TMNet Horror 1.5 - Firstly, we apologise for the late reply.

10 days later...

Felt like longer....

From: TM Net Customer Care Support

To: yoonkit@gmail.com

Date: Feb 25, 2005 8:55 PM

Subject: Re: Outrageous Streamyx bill! RM44 -> RM422 for this month! Outrageous service! rejection after 1 month wait.

Dear Mr Yong,

Thank you for bringing this matter to our attention. Firstly, we apologise for the late reply.

Referring to your rebate request, we regret that we are unable to provide a rebate as the proper function of your ADSL modem is beyond our control. The modem has not been set on an auto-dialing mode. Unfortunately, this reason is not a valid reason for us to grant a rebate as it is the responsibility of customers to assure these actions are done to ensure that the equipment at your premise is in proper working condition.

Please note the calculation:
1. 16/11/04 (211:26:32) - (211 hrs - 60hrs) x 60 + 26mins + 1min = 9087 mins
9087mins x 0.01 = RM 90.87

2. 3/12/04 (185:52:52) - 185hrs x 60mins + 60mins + 1min = 11153 mins
11153mins x 0.01 = RM 111.53

We hope the above explanation is useful.

We hope the above reverts to your query.

Should you require any further assistance, please feel free to contact us at streamyx@tm.net.my or call us at 1 300 88 9515 (From 8:00 am to 12:00 am ~ daily).

Thank you for being our valued customer.

Best Regards,
Aminah
Customer Care Support,CRM
TM Net Sdn. Bhd.

Where in any of my emails did I ask for an explanation of the Calculation of the charges?
I know that if you surf for over 396 hours, you are expected to pay through your nose, especially on a hour limited account. The problem is I did not surf 396 hours, AND I wouldnt do it on an account which has a monthly limit of 60 hours.
My modem hadnt changed over the years, nor has my login and logout proceedures.

We hope the above explanation is useful.

No!

TMNet Horrors 1.4 - its like reasoning with imbeciles

So it took me 1/2 a day to calm myself down and to think up a suitable reply. Hey, if they could take a month and a bit, I might as well take my time right?

Here it is:

From: Yoon Kit Yong

Reply-To: Yoon Kit Yong

To: TM Net Customer Care Support

Date: Feb 11, 2005 3:55 AM

Subject: Re: Outrageous Streamyx bill! RM44 -> RM422 for this month!

Hello Aminah,

Does it always take more than a month for TMNet's
Customer Care to respond to queries?

If so then I suggest taking this issue up to upper management,
because this Service Level is totally unacceptable.

Thank you for suggesting to me to upgrade my package via
a TMNet service centre. However it does NOT address the
main Issue I have regarding your service, and that is
the OUTRAGEOUS bill I have to pay now.

Please read this email properly, and respond appropriately.
I have done more research, and have found that my usage patterns
since April 2004 has been consistently at the 20 - 30 hour levels,
and have NEVER breached the 60 hour usage over the past year +
of usage.

So I dont think I should upgrade to the unlimited package,
as Im not considered a heavy user!

Anyway, the issue here is the overcharging of my usage
due to some system problems you have with your logging of accounts,
keeping logins logged on when obviously its due to a session
which is hanging.

Because of your teams incompetance in
1) checking up on hanging sessions which are obviously non-chargeable
2) totally irresponsible and unacceptable response rates via email
3) lack of customer support and service in terms of solving our problems
4) dismal service,

I demand all the extra charges which your billing system has assigned
to me to be absolved because
1) My usage track record shows that I dont use
more than 60 hours per month since signing up in 2003
2) This 'problem' only started appearing in November,
my login and logout behaviour never changed before,
thus it must be a change in your system
3) calling in to check on these hanging sessions was totally
non-obvious, and I had to find out the problems myself

I will continue to pay the RM44 monthly subscription as per normal,
and I do not have problems with that, but I do have the problem of paying
over RM600 on charges which should NOT have been billed to my account.

