Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Angry Streamyx Customer

Ahhh Streamyx!

Many years ago, Streamyx saved our lives!

While the rest of the world was already moving on broadband, all of us in Malaysia were still stuck with dial-up.

I remember how I used to play Counterstrike on foreign servers with 300 ping where all the other people there had 50 ping.

Yes I got my ass kicked.

And when I killed anyone they said I was cheating because I was a lagger.

For those of you who don't play CS and can't relate to the problem, allow me to illustrate in more simple terms.

It's like I got on a race track to race with some people.

And while everyone on the race track drives THIS

I drive... THIS

So obviously I almost NEVER win.

But on the very very rare unlikely occasions that I DO WIN, I get responses like this

"YOU FARKING CHEATER!!!
YOUR CAR SMALLER SO LIGHTER SO YOU CAN GO FASTER THAN OUR CARS!!! BAN THE CHEATER!!!."


So be thankful that we have Streamyx.

But fast forward to today and Streamyx has gone from the solution to all our internet problems to the problem itself.

I was reading Hong Kiat's blog and he brought an interesting audio file to my attention.

It's a recording of a very angry Streamyx customer calling up because he had made numerous complaints about his Streamyx being down and nothing had been done about it.

Then finally a technician came over to his place and told him that it was his modem problem. He spent RM300 on a new modem only to find out later that the internet still wasn't working (ie the problem probably wasn't his modem).
So he wasted RM300.

I can understand his frustration and his pain because for the past few months, my Streamyx at home had been down for at least 20 days in a month (some months it goes down for a full month).

But I can also understand the poor Customer Service Officer on the other end of the line taking in all the vulgarities.Heck... correct me if I'm wrong but it really isn't any of their faults that Streamyx's service has been so poor.

Yet, I must say well done to both the customer service officer and her supervisor Kumaran who later took over the call.

They were both polite and calm to the customer in spite of the insults they were getting.

Few people can find the patience in themselves to do that... I know I personally can't.

Kudos to Streamyx Customer Service.

Download the audio file to the call here.


Trust me... it's worth listening to.

28 comments:

yuin said...

I had to wait 3 months for the installaion at my house and that is after 20+ phone calls.

until there is a rival service with better reliability and customer service, things are unlikely to change.

Boss Stewie said...

totoro: ohh.. was that his new or old modem that wasn't properly configured?

yuin: ahhh... at least u have service now... my home internet has been down for weeks

A Black Cat said...

Couldn't tahan the man's yelling after 10 mins, and the wav file somehow doesn't support scrolling... can anyone tell me what happened at the end?

Really kesian lah, Streamyx call agents. But then I also had a bad experience where they directed me from one department to another, then another (5 departments later, I found myself calling back to Streamyx hotline =_=).

slacker said...

u know, it's not that i dont pity the streamyx call centre operator's but they're asking for it sometimes.

after going to great lengths to explain the problem to them, they'll ask you to 'remove the splitter', 'connect directly without router', 'flush ur dns','restart computer' etc which really doesn't address the problem that was described. And they're really horrible in getting things done.. and they never return calls when they promise to. pisses me off whenever i have to call them

slacker said...

whoa.. just listened to the audio...that guy's a real hard ass...

anyway, i had a problem like this a month ago and i was refered to a Mr Kumaran.. he didn't call me back when the operator promised that he would

Wingz said...

i really pity those stimX staffs but at the same time i think they shud buckup their serbis also ... very soon other will catch up then it will be adios stimX!!!

Anonymous said...

I would do a Mr Chua, if my conscience wouldn't then haunt me for the rest of my life.



ok la so maybe it's just a 1-minute haunting. but the streamyx people deserve it for such lousy service and even worse customer service. hehehe :p

Anonymous said...

taukeh, the file corrupted lahh...

anyway, my take on this is that the kumaran fella deserved whatever he got.

if my modem works perfectly fine, and you come and tell me i have to buy a new one for rm300 because the old one is spoilt, and it turns out it wasnt, i would want to kill them as well.

kumaran just said "but now you have a new modem!" stupid food.

Unknown said...

what is so appaling apart from the poor service is the level of ignorance that permeates the institution.i had the same situation ,was asked to change the modem but i manage to configured it properly later.and lotta time i have difficulty surfing as the line is oversubscribed.WE NEED COMPETITION!

