Well, hope the meeting goes well and brings some benefit to the users. I guess a lot of users are sceptical about this as this has already happened a few times in the past years.

I can't recall all details. I think the previous event was with MX510? Then there was an event with a user in PJ office who uploaded part of the meeting audio or video somewhere? There was some event in Bangsar South? There was something to do with MCMC? And probably a few others before that too. Even back in dialup days in 1996 there was a meeting with TM and users. Yet nothing solid has come out of all these and the complaints from users keep pouring in.

Can you blame anyone for thinking this is all a PR event? Each time when it is with a new user or group of users, they get excited thinking that there is going to be a breakthrough. Lets see if your case will be the one.

Its seems to be when TM problems ar aired in public in the media or blogs etc, they are quick to take action to do damage control. Why a meeting just because you highlighted issues on your blog? What about all the thousands of complaints users make to the Helpline each month?

This is a known tactic. Its something like befriending your enemy so that it makes it difficult for the enemy to go against you because you are now friendly with the enemy. It something like sorting out the complaints from a vocal user to keep him quiet after that. After all, if that user's complaint is resolved, then why does the user need to go on making noise on behalf of others? TM only has to ask the user, do you still have a problem, if no, then don't worry about others, that is for us to handle. Something like that.

TM has these meetings when absolutely necessary to do damage control and to get the group to do their PR for them. Most of the time, after the meeting, the group will come back and say to other user something like TM is serious about this and that, they are listening to us, give them a chance to improve etc etc. Until some time passes and the group becomes disillusioned again and wakes up to the reality of things once more. This has been going on for years now.

BTW, who knows, the CEO may not turn up at the last minute due to an unexpected reason? But anyway, hope it does turn out to be a benefit. And thank you for taking the time to hellp other users. Let us know how it goes.

I doubt they will entertain this, let alone want to answer, let alone want to be truthful, but at least let them know this is what some people out there may think of them and the job and discervice they are doing to their customers.

Feel free to print this out, make photocopies and hand out to all that attend.


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To the CEO:
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1. Do you really need users to tell you about the problems in TM? Doesn't your management give you an accurate report of what is going on? Do you think your management is doing a good job?

2. Is your management actually doing the right job or are they just sugar coating the real conditions to keep you happy and safeguard their own jobs?

3. Streamyx has been around for almost a decade. Yet the users are complaining about the same issues until now. Can't you see something is not right? If so what has been done all these years? Unifi users are also beginning to complain. Do you see Unifi going down the same road as Streamyx over the next few years?

4. Has your CTO informed you about the actual condition of the TM network, the connection problems the users are facing, the security issues etc etc?

5. Has the Head of Support informed you about the thousands of calls that users make to the HelpLine every month?

6. Why is it that it is practically impossible to get through to any relevant department in Menara TM? Even to the Streamyx Complaints Dept? If you get through, why is it they don't know about problems or outages etc? Don't your departments communicate with each other? Asking for Heads of Departments normally results in the same "they are in a meeting" answer. What are all these meetings about? Or its just the standard response in TM meaning they are not in the office? Then who is overseeing all the personnel in the departments?

7. Have you randomly called up departments to see if the Heads are actually present in the office and working and doing the jobs they are being paid for? If you haven't, shame on you! If you have and have not done anything about it, shame on you!

If I were the CEO, I would be ashamed of how many users think lowly of the QOS provided. I would be disappointed that my management has not done enough as there are still so many user complaints. I would be embarrassed that problems have to be highlighted in forums, blogs and the media. But that is just me, what about you?


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To the CTO:
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1. Have you informed the CEO about how users are not happy with the QOS, connection problems, slow connections, insufficient international bandwidth, the throttling of connections etc?

2. Do you wonder why you pay your technical team to do a proper job with the network and security etc but they fail to do the job correctly? Do you wonder how these so called network and security experts use security methods to make their lives easier rather than to ensure adequate protection for the users?

3. Do you know how competent your network and technical teams are? Have you considered contracting external expertise to do this job properly if your own team is not competent enough to get the job done correctly

4. Do you know how difficult it is for a user to get a complaint looked at by the right person in TM?

5. Do you get direct feedback from the Head of Support regarding problems users are facing with the network and connections? What have you done about it? Why are the same problems still occurring?

