The conclusion, for now anyway. After I highlighted in this blog the various failures (here and here) that I encountered with the Online Customer Service (OCS) when I tried to register my new DiGi Broadband service, DiGi’s customer service personnel finally called me up. Now, this is surprising, because I did not lodge a report with customer service about my problem; I merely highlighted it in this blog. Secondly, even when I highlighted my problems, I did not put up my mobile number, merely my Personal Unblocking Key (PUK). So, I guess PUKs are unique, in that DiGi can trace a PUK number to a mobile number. Either that, or they contacted people who knows that I am the owner of this blog. Either way, well done to DiGi’s customer service – at least now I know they listen! So, while I may rant and criticise and poke fun at people, I am not beyond giving praise when it is deserved.
So, I had my entire account reset (ie. “deleted from the system”), so that I could register again. This time, the registration went without a hitch. I got my temporary password to access OCS instantly. I could log in and examine my account. Unfortunately, because it was new, there wasn’t anything much I could do in OCS. Sadly, to confirm my earlier fears, there wasn’t a facility where I could examine my data usage to see how much of my monthly quota I had used up.
So, I’ve been saying this for many times already until I sound like a broken record – please, implement this feature as soon as possible. If you able to charge for excess usage, surely this information can be shared with the customer in the OCS. Sooner or later, a disgruntled customer who is billed for excess usage up to the limit of RM 138 is surely going to complain to the SKMM/MCMC, and personally I think this is something that should be avoided as it involves more unnecessary paperwork for DiGi – time that could be better spent improving the system, improving the network and improving customer service. I mean, how difficult can it be to implement this feature? Other regional celcos who have this charging mechanism in place already tell the customer how much data they have used to date, so surely it cannot be an impossible task? When I get my iPhone3GS next week, I will report on whether Maxis online customer service system is able to track data usage by volume – because Maxis’ iPhone3GS buyers get 500Mb of data free every month, after which they will be charged, for buying the iPhone3GS prepaid kit package.
dad ,
i think your blog is lot of telco reading…..they will benefit if they listen…..
but all of telco making money ,sometime may over look small customer like us …
good to hear…this is why digi make a huge profit with a good cash dividend to shareholder ( been long shareholder with digi.. , but never own any digi product…. ) ,but compare to other oversea telco who giving away LCD tv , notebook with zero cost come with contract , we still behind …may be in here lack of competition…
in singapore , 6 million population ( like HK ) , have 3 or more telco …so competitive…..
i hope digi broadband will be coming to JB and more area…because other telco broadband service is getting bad in my area…
,recently none of my telco can access china wedsite easily…lagging….
next , can you share and have a review with DIGI broadband…….
really keen to know….
thank in advance
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Da Alpha Dog Reply:
July 24th, 2009 at 1:08 pm
@andy, maybe their PR firms read blogs, and feed back customer issues. I don’t know, but I’m glad my problem has been solved (partly).
As for the review, I will try to do one later. I don’t have a lot of bandwidth to spare/use, so have to be careful what I test it on. That’s one of the things I don’t like – the extra charging without a way to monitor usage. Ooops, here I go again…
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Sadly it takes a blog read by thousands (or millions) for digi to take action…. still, something is better than nothing.
Why can’t they give us the ability to check via the sim card services (preferably for free) which would be even more convenient? Or just send in a unique sms whereby a return sms will tell you the info needed regarding your data usage.
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Da Alpha Dog Reply:
July 24th, 2009 at 1:04 pm
@Jack, heheh, thousands? Millions? I think there is only around 5 of us here who read regularly…
And you’re right on the money – how I wish you were the head of customer service in DiGi! And the SMS would be free, right?
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Jack Lee Reply:
July 24th, 2009 at 10:54 pm
Of course free SMS! How many or how often people will actually check? Only the heavy users will do it. And considering the money i am making from advanced payments for the data package, whats a few SMS here and there?
One must always think about the convenience of users. When it’s convenient and easy, you get happy customers. Making something available but inconvenient for users to use also no good. I mean you actually have to log on to the website to check. If you dun use your phone to do it, you have to get to your PC or laptop. If you use your phone to do it, it eats further into your quota. I mean use part of your quota to check how much quota you still have? Sounds silly!
Actually, why dun they make it like how prepaid sim card users are notified of how much credit balannce they have left? I thinks thats something to consider.
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Da Alpha Dog Reply:
July 26th, 2009 at 11:47 am
@Jack, I am not sure what is holding back the celcos from implementing this simple feature. What’s the big deal, I wonder?
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Looks like not having access to the meter for your capped broadband account is a problem not limited to DiGi Broadband subscribers:
http://techdirt.com/articles/20090723/0329555632.shtml
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Da Alpha Dog Reply:
July 24th, 2009 at 6:49 pm
@tympg, well, sooner or later a disgruntled customer who is not happy with his/her bill is going to complain to the MCMC. And then let’s hope they do something about it, like mandate that no one can implement excess usage billing without providing customers the facility to check their usage. After all, it’s only fair, right?
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tympg Reply:
July 25th, 2009 at 3:01 am
Agreed. If they’re going come up with an actual number, we the customers have every right to know where we are with regards to that limit.
(I do have a theory: These ISPs may fear that, if usage info is available, some users might ramp up their usage towards the end of the billing month to ‘maximise’ their monthly entitlement.)
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tympg Reply:
July 25th, 2009 at 3:06 am
Aigh! Missed a preposition again. Got to slow down my typing.
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Da Alpha Dog Reply:
July 26th, 2009 at 11:49 am
@tympg, whether the customers use up their monthly allowance or not is immaterial as this has been built into the calculation on how much to charge for the service, right? So, whether a customer uses it all up within the first day or not, shouldn’t matter. But they still MUST provide a facility for the customer to check.
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tympg Reply:
April 27th, 2010 at 11:10 am
Glad to report that DiGi now provides a Percentage Bar in the OCS to tell you how much of your “quota” of data you have used this billing month.
This is for DiGi Broadband users only, as far as I can tell.
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Da Alpha Dog Reply:
April 27th, 2010 at 10:34 pm
@tympg, that’s good news indeed. I wonder if they provide one for the Turbo3G users as well?
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tympg Reply:
April 28th, 2010 at 10:41 am
@DAD
Doesn’t look like it’s available for the “Internet Unlimited” packages.
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Da Alpha Dog Reply:
April 29th, 2010 at 11:09 am
@tympg, I wonder what’s the rationale for that, eh?
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i need to knw info abt 1 digi number i’m keep getting miss calls n whn i called it transfers to voicemail.. n no reply to sms either??i m very tensed pls can anybody help me????
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Da Alpha Dog Reply:
September 13th, 2009 at 10:13 am
@sash, make a police report. Unless you “know people” this is the only way you can get the person’s identity. And make sure whatever you say in the police report is the truth, otherwise you can be charged for lodging a false police report yourself. As to what constitutes a valid reason to lodge a police report, ask at the police station.
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