Joash Chan said...

"You bought a new modem which helped prove that there was nothing wrong with your old modem. So your RM300 is not wasted, Mr. Chua..."

He's either really dumb or really brave... That statement was just not right.

Boss Stewie said...

june: well in that case they deserved to be scolded.. but in this case... they were just taking the heat for a screw up by their technical people

slacker: yes.. the guy really sounded extremely pissed.. extremely!!!

wingz: yah.. they should buck up their service but i think these things should come from the top. the customer service people at the bottom don't have much power to do anything about it

suicidal: actually i might do a mr chua if they got me to buy a new modem for nothing

jackie: hahaha yes... maybe kumaran could have said "let me introduce u to this website called lelong.com.my where u can sell your new modem for a loss

daredevil: penang has a new broadband company called penangfon but their coverage is not very extensive yet. plus maxis is coming up wtih wireless broadband

joash: hahha yes i agree that was a pretty dumb statement but i think he didn't know what else to say in the heat of the moment

Anonymous said...

hahah!
i love wingz's comments, freakin funny! hahaha

anyway their service was much much better when it first started, i remember cause i was one of the first 100 customers of streamyx, and u get the free modem and all too?
yea that time not bad, i mean i lodge a complaint, and the operator gives me a reference number and within 2 workin days a technician would come.
note the keywords, 2 WORKIN days. haha
so me bein the naive kid callin on a friday only gettin service on a wednesday cant get pissed much haha! :)
not too sure about now, hows the service now?
i havent been havin troubles so i have not had the need to call..yet.
scary word that, yet haha

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Boss Stewie said...

andrew: hey sorry andrew.. i had to remove your second comment cuz i didn't it to bring 'unwanted reactions'...

Boss Stewie said...

*didn't WANT it to bring 'unwanted reactions'

voch said...

I heard this sound clip over someone else's blog as well. It was hillarious but I respect them for being cool despite being scolded.

MaN|acZ said...

I mean you really have to feel sorry for the customer service people, since they're taking heat for other people's fault.

I really pity them.
*Salutes to all call center personnels*

At the same time, TM should've trained their technicians to be more mindful about what they said.

If Mr. Chua can calm down and stop yelling like a fucking bamboon, that would help as well. Probably having some techie friends will help him out too.(at least can lend him a modem to verify whether it was the line problem or the modem problem)

MaN|acZ said...

at least , he don't have to buy a new modem to verify it's not the modem problem if someone was willing to lend him a modem to test it out.

Anonymous said...

aww understood haha no worries

Boss Stewie said...

vic: yeah. i have a friend who works as a customer service officer as well so i understand how sometimes they get flamed for no reason other than that the customer needed to vent his/her anger for someone else's screw up

maniacz: yeah maybe the call centre shoudl put them straight through to the technicians :P

andrew: thanks andrew :p

MaN|acZ said...

If I have to support on 1 side, I'll side on TMNet. Because being rude doesn't mean the customer is entitled for better treatment or the service personnel feeling particularly good about themselves either. Even though I feel sorry for Mr. Chua, I just don't see why I should service him if he continues being an arsehole on the phone.

Boss Stewie said...

maniacz: yeah.. but i can understand how pissed off he was .. spending RM300 on a modem he didn't need..

christalloh said...

Streamyx have such bad services, both 'net' & customer services...

but there are still thousands out there who are craving to get their home install with Streamyx.

At this very moment, Streamyx is also promoting their Packages... there's even TVC... & posters everywhere... where they can't even maintain their services to current customers... & still looking for MORE.

i was once a Streamyx subscriber.

Boss Stewie said...

christal: so what do u use now if not streamyx?

MaN|acZ said...

Christal: r u using Satellite broadband?

Anonymous said...

original story url: http://www.bloganything.net/2006/11/13/nasty-customer-versus-bloody-tmnet-streamyx-18-sg/

Anonymous said...

the customer survey guys from streamyx called me up one day and asked me to participate in their survey.I told them i was waiting for this day for a looooooong time.

at the end of it they said any comments? I told them to change the signboard near the NKVE Bukit Lanjan exit to "Permainan Online lebih TERUK dengan streamyx"

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