If you do not have the authority to meet my request, please
CC this email to someone who has, and I will explain my case
to them clearly too.

I do not want to wait another month to resolve this issue,
so I am giving your team a deadline: Respond to me by next
week (giving you time over the CNY holidays) on the 18th of February, 3pm,
Or I will have to take this issue to the media, or any other
means of getting my hassles with TMNet heard.

Please get in touch with me to settle this issue.

Yong Yoon Kit
[mobile phone number provided]

BTW, your team has 'apologized for the late reply' which is actually
over 1 month, twice already. That is totally unacceptable.
Who is accountable for the Customer Care department?
I would like to have a word with him/her too. Its Disgusting.

So I was not happy.

Guess how long the next reply took?

TMNet Horrors 1.3 - Upgrades anyone?

Ah finally a reply, after more than 2 weeks!

And after waiting that long, here is what the friendly customer service personnel had to say about it.

From: TM Net Customer Care Support

To: yoonkit@gmail.com

Date: Feb 10, 2005 7:26 PM

Subject: Fwd: Outrageous Streamyx bill! RM44 -> RM422 for this month!

Dear Mr Yong,

Thank you for bringing this matter to our attention. Firstly, we apologise for the late reply.

We refer to your email. We would like to know if your interested in upgrading streamyx account to the RM66 package. If interested, please walk in to any kedai telekom to do the upgrading.

We hope the above explanation is useful.
Should you require further assistance, please feel free to contact us at 1-300-88-1515 or custcare@tm.net.my.
Thank you for your support.

Regards,
Aminah Beevi Abdul Azeez
Customer Care Support, CRM
TM Net Sdn. Bhd.
Website: http://isp.tm.net.my

Well, the explanation was NOT helpful. I was NOT interestested in upgrading to the RM66 package. I WAS interested in getting rid of the large overcharge!

And this is a stinker of a line:

Firstly, we apologise for the late reply.

You will notice that they will use this time and time again as if by default their policy is to reply late.

TMNet Horror 1.2 - Its a matter of principle

OK so it took me a coupla hours to gather my strength to craft a civil reply. This is what I wrote:

From: Yoon Kit Yong

Reply-To: Yoon Kit Yong

To: TM Net Customer Care Support

Date: Jan 26, 2005 2:28 PM

Subject: Re: Outrageous Streamyx bill! RM44 -> RM422 for this month!

Hello Fuziana,

Thank you for finally replying my email.
I was wondering when your esteemed company
was going to reply my email, as it has been almost
a month since I sent the request.

Im very surprised to find that you are not
open to sanction the rebate, because as I can
see the amount due is truly ridiculous!

If you can see my previous usage pattern over the year,
I have NEVER exceeded the 60 hour monthly limit
since I started using streamyx. I always paid ontime,
and have been basically a good occassional user of your service.

It is very strange that it has only been the previous
2 months that my account started getting locked.
I have had no indication that this could occur,
and there has been no instructions from tmnet
on how to 'unsuspend' the account.

It was only through effort on my part to
a call to your helpdesk which alerted me of this
very inconvenient way of re-enabling my account.

Please note the login which was billed for RM111.53
which was logged on for 181 hours! thats more than a week!
Do you think that that is proper behaviour of someone
who is used to logging in and out for use for over a year?

The reason why I didnt call tmnet was because
1) I thought that streamyx was down yet again,
2) I thought that perhaps on the offchance I hadnt paid my bill
3) I assumed that things would be ok the next day.

I believe that when I found out that this login had to
be suspended by your helpful colleagues at tech-helpdesk,
I requested them to leave a note saying that this was
a suspended login, and should be disregarded in billing.
Has this instruction been relayed to your billing department?

I am very dissapointed with your response,
I know it may be beyond your authority so
so I would like to escalate this request to your superior.
Its a matter of RM400+ and also a matter of principle.
Please forward this email to him/her CC-ing me so that
I know that this matter is being looked into.

