I am a disgruntled consumer

Yes, I am a consumer. I am a disgruntled consumer when annoyed or provoked. Think this will be my 3rd entry on making a complaint.

Take for example, today, after receiving the umpteenth time of SMSes from my phone provider on so-called promotion with other businesses e.g. gym, retails and restaurant, I decided to give the hotline a call. The call went something like this. I cannot remember the exact words.

*Mxis operator: Hello, this is *******, may I help you?
Me : Yes, you may. Can Mxis please stop sending me annoying sms on promotion and freebies?
Mxis operator : When did you receive the sms?
Me : I have just received one just before I called you.
Mxis operator : What is the sms about?
Me : It is about a free trial usage with *Tru fitnes. I have already deleted that sms. Can you please stop sending the smses?

Mxis operator : Yes, you have to go to the Mxis Customer Centre to do that.
Me : You mean I can’t do it through the phone? I can’t do it through Mxis hotline?
Mxis operator : I’m sorry, ma’am. You can’t.
Me : You mean I have to wait someday when I am free and go all the way to Mxis Customer Centre to ask them to stop sending SMSes to me?
Mxis operator : Well, ma’am, we can put a request for you.
Me : How long would that take?
Mxis operator : 3 working days.
Me : Please go ahead and do so.
Mxis operator : Ok.
There was a silent pause.

Me : Please do it now.
Mxis operator : Ok ma’am. Please hold on. After a few minutes and confirmation of my personal details…

Mxis operator : All right ma’am, you should not be getting those SMSes within 2 working days.
If you still do, you can contact us.
Me : Does this mean if I still get any SMSes from Mxis, I should call you on the 19th Dec, this Friday?
Mxis operator : Yes.
Me : Ok.
Mxis operator : Is there anything else I can do for you?
Me : No, that’s all.
Mxis operator : Thank you for calling Mxis hotline….

Hence, the lesson I learnt, I have to be assertive and a tinge of upset/angry to get something done.

If I were not so, I would have stupidly find a time to go to Mxis Customer Centre in person and queue up to meet a Customer Service person to get some service which will not be guaranteed; based on my last experience with them.

In fact, sometimes, the server is down, or the person will direct you to the main Customer Service Centre all the way to the centre of Kuala Lumpur. Sometimes, they don’t understand you, or sometimes they don’t want to help you.

Sometimes, life just isn’t fair especially if you don’t have deep wallets and huge vaults in the bank. If you were one of these people, customer service would give you a nice comfy chair and smile sweetly at you while ignoring the “poor” customers just to give you VIP service too. Not being prejudice to the rich but just stating the blunt fact of human kind.

Meanwhile, lets see if I still receive any of those SMSes…

p.s. I have 2 strikes against this service provider. This will be the 3rd strike but I am too lazy to change provider… yet.

*Real names are modified for obvious reasons

Persistence

I booked a flight to Krabi, Thailand with my friend in September this year. We booked it on the day there were unrest in Thailand (we were not aware of it as we didn't bother to read newspaper that day - serves us right!! :p).

Later on, I decided not to go and tried to cancel the booking with the airlines, AA to get back some refund.

Unfortunately, I couldn't get through to the airline either through the call centre, e-mail or even going to their sales agent. They can't possibly expect me to drive all the way to LCCT (where their headoffice was) to enquire on this?? (The toll, petrol and time spent to go all the way there with no guarantee of any service? Nahhh)

Therefore, today I wrote this letter based on the e-mail addresses given from the website (this is the second e-mail I have written to them on this issue).

Dear Mr. *** and ***,

Non-responsive Call Centre
I have tried numerously to contact AA from any time of the day, before my flight to cancel and make changes a few weeks before my flight. However no one from the call centre answered any of my calls.

