Giving it the boot?!

Well, the good news of the technician coming over was tempered by the fact that apparently there was nothing that he could do, and I, yes, the customer not him, had to call Astro again to tell them that the box was faulty and need replacing.

When I called - I mean pressed the combination of 2,4 and 3 after calling the number to answer the pre-recorded question - the lady on customer support asked me exactly what my wife was told, and after a few minutes explaining, I suggested that she should just contact the technician directly as I have his mobile number with me. On second thought, maybe not. They might just mess things up further.

So, another promise of "everything would be sorted out within 48 hours", until I reminded her that the first call came through last week. According to her, there was no record that I called them yesterday! Sigh! Now they had a bad database system to add to their list of inadequacies.

At least it was Wednesday today. At least they had a couple of days to sort the mess out before the weekend. What I could not understand was, it should have been the technician contacting Astro directly about the replacement. There would be no need for us to be the messenger to explain what had transpired. Why should I waste my time making the phone call. I did not mind making it, but it just reflected how much they value their customers. "Don't bother sorting their problem, they would just call back if they need anything!"

Bring the Pasar Back!

Talking about renovations, when I was walking from the Menara Utama to Menara Timur yesterday, I realised that the main corridor linking the two were closed. There was a big sign blocking the way. It used to be main walkway for patient transfer. It turned out that there was a some renovation work going on at Pasar Siti Khadijah, a foyer at Menara Timur.

It was called a pasar - meaning market - because back when I first joined UMMC, once a month, usually after payday, there were stalls being erected there, selling clothes, foodstuffs, gifts and I used to enjoy going there to buy some pickles. I knew the nurses like the market, and so were the patients. I used to buy pickles and snacks for the nurses back then. Unfortunately, the market stopped operating three years back. Not sure why, but it was a crying shame.

So far I have seen that they have put on a coat of paintAt the moment, the foyer were used for indoor sports, patient gathering and assembly points. I'd say, bring the pasar back!

B'yond needs fixing

Last Wednesday, I was surprised to see that my Astro Byond box just suddenly went dead. It had been having problem since we got it installed in April. Every so often, it just frozen, with a loud whirring fan-like sound emanating from the back. A quick search on the web forum confirmed that it was a common problem, as part of the lack of quality control in Astro in general.

But we coped with it, as occasionally it only hanged once in an hour. The week before it went dead, it was freezing a lot more often.

I got on the case straight away when it went dead. And as soon, I realised the reason behind why I did not call them any sooner.

"Welcome to ASTRO. Press 1 for English, press 2 for Malay, press 3 for Iban etc ….". It was really annoying. And that was not the first menu. It went on and on until you were finally connected to a customer service personnel, who then asked you again why you called them in the first place. Did they not get the summary of what keys I had pressed earlier?

And the problem did not end there. I was promised a technician would attend to the problem at home within 48 hours. It was Tuesday today. To be fair, I was contacted by a technician asking for the directions to get to my house. That was last Tuesday morning, while I was at Gleneagles with Dad.

So, not only that they provided substandard hardware, the had a botched customer service personnel protocol and they even messed up on the technician front as well. So, I had to call them again. Went through the mundane menu before getting a live person on the other end. I was again promised service within the next 24 hours ....

I was just trying to figure out what would be the next mess they would create? No replacement parts maybe, while at the same time refusing to provide a new set top unit? I could sense that one coming …..

Cleaning Time

It was a shock for me when I arrived in the ward this morning for my ward round. All the patients had been moved around and things were stacked up at the corridors. A nightmare scenario wading through the ward as all the patients were squeezed into a small room. The main ward floor were being polished. Spring cleaning time!

In the last few years, since the major renovation were done on Menara Timur where my ward was located, we have had problems with infection. The renovation in the last year were directly below my ward. Since then, we had been doing regular cleaning and polishing - I think the major clean-up were being done every three months. The results from this intensive cleaning had been very good. It was rather inconvenient on the day though, but being clean is important!

I couldn't wait to get out from the ward with the noise from the machines, as well as the smell of the chemicals they poured onto the floor was driving me nuts. If I felt bad, imagine what it would be like as a patient?

Finished the rounds, and is now enjoying the air-conditioning in my room. Argh! Careful! I might fall asleep. Hunger is a potent inducer for sleep for me!

Sunflower Paper Passions

In the last five or so years, the only place we got our Raya cards from was the Sunflower Paper Passions at IKANO. They print their own cards and they were gorgeous. A few years back, we actually got some cards printed from them, but we ended up printing far too many. In the years after that, we would rather just pick some of the ready-printed ones from the store, located on the Lower Ground Floor of IKANO, on the way to IKEA LG entrance.

The designs there were unique, not only in terms of motif and design, but also the actual quality. They made cut-through cards, laser-edged of course, and some of them had wooden bits as decorations attached on to them. The selection was huge.

Anita was especially keen on the envelopes for 'duit raya'. Very colourful and would set it apart from other envelopes come the big day.

When I say lego blocks, I mean lego blocksRight after, we also ventured across to The Curve to see if the decorations there were already up. It was just being set up, with the central foyer again turned into stalls area. It was still tiled out like lego bits today, but I was sure by the weekend, everything would be up and running.

If you need more information about Sunflower, you can surf here, or email by clicking here.