The Straw That Broke The Camel’s Back

All of us have different patience levels but I think even those in religious orders will be fed up if they are kept waiting for days without any response to their complaint. We understand that some things take time to sort out which is why we often get the response that our complaint will take 3-7 working days to be attended to.

So what is the straw that broke this camel’s back? I’ve previously highlighted the appalling service from my telecommunications provider. I made my complaint last Saturday and since then, I have been calling and calling almost everyday to check on the status of the report and it’s always the same stock reply that it’s now handled by a different department, it’s still pending a response from them and all customer service can do is make a note that the matter should be expedited. Well excuse me if I take all this with a pinch of salt and get the impression that the relevant department is doing bugger all.

If it takes more than a week (it looks like the matter may not even be settled by next week since they claim they have no idea how long it’ll take) to attend to this relatively trivial matter of mine (after all, how hard can it be to investigate whether a sms has been sent to my number promising an extension of my credit validity period, how long more would it take them to attend to a more complicated matter? A few months? A few years? After all, I am not asking them to create a phone for me with transmission from Mars. This is a simple matter which should not take more than 2 working days. Either they honour their promise or not (in which case, I will inform MCMC accordingly since I have kept their sms). Someone tell me what’s so difficult about this?

But I digress as 2 days ago, I received yet another similar sms asking me to reload with the promise of an extra 25 days credit validity. Isn’t this rubbing salt into the wound and just being ridiculous when my credit validity has not been extended as per the previous sms sent at the end of last December? How can I even trust this promise when they haven’t honoured the previous one? There’s absolutely NO credibility left. If I am stupid enough to reload again, I’ll most probably have to go through the whole rigmarole again and waste more of my time speaking to Customer Service personnel who have been of zero help. I think their responses come from a textbook as it’s all so mechanical and they show no sense of urgency or empathy.

It’s infuriating that in general, this country’s customer service has sunk to unfathomable depths. Maybe most of us are immune to this kind of silent treatment as we’ve lived here for so long and come to expect nothing from our service providers (it’s one-sided as they expect us to cough up more money) but for people who have just moved back here after living abroad for years, it must come as a culture shock to find that some companies’ modus operandi to avoid an issue is by keeping quiet and hoping the customer will give up in time.

I have also filed my complaint via their online form on their official website. They’re supposed to take 2 working days to respond but guess what, it’s been 4 working days and still nothing from them. What is their level of efficiency? I am sure they are very efficient when it comes to “chasing” customers for payment. Someone in this company should wake up and realize that they should STOP sending such text messages to customers if they don’t mean what they say which clearly in my case, they do not. I tried calling someone in their Head Office yesterday, whoever is in charge of public relations, but the call was never picked up.

And yes, that latest sms from this company is the straw that broke this camel’s back so you’ll excuse me if I go lie down for the next 24 hours to recover from this trauma!