Non-responsive E-mail and non-committed Staff
In fact, I even tried emailing AA. My email as shown below was replied with an auto reply to try calling the call centre instead. (Details of my flight can be found at the end of this email)

My friend was not properly informed the procedure when she went to AA KL Sentral to cancel the flight. (I have explained it in my email as shown below)

Please clarify on the procedure my friend and I should take in canceling a flight which has passed since we could not contact any AA representative during the few weeks prior to the flight based on the non-responsive call centre, e-mail and non-commited staff.

Procedures for Cancelling Flight
Please clarify on these two procedures I am told about.

1. I read in the newspaper last year, if we did not take the flight, we will be refunded the airport tax since we did not use the airport.

2. I am told that if I cannot utilise the flight, the money will be converted to credit with AA which I could be used to book other flights in future.

Please clear our confusions and disappointment with AA's service as we do not want to be forced to put your carrier in our black list.

Rgds,
Me

(I love my last sentence on putting the airline carrier in my black list... hahaha)

I sent that e-mail at 11.30 a.m.

At 4p.m., I received a call from the carrier AA. They called to inform they have received my e-mail and will process the refund of the airport tax which was RM25 for departure flight and RM43 for the return flight. Then they will minus RM10 for administrative fees and refund me a total of RM58 each passenger.

Sigh, better than nothing I guess. The lady who called me was not very polite. She did not actually introduce herself but just mentioned she was from AA. I had to query her a lot to get all my explanation. Apparently item 2 in my letter of converting the money paid to this airline to credit only applies to flights canceled by them.

Hence, I guess persistence shows results. After all those effort in October, I finally got a result in a little refund. Hope the money will reach me within 30 working days through a rebate to my credit card as promised by the lady on the phone.

Another period of waiting and pondering if that will happen. Well, let's leave it to Him to take care of it as He always has. :)

Service with a smile?

When you enter a hotel or any other accommodation, you expect to be greeted by a polite front desk when you check-in to your hotel room. After all, you are a paying customer. You expect a level of service and at least the basic room for you to sleep at night.

Well, last weekend, I checked in to the only 3 star inn in Kuala Selangor. Service was acceptable for an inn of 3 star. I will not comment much as other visitors have already mentioned in some reviews.

However, I have to have my say about the room condition. Upon checking in, I realised the split-unit air-con is very noisy - like a loud engine. My roomie made a complaint to the front desk.

In the afternoon, they sent a maintenance guy who went about servicing the air-con. Obviously, it didn't help because it was still that noisy and there were an additional squeaky sound. The guy promised to return with the proper equipment. My roomie made a second complaint and the front desk promised to send another maintenance guy.

That night, we had our seafood dinner and the boat ride to watch the fireflies. It was about 9pm. I had my showered and the air-con is obviously still noisy. My roomie came back to tell me the front desk promised to send another maintenance guy. They couldn't give us another room because it was supposedly "fully occupied".

Sigh. Obviously, they weren't going to do anything. I made a video clip of the air-con with the noise as seen below to have my say since my roomie was not assertive enough in complaining.
Can you sleep with this kind of noise? This image was taken in potrait. Sorry, don't know how to edit video clips yet.

Anyway, as I walked from my chalet to the front desk, I slowly let my anger simmer and boil. After all, how on earth can you make a point looking sane and polite? Sad to say, I had to resort to this.

The conversation was something like this (we spoke in Bahasa Melayu but I'll translated it to English here):

Front desk: Yes? May I know the problem? Ohh, room 221?
Me : Yes, may I know what you are going to do about this?
Front desk: Please wait, we will send someone to check on your room.
Me : Sir, I have already waited for a whole day. You have sent your maintenance guy over in the afternoon. He has already service the air-con and it is still noisy.
Front desk: We cannot give you another room. We are fully occupied.
Me : Sir, if you honestly can tell me you can sleep with this noise, then I'll accept it. (playing the clip above captured in my handphone).

