It's a Matter of Service

Do you subscribe to a local pay TV? The only company which cuts off the service if you made the payment on the 31st day after receiving the statement or if rainy day, you can only see a pitch black screen with some crap message on the top of the screen even after the company claimed about transferring some shit to the 3rd satellite?

If yes, then you and I should know by now that to avoid disruption of their service, we need to replace the existing card to their new gold 'security smart card' immediately after receiving them.


I received the card on Thursday ... followed their step-by-step guide (4 steps only) but nothing happen. So I used my existing card for the evening and asked my dad to try again next day. My dad tried for 1 hour with no success. So he used the old card for his TV times.


Come Saturday morning, I called their customer service hotline number at 10.40 am. First attempt - failed. 2nd attempt also failed. I've to redial the hotline number 7x before I reached their voice mail. Ok ... so I waited for all the instructions ... i.e. press 1 for BM, press 2 for English, press 3 for Chinese and press 4 for tamil.


Fine ... I pressed 2, the voice mail came back reminding those subscribers who did not sign up for the magazine to do so and blah blah blah .... then voice mail asked to press 1 for .... press 2 for ... press 3 for ... the list goes on (this has taken too long on the phone) ... after pressing all the necessary numbers ... I was put on hold . Fine. I hold ... (while listening to their advertisements) ... after 30 seconds ... still holding ... after 60 seconds still holding (then the voice mail came back, saying all the customer service staff are engaged) ok ... I'm still holding because I don't want to redial and go thru all the hassle again.


By now, 5 mins has passed and I'm still holding the receiver to my ears. At one time, I even have to put down the receiver to get the newspaper so that I can read something while still holding ... voice mail came back saying all the conversation will be recorded for training purposes ... still holding and listening to their ads ... and finally (thank God) someone answer the phone ... so I explained my problem and the following conversation took place ...

Me: I received the new Smart Card and it doesn't work
CS: Did you put it in the proper slot? (what dumb question!)
Me: Yes, I tried the step-by-step guide but I still can't view any programs
CS: You have to take out the old card and insert the new card then press 880
Me: But your guide never ask us to press any 880, it just said insert the new card and press 'OK'
CS: Err you need to press 880
Me: Fine, let me do that now, please wait (message did appear on the screen saying the software is being updated and have to wait for approx 10 minutes) ... so now I've to wait for 10 minutes and I can view the channels?
CS: Yes
Me: Ok that's all ... thank you for the help.


did you read anywhere from the guide above to press 880?

I tried and waited. After 20 mins, when I tried to press the channel ... guess what? The card doesn't work. I thought maybe the system did not have enough time to update the software, so I tried again and waited for another 15 mins. Nothing happen. I tried again for 3x! Still can't see a thing on the screen except the message "Please insert Smart Card". I've now repeated the process for 5x ... insert new card, press 880, press OK and wait 15 mins. Still nothing happen. I wasted my Saturday morning with no TV and have to do all the crap installing and this really pisses me off.

I've no choice but to call the hotline again (same process as above all over again). Finally, this took place ...

Me: The smart card doesn't work
CS: Did you follow the step-by-step guide
Me: Yes I did and the message on the screen read "Please insert the smart card"
CS: Did it says "insert Smart Card or insert (brand) Smart Card"?
Me: It only said "insert smart card" (duh! what's the difference?)
CS: Please insert the old card back to the slot
Me: I did ... now what?
CS: What's on the screen?
Me: I can view the program
CS: What do you mean?
Me: I mean I can see the TV program now with the old card! (can't they understand simple English?)
CS: Ok now take out the old card and insert the smart card and press 880
Me: I did all that already
CS: Yes but sometimes the system cannot detect it the 1st time so you need to repeat it again
Me: I did that 5x already for the pass 1 hour!
CS: I understand but sometime the system cannot detect it the 1st time
Me: (raising my voice now) .You don't understand me, I said I did all that 5x ... 5x since the last time I call you people (I nearly cursed #$%@)
CS: You only called us at 10.45 am this morning (her voice told me she's quite pissed off @ my outrage by now)
Me: Yes so? I repeated the instruction for 5x ... how many times do I need to repeat the whole thing huh? The next 100th times before I can see something?
CS: Ok, then we will try to update the system from our side here ... just leave the decoder on standby mode with the inserted Smart Card and wait for 10 mins.
Me: Thank you.


After 20 mins, without lifting my finger and pressing 880 I can view the programs with the not so smart ... Smart Card.


9 out of 10 subscribers who called their hotline will agree that their service sucks big time and the remaining lucky subscriber never call them before. They can't even come up with a proper guide on their service but expect us to settle the bill on time. Well, we are a bunch of suckers aren't we? We can't live watching government controlled TV stations so we have to pay but they can't stop us from ranting @ their customer service when the time comes.

Life sucks sometimes but working for that company's customer service sucks even more.