I would love to resolve this amicably,
and I even have volunteered to pay the
extra RM22 for the unlimited package
so that THIS PROBLEM DOES NOT OCCUR AGAIN.

I have also another question:
My login/logout proceedure hadnt changed over the year.
Why is it that this problem only started to occur 2-3 months ago?
Have you guys changed anything in your system?

Im annoyed at your response,
but if you give me no reprieve,
I will become an angry customer.

Regards,

Yong Yoon Kit


Hey! Im willing to lock myself in for another RM22 more than I pay per month!
Am I crazy? If it avoids this problem, then Hell No!

TMNet Horrors 1.1 - We apologize for the delay in replying your e-mail... yeah, like 1 month!!

So I sent out the query on December 29th 2004.
This is what I finally got.

From: TM Net Customer Care Support

To: yoonkit@gmail.com, billing@tm.net.my

Date: Jan 26, 2005 12:07 PM

Subject: Outrageous Streamyx bill! RM44 -> RM422 for this month!

Dear Mr Yong,

Thank you for bringing this matter to our attention.
We apologize for the delay in replying your e-mail.

Referring to your previous e-mail, kindly note that based on the checkings and investigation done by our Billing System Team it is found that all of the dialling came from your service number :00341xxxxxx. As such we were able to detect that the dialling was made from your modem.

The actual problem is that the modem has been set on an auto-dialling mode. Due to this, you were not able to detect whether the internet connection is still active or otherwise. With this in mind, we advice that you swicth off your modem to avoid the connection from still being active.

As we have expalined above, due to the investigation made, we are unable to sanction your rebate request.

Should you have other queries, please do not hesitate to contact us either via e-mail at streamyx@tm.net.my or call us at 1-300-88-9515 between the hours of 8.00 am to 12.00mn, 7 days a week to speak with any of our representative .
Thank you for being our valued customer. Have a nice day.

Regards,
Fuziana,
Customer Care Support, CRM
TM Net Sdn. Bhd.

Website: http://isp.tm.net.my


Great! It took them almost a month to confirm that the dialing was done on MY line. I did not dispute that. All Im asking for is for them to check the records to see if these session actually had any activity on them. My guessing is that there should be zero, as I did NOT go insane by downloading ISOs or DIVXs on my 60 hour limited account!

*sigh*

TMNet Horrors 1.0 - The Saga Begins

Well, after 6 months wrestling with TMNet support, Ive decided to go public with this case to to illustrate how bad a company can get with customer relations.

In November 2004 I was finding logging into my streamyx (broadband) account difficult, many-a-times getting an error saying that my login credentials are bad. I always just attributed this to yet another downtime from TMNet, as I dont expect much from their service. TMNet is good in that they have offered 3 packages for home users. A 60 hour limit per month for RM44 (about USD11), Unlimited at 384kbps for RM66, and Unlimited at 512kbps for RM88.

As Im a very light user of the 'net at home, I opted for the RM44 one, and over the year, I noted that my usage was on average only 30hours a month.

Upon receiving my monthly bill in December 2004 however, I found that I had been charged RM442.21. That is as much as my entire annual bill just for one month! Naturally I emailed my concerns to support@tm.net.my to clarify this anomaly. Here is my email:

From: Yoon Kit Yong <yoonkit@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 29 Dec 2004 19:19:50 +0800
Subject: Outrageous Streamyx bill! RM44 -> RM422 for this month!
To: support@tm.net.my, billing@tm.net.my

Hello there.

I have been using streamyx for almost a year now,
and have never had login problems. Only lately,
about 1-2 months ago, I kept getting problems logging in,
where the system says my password / login is invalid.

I have since learnt how to call your 1300 number,
and getting hold of your support has been easy.
They explained that this problem could occur when I dont log out
properly from my PPoE session. However I havent
changed my procedure from logging in and out,
I just use the WinXP dialer, to log in, and select 'Disconnect' to log out.