6. Do the different technical departments work well together? Why don't you give users access to a technical expert in each of your different teams, such as the Broadband Management Center, Critical Response Team, NOC Team, Sysadmin and Mailadmin Team, Level-2 Expert Team or whatever else departments you have? With detailed explanation from a user, your experts will be able to resolve issues very quickly. Instead of going through Level-1 support who can only take a report and pass it along the chain till it eventually reaches someone who can actually do something about the problems.

7. Did you know that a few years ago when your team implemented port 25 blocking, they didn't even think it through? They just blocked it to prevent home users from spamming, but it also ended up blocking access for individuals and companies connecting to external mailservers. What sort of technical people do you have there? Don't you find it shameful for your experts to make such a basic mistake?

8. Do you know when you throttle connections via file type eg .flv, you are not only blocking sites such as YouTube? There are company websites which may be using such file types for advertising or promotions etc and those are affected too. So you are affecting local businesses too. Does your team even realise this? Do you even realise this? Have you discussed such issues with your team? If you haven't, shame on you! If you have and have not done anything about it, shame on you!

If I were the CTO, I would be ashamed of how many users think lowly of the internet connections and speeds provided. I would be disappointed that my team has not done enough as there are still so many user complaints. I would be embarrassed that an IT student or forum members have to highlight security problems in public. But that is just me, what about you?


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To the Head of Support:
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1. Have you informed the CEO about the thousands of call support gets each month? Have you told the CEO why all these calls are coming in?

2. Do you know how difficult it is for users to deal with Level-1 support as they don't appear to be knowledgeable about things and only follow a scripted response?

3. Even some of your supervisors don't appear to be knowledgeable about the job their are supposed to be doing. What sort of training have they got? What are you doing to ensure that their knowledge level is up to par with user's expectations?

4. Do you know the difference between SMTP and NNTP? Do you know what port 25 is used for? Do you know what a newsgroup is? If you do, can you take some time to train your supervisors and Level-1 support on such things and much more?

5. Do you know that we are unable to use the built-in tracert command in Windows to check on network routing? If you do, can you explain why your Level-1 would ask to do that tracert and take a screenshot full of * * * (timeout) an email it to them?

6. If asked what are acceptable ping times for local sites and overseas sites, what would your response be? Do you consider pings of over 400ms to overseas sites as acceptable?

7. Have you called your own support HelpLine to check on what sort of responses you get to your questions? If you haven't, shame on you! If you have and have not done anything about it, shame on you!

If I were the Head of Support, I would be ashamed of how many users think lowly of the Level-1 support. I would be disappointed that my supervisors has not done enough as there are still so many user complaints. I would be embarrassed that my support personnel don't know fundamental basics of the job they are supposed to be doing. But that is just me, what about you?


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To the CEO, CTO, Head of Support and all top level management:
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The best thing TM seems to have is a human firewall called Level-1 Support Team. This firewall prevents users from getting through to higher up personnel who can actually help the users properly. This firewall frustrates the users, and shields the management from the wrath of the users. But I believe this firewall has also made the higher up personnel complacent in the job they are doing. They are not help directly accountable to the users. Their department heads are probably also not monitoring them closely. Thus there may be less productivity from these personnel due to lack of supervision and accountability.

Here is a challenge to all of you to provide users with direct access to you via phone and email. Are you interested in your users complaints? Are you interested in improving your service? Go on, show us that you are serious. Don't just do damage control when a blogger or a student or a forum member or some other user highlights matters in public.

If you think you are providing a good service, then there should not be much complaints and thus you should not be receving many calls or emails anyway, right? So what have you got to lose? Unless you know deep down inside that you will indeed be drowned with many many complaints as you know that your service is not up to your user's expectations?

So which is it? Ready to take up the challenge?

Err... was that comment directed at me?

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Added on November 11, 2010, 2:06 amTM is a telco and ISP. They have the ability to setup and host a live online video conference / chat session with a large group of users where questions and answers, feedback and complaints etc etc can be given to top management. No need special dinners or tea parties etc. They can have such an online session maybe even once a month for a couple of hours with different groups of selected users Its a matter of whether they want to or not.

Or do they not have the expertise to do this? Or they lack the bandwidth to do this? Or they are afraid that user's slow connections cannot support this? Or their own throttling methods will not allow this?

Hasn't anyone in TM even thought of such an activity?? That's another suggestion to put to the CEO.


This post has been edited by mylinear: Nov 11 2010, 02:06 AM

Hmmm... could be atrick to nab you. Should we call the authorities if you don't report back by midnight...?

Well, the document seems to have been prepared in advance based on the questions asked on this thread. Not sure if Tentris compiled the questions and sent it to them or they have been monitoring this thread. Either way, its a whole lot of nothing. All just PR answers. No solid answers to real problems faced by users.

Don't want to call support? Email or use website instead. We have problems with the service you provide, we call you to complain about your service and we have to pay to make that complaint, especially when the support put us on hold for a long time. How about being gracious and say that you will give free support calls instead??

There is nothing concrete about user complaints about slow connections, slow-downs, throttling etc.

Nothing about price reduction. Nothing about when QOS will be improved. Just point to problems may be outside their control. Just say studying this and that. Just say they have plans for this and that. We already know about the this and that.

Isn't studying Streamyx service for almost a decade not enough?

I hope rizvanrp and Tentris will post more about what was said. Or has TM said that you can only post the document?

I wonder if rizvanrp will be as vocal in highlighting any further issues you discover after this meeting with these nice people. Or did TM ask you to contact them directly with such issues in the future?

I wonder if Tentris will continue to blog about TM issues which may seem unfavourable to them after meeting the Corp Comm firecracker. Or have they asked you to contact them directly with issues first?

Senior Tech Officer does not know about a problem users have been facing about throttling file extensions? So obviously all such complaints from users here and elsewhere and to support has never reached him? Doesn't he know what his team is doing? I guess if he didn't know, the CEO also didn't know? So Head of Support never told him about the complaints about this? So users have been suffering for months because the news never got to him? You got to wonder how many more things top management does not know about.

Thank you to rizvanrp and Tentris for making this yer another attempt. I would like you honest opinions on what your thought of the meeting and whether you think this has achieved something for us users.

One thing is for sure, you have helped TM create some PR material and a FAQ that they can use in the future. Maybe we'll se those answers again elsewhere as they copy and paste to answer other user's similar questions.

BTW, we should remember that the issues here are basically users not being satisfied with the service being provided for whatever reason. At the end of the day, users want good service for the good money they are paying. That's all.

IMO, I do not think majority users are bothered about blogger briefing, tech council etc etc with TM. I think users don't mind being at arms length with TM rather than in their arms. Provide the good service and there is no need for all this PR work. Users are only looking for this so they can get their complaints heard. TM is only looking for this to try to keep a lid on complaints.

Seriously, if you are getting power supply with very little interruption throughout the year, how many of you want to engage and talk with Tenaga? If you have no problems with your mobile phone reception most of the time, how many of you want to call Maxis, Digi, Celcom etc and engage with them? If you buy a car or TV or mobile phone and it works well, how many of you want to call the supplier and engage with them?

Again, IMO, I think most users after reading the lengthy document will come away feeling nothing but more annoyed, angry, despair, and dejection. Same result as all other previous meetings. I suggest you all post feedback here of what you think so that if TM is reading, maybe they will start to understand that their users are smarter than how they treat us.

This is what is referred to as "pulling the wool over your eyes". This is why my earlier post had the message of "shame on you".

TM, if you are reading this, please read post #121. If you feel shame after reading, then really shame on you!. If not, then really really shame on you!

This is mainly to Tentris. Its been about 2 weeks now since the meeting. Have you got any word back about the throttling by file extension issue which the tech officer was supposedly surprised about? I would think it would only take a couple of days to find out what was going on.

And since you apparently have access to the top management, have you informed them about how many users are facing slow file downloads? Again, it appears that download speeds are being capped, eg to 30KB/s even though you have a 1M package etc.

There are some complaints at:

http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/1455167/+1640
And have you got any response back about anything else from TM after that meeting?