The front desk guy didn't look me in the eye and pretend to touch the monitor to keep himself busy.
Me :I can't sleep with this noise. If you are not going to do anything, please refund the money for my room and I'll immediately check-out now. Obviously, you do not want me to stay in your inn since I can't sleep with this noise. Please call your manager out, now.
Front desk:I'm sorry my manager is not in. Can you wait till in the morning to see him?
Me :Can't you call him over now? Sure, you want me to wait till morning? I will sit right here and look at you till he comes, since I can't sleep in that room.

The front desk guy proceeded to make some calls to his staff to check on another room.
(At this moment, I was already fuming. I really hate to resort to this.)
His staff called back to tell him the other room's air-con is not noisy and can be occupied.

Front desk: All right, we have another room here but it's twin beds. Will that be acceptable?
Me : Yes, anything as long as it's not noisy and I can sleep.
Front desk: We have a room here which we promised to another guest. But since they haven't checked in we will give it to you first.
(Do you believe this? He has another room but didn't want to give it and came up with some other excuses)
Front desk: Is your luggage still in the room?
(D'oh? Or not in my car? Or outside the room?)
Me : Yes. (I tried my best not to roll my eyes or say something sarcastic)
Front desk: All right, my staff is waiting at your room to bring you to the other room. You can move your luggage out as we need to lock that room.
(Unnecessary explanation).
Front desk: Here is your key.
Me : Thank you. (I always remember my manners, mind you.)

Therefore, we had to moved our luggage at night to the other room. The air-con was much quieter and I slept through the night like a baby. If only, they gave us this room earlier when my roomie made a complaint, I wouldn't have to go through this. Sigh.

What would you have done? Paid hard-earned money to have a loud engine roaring from you air-con while you try to sleep? If they really want me to do that, they have to knocked me unconscious or drug a complimentary drink first....
Hmm.. maybe I should open an inn there to and do that? :P

Traffic Nightmare in Klang

This is the traffic condition on my way to work in the morning.

This is the traffic condition I face when I come home. Notice that when I reached Klang it is still bright (1st photo). By the end of 5km journey, the sky has turned dark (2nd photo).

I was about to blog my dissatisfaction on this topic but I found there are entries in several blogs on the traffic in klang.

Malaysiakini highlighted that the activities along the road to Klang worsens the traffic i.e. functions near Klang Hokkien associations and the restaurants nearby and the newly built and office building, Prima Klang Avenue.

These sentiments are echoed by Z.Ibrahim here.

Actually, in my opinion, the main cause of the latest traffic jam is the road construction as highlighted in the Star paper. I pray that by end of next year, as promised, the construction will be completed so we can drive through Klang town in 5 mins instead of the 1/2 hour to 1 hour journey we have to go through now.

As I get stuck in this traffic jam daily, the only entertaining point to note is the fact that I managed to captured a few interesting pictures.

1. Upside-down Klang, bandar Diraja signage on the Lamp Post.
Even though, I know it's way up there, but come on, this is Klang- a royal town. Doesn't an upside-down signage shows disrespect? What would our Sultan think of that?

2. An apology banner on the pedestrian bridge in front of La Salle Klang School
Does it mean just that banner is enough for 2 years of traffic jam? Of higher stress and higher blood pressure from rushing to and back from work? Additional agony from the higher consumption of petrol? Ironically, they also wrote that we should use alternative route. D'oh. Jambatan Kota is THE main exit and entrance to Klang town.
The alternative routes are shown in the Klang website. These so-called routes are equally congested as the main problem is already there. It is a fact that the roads cannot cater for all the cars as the basic household now owns a minimum of 2 cars a home!!

3. An apology notice
I glanced quickly and saw an A4 or A3 sized of printed paper saying "Sorry Honey". Didn't manage to take a picture of that. I wonder if anyone noticed these papers pasted on the lamp posts along Jambatan Kota.

Hmmm.. even though there are these alternatives routes as shown in the Klang Community Space. I, personally know these routes are equally horrendous if there's a terrible congestion or as usual, small accidents. But basically, the problem is, how can you force in a few big marble into a narrow-necked bottle?
In the meantime, I'll be zombified by these journey with an expression like this... HELP! :p