The standard procedure of your support staff now is to just kill the session,
and Ill be able to log in again, hapilly.

My account is the RM44 option, as I do not use more than 60 hours per month.
However I just found out about tmbill.tm.net.my and to my horror,
this months bill is RM422 !!! This is ridiculous, because if I were to upgrade
to the RM66 package, its only RM260 extra for the entire YEAR!

Can you please look into this problem,
as its causing me much grief in wondering if my session
is still active or not, and raking my precious hours?!

My streamyx account is: yoonkit@streamyx

Thanks in advance,

Yoon Kit.

===== this is what I found from tmbill for this month!!! =======
Note the 185 hour session, as well as the multiple 40+hr ones. Crazy.

Service
/service/email /service/tmm_streamyx /service/tmm_ichoose
Bill Date
24 Dis 2004

Start (Login) Time POP Name Duration (HH:MM:SS) Amount(RM)
16-Nov-2004 18:28:55 , Tue erxcbj02-home 211:26:32 RM 90.87
25-Nov-2004 13:55:29 , Thu erxcbj02-home 00:18:28 RM 0.18
25-Nov-2004 14:13:59 , Thu erxcbj02-home 00:05:28 RM 0.05
25-Nov-2004 14:19:29 , Thu erxcbj02-home 00:05:28 RM 0.05
25-Nov-2004 14:24:57 , Thu erxcbj02-home 23:57:29 RM 14.37
26-Nov-2004 14:22:28 , Fri erxcbj02-home 00:17:28 RM 0.17
26-Nov-2004 14:39:58 , Fri erxcbj02-home 00:05:28 RM 0.05
26-Nov-2004 14:45:28 , Fri erxcbj02-home 00:05:28 RM 0.05
26-Nov-2004 14:50:57 , Fri erxcbj02-home 00:05:28 RM 0.05
26-Nov-2004 14:56:27 , Fri erxcbj02-home 00:05:28 RM 0.05
26-Nov-2004 15:01:57 , Fri erxcbj02-home 00:05:28 RM 0.05
26-Nov-2004 15:07:27 , Fri erxcbj02-home 00:05:28 RM 0.05
26-Nov-2004 15:12:57 , Fri erxcbj02-home 00:05:28 RM 0.05
26-Nov-2004 15:18:27 , Fri erxcbj02-home 00:05:28 RM 0.05
26-Nov-2004 15:23:57 , Fri erxcbj02-home 00:05:28 RM 0.05
26-Nov-2004 15:29:26 , Fri erxcbj02-home 00:05:29 RM 0.05
26-Nov-2004 15:34:57 , Fri erxcbj02-home 00:05:28 RM 0.05
26-Nov-2004 15:40:28 , Fri erxcbj02-home 24:28:26 RM 14.68
27-Nov-2004 16:08:56 , Sat erxcbj02-home 00:05:28 RM 0.05
27-Nov-2004 16:14:26 , Sat erxcbj02-home 00:08:28 RM 0.08
27-Nov-2004 16:22:56 , Sat erxcbj02-home 00:11:28 RM 0.11
27-Nov-2004 16:34:26 , Sat erxcbj02-home 00:05:28 RM 0.05
27-Nov-2004 16:39:55 , Sat erxcbj02-home 00:05:28 RM 0.05
27-Nov-2004 16:45:26 , Sat erxcbj02-home 00:05:28 RM 0.05
27-Nov-2004 16:50:55 , Sat erxcbj02-home 02:27:28 RM 1.47
27-Nov-2004 19:18:21 , Sat erxcbj02-home 45:03:29 RM 27.03
29-Nov-2004 16:22:13 , Mon erxcbj02-home 00:08:01 RM 0.08
