Maxis' customer service sucks big time...

So… to those who’ve visited the one’s blog is aware of our annoyance with our current telco. Although the one has always told me how much he thinks maxis sucks before he switched to celcom a few years back, I, on the other hand thinks celcom’s customer service sucks big time before I switched to maxis a long time back.

But, with my recent activity with maxis, their offer for a supplementary line was so irresistible since we did think of using the same telco to have more savings for our calls. Hence, I managed to persuade the one into converting back to maxis since I didn’t want to change my number as it is my ‘cari makan’ number.

I must mention that before the supplementary line offer, I did experience some stupid glitch with their customer service. It was when I left my job and wanted to convert my corporate line to an individual account.

Back then before my number was converted to corporate line, the billing address was to my parents’ home and I have filled all the necessary applications to change my billing address to my current one. And, they charge me a deposit as it is deemed as a new account. All that should be simple and easy, right??... especially since my friend, Waty, supervised the customer service rep at the Taman Tun branch each time she wasn’t sure. At that time, I thought that they haven’t trained their customer service frontliners right as there are so many things that they do not know and needed to refer to their supervisors every once in awhile. But, since everything seemed okay, I left the maxis center not suspecting anything amiss.

A week after that I got such a shock when my mom passed me this mail I got from maxis, sent to her home. But that wasn’t my biggest irritation… what irked me so much was not only did they not key in my current address but they also addressed me as Chief Inspector Tough Cookie. Like helooo… mana dapat Chief Inspector, I seriously cannot comprehend.

I wrote in a complaint to them thru their online form and a customer service operator called me later that day apologising and told me that all are already in order.

I mean, this is so unnecessary!

When we got the supplementary line offer from their tele-sales rep, everything seemed to be in order. We got the SIM card within a couple of days and although I was a little skeptical, the one was unsuspecting and immediately disconnected his Celcom line. Well… that became an issue because when we called maxis customer service, the person on the other line didn’t even know that sales for supplementary line could be done online and thought I was joking! He questioned me on the process and I had to tell him what the tele-sales guy told me 2 days before. Imagine… I had to practically ‘teach’ him what he’s supposed to do because I was only supposed to call to activate the SIM card.

halo. what's so difficult la...

His supervisor had to call me for verifications and promised that the line would be activated within 1 hour.

I felt so sorry for persuading the one to convert to maxis as we had to make numerous calls in probably 3-4 hours before the line was actually activated.

Thus, from then on, I started to think that maxis is kinda disappointing. Yup, their coverage and plans may be the best but their customer service sucks balls. Sucks like hell, I tell you. That reminded me when a friend of mine got robbed and reporting to maxis customer service was such a chore… imagine how stressful that could be…

Like press 1 for English… press bla bla bla, then press this, then press that and then you get the automated reply – your calls are important to us… please hold on as our customer service rep are busy at this moment… and you get that prompt repeated over and over again while you’re busy trying to call your banks to report the stolen credit cards and ATM cards. Then, when their customer service rep finally answers your call, they pass you here and there because stolen phones and barring of line is not automatically in their tele-option. And they ask you stupid questions like how did it happen and where did it happen when all they should do was to immediately bar the SIM card, assure the caller that everything should be okay and inform them how they could get a new SIM card.

On the 2nd day of Raya while shopping at Sunway Pyramid, the one’s eye caught on the maxis center which was open. He asked this guy who looked like the person in charge whether he could get a separate bill with his name on it although he was holding a supplementary line under my account as his company does not allow any claims without his name on the bill. The guy said it is not possible and that we should create a new account with him as the main account holder and moi holding the supplementary line. That would involve advanced payment of 1 month package that we’re paying and additional RM100 for activation of ‘new’ account which will be billed in our next statement.

The customer service rep looked so confident with what she was supposed to do, made the necessary copies of our identity cards, got us both to sign on 1 new form and explained to us that she would put my number as supplementary. I asked her if there are anything else and she said all is well and done. Of course, before all that, I had warned the one that I knew something would go wrong.

And I was so right about my perception of maxis’ customer service. They suck.

Apparently, they are now billing us separately ie. no supplementary benefits like the ones we enjoyed before the change but but… my name was listed as supplementary account.

