ASTRO On Demand

I must confess that all this while, I had been taking it for granted. I was flipping the channels and Netflix when I accidentally pressed the VOD button on my ASTRO remote. Then I learned that the new WestWorld season and episodes were out. And to my surprise, they were free and available through the box, via the internet. And they were the uedited US versions.

More exploration and then I learned that the fifth season of “Silicon Valley” was also available. Far out!

I was done with the WestWorld - only 2 episodes released so far - and was catching up on Silicon Valley. The WestWorld episodes were pretty heavy stuff though, with revelation aplenty. Too much for casual viewing ....

Anyway, the point of this post was clearly ASTRO offered a lot more that met the eyes through their “on demand” service. Most of the movies needed paying though and selection were pretty limited. But when it came to TV series, they were free, up to date and were the US versions. Not to be missed!

Spoilt for Choice

The Olympics was coming into full swing. And things would get even more hectic once the Athletics event start next week. It had been swimming and gymnastics making the headlines. And Malaysian everywhere had been rejoicing on the Silver the Pandalela and partner picked up a couple of nights ago.

I just finished my post-call morning rounds and Diana marrow biopsy this morning. I should get some time off until lunch.

Anita called that one of our friend would be dropping for lunch and she would be cooking. Great!

The boys were in their holidays and they were both still in the pyjamas. I might be able to catch a nap before heading to the afternoon rounds.

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.

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!"

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 …..