As a giant telecommunication company which used to be a monopoly, it is difficult for its staff to feel the need to be nice to customers because any loss of custom will not be felt unless and until the numbers could make a difference to its bottomline.
From my personal experience, in my humble opinion, I find TM tried to do its public relations bit, but not satisfactory.
There was a time when a change in CEO involved a change in logo as well as officers dressed in suits welcoming anyone going into their sales office. This was overkill and totally unnecessary because I actually felt awkward (dressed in shorts) being greeted like a VIP.
Once, I was asked to report for a baker friend that both his shop and home telephones were out of order. As TM was on my way home, I obliged. At the TM Point office, I was directed to use the phone installed on a wall. When asked for subscriber's name, I was stumped. I asked them if it was possible for them to report instead without this information. But obviously, it was impossible then. I told them of my disappointment that they have a full staff of people yet unable to help in reporting a faulty phone! What if a subscriber had hearing problem and/or unable to follow instructions according to the call centre? It used to be possible to report over the counter, but progress meant impersonal service bordering on ludicrousness.
More recently, a retired civil servant could not report about his faulty house phone because when asked to 'Enter your area code, telephone number, followed by the hash key', he read out the numbers (instead of keying them in) and wondered what was the hash key, and got a recorded reply: 'insufficient information'. His particular house phone was out of order a few times over two weeks. Frustrated, he went to the TM office and said that he is thinking of cancelling the service and use an alternative provider. The staff member replied nonchalantly, 'suka hati' or 'if it pleases you', which to me was as good as telling him, 'take it or leave it... it is up to you... it makes no difference to me'. Just imagine the harm to the company's image if this was done by TM staff all over the country!
For the past couple of days, I have received calls, purportedly from TM asking if we wish to upgrade to a faster package. Each time I declined. This afternoon, soon after one such call, I got another call which when asked, confirmed he was calling from TM. I told him that I am not interested in any upgrade and he actually got angry at my presumption. In an angry voice, he said that he called not to sell anything but just to ask about the service! Just imagine my disbelief at his claim because I did not complain about disruption of service at all recently, except about the unfair extra charges which TM found the need to synchronize the billing of their internet and telephone charges.
Recently, I received a call and when I answered, nobody spoke on the other end, and I was put on a recorded message informing me that my bill was still outstanding and told to dial 100 for details. I double-checked and confirmed that I had already paid using M2U on Nov 16. I dialled 100 to check and the surprising thing was that TM system gave details that my account was in credit to the amount of the last bill and payment was made on Nov 19 (this was useful because it confirmed my suspicion that Maybank took time to forward amount to payee). I cannot help but feel the caller actually used the recording indiscriminately because his real intention was on sales.
No comments:
Post a Comment