Knowing the one, he was so baik when he called their customer service. Did the things he had to do and even went to maxis KLCC. It was so bad that one customer service tele-rep had to call us after a few days, gave us a reference number and said that the problem will be attended to within 48 hours. Like come on… the issue is so easy… to just converge our numbers into one account instead of separately! The one kept pointing out that it wasn’t our fault because how could a supplementary line be billed separately… which means, the girl at Sunway’s center did not make the change correctly.

When the Sunway center refused to call us back and told the customer service tele-rep that they do not have proof of our visit to the center, that was I think, the last straw for the very patient the one. They advised that we go back to them and the one was so annoyed that they would make us go thru so much trouble just to correct this problem when it was their fault and that they could easily correct online.

I told the one that we should confront those incompetent ignorant stupid people and make a scene just like I did when we were sold a faulty nokia phone months ago (they refused to replace it although they admitted it was their fault). After that scene, and a letter to the Malay Mail, they quickly replaced that phone. I mean, our rights as customer sucks in this country. We have to make so much noise and make a scene in order to be taken seriously.

let me at it! let me at it...!!

The one didn’t agree with me because it’ll take so much effort to go to Sunway as we need to get the baby ready, the hassle of finding parking space, paying for parking bla bla bla and we’re not even sure if the problem would be rectified efficiently.

So, he decided to switch back to Celcom since we could now still use the same number. Actually, we were seriously considering Digi but since they lack 3G coverage, that option was KIVied.

The story didn’t end there as the application to switch to Celcom was rejected since the billing problem with maxis wasn’t corrected. And then… what happened made me so proud of the one. The always ‘nice guy’ character in him was totally gone when he spoke to another maxis’ customer service tele-rep for the last time… it took a good 50 minutes to explain to the supervisor maxis sucks big time and the stupid mistake they make and pinning on the customers for their fucked-upness. The thing was, the supervisor couldn’t even see their mistake until the one questioned her whether it is possible for a supplementary line to be a separate account. That got to her on how stupid it sounded and promised that she’d look into it with the assurance that we do not have to go to Sunway center.

Yesterday, they rectified the problem. Finally! If I weren’t so busy with the baby, I would definitely already let the media know about this. Coming from such a reputable telco, one would never think their customer service sucks big time.

hah... boleh pulak. ish!

After all this cerita panjang… we’re both officially, on Celcom.

15 comments:

Zuhril Azhar said...

So, finally u MNP from Maxis to Celcom... Make sure you tell Maxis loudly as possible why did you switch. This can help them to improve their service at least. Personally I think every customer is important & deserve VVIP treatment. Sadly, you had to experience the bad side of Maxis.

So sorry to hear about your predicament with Maxis. I think it was unnecessary & a complete waste of your precious time. MNP arrives at the right time where you can switch telco & maintain the same number.

Good luck with Celcom than & have a great day :)

Z.Y. said...

u know what other customer service i hate? Enrich. they're under the "reputable" MAS right? but still sucks like hell. the customer service reps are so effing rude. rasa cam nak tembak je. so far with maxis, i hv not encountered any probs yet *crosses fingers*

another one i hate is hong leong bank. every other month one stupid guy/girl would call me trying to sell their financial prods to me like a personal loan or some shit. and i've told them numerous times that i'm not interested and to pls put a statement in their system that I AM NOT INTERESTED. they still call me to this day. bodoh ke tak. so skrg if they call, i'll already recognise their number and ignore the call or if i ter-answer i'll immediately tell them that im not interested once i hear "i'm calling from hong leong bank" and hang up. hah. pegi la mampos.

Sarclover said...

Oh well, I am from Customer service industry babe, and i have to say that the local customer service suck.

I am now supervising a group of cust. service agents for overseas market and our clients take the customer service seriously, which is a big relief. on our side here, the screw ups are with the system not with the people...

but for Maxis, well... i wouldnt know, nvr used Maxis before, but Celcom should be fine.

oh btw, nak pergi raya rumah you but takut you busy... and i memmang busy manjang... :).. take care dear

Nour said...

hey Beskot,

I have been on Celcom for MANY years...so far so good, most of the time when I go for training at this one particular building, Celcom will always show strong signal, maxis langsung tak de...so that explains why my colleagues who are maxis users bengang je selalu :-D

toughcookie said...

