond means beyond the control of the voice that we are speaking to, whether it is the technician that installed the setop box or the technical assistance we call.

Here's what happened... astro sends a very young team of technician to install the setop box. That was 2 days ago. They also adjusted the existing satellite dish. Whilst the technician is here, the viewing is interrupted constantly with the message...'invalid smart card..' every few minutes. My son tells them it's the setop box and the smartcard. They are faulty and need to be replaced. The technician insists it will normalise automatically. He says leave it on and it will normalise. An he left. With our old setop box for regular astro. 48 hours later the problem is still there. In the meantime we call the technician, he says it is beyond his control, call astro.

So we call astro, wait for a long long time. That was last night. No one picks up the phone. Then we call astro again, wait for a long time again. We got to speak to technical assistance. The technician says they'll do a diagnostics from their side this morning. Then they find it can't be resolved. They'll send someone to pick up the setop box within the next 48 hours to take it for diagnostics. But. They can't give us a replacement setop box. So it must mean we won't be able to watch astro at all. The voice says it is beyond his control...

I guess in our kind of big is better and where there is no competition, this is what we have to put up with. We become sitting ducks for bad service. As if it is a free service. The system has no sense.

If you sign up for beyond and you get a faulty box, bad luck. You are stuck with that box until that box gets fixed, even if it was faulty from day one. That we think is the most ridiculous system. I guess with a low income society like Malaysia coupled with monopoly, any bad system no matter how ridiculous, still sells. What is a few disgruntled customers amongst millions, right?

We are talking about an enhanced service from normal satellite tv to high definition tv and yet the service level is pretty much third world. And the way customers are treated clearly needs to be taken up a notch higher. We may be a low income society but that does not mean that the country is filled with senseless non thinking idiots. Give the customers some sense of dignity.