29-Nov-2004 16:32:19 , Mon erxklj02-home 48:36:38 RM 29.17
01-Dec-2004 17:08:59 , Wed erxklj02-home 00:00:20 RM 0.00
01-Dec-2004 17:09:20 , Wed erxklj02-home 04:09:11 RM 2.49
01-Dec-2004 21:18:31 , Wed erxklj02-home 13:04:01 RM 7.84
02-Dec-2004 10:22:34 , Thu erxklj02-home 00:00:18 RM 0.00
02-Dec-2004 10:22:50 , Thu erxklj02-home 30:45:30 RM 18.46
03-Dec-2004 17:08:22 , Fri erxklj02-home 00:00:19 RM 0.00
03-Dec-2004 17:08:24 , Fri erxklj02-home 185:52:52 RM 111.53
11-Dec-2004 11:01:18 , Sat erxklj02-home 00:00:20 RM 0.00
11-Dec-2004 11:01:40 , Sat erxklj02-home 00:02:10 RM 0.02
11-Dec-2004 11:03:52 , Sat erxklj02-home 00:00:18 RM 0.00
11-Dec-2004 11:04:12 , Sat erxklj02-home 00:04:47 RM 0.05
11-Dec-2004 11:09:01 , Sat erxklj02-home 00:00:22 RM 0.00
11-Dec-2004 11:09:24 , Sat erxklj02-home 00:02:46 RM 0.03
11-Dec-2004 11:12:30 , Sat erxklj02-home 02:19:41 RM 1.40
11-Dec-2004 13:32:13 , Sat erxklj02-home 00:00:18 RM 0.00
11-Dec-2004 13:32:23 , Sat erxklj02-home 91:48:19 RM 55.08
15-Dec-2004 09:20:43 , Wed erxklj02-home 02:21:57 RM 1.42
15-Dec-2004 11:42:41 , Wed erxklj02-home 00:53:59 RM 0.54
15-Dec-2004 12:36:43 , Wed erxklj02-home 00:00:18 RM 0.00
16-Dec-2004 23:38:45 , Thu erxbrf01-home 02:42:02 RM 1.62
15-Dec-2004 12:36:57 , Wed erxklj02-home 57:05:45 RM 34.26
17-Dec-2004 21:42:42 , Fri erxklj02-home 12:18:25 RM 7.38
18-Dec-2004 10:01:09 , Sat erxklj02-home 00:00:19 RM 0.00
18-Dec-2004 10:01:30 , Sat erxklj02-home 00:00:50 RM 0.01
18-Dec-2004 10:02:22 , Sat erxklj02-home 00:00:19 RM 0.00
18-Dec-2004 10:02:43 , Sat erxklj02-home 00:00:58 RM 0.01
18-Dec-2004 10:03:42 , Sat erxklj02-home 00:00:19 RM 0.00
18-Dec-2004 10:04:03 , Sat erxklj02-home 00:01:12 RM 0.01
18-Dec-2004 10:05:17 , Sat erxklj02-home 00:00:19 RM 0.00
18-Dec-2004 10:05:38 , Sat erxklj02-home 00:00:55 RM 0.01
18-Dec-2004 10:06:35 , Sat erxklj02-home 00:00:18 RM 0.00
18-Dec-2004 10:06:54 , Sat erxklj02-home 00:01:08 RM 0.01
18-Dec-2004 10:08:04 , Sat erxklj02-home 00:00:20 RM 0.00
18-Dec-2004 10:08:26 , Sat erxklj02-home 00:01:05 RM 0.01
18-Dec-2004 10:09:33 , Sat erxklj02-home 00:00:19 RM 0.00
22-Dec-2004 22:18:25 , Wed erxbrf01-home 02:11:36 RM 1.32

- Total 764:30:47 RM 422.71


So I emailed this on the 29th of December. Guess how long before they responded?

Hello There?

Ah, yet another blog.
Just testing this one out. I didnt quite like the one at thespoke,
as the interface was kludgy and didnt quite like mozilla.

Anyway, hopefully this will be a better experience.