dear hang tuah,
thanks for the contact. i've informed them for post-mortem purpose. and also to reprimand those ignorant buggers.

hi zeeda,
really? i've never yet tried enrich customer service line. so far no issues with them.

as for hong leong bank, also so far so good with me. i don't get those calls. i only get those calls from HSBC. pelik since i don't have any accounts with them.

alah. takyah angkat. wasting time je. i have not answered HSBC's calles for so long that they've stopped calling me hehe.

hi sarcy,
nak beraya? ish... berapa lama dah in kl tapi bz manjang you. call je la kalo nak datang. i'll make time if i don't have plans to go out.

nour,
tu la kan. dulu in 2000 when i used Celcom, my only complaint was their billing issue - i didn't receive my bills for 3 months or so. sekarang semuanya dah ada online. senang je.

jangan kata signal kat building... if i were at my mom's house kat ss3 tu, maxis signal is the worst when i'm at our dining hall. imagine... kat kj pun masalah.

alah... suruh je your colleagues tukau celcom. the switch is free :D

Nomee said...

She is soooo cute! She is so cute! Very cute! (Your daughter kan?)

Ms B said...

Hi there,

I used to follow ur blog until i lost it! each time i tried to get in, it crashed. then i gave up.

So today when i saw u leaving comment at CG, i just had to check whether it was u. My oh my, ur baby is very cute!

gravtkills said...

way way back in time i had a 013 number and their customer service number was a 013 number. now imagine me at the public phone with a guni of coins trying to get hold of their customer service officer...i think abis RM10 per call kot

toughcookie said...

hi nomee,
yup, she's my daughter :D

thanks...

ms b...
are you a blogger too? wanted to check out your blog but wasn't listed in your profile.

thanks for visiting again :) don't think i'll ever stop writing, only not as frequent as back then, i guess...

see you again soon!

gravtkills,
itu pun if you're lucky the call is just RM10 or you don't get mugged before you get to speak to the operator and your RM10 lesap ;P

emly2175 said...

Chief inspector tough cookie? where on earth did they get that? but it is sure funny dear! sakit perut i gelak tau..

Welcome to the celcom world. Which reminds me of the conversation i used to have with my hubby about how low people think of celcom . I must say la that TM & celcom have poor image branding .. Only recently aje its advertisements are better than before.. Way much better I should say..

Memang hanya celcom aje yg ade couverage when u are at the basement parking.. Other telcos, so poor..

Ms B said...

Yes I blog. had to hide my url due to unwanted pests. *LOL*

u can find my url (under M) at http://sentraalstation.blogspot.com/

toughcookie said...

hi emly,
hehe... kelako kan... sekarang boleh la i gelak but when i got the letter, mau nak ngamuk. merepek nak mampus diorang tu.

tu la kan. i'm happier now with celcom. dulu asyik dapat spam messages from maxis tapi with celcom, so far aman jugak phone i ni.

owh ms b...
i used to frequent your blog before when i just started blogging in 2005. ya... i remembered that was how i managed to blog hop and made new friends amongst bloggers.

i know what you mean by unwanted pests. that was why i kept this blog a little low key until i felt pretty safe to come out in the open again.

thanks for visiting. see you again soon ya!

Jannah said...

Was totally distracted by Jada's cute poses to read the whole blog post..

Comel sungguh budak kecik itu :P

CK Chan said...

I was all along on Celcom for many years until I decided to subscribe to Blackberry services and buy the Blackberry Bold. At Celcom, they persistently refuse to let me buy the Bold and strictly only allow corporate user to subscribe. Doesnt provide any solution at all to my request. All answer is 'This is Celcom policy'. I got so fed up, I went to the Maxis Center and told them that I want to maintain my number and subscribe to BB and buy the Bold. No problem at all. They got everything sorted for me within the hour. Thats what I call service, not like Celcom, everything tak boleh.

Hong.my said...

In fact!
You're so righteous about the point right here!

Can't even find their direct email contacts, the so-called Feedback form keeps rejecting complaints we sent!

Service centre call centre? I wonder how come they hired such people with such "expertise" in "singga-linggam pusing" with zero practical knowledge in solving troubleshooting problems!

I guess asides fro the "Big Time Sucker", monopolized economy does also another issue in M'sia!

-
Hong
(a "Sibeh" disappointed user)