Customers Are Just a Bunch of Suckers

I waited until almost noon before contacting Astro, and guess what, they had to make a fresh report before any action can be taken. They were not even sure if the technician has been dispatched to sort my case out. Again, a promise that everything would be sorted out in 48 hours. This time, I was having none of it.

I insisted on speaking to the on duty manager as the lady on the other end of the line was clearly not able to sort the situation out. 10 minutes later, she relented. The initial excuse was, she had to trace out all the previous calls and contact the technical unit. I said, she can do it while I stayed on the line.

She assured me that the manager would call me in a bit, but again, I insisted that I would stay on the line while waiting for her to get her act together.

I only agreed to hang up if I was given the name of the Manager and how to contact him through a direct line. None of this 1300 number with touchtone selections business anymore.

The Manager did call me after 30 minutes to apologise. He realised that this was my sixth call, the first being the 10th of August. We agreed that the problem would need sorting today. I thanked him, but asked if he agreed that if I did not insist on speaking to him, it would be another few days before my problem sorted out. And that is if I was lucky.

At about 2.30 pm, a technician rang to inform me he was coming. I then asked for his name and whether he was informed by the central office about my issues. His name was Yap, and no, the only clue he had was he was referred to check what the problem was. No, a set top replacement is only possible after another green light from Astro. And this was despite the previous visit by his colleague on Tuesday confirming that the decoder unit needed replacing.

I called the Astro manager from earlier, a gentleman called Fauzi. Told him to inform the technician that he would need to come with a decoder, otherwise not to bother coming over at all. It would just be wasting both his and my time.

So, Mr Yap came over with a new decoder. He agreed that the decoder needed replacing. He did that. And everybody went home happy. It only took him literally 3 minutes to get the job done. I was also informed by the manager that during the time my service was cut, I would get a refund. I told him that that was the least he could do. The decent thing would be to give the whole month free, but then again, Astro is not in the business in making their customers happy. At the end of the day, the customers were just a bunch of suckers!

The morale of the story? First, the Customer Service advisor is very efficient in calling if you miss your bills. As for sorting out your problems, be prepared to call multiple times. Second, if you want things sorted out after a second phonecall, insist on talking to the manager. Third, the computer system in terms of recording our complaint stream with Astro left a lot to be desired. The funding might have gone into making their advert instead I guess. Those adverts in HD must have cost a bomb!

Fourth, Astro Customer Service does not communicate sufficiently to their technical support. And vise versa. Fifth, be prepared to mess up your Saturday just to get what should have been a simple problem sorted out. To be honest, from now on, I don't trust Astro customer service anymore. They made promises they couldn't deliver. Repeatedly. It would take more than a lip service to won me back. It's a shame that they had such a monopoly.

Things to do

Things to do this morning? Pretty simple. First, stay with Idlan who had been running temperature overnight but was in great spirit this morning. And second, where is Astro? I had to call them again yesterday - call number 5 - as apparently my case had been closed.

So, they promised me that there will be a new a technician with a new Astro Decoder unit at my house by 10 am this morning. Well, it was past that now ..... I'll give I until noon before I call them again I think.

Fever. Allegedly.

Idlan allegedly had a fever. Well, he did reach 40 degrees during late afternoon. He does not usually take naps, but he did so this afternoon. We knew then that something was not right.

After a 3-week break, he returned to school last week. Some of his classmates had been absent throughout the week. It was not a surprise then that he finally had a temperature.

After paracetamol and a nice nap, he woke up, and by the time we were done with Iftar, he and Irfan were up to their usual antics. The lounge was a right mess by the time they were ready to brush their teeth. A stern warning from Grandma soon put them in order!

Braving ourselves for high temperature during the night. At least we would be up for sahur.

The Ambulance Accident

The ambulance tragedy in Melaka earlier this week has certainly moved me. In the incident, an ambulance carrying a patient with head injury was being transferred to Hospital Kuala Lumpur. It set out from Hospital Melaka, and somewhere in Ayer Keroh, before entering the highway, it stopped for a turn, and was hit from behind by a taxi, causing it to flip over on its side. There were also reports here.

The resultant impact caused further injury to the patient as well as the accompanying Doctor and Nurse. The Doctor escaped with relatively minor injuries, but the nurse was not so lucky. Even though she survived the initial accident, and managed to crawl out from the wreckage, she succumbed to her injuries yesterday.

She was 30 years of age, and was due to be married after Raya. The patient they were carrying to HKL also died earlier.

This is tragic and hammered down a couple of important points. First, are transferring patients, or in that matter, the ambulance itself, is a safe mode of transport in our country? Look at the state of the vans? Some of them were deplorable.

Secondly, how many of us gave way to ambulance if it tried to pass us, sirens blaring in Federal Highway? Well, we reluctantly, myself included, do most of time, but we climbed the curb in double quick time if it was an outrider with the Sultan or politician tailing behind. This is just shameful. Our attitude as a community need to change.

The solution to the first question would involve money - upgrading the aging fleet of ambulance would take a bit of doing. If my patient need ambulance, and they could afford it, I would ask them to hire a private ambulance, no doubt about it. Imagine carrying an oxygen tank in those ambulances. No thanks.

Insisting on Police escort for important transfer should be the way forward, But there is a catch. Only last Monday, I arranged a transfer to Hospital Melaka from UMMC and it took the Ward Sister four phone calls. Imagine if you add to that contacting the Police for escort. As the the saying goes …. Terima kasih saja lah!

Three years ago, I was unfortunate enough to learn that a houseman from Seremban had serious injuries and was in UMMC ICU in a coma for a few weeks. I remember seeing the distraught husband - also a houseman - by her bedside. They were only married a few months. I was not sure if she was carrying a child. This incidences were not in isolation, but unfortunately, since it does not carry any political milage, none of the MPs harped on about it ….. hence no solutions, and more Health Care worker's life are at risk ….

Please take a minute to recite Alfatihah to the victim.

Lumix GF3

While I was at Mid Valley the other day, I stopped over at Key Color, the place where I got my LX3 and 7D previously. I was actually inquiring about the Fuji X100, but they did not have any in stock.

Looking around for what was hot in the market, my eyes landed on the rather slimmed down Lumix GF3. That thing was tiny. Seriously tiny. Coupled with the stock zoom lens it came with, it really felt awkward and front heavy. But the small body complimented the 14mm pancake lens very well. The zoom had a built-in image stabiliser, but the pancake lens did not.

The body plus the pancake lens was RM1999, and with the EOS 1100D kit selling at around RM200 less, it would be a serious investment.

I got a few images saved onto my memory card. The ISO went up to 6400. So, here are the sample. Unfortunately I was not let loose with the unit.

1/80 f3.5 ISO4001/60 f3.5 ISO160 flash on1/60 f5.6 ISO800 at full zoom 42mm1/160 f4.0 ISO 3200So what were my first impressions? The unit is tiny, and being metallic, rather slippery as there were no rubberised grip surface. The autofocus were damn fast, either by using the shutter button, or tapping on the LCD screen. Grip is awkward with the zoom lens attached. Nice red colour - Puan Anita would definite loved that. The high ISO captures showed unbelievable lack of noice - definitely better than my old EOS 400D.

With an M-mount four-thirds lens converter, I can see potential in putting of those Leica M lens on these baby! LOL! 5 minutes was not enough to just the the product I was afraid, but I can see it as a potential street photography device with the pancake lens attached on it. Let's wait for the X100 first before I can make a judgement on what I should get to replace my trusty old LX3.