Thursday, December 08, 2011

Defender baby

 
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Letter to Digi

Digi Telecommunications Sdn Bhd
D’House, Lot 10, Jalan Delima 1/1,
Subang Hi-Tech Industrial Park,
40000 Shah Alam, Selangor
Tel: 03-57211800 8th December 2011
Attn: Henrik Clausen - CEO

Dear Mr.Clausen,

Let’s start from the beginning. I have been a customer of Digi for more than 10 years now. When I first signed up with Digi that was because at that time I felt that it was the best in terms of cost, coverage and above all , service. The service that I received from the then KL Plaza centre was outstanding, and that was the deciding factor.

Over the years, Digi has also served and treated me well, with occasional souvenirs and gifts thanking me for being a loyal customer. I find that to be excellent marketing in a competitive sector. Lately however, I am fairly certain that that level has dropped significantly, and it is here that I want to highlight to you my grievances.

For starters, my line is constantly being barred. Just last month, my payment of RM368.95 was overdue by 2 days and the line was barred. I checked with the OCS and the overdue bill was the billed amount, along with another unbilled amount of about RM500 that I have not received the bill yet. Let me ask you this, what is the purpose of offering me a credit limit of RM1780, when you are barring my line when it has not reached the limit yet? In fact, what really is the purpose of a credit limit at all? The customer service representative even has the cheek to tell me that even if I have a high credit limit, what if my bill was just RM100 a month, then I wouldn’t need to pay for a year! On a separate incident, another representative told me that I can always call them to unbar my phone anytime. Please look into training your representatives to be more courteous when dealing with customers in the future because that certainly is not what I want to hear. I think you offer credit limits for a reason and if you think your customers are bad paymasters you should decrease their credit limit and not bar their line without any warning.

Which brings me to my next complaint, and that is your customer service representatives. The level of service that I am constantly receiving is such a stark contrast to 10 years ago when I first signed up. At that time, they were courteous, polite, informative and willing to help. Perhaps because of your position everyone possess these qualities when they are around you but I want to bring to your attention what your everyday customer is dealing with with regards to the people who work for you. On numerous occasions I’ve wanted to pay my bills and I do it over the counter, and all of them open at 12pm. Any respectable business would open their doors at 8am if they were customer service oriented or even 9am for regular businesses. Can you explain to me why your counters only open at 12pm? Is most of your staff up so late for whatever reason that they are unable to get to work earlier in the morning? Even so, on several occasions at 11.45pm I am looking at the representatives in the face and they are sitting in front of their terminals, but they refuse to accept my payment, all they say is to come back at 12pm. I want to pay, but you don’t allow me to and then you bar my line. Do you not agree that there is a problem in this that needs to be rectified immediately?

About a month ago I received a call from your customer service asking me to verify my IC number. I asked him why do I need to verify my IC number with you and he informed me that they were just doing that to make sure that all the information is current. Naturally I refused because I do not appreciate being harassed for my personal information. When I asked him for his name and identification he refused to provide those details to me as well, and all he said was ‘Sir, you can see the caller ID is 2211800, that is Digi, I don’t need to give you anything else.’ Do they not know about caller ID spoofing? Even if they do, is that the way to speak to your customer?

In closing, I implore you to look very carefully into these elements that weave the web of your organization. Only yesterday as I was at the counter, a man that was beside me paying his bills too, looking apologetic, he said ‘Sorry, I forgot to pay on time...how long will it take to unbar my line?’ The representative just said, ‘2 hours’. Looking apologetic. It was as if we were in a communist state. I paid my bill and left. No ‘Good afternoon’, ‘Thank you’ or ‘Please come again.’

So let me ask you this, should the customer be afraid of their telecommunications company?

Yours faithfully,

Elby Tan

CC: Terje Borge – Finance
CC: Chan Nam Kiong – Customer & Channels

Letter to my Maintenance Company

To Whom It May Concern:

Re: WATER CHARGES

We are in receipt of your letter dated 6th December 2011 with regards to the overdue amount of RM60.00 from a previous invoice. Please note that this matter is currently being investigated between us and our bank as we have discovered a discrepancy in our accounts with regards to the cheque that has been cleared.

While we understand that this may present a short term inconvenience to your good selves, I believe that we are not withholding your payment on purpose and therefore we do not appreciate being threatened with cutting off our water supply if we do not comply. You may already know that we have been promptly paying the maintenance and other charges promptly even before you took over from KB Property and before that KJ Property.

Please note that under international law you are required to serve advanced notices if you were to cut off the water supply and even so you are required to state that you were unable to recover the bills as they had to be in arrears for a specified number of months in the service and maintenance contract. Please see the UN Economic and Social Council document number E/CN.4/Sub.2/2004/20 dated 14 July 2004 which lists our rights pertaining to water supply and sanitation.

Meanwhile, we will settle the current outstanding bill with the cheque that will be couriered to you shortly. While this may be simply an administrative error, we would appreciate if you would attempt to find a more amicable solution before threatening us for non-compliance in the future.

Yours faithfully,


Elby Tan
Manager

Letter to Global Witness

elby tan to Annie Dunnebacke: +44 7912 517 127; adunnebacke@globalwitness.org , Andrea Pattison: +44 7970 103 083; apattison@globalwitness.org

Certainly the news of Global Witness leaving the Kimberley Process after it has held an instrumental role in establishing it would raise a few eyebrows. But do you really think that it solves the problem? While you may say that the sad truth is that consumers do not know where their diamonds come from but isn't that where education comes in? I am quite sure that even if governments are not cooperative, consumers have a right to know, and the Kimberley Process is a tool that enables the consumer to understand and question where their products originate from.

While it may be difficult to establish ground rules of who does what when, and making sure that key industry players and governments adhere to it, I believe that like all causes you have to fight for what you believe in. The moment you walk out on a cause you lose your integrity and moral standing. How do you expect to maintain credibility with regards to your other campaigns on oil, minerals and other resources? How does any organization expect to maintain any credibility at all if you have set the precedence that they can walk out of any cause they have fought for at any time they want? Imagine if the World Food Programme suddenly decides one day that what they do is too difficult and leaves the people to fend for themselves. How many lives do you think that would affect?

I am quite certain that when you first started out the objective was to make a difference. While I applaud that feat, I think that all you are making now is a mistake.

Yours truly,
Elby Tan