Telcos and Me

I have always been a tough customer. I guess I picked it up from my other half who used to deal with the telco companies when we were in the States.

See, about 14 years ago, American telcos would steal customers from their competitors, sometimes without the consent of the customers. Often times, we'd be surprised by bills from these carriers, trying to remember when was it that we had agree to switch.

I'm sure my American graduates alumni friends would smile at this reminiscence.

Sometimes, the logo on the bill would not surprise us, but the charges printed in black and while would make us stare at the printed paper in much disbelief. We may have agreed to the switch, but we never agreed to the charges. Matter of fact, we were promised sugar-coated charges - unbelievable low rates, special rates for frequent numbers and some other sweet rates promises the telco (or the phone-marketeer) can think of at that moment of time.

Some of us would engage in arguments when we call to verify the charges, resorting to 'I want to speak to your supervisor' if we couldn't get what we wanted out of the telcos.

There'd be also times when we'd receive calls trying to lure us back to the other telco when we've switched.

Talk of luring... I was hoping i'd get some from Maxis when I switched to Digi some months back. I was waiting and hoping that all those emails and verbal complaints would make them feel obligated to at least give me a courtesy call to find out if i'd switch back to them. But no, all I had that morning of sheer-Maxis-disgust was:

"We acknowledge your request to move. Thank you for being with Maxis and we hope to serve you again in the future. For further queries, please call 1800 821 123."

Thank you, my foot! The 9 yrs I had with Maxis was not rewarded in any way. Oh, I take that back. I was rewarded - a 20 free sms. But only applicable for Maxis to Maxis smses. Err, can I add that at that point of time, my Maxis to Maxis smses only costed me 1 sen each? Which meant, I was rewarded handsomely for 20 sen over the period of 9 years. Bravo